#just saying for those who were interested in her and jun

[seungkwanniee]

pairings : nonidol!seveteen x gn!reader

genere : fluff , angst ( minghao one )

warnings : little made fun of (jun) , panic attack but not at all (wonwoo)

synopsis : seventeen as love trope imo !

an : don't know when this is coming out but, -3 for bald Jeonghan. They are so fucking long that maybe i shouldve writed a whole series and not this but anyway

〔masterlist〕

SCOUPS 』

age gap , age ain't nothing but a number

He loves having someone on his knees no matter what, and we know younger people are more easy to manipulate but i mean it in a good way. Seungcheol would love have you wrapped around his fingers, have you doing all that just for him make him istantly happy, it fills his chest with love. But he would prefer way more to spoil you with gift, love and money. You need money? he is already putting them in your bra. You wanted that cloth? it's already yours. He likes have you wrapped around his arms that are way bigger than your whole body. Loves the height gap, so he can lay his chin on top of your head and wrap your neck with his arm. He could care less when someone points out the age gap, he loves you no matter what.

JEONGHAN 』

unreachable love interest , talking to you means a lot to me

Jeonghan is that one popular guy that everyone is in love with, so it feels like he is unreachable. He looks like an angel and seems also so sweet and caring but at the same time interesting to be around. You was only one of those people that is blinded by his beauty, why he would even notice you and your odd interest? He never showed love interest on anyone and never dated someone, he was a little bit cold, you were being just delulu right? It was so surprining for everyone when one day his steps weren't the same as he does everyday to walk into his class: he was getting closer to you, he was going trowards you. Your heart was beating so fast that you thought everyone could hear that, while your face was already red just by looking closely to his face. This unreachable angel was talking to you?

JOSHUA 』

slow burn , a lot can happen in 6 months but didn't expected this

At frist, when your friend introduced you two, you didn't minded about him too much. Sure, he was looking pretty and his behavior during the whole hangout was so gentle with everyone, but slowly he became part of your daily routine. He got involved in your group of friends more, so you automatically spent more time with him and became good friends. He was always caring, helping you to go down or upstairs, sometimes playing your food, fixing you hair etc... be he was like that with everyone, there was no purpose below. But when your heart starts flutter when he meet your eyes, you know something was changing. You no longer see his action innocently, you everytime internally begged him to make one more move, more closer to you, more intimate. Your skin pratically craving for his touch was everything you needed. Who thought that this could happen in six months?

JUN 』

the quiet ( and smart ) boy , I was quiet but not blind

Jun was the quiet, and maybe weird, guy everyone got in their class. He never talked to anyone, and no one ever spoke to him. Jun was smart enough to know that that class was a herd of kids who followed the crowd and he didn't want to be one of them, his few friends were already enough for him. As I mentioned, Jun was a smart ass boy, he noticed one girl in particular. He didn't liked her in that way, she just was the one he hated the less. His classmates didn't mind when he could hear the non-pleasant things they were saying about him, every single one said something except her. Rather, he had heard her complaining with her friends their behavior, sometimes he could ever hear the sound of a little slap, maybe in the head, after their words. During class, often you eyes land on him, his head almost always lowered to the desk writing something with his relaxed form but today something was different. His legs shaking up and down while his hand was playing with the pen that was supposted to write down the paper. when a "you are too smart to be friend with them" paper landed on you desk at the end of the class, you got everything, as if your vision was no longer blurred thanks to a stupid note.

HOSHI 』

childhood friends , it's always been you

Soonyoung was laying between your arms, while his eyes were red and puffed because of previous tears. You always warned him about the girl he was dating until few hours ago: she never liked you and you never liked her. You never knew why she didn't liked you, just because you were Soonyoung bestfriend was a stupid reason. Btw, you had a strong reason to not like her, a red flag swinging right in front of you bestfriend face that the decided to completely ignore. You always knew she was going to cheat, she did before nothing was stopping her just because he was Soonyoung. You stayed beside him the whole time, he needed to heal from this harsh breakup, but this made things change with the time. You noticed how he was more caring now, he always been but you felt something was off for sure. At one point it seemed like you was the one that needed to be healed, not him anymore. But he considered you like her sister until few months ago, what happened now?

WONWOO 』

fake dating , I like you more than I planned

When you told about this to him, all he could do was be shocked, and you kinda understand him. When your friends comes to you and tell you to pretend to be a coupla at a wedding it was pretty weird, no? Plus, Wonwoo is so shy and reserved, but it was the best choice you could come with. You hated all the invadent questions they ask, the last time they almost made you have a panick attack so you wasn't planning to go throught that hell once again. When you were standing beside him, he had his arms wrapped around your waist. Occasionally, he would also wrap you shoulder, adjust your hair or wipe your mouth from the crumbles. You would notice how his ears go bright red when his hands lays on your body, or how his hands were slightly trembling. You wanted to make fun of him, but you were exactly like him if not worst. He almost choke when one of your aunts ask you two a kiss, you would pat his back trying to keep him alive while with trembling voice explained how shy you are to do pda in public.

WOOZI 』

enemies to lovers , are you flirting or starting a fight?

when you hear that your partner project is Lee Jihoon, you just want to let out hundred curses. This was an important work project, almost depending your future and they paired you with the person for which you have hatred. At the start, you two only warned the eachother how important the project was and reiterated your mutual hatred, for what is still unknown and we'll never know because you two actually started to get along very well. It was the most unexpected thing for your coworkes see you talking like normal human being, working like you never hated eachother, how you two seemed almost like the realest bestfriends. From now on, you two enjoyed the each other comfort company and used the extra hour to stay toghether. Everyone already knew how you two will be lovers one day.

DOKYEOM 』

grumpy x sunshine , I loved you so hard that I softned

You don't know if adopt the cat you have now it was the best decision ever. It didn't fall in love with you, but with your neighborhood and you two aren't even friends. Your cat would sneak out in the most weird possibile way even figuring out how to open the balcony window and jump on the near balcony. You were so embarassed to knock at his door and explain that the cat that jumped on his apartment was yours. Maybe it was annoying him, maybe he was that kinda of grumpy neighborhood (spoiler: you were) and will yell at you. But when the door opens, you find the exactly opposite in front of your eyes. He was tall but his face looked so bright, you don't even know how to explain it but it was like that. Your little black cat was laying so comfortable in his way more bigger hands that it almost didn't wanted to come with you again. You regretted how cold you were with him, but you never saw him and it will continue like that, you tought. Never been so wrong: apparently your cat loved soo much Seokmin that now it almost live at his instead of yours. You were grateful that he wasn't annoyed by that, he was a little sunshine, but instead it was bothering you. You never liked having convo with new people, and your cat was pratically forcing you to do that. You even tought to give it to him forever just to avoid his attempt of conversation, or his invites you to come into his apartment and eat something together. But at the end, you will be always grateful to your cat that letted you met your now boyfriend.

MINGYU 』

soulmates , I meet another me inside of you

It was so shocking when you met him and discovered that you two have almost the same tatoo, it was like you two were made for eachother. It was a silly one, with no meaning behind it at all and this made the thing seem even more on propuse. The thing you two didn't knew it was that you were meant to meet and never leaving eachother side ever. The stage of being friends it never actually exsisted in your relationship, catching feelings was so fast and never been so easly that you almost thought that everything was just a fever dream, it wasn't actually real, so unreal in your head but it was like that. You have you boyfriend by your side everytime you need to, he loves you with all his heart and actually got another matching tatoo.

MINGHAO 』

forbidden love , in another life

when Minghao's family dicovered that his girlfriend wasn't chinese as him, they were disappointed from the start. They were a traditional family, and Mingaho knew that, but his heart choosed her and he can't help it. She doesn't even looked like a foreigner, at some point you spoke chinese better than him. He knew that they wouldn't like her at the start, thats why he went slow with them, but he never thought they would overreact so badly. His own mother didn't even talked to him for the frist weeks, letting him guess how disappointed and upset he was. His face was full of surprise when suddently they asked for a dinner togheter, they wanted to get to know her but all of the sudden looked a little bit of on his eyes. He putted aside his thoughts, he was so happy and excited when he got that his family was starting to soften about his relationship with a foreigner. He never regretted a decision more, they made you come for what? to embarass you, bring you down and made you feel not enough for him. He got so upset for you, he was blaming himself and apologize in his knees, you didn't deserved that and decide that you two should go in separate path.

SEUNGKWAN 』

insicure / unexpected love , & then I met you

Seungkwan always been the insicure guy: he thought no one would ever love him romatically, he was more like the class clown and only seem like a friend to the girls. He wasn't handsome, he wasn't the popular guy becayse of his look, he was only popular for his funny personality, sometimes he would even embarass himself in front of everyone just to make his classroom laugh. He never shows how this topic upset him, gotta always fake a smile and pretend nothing, but deep down himself he is almost sure no one will ever love him but also he will never be capable to love someone. He is scared and unexperienced: he can surely make someone laugh, but he can love? he can give the attention his future lover needs? he can make the person feel loved as he deresved? He was sure he was impeded in love, until you came in his life. You was the unexpected love of his life, and learned how he was really good at loving, giving attention and those things. When you frist you went to him, he thought it was a joke, someone better reveal the cameras and stop it because it wasn't funny, he would be so upset for his whole life for be made fun of. But you was dead serious, you didn't seen him like the weird funny and class clown, you saw deep down in his soul and it was so pretty, unique and majestic.

VERNON 』

innocent crush , I wonder how I look from my crush's pov

He may be the cold and dead serious guy, the one that never show interest on nothing, much less for a girl. But when he revealed his crush on you to his friends, even them were shocked. And now, forget everything about the cold guy you always knew, he become so awkward around you from now on. He always tries to get your attention, but in the end he just looks goofy and silly. Seungkwan and Dino not helping him at all too as they just look way goofier than him or just make him in weird situation. Like that one time where they made fall his whole lunch in front of you, but that just got an interaction between you two so a win is a win. But I feel like this would just be a school crush, and you two will never ending up toghter.

DINO 』

second chance love , I will always choose you

When you met those familiar eyes one again, after almost a year you two lost contact, you got it wasn't never with that boy you hardly fell in love. It was so crowded down the streets, when you stopped for few seconds because of the shock, you already lost the sight of your friends. You quickly flutter your eyes when he moves slight trowards you, not because he wanted to, but because one his friend just bumped into him. He looks at him dumbfounded because hell, there wasn't almost space to even breath why he was just staning in the middle of nothing looking straight like an idiot but he quickly relized when he looks straight too. Dino never shutted up about you, not even when you two broke up because of his dumbness, and his friends needed to hear him yap about you for so long. They even tried to pair him someone else, thinking he was just stuck and needed a push to go out of this never ending situation but every single dated ended up by the girl being bored about him yapping about the same thing or better, a person. They always thought he was overreacting but well, they got everything just by looking on his eyes.

[griffinsboyfriend]

Idc if it’s spoilers but as a VIP user I feel I have to say. With just 2 chapters of TDG: PB still doesn’t know how to manage multiple LI.

[xinyuehui]

Link Click live action drama EP1-4 thoughts

Where to watch: Bilibili (no eng subs at the moment) Bilibili English site (Releasing on Jun 22, assuming it will have subs)

After seeing the atrocious live-action adaptation of Fox Spirit Matchmaker, all hope is lost. But the Link Click drama is produced by the same team who adapted Hikaru no Go (Qi Hun), which was good. Let's see how this goes…

Plot

The screenwriter said this is a prequel, but I disagree. I would describe it as taking the Link Click universe and creating a canon adjacent edition of it, an AU to the original. The outline of the story is very similar, but the finer details and premise are very different from those of the donghua.

In the donghua, the boys were already engaged in time travelling, and we learn later on that they met at university. So far, it has never been explained how they discovered their superpowers.

Whereas in the drama they changed the premise, Cheng Xiaoshi meets Lu Guang for the first time when Lu Guang rescues him from being beaten up by a fish vendor...interesting choice of first meet...Cheng Xiaoshi explains that he was born with a natural instinct, but it's not exactly clear what the superpower is. Qiao Ling is also unaware of Cheng Xiaoshi's superpowers.

Instead of Emma, we have Zhang Xueting, a corporate worker that face injustice. But in this case Cheng Xiaoshi doesn't take over her body, but some other guy. The relationship she has with her parents and the iconic line "Dad, mom, I miss you" is no longer in the drama. I feel like this one is a miss since the family aspect has been shifted.

Then the noodle lesbians...haven't appeared, unless they moved that to a later episode???

Following the donghua, the next one is Chen Xiao who went back in time to say final words to his loved ones before the earthquake. This one made me cry once again 😭

Characters

Everything has changed. OOC at some moments in my opinion. Since season 3 of the anime is not released yet, I'm taking a wild guess that the drama will have an original ending as well. The donghua team appears to have no involvement with the production of the drama.

Qiao Ling is not just a landlady, she is also a journalist at her day job. By the looks of it, helping people will be executed through her reporting profession, and it seems like she will have a lot more involvement compared to the donghua.

Her parents also comes into the story, her parents on the right in the screenshot below. They run a restaurant. Cheng Xiaoshi is very close to them and helps out some times.

Cheng Xiaoshi is portrayed as someone with no real job, he hasn't gone to university and uses idioms incorrectly. Obviously Lu Guang couldn't have met him at uni in this universe. He's a lot more exaggerated and cartoony. I have mixed feelings about this.

Because of the casting, Cheng Xiaoshi is shorter than Lu Guang. I'm sorry to all the girlies who were into canon tall Cheng Xiaoshi 🙏

Lu Guang now has a back story, he has a teacher who passed away that taught him about time travelling?? He briefly mentioned he found the Cheng Xiaoshi they were looking for. Looks like they will unveil the superpowers origins in the drama.

^ A glimpse of the teacher in his memory. Can you believe it's Yuen Kingdan?!?

The overall acting from the cast is fairly well done. There are several actors acting as Cheng Xiaoshi at the same time, and it still feel like it's the same person. Anyone who watched the Hikaru no Go live action will find familiarity here, as some of the actors from that production are also part of this one.

Overall

It's okay so far, although that might change as it airs. It's difficult to digest if you treat this as a faithful adaptation (I know the none cdrama fans have been questioning why Lu Guang don't have white hair). However, if you watch it like it's an AU, and resist the urge to compare it, it's not unwatchable.

I do have one small complaint, the drama should have had a different title because now it's going to get mixed up with the donghua content when people look it up.

One last thing. The ending song slaps hard!

[tamelee]

i just saw a posts about novels that went like

sarada told sasuke he has lipstick stain, sasuke tries to wipes it off and she says he doesn't have one and sakura doesn't wear lipstick.

how do they defend this novels with their lives? it confirms sasuke never kisses sakura and doesn't know if she wears lipstick or not and kisses someone else who wears lipstick. it also confirms naruto likes to wear lipstick XD.

Please. These novels are ridiculous. Kishimoto already confirmed they’ve never kissed in Gaiden. Twice. 

(* something nicer = meant the forehead poke)

Though I wouldn't believe anyone if they said they actually like these novels, because the story (or lack thereof) is complete shit, but it’s fine if they do. A good story isn't the intention unfortunately. I genuinely wish that people understood what exactly it is they are defending. I’m writing a post for someone who asked something regarding canon, but I need to take brakes from it because it pisses me off that this happens constantly to franchises— not just Naruto. 

And in this case it’s even worse, or perhaps it’s just a prime example, because Jun Esaka (writer for some of these novels) made such a fool of herself on twt by making it all too obvious what her intentions were by writing them. (If it wasn’t already obvious.) First, when people pointed out the many flaws, she admitted that it’s “just her story” and “just her interpretation” (she had only read 'Naruto' for the first time a few months before that), but when other ss-shippers started to defend her and said she was a better writer than Kishimoto (as there’s 0 love between SS when he writes), she basked in that glory and went along with it. Even to the point that she completely disrespected Kishimoto, the story, the craft, openly made fun of other characters (mostly Hinata) and ships like NH and demanded her other novels to be animated as well. It’s unprofessional af. And then when fans asked her for a nsfw novel for SS she agreed and told them to harass the company about it. (She didn’t say ‘harass’ exactly, but come on you can’t be that dense given their reputation with staff.)

What are they defending? 

How can you defend anything when the motive is so obviously just personal bias/gain and/or financial profit to a company where both in this case don’t give a shit about the original story. It's not about shipping though, it happens all the damn time to all my favorite franchises and I'm genuinely sick of it. And it's not even about a writer writing about what they want either because I already expected that, but Esaka did her absolute best to try and disprove the bond between Naruto and Sasuke and change narratives completely even for individual cases for the sake of telling her "story". SNS-moments weren’t romantic to her and she quite literally made fun of it by copying them in her story to point out its "irrelevance", but give them to her het-ship and now all of a sudden it is romantic???? She basically calls Kishimoto a liar because ‘Sasuke Retsuden’ in particular is a direct response to ‘Gaiden’ (made by Kishimoto). She blatantly tried to disprove anything he said and indicated about her ship. She wrote about characters that, yes, have the same name as those in ‘Naruto’, but are so out of character it hurts. It took me months to recover my lost braincells. 

I don't think my post about it is still up, but to name a few things in that novel if you're interested: Sasuke resents Naruto and his test-tube daughter because he’d rather travel with Sakura, his wife whom he loves so much. But he has to do stuff just because Hokage Naruto said so and his daughter wants to stay in Konoha so he has no choice but to comply. Being apart from his wife-(did we mention he loves her so much? because he does. so much.)- makes him feel so very lonely and he misses her body so much because he knows it so well. He fails to do anything other than being jealous about the women-deprived prisoners going after the new hot doctor, Sakura, who is his wife btw. that he loves a lot in case you missed it. and he rather stares at trees that remind him of her than helping his friend Naruto who’s apparently dying from his own chakra or whatever kind of bs. Sasuke lets himself be bullied by prison-guards that aren’t even Shinobi, for having long hair and looking like a girl, though Esaka makes sure to mention how so very handsome he is and he looks like a cat. Sasuke loses a battle against an overgrown lizard and tries the same damn jutsu 4 times(!!!!) before realizing it may actually not work, I think because he forgot how to fight, but he can however create anything from ice like Elsa (Frozen), or from dirt like some Gaara-hybrid to make Sakura a ring because he loves her so much ofc… oh and he’s now a healer too. Sasuke sacrifices people’s lives even when it’s not necessary at all bc ig Esaka thinks he's a killer, and also he wouldn’t mind being brought back with Edo Tensei if it means he can stay with Sakura, because fuck everything they’ve been through in the original story, yeah? They also immediately forgive the bad guy cuz he's so relatable even though he just murdered I dunno how many people. SS kiss while an injured Naruto is squished in between them because SS-shippers have some sort of “Naruto has to watch our ship being in love to really make it legit because that’ll learn him for getting in between!”-kink (that's real actually) and according to Esaka, Sasuke is so worried about his daughter and in fact did meet up with them during those 10+ years because he loves them oh-so-much and fuck you Kishimoto that’s why. 

Be so fr right now. It’s such a joke. And these are just the few things on the top of my head that I remembered ;-; ...

Again, what are they defending exactly? It would be nice to just have a genuine fan of the story write an actual story. No other motive other than "I really like the story and would love to explore some options while respecting Kishimoto's work because it'd be fun!" Except, that's unfortunately not very marketable and ffs it's just sad. (I know there's a Kakashi version and I personally really want to know more about his role as Hokage and what he's done etc, but alas.)

[wlwcatalogue]

A few sapphic film recs!

Just a few recommendations for sapphic films under 2 hours which may or may not have flown under the radar:

Moonlit Winter / 윤희에게 (1hr 45m, 2019, dir. Lim Dae-hyung)

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (1hr 48m, 2017, dir. Angela Robinson)

Who's the Woman, Who's the Man / 金枝玉葉 2 (1hr 50m, 1996, dir. Peter Ho-Sun Chan)

Sisterhood / 骨妹 (1hr 37m, 2016, dir. Tracy Choi)

DEBS (1hr 31m, 2004, dir. Angela Robinson)

Farewell, My Queen / Les adieux à la reine (1hr 40m, 2012, dir. Benoît Jacquot)

Bonus - short film: Love Does Human / 사람 하는 사랑 (24 mins, 2019, dir. Oh Seon-ju)

Commentary under the cut!

1. Moonlit Winter / 윤희에게 (1hr 45m, 2019, dir. Lim Dae-hyung) - IMDB | MyDramaList

This movie is about a daughter (Kim So-hye) who finds out about her divorced mother’s (Kim Hee-ae) past with another woman (Katase Jun), and how in encouraging her mother to reconnect, the two finally open up to each other as well. Dry stuff on paper, but there’s more to it: the mother and her former lover didn’t just break up, they were split apart by their families as teenagers and the mother was forced to marry a man against her will. In short, it deals with the aftermath of the typical “bad ending” of older stories featuring WLW characters, wherein schoolgirls in love would be separated and married off to preserve the heteronormative status quo.

Although the queer relationship does not get much screentime at all – the two characters share a single scene, there are no flashbacks, and there’s not even a hug – queerness remains at the heart of the movie. It’s a rare depiction of how the repression of queerness leaves scars on people which affect how they engage with the world, but which also shows that as long as they are alive, there is still hope that those scars can be healed. Also, despite the heavy-sounding subject matter, it’s a very gentle experience: there are no direct depictions of homophobia and no sensationalism, just a little story of human connection unfolding in a snow-cloaked Hokkaido.

2. Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (1hr 48m, 2017, dir. Angela Robinson) - IMDB

The blurb on IMDB says that this movie is about “psychologist William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans), and his polyamorous relationship with his wife [Elizabeth] (Rebecca Hall) and their mistress [Olive] (Bella Heathcote) who would inspire his creation of the superheroine, Wonder Woman”. As someone who is not particularly drawn to biopics, male protagonists, polyamory, BDSM, or Wonder Woman, I assumed that this movie wouldn’t be my jam and so didn’t watch it until quite a while later – which is when I discovered just how wrong I was.

First, the two women take up just as much of the movie’s focus as Marston. Elizabeth, Marston’s wife and fellow psychologist, is highly intelligent but equally highly-strung; she does not know how to deal with her husband’s attraction to new research assistant Olive, nor Olive’s attraction to both her husband and Elizabeth herself, and this internal conflict (even after the three enter into a polyamorous relationship) features heavily in the story. Second, although it declares itself to be “based on a true story”, the movie is not especially interested in recreating or representing the past. Rather, the historical elements are used as a framework to explore certain ideas: Diana’s Lasso of Truth symbolises how progress and healing must be first founded upon honesty, for example. The polyamory and BDSM is also not at all sordid or sensationalised, but rather presented in a nuanced (though still sexy!) manner. More than anything, this is a movie with a big heart and big ideas, and should be judged on its own merits.

3. Who's the Woman, Who's the Man / 金枝玉葉 2 (1hr 50m, 1996, dir. Peter Ho-Sun Chan) - IMDB | MyDramaList

All you need to know going into this sequel of 1994 movie He's a Woman, She's a Man (金枝玉葉) is that main character Wing (Anita Yuen) is a woman who has found both fame and (heterosexual) love while disguising herself as a male idol, and that her relationship with record producer Sam (Leslie Cheung) is known to the general public— although it is perceived as being homosexual in nature due to her persona. At this point, you might be wondering why an M/F romantic comedy is on this list, but this movie is a bit odd in that instead of focusing only on problems such Sam’s internalised homophobia and misogyny (both of which are addressed in the story), one of the new obstacles facing the couple is the female lead meeting female pop star Fong Yim Mui (Anita Mui)… and both starting to fall for each other.

I was surprised at how sensitively Wing and Fong Yim Mui’s respective arcs are handled, especially for a mainstream movie from the 90’s starring two of Hong Kong’s most popular performers at the time. Instead of giving the two women a meet-cute and leaving it at that, a lot of care is put into showing them processing and coming to terms with their feelings in their own time. Romantic and sexual attraction is also highlighted separately, which is refreshing given how they are usually depicted as inextricably linked even now… Obviously Wing and Fong Yim Mui don’t end up together, but their feelings aren’t dismissed and – relative to the narrative constraints – the ending is a warm, optimistic one. Also, Anita Mui gives an absolutely award-worthy performance in one of the scenes with her character and Wing, so fans of her should definitely give this movie a try.

Important note: Although there’s much that’s good about it, Who's the Woman, Who's the Man is far from perfect. Early on, there’s a masquerade party where two of the characters are wearing masks which look like racist caricatures, and the masks are crop up in multiple scenes in the film. More serious is the subplot about a male character who keeps trying to win over a lesbian, culminating in her agreeing to sleep with him once while he’s dressed as a woman (CW: transphobia, homophobia) – though this storyline ends with the man accepting that she really is gay and parting on friendly terms. That said, these problems are already mild compared to the actively hateful transphobic and homophobic jokes present in so many of its contemporaries, so if you’ve watched a 90’s Hong Kong comedy before, chances are that your tolerance level is more than high enough.

4. Sisterhood / 骨妹 (1hr 37m, 2016, dir. Tracy Choi) IMDB | MyDramaList

Sisterhood opens with tragedy. Originally from Macau, main character Sei (Gigi Leung) is living quietly in Taiwan with her husband after the 1999 Handover when her life is overturned by a newspaper personal ad informing her that her long-estranged friend and colleague Ling has passed away. The movie is shot through with flashbacks to earlier times, tracking a young Sei (Fish Liew) as she starts doing sex work and is taken under the wing of the more experienced Ling (Jennifer Yu) and her friends. Memories of togetherness and community are juxtaposed against sequences of present-day Sei struggling to navigate her grief, the tensions of the now-fractured friend group, and a Macau that has changed just as much as she has. The acting and script can be clunky in places but the sentiment shines through, especially after the first third, at which point the movie starts honing in on Sei and Ling’s relationship. It’s not a happy story, but nor is it defined by sadness; instead, it posits that the past is not merely to be mourned, that it is instead something that can shape and provide a foundation for the future. I won't talk too much about how queerness figures into this story, due to spoilers, but rest assured that it is present and important!

5. D.E.B.S. (1hr 31m, 2004, dir. Angela Robinson) - IMDB

Okay, you've probably heard of this one before if not watched it already, but anyway! This was the first WLW movie I watched, and for a long time, the only one which I actually enjoyed. It’s about an elite spy (well, more like an honours student at spy school) (Sara Foster) and a criminal mastermind (Jordana Brewster) falling for each other, a premise which is just as fun and over-the-top as it sounds. The movie does a great job of mixing action, humor, and romance, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome – it’s got a nice compact runtime and a cracking pace. There’s still nothing quite like it in my opinion, though I’m very welcome to any recommendations in this line (my askbox is open if you have any!).

6. Farewell, My Queen / Les adieux à la reine (1hr 40m, 2012, dir. Benoît Jacquot) - IMDB

Loosely based on Chantal Thomas’ novel of the same name, Farewell, My Queen is a portrait of French nobility in decline, following maidservant Sidonie Labarde (Léa Seydoux) who is in the service of Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger). It's a beautiful, lavish production which effectively conveys the perspective of a servant locked in the gilded cage that is Versailles during the French Revolution, and is a rare case of a historical figure as famous as Antoinette being presented as queer in a serious historical drama.

That being said, the queerness is mostly background, coming mainly in the form of Antoinette’s crush on? relationship with? duchess Gabrielle de Polignac (Virginie Ledoyen)— though a case can be made for Sidonie, whose outward opacity belies an unwavering, almost unsettling, devotion to her queen. Also, be warned that the movie has many a dodgy shot of cleavage, and two instances of unnecessary and voyeuristic nudity... but other than that, it really does have gorgeous cinematography.

Fun fact: there really were rumours about Antoinette having a scandalous relationship with the duchess, although these have nearly always been written off as baseless reputation-smearing.

Bonus - short film: Love Does Human / 사람 하는 사랑 (24 mins, 2019, dir. Oh Seon-ju) - MyDramaList

Some say that the best science fiction puts a spotlight on some part of the human condition, and this short film does just that. Main character Tae Eun's (Kim Min-ju) girlfriend Joo An (Jang Sam-yi) no longer has a human body: after carrying out a medical operation which transferred her consciousness to a computer system, she now has a web-camera for her eyes, a speaker for her mouth, and control over their home's devices for her hands. And although the change was by Joo An's choice and Tae Eun was supportive, the pair struggle to adjust to this new reality, and are confronted with the need to communicate and to consider each other's perspectives. Love Does Human has a bit of a slow start, and there were points where I didn't understand why the characters were reacting in a certain way, but it all comes together beautifully in the end. Through its sci-fi premise, viewers are encouraged to think about real-life problems using a different angle, and the movie never gets too heavy. Also, shoutout to some excellent voice work from the two actors - Joo An is performed nearly entirely through voice but she feels deeply human and present, and Tae Eun's actor also has a standout scene featuring some great voice acting. All in all, it's a short film that's well worth checking out (especially since the director has made it available for free, with English subtitles, on Youtube - embedded above)!

[tied-ash]

With DRDT being revived and everything, it somehow corresponded to me making a family AU.

And by family AU… I obviously mean a fan child AU.

Basically, MonoTV has a new motive! To everyone’s surprise, they’ve been paired up based on personality, interest, relationship, or randomly to take care of an AI child! How is this a motive? Fake memories are given to every child, and whether they know it or not, their soul purpose is to cause drama.

Yes, I’m aware of how cringe this is. But cringe culture is dead. <3 I’m also aware that it’s probably worse that I used Gacha Life 2 to design these characters, but meh /lh

To save room, it’s under the cut!

BLAISE LACROIX - SHSL Bibliophile

The daughter of Veronika and Rose, she takes after her mama’s looks (Rose) and her mami’s personality (Veronika). She’s a general nuisance to the whole group, though she’s only often seen around her parents. …and Felicity. Oh, and those glasses don’t even have lenses in them.

Veronika is absolutely ecstatic, if not weirded out. Rose is a little concerned that she was paired with Veronika…

FELICITY FONTANA - SHSL Cosmetologist

The daughter of Arturo and Levi, Felicity takes after her father’s looks, and Levi’s muscle and apathy. Yes, she calls Arturo “father” and Levi “Levi” — she claims that it’s just easier that way. While she has Levi’s apathy and inability to truly understand human emotion, she has her Arturo’s rude nature. She’s not sure why, but Blaise has a certain attraction to her… though, it’s not really a romantic one.

Levi and her both have the understanding that they don’t know how to react. However, Felicity is having a worse time understanding why her father, Arturo, refuses to talk to her… or why her name freaks him out so much.

JUN-HEI HAKOBYAN - SHSL Zoologist

The son of Min and Nico - and nephew of Hu - he takes qualities from both of his parents. He’s awkward with practically anyone he meets, and he hates socialization. Why do you think he hangs out with animals so much?

Nico doesn’t like him. Why were they paired with Min…? Hu, on the other hand, is more than happy to take on the parent role, regardless of Jin-Hei wants her to or not.

LAILA CUEVAS - SHSL Tutor

The daughter of Whit and Charles, she takes a lot from Whit. The only things she got from Charles was his hair, skin, and height. Her personality reflects that of Whit almost completely, though she tends to say “that’s… actually insane!” Rather than “that’s wack.” However, neither know where she got her fashion sense from… or her slight interest to nicotine.

Upon finding that this was the pairing, both were flustered. They shared it in different ways, though. Charles went straight to interrogating her, asking how they are as parents and also what she knows. Whit’s first question was “so… how’s my cooking?”

CASSIOPEIA “CASSI” CHIEM - SHSL Motivational Speaker

The daughter of David and Xander - and the niece of Ace, Cassi takes her personality from the more rambunctious of the two. She gained his determination and loudness. Despite how naive she can be at times, she always means well. Her nativity sometimes translates into obliviousness, which then powers her patience.

LEO CHIEM - SHSL Protestor

The son of David and Xander - and the nephew of Ace, Leo takes his personality from the more intelligent of the two. He’s a somewhat patient person when people actually want to listen. Otherwise, his temper is constantly dwindling. The only person who is almost incapable of causing his true anger to show is his twin sister.

David doesn’t know what to think of them… but they’re Xander’s kids too. He wants to protect them, and they want to help stop this killing game. Hu, despite not being part of the family, finds great interest in David’s kids. The children are unsure of how to approach her.

YUMI NAGEISHI - SHSL Roboticist

The daughter of Arei and Eden - and the niece of J - takes her personality from Arei and J. She’s blunt and bossy, often ridiculing others for their dumb ideas. However, if you squint hard enough, she’s only trying to keep everyone alive. If she got any other traits from Eden… it’s slight blackmail. It’s never anything serious— anything dangerous is instantly told to somebody she trusts, most likely being Kobe, Cassi, or Felicity.

Eden has made it her mission to get as close to her daughter as possible. Yumi has made it her mission to be her mother’s spokesperson, saying what she believes her mother means (“Can we maybe be nicer?” “Mom wants to say shut your trap and listen for god’s sake.”) . J… Well, she’s trying to convince herself that she isn’t turning into her own mother. It doesn’t help knowing that Yumi acts just like J.

KOBE TAWAKI - SHSL ???

The son of Teruko, no one knows who his other parent is. It has to be either Ace, Veronika, or Xander, right? But due to Kobe’s kind and patient nature, no one can be sure. Neither of his parents act like he does…

Teruko doesn’t want anyone talking to her son. At the same time, she doesn’t dare trust him. He is a motive that should never be trusted.

[robininthelabyrinth]

The Other Mountain - ao3 - Chapter 13

Pairing: Lan Qiren/Wen Ruohan

Warning Tags on Ao3

———————————————————————-

“When you say gone and missing, what precisely do you mean?” Wen Ruohan asked.

Wang Liu shrugged. “Exactly that, Sect Leader. The two heirs of Gusu Lan were last seen at their lessons, shortly before the delegation left for the Yunmeng, and not since.”

It wasn’t that Wen Ruohan hadn’t understood what his spy meant. It was just that he couldn’t believe it.

“In the sense that they were kidnapped,” he said slowly, “or in the sense that they’ve run away?”

“It is my belief that the latter is more likely. There have been no recent threats, and Gusu Lan’s gate wards remain unbroken – no one without a pass token has entered or exited.”

That was at least something, Wen Ruohan supposed. Still, when Lan Qiren found out…

Wen Ruohan did not want to imagine Lan Qiren’s reaction to finding out that his brother had somehow managed to misplace Lan Qiren’s beloved nephews. Not after all the work he’d put into keeping the man intact for his own purposes! And for that matter, how had Qingheng-jun permitted something like that to happen? He’d only had sole guardianship of the boys for a handful of months! They were his own sons and heirs!

Wen Ruohan was not particularly fond of children, not even his own, and his taste for the pleasures of familial life had largely evaporated after the death of his first family. But he hadn’t gotten to where he was by being careless, and so Wen Ruohan made a point of always knowing where his sons were, what they were doing, and what company they were keeping at any given time. To not know that was to invite disaster, and that was even without behaving in such a way as to make them think running away was a better option!

Currently, Wen Xu, his oldest, was at nearly fifteen finally getting to the point that he was worth talking to. About half a year prior, he’d expressed an interest in the army and Wen Ruohan had happily granted his wish, sending him to train under one of his generals. Lu Qipei had made some token protests about her son leaving her side, but she’d been satisfied enough with the placement. Wen Ruohan suspected she would have preferred that he just give the boy command outright, never mind that he was underage – but as Wen Ruohan had not yet reached that depth of madness, he ignored all her hints and hoped instead that Wen Xu would actually genuinely learn something from the experience. In contrast, Wen Chao was only eight, so he remained in the Nightless City, but his daily life was filled with tutors and friends, overseen by his mother (and Lu Qipei, who often offered her “help”). Wen Ruohan had assigned him Wen Zhuliu, the Core-melting Hand, as a bodyguard and personal servant, ensuring that no one would ever dare challenge or threaten his son.

He certainly had never lost either of them.

Much less both!

Oh, Lan Qiren was definitely going to have another meltdown when he heard the news. Wen Ruohan couldn’t even imagine what that one would be like…and Wen Ruohan did not want him to have another meltdown. He had plans! Plans that involved Lan Qiren being of sound mind!

And now Qingheng-jun was, through sheer negligence, going to mess with those plans.

Wen Ruohan reached up and pressed his forehead above the bridge of his nose in a rare outward concession to his frustration.

“Do the Lan know where their heirs went?” he asked, forcefully restraining his temper. Thoughts of stabbing Qingheng-jun were pleasant, but not productive. However he might feel about the other man at the moment, he was the sect leader of a Great Sect, and not trifled with lightly. “For that matter, if their heirs are missing, why isn’t there more of a frenzy on their side?”

“The Lan sect disciples at the Cloud Recesses are trying to see if they can find the heirs before reporting to Sect Leader Lan on their absence,” Wang Liu reported, which made sense. Better to report that they’d temporarily misplaced the children rather than have to report having lost them, minimizing the fact of their failure by mitigating it in advance. “It was initially believed that they were simply hiding away somewhere in the Cloud Recesses, possibly as some sort of protest, but they’ve since ruled that out. They’ve sent disciples down to Caiyi and are now searching there. If they can’t find them there…”

Then they’d have no choice but to send a message to their sect leader, confessing all.

After all, the boys were only nine and six. They weren’t exactly accustomed to travel. If they weren’t in the Cloud Recesses, and they weren’t in the nearby town, and the only people who’d passed the Lan sect’s gates were those with the approved pass tokens, the only plausible place they could be was...

Here.

“You got the news early?” Wen Ruohan asked, then nodded in approval when Wang Liu confirmed. “Well done.”

“Thank you, Sect Leader. Your grace is immeasurable. Do you want us to start searching Gusu Lan’s baggage for them now? We could find and secure them before the Lan sect admits to themselves that they are lost.”

It was a tempting thought. Wen Ruohan could imagine the scene now: Lan Qiren noticing the increasing hubbub on the Lan sect’s side and growing concerned, eventually (reluctantly) turning to ask Wen Ruohan if he knew anything, Wen Ruohan drawing him off to the side to privately tell him, Lan Qiren’s moment of shock and horror, delicious in its suffering, which then melted away into profound relief and appreciation when Wen Ruohan murmured in his ear that he’d already sent people for them and found them – that they were safe, and secure, and with him –

Wen Ruohan wasn’t sure exactly what would happen after that, but he was certain it wouldn’t be boring.

It was a beautiful image.

Sadly, common sense intervened.

“No need,” Wen Ruohan said. “Let us not risk your cover on such a thing.”

Even if he found the boys first, he wouldn’t be able to take them away without being caught. The Lan sect was on the verge of confessing to their sect leader that the children had been lost. Once they did that, a search would undoubtedly begin at once, and then it would be impossible for him to hide the fact that he’d ordered his men to start the search early. Once that came out, whether or not he’d secured them by then, he would be blamed for having tried to spirit them away – and unfortunately, there were still things Wen Ruohan could not do, lines he could not cross and taboos he could not violate. Neither his power nor his insanity had yet grown to the level where he thought he could get away with stealing the heirs of the other sects.

(Yet. That was what Lan Qiren was for.)

Wang Liu must not have thought of that. Well, he was still relatively new.

“Sect Leader, are you sure?” Wang Liu asked, frowning. “If we miss this chance, it is unlikely we will be able to gain access to the children in the future – ”

“I’m certain,” Wen Ruohan said firmly, making it clear that his patience was starting to slip. He appreciated his spies, but he did not permit anyone to question his decisions. “You’re dismissed.”

Wang Liu saluted respectfully and absented himself very quickly. Presumably he still remembered what happened to people that got on Wen Ruohan’s bad side.

Wen Ruohan forgot about Wang Liu the moment he left, instead opting to look around the room he was in, the one used to store the considerable luggage his sect had brought with them, with a critical eye. After a moment, he pulled out a piece of talisman paper from his sleeve. He hadn’t bothered doing this for himself in ages, but calling for a servant would take both more time and more energy – for the talisman, he just needed a few strokes, a twist of power, a little focus…

The talisman activated in a flash, splitting into four and flying onto all four walls of the room, the pattern on them stretching out until they covered the entirety of the walls, then dissipating. The gentle background sounds of the Lotus Pier went with them, the privacy arrays locking it all down into silence.

“There we go,” Wen Ruohan said, and smirked in triumph. “Would you like to come out now?”

No reaction at all.

“I know you’re there.”

Still nothing.

Fine, then. He’d go for the kill.

“And to think how upset Lan Qiren will be when I tell him that he missed you – ”

Two small heads, adorned with Lan sect ribbons, immediately popped up from one of the larger trunks, right where Wen Ruohan had noticed them earlier. His cultivation was too high for him not to have noticed the presence of two children hiding away close by like that: he’d heard the rustling of their robes, felt the small pulses of spiritual energy, smelled the faint hints of sandalwood from the incense packets hidden in their clothing. He hadn’t especially cared, of course, since they’d been too far away to hear or see him talking with Wang Liu – what did some stowaways matter?

Then he’d found out who they likely were.

After all, just because Wen Ruohan couldn’t search for them and couldn’t take them away didn’t mean there wasn’t an advantage to be had in finding them.

The older boy, who must be Lan Xichen, looked properly appalled, just like Lan Qiren when he was faced by some profound breach of etiquette, though on a far smaller and rounder face; it wasn’t clear whether it was because of Wen Ruohan’s implicit threat or simply the idea of his uncle being upset. The younger one, Lan Wangji, who was even rounder than his big brother and looked even more like a big soft bao, merely looked determined, hopping out of the trunk and marching straight towards Wen Ruohan, his two little fists gripped tightly at his side, teeth bared –

“Wangji, no!” Lan Xichen yelped, throwing himself forward.

Wen Ruohan bemusedly lowered his hand, which had very abruptly flown up to the level of his face – he’d had to withdraw it very quickly in order to keep from being bitten.

Bitten.

By a junior version of Lan Qiren!

“Where is Shufu?” the little boy demanded, heedless of his older brother rushing forward to try to tug him back. “Bring me to him right now!”

Lan Wangji was lucky that Wen Ruohan was too busy trying to imagine what Lan Qiren must have looked like at a similar age to strike him down for his insolence. The effort wasn’t working very well, even though Wen Ruohan assumed that Lan Qiren must have resembled Lan Wangji as he was now – but no, Wen Ruohan really just couldn’t see the other man as anything other than the antique he’d already been by his early twenties.

“Please let me apologize on my brother’s behalf, Senior Wen,” Lan Xichen said urgently. “He’s just very distressed, he doesn’t mean it.”

Wen Ruohan glanced down at him. “Do not tell lies,” he drawled, and Lan Xichen winced and turned red with embarrassment. “He most certainly meant it. And it’s Sect Leader Wen.”

It was only when both boys gasped that he realized that he should have kept his identity a secret. He hadn’t realized that they actually hadn’t recognized him – if he’d realized, he would have kept it back and used it as leverage, played with them until they’d said something particularly dreadful or embarrassing.

It just hadn’t occurred to him that they were being genuinely ignorant rather than just speaking too fast. Everyone recognized him.

But of course it made perfect sense that these little children wouldn’t. Lan Qiren had never allowed a single child of his sect under the age of thirteen anywhere near the discussion conferences, not even the ones his sect had hosted. Once someone had asked about it, more teasing than curious. In return Lan Qiren had given a ponderous frown and started reciting rules of etiquette in his dull monotone until everyone’s ears had started bleeding and the person who’d asked looked as though he regretted being born.

Moreover, these weren’t just any children, but Lan Qiren’s children. They probably even obeyed the rules against gossip…though it was fairly clear from the look of worry on both their faces that they had at least some notion about some of the rumors that accompanied Wen Ruohan’s name.

“You are the one who has Shufu,” Lan Wangji hissed like a little viper. “Give him back!”

“Wangji!”

Lan Xichen had to literally pick up his brother to keep him from lunging forward.

There was something intrinsically funny about the sight of one boy hoisting the other up by the waist to keep him in place, barely able to keep standing steadily given all the wiggling and kicking. Somehow, when Wen Ruohan had heard about Lan Qiren’s two nephews that he had personally raised, it had never occurred to him that the man might have raised one normal child and one absolute hellion.

“Wangji, behave,” Lan Xichen said, and put his brother down. “You won’t get anywhere with Sect Leader Wen by trying to bite him. He’s a very reasonable person. I’m sure he doesn’t want us to cause a fuss, because then people might come here and think he was the one who brought us here.”

Make that two absolute hellions.

Wen Ruohan’s eyebrows arched involuntarily. “Are you trying to blackmail me?” he asked, deeply amused. And also pleased that he’d bothered to take the time to set up the privacy talisman earlier, because Lan Xichen wasn’t wrong. “I’m certain that’s against your sect rules, little Lan.”

Lan Xichen looked up at him with a set face, stubborn determination in every line of him. “Is that so, Sect Leader Wen? Which one? Please educate this junior.”

Lan Qiren had raised these children?

On second thought, of course he had. Who else could take something so fundamentally uninteresting as children, who were boring, needy, and unpleasant until they’d at least completed adolescence, and create such a fascinatingly unpredictable mix of contrasts, cloaked in seemingly implacable Lan sect righteousness?

And if he could do that with his own children…really, Wen Ruohan had already been eager enough to see Lan Qiren teaching when his sole interest had been in hearing Lan Qiren dominate a classroom, but now he was really crawling out of his skin with anticipation. Perhaps he would even send his own sons to him to see if maybe Lan Qiren could somehow salvage the wrecks their insipid personalities and mothers had made of them – after all, they were Wen, and thus deserved the best. And everyone agreed that Lan Qiren was the best.

“My sect also has a list of sayings by which we are to abide,” he said instead. “All left behind by the founder, my ancestor. Do you know which one applies in this situation?”

They both looked uncertain.

“Neither do I. Because under my rule, they have become obsolete.” Wen Ruohan’s lips curled back into a sneer. “I would recommend against underestimating me.”

The intimidation worked beautifully against Lan Xichen, just as intended: the boy paled and looked as though he were reviewing everything he must have heard about Wen Ruohan in his mind all at once, and pairing that with the fact that Wen Ruohan had his beloved uncle within his grasp.

Lan Wangji, in contrast, scrunched up his face angrily, shouted “Arrogance is forbidden!” and smacked Wen Ruohan right in the knee with his little fist.

And then he burst into tears.

“Oh no,” Lan Xichen said, clearly horrified. He tried to reach out to grab his brother once more, only for Lan Wangji to throw himself on the floor and start hitting it with his fists, still sobbing, but with his mouth pursed as if he were trying desperately not to make too much noise during his temper tantrum.

Causing noise is prohibited, if Wen Ruohan had to bet. Those ridiculous Lan sect rules…

He really did look like a little Lan Qiren.

Wen Ruohan crouched down in front of Lan Wangji, wondering briefly if he should restrain him the way he had ultimately restrained Lan Qiren during his own fit – probably not, since Lan Qiren had commented that in the future he would prefer if Wen Ruohan limited his involvement to merely ensuring that there was nothing breakable in the vicinity and keeping other people away. Likely that was the course of action he would recommend to others as well.

It made Wen Ruohan again wonder if this was what Lan Qiren had looked like as a child, all chubby cheeks, red faced and utterly miserable.

No, he still couldn’t imagine it. Given the poor relationship between Lan Qiren and his brother, which must have started in their childhood, he simply could not imagine Lan Qiren being spoiled and beloved and secure enough in himself to have a fit out in the open in front of strangers. Though perhaps he was being unduly dismissive of Lan Wangji – the boy’s life had been through rather a lot of changes recently, all negative, and he’d already seen the impact of a similar thing on the already adult Lan Qiren. Sometimes meltdowns were simply inevitable.

No matter.

“How often do these fits happen?” he asked Lan Xichen, who was wringing his hands and bouncing up and down on his toes in profound distress.

“More often than they used to,” Lan Xichen replied in what was practically a wail. “He used to have much better self-control. That is, before – before Shufu…Wangji doesn’t like change.”

“Mm. Neither does your uncle.”

Lan Xichen glanced at him sidelong, gnawing on his lower lip. “Earlier…I heard…is my Shufu really your wife?”

“I’m his,” Wen Ruohan corrected, then grinned at the sweet memory of the disaster Lan Qiren had caused earlier by publicly calling him his wife. The cultivation world was never going to get over that one. “Tell me, what was your plan, hiding yourselves here? Why didn’t you try to go find your uncle straight away?”

“We didn’t know if he was going to be at the conference,” Lan Xichen said, looking abashed. “But he’d certainly be in the Nightless City, wouldn’t he?”

“I see. And when you were found in my possession? What were you planning to do then?”

“We wouldn’t be found!” At Wen Ruohan’s doubtful look, Lan Xichen puffed out his cheeks and pouted. “We wouldn’t. We weren’t found until now, were we?”

That was only because no one had properly looked.

Wen Ruohan decided to refrain from commenting. He could wait until a more appropriate moment to ruin the boy’s illusions – or at least until he managed to figure out what he intended to do with them. As he’d already determined earlier, there was no way he could smuggle them out of the Lotus Pier and to the Nightless City himself. Once the two children’s escapade was discovered, he and Lan Qiren would be immediate targets for suspicion. Their baggage would be searched, their retinue investigated, no stone left unturned. There was a limit to how clever even he could be, trying to hide something away when the focus of the entire cultivation world was on him.

And yet the other option was even less appealing: to bring Lan Qiren so close to the children he so longed to see, and yet not letting them see one another. Or worse, letting them see each other and then sending the boys back to the Cloud Recesses, thereby delivering the most powerful card over Lan Qiren into the hands of their father, Wen Ruohan’s rival in power.

No, that was intolerable. The boys had to come with him.

As for how – well, he’d think of something.

He was Wen Ruohan, after all. He always got what he wanted, eventually.

“Are you done?” he asked Lan Wangji, who seemed to have exhausted himself.

“I want to see Shufu,” Lan Wangji replied. Stubborn brat. “I want to see Shufu right now.”

“That can be arranged,” Wen Ruohan said. Both boys lit up, as he’d expected them to. Children were painfully easy to manipulate. “What will you give me in exchange?”

They both stared at him, clearly wondering if he was being serious.

Naturally he was. He would never have bothered if they were just two ordinary children, of course, but these were Lan Qiren’s children.

“Do not take advantage of your position to oppress others,” Lan Xichen finally said.

Cute.

“Do not be wasteful,” Wen Ruohan replied, fighting down the amused curl of his lips. He’d gotten pretty good at irritating Lan Qiren with his own sect rules, these past few months. A few children would be nothing.

“Do not build wealth using others,” Lan Wangji volunteered.

“…do you even have any wealth?” Wen Ruohan wondered, abruptly distracted, and tried not to laugh when Lan Xichen dug a single piece of silver out of his sleeve to proudly show off to him. His own little Chao-er had a monthly allowance of ten times that amount, but then again the Wen sect wasn’t nearly as fond of frugality as the Lan. “Don’t be unreasonable. How about a favor? One each.”

“A…favor?”

“Why not? I’m doing you a favor by bringing you to your shufu, aren’t I? Propriety suggests reciprocity.”

The boys looked at each other, clearly wary and searching for a trap, or at least a way out of the one they were in. That alone made them smarter than any number of sect leaders Wen Ruohan had to deal with on a regular basis, many of whom were blindly self-confident even when knowing the caliber of their enemy. In fact, even Lao Nie would generally agree to just about anything rather than owe Wen Ruohan an open-ended favor without limitation – he knew, as all smart people knew, that Wen Ruohan always remembered what he was owed, and that he was more than willing to wait for just the right moment to call it out, even if it took decades.

He had the time.

But in the end, wary as they might be, these were still only children.

“All right,” Lan Xichen finally said, clearly unable to think of another solution that would satisfy the situation and reluctantly accepting it. “One favor each. But nothing bad!”

Wen Ruohan thought about it, then inclined his head in agreement. Vagueness in a contract was beneficial to both sides, and he could go quite far with the wiggle room ‘nothing bad’ offered him.

Lan Xichen looked relieved. For his part, Lan Wangji looked between the two of them and nodded firmly, signaling his own consent to the arrangement. And then, having apparently decided that Wen Ruohan now qualified as a good adult, he held up his arms and said “Up!” to Wen Ruohan in an imperious tone.

“Not a chance,” Wen Ruohan informed him. These two children might be more tolerable than most, but he wasn’t about to start indulging them. “You have two legs, you can walk. Or ask your brother, if your fit earlier has truly incapacitated you.”

He waved away the privacy barrier and began walking back to the rooms he had been assigned, weaving his way through the many bridges and floating platforms of the Lotus Pier. Presumably Lan Qiren would be back from the ducks by now – though Wen Ruohan supposed he was the one who’d ended up being trailed by ducklings.

He found that he was looking forward to presenting his newest prizes to Lan Qiren.

Lan Qiren’s reaction would be amazing. The other man would undoubtedly be quick to realize the same issues with their presence and disposition as Wen Ruohan had, of course, but he was still a Lan; he would be emotional first, rational second. Seeing his nephews for the first time in months would snap that reserve of his in two like a twig, and Wen Ruohan wouldn’t have to suffer that dull-as-dishwater self-effacing persona that Lan Qiren had adopted as soon as they were in public.

Truly, it had been more irritating than Wen Ruohan had realized it would be, seeing Lan Qiren forcefully stuff all of the interesting things about him – his sharp insight, his fiery temper, his well-concealed ruthlessness – back into the perfect model of the navel-gazing scholar, untouched by mortal filth. That might be appropriate for the Lan sect, but Lan Qiren wasn’t here to represent them. He was here for Qishan Wen, as he himself had admitted. Admitted repeatedly, and in public.

The Wen sect did not hide their talents. They didn’t hide that they were better than everyone else.

It was more than that, though. Lan Qiren’s behavior made it painfully clear that he had been brought up to be a proper second son, always staying one step behind and ready to offer support without eclipsing the first son, not as beloved as his brother and excruciatingly aware of it. Given that he was so obviously superior to his brother in every respect, it grated on Wen Ruohan’s nerves to see him act like that.

But all that was in the past, now. He was better than that now.

Husband or not, Lan Qiren was Madam Wen now. He ought to act like it.

Perhaps Wen Ruohan would suggest that Lan Qiren learn a little from Lan Wangji. Now there was a younger son the way a younger son ought to be: deeply beloved and spoiled rotten, utterly certain that he deserved everything good in the world because his family had always strived to give it to him. He certainly didn’t seem to have any trouble being appropriately demanding, assuming other people’s acquiescence to his will as if it were inevitable.

Yes, this was going to be a great deal of fun. Lan Qiren would have his moment with his nephews, emotional as it would undoubtedly be, and then he would master himself and return to Wen Ruohan’s side so that they could plan out how to manage the fall-out when the boys were inevitably discovered.

Really, it was such a pleasure to have someone smart enough to actually keep up with him.

It was a painful rarity, especially when coupled with loyalty or straightforwardness. Most of the people who were actually smart enough to anticipate Wen Ruohan’s plans were too greedy or presumptuous to be tolerated, and the ones who were matchlessly loyal tended to be too stupid to talk to. Wen Ruohan trusted no one, of course, but doubting Lan Qiren was practically pointless, an exercise in futility…

A small hand tugged at his sleeve.

Wen Ruohan looked down.

“Don’t we need to hide?” Lan Xichen whispered loudly to him. “Anyone could see us!”

“Don’t be absurd,” Wen Ruohan said, shaking him loose. “I would be able to tell if anyone were coming long before they got anywhere near.”

“And then we’d hide?” Lan Xichen asked.

“No,” Lan Wangji replied before Wen Ruohan could say anything. “He’d kill them for seeing us.”

“Wangji. Don’t be ridiculous. He wouldn’t!”

“The rule against killing is only in the Cloud Recesses. So why not?”

“Because it would still be wrong! Also, he wouldn’t be able to get away with it. Not in the middle of a discussion conference.”

Sad but true.

Wen Ruohan wondered if Lan Qiren had deliberately trained Lan Xichen to be more practical, a necessity in a sect leader, while Lan Wangji, as a younger son, had the luxury of being intransigent, or if the two boys’ characters had simply ended up that way by chance.

He really would need to give Lan Qiren a chance to make something out of his Xu-er and Chao-er. They weren’t bad boys, as far as Wen Ruohan could tell, and naturally, as his sons, he was proud of them, but just as obviously he wanted them to be outstanding adults, befitting the dignity of his bloodline. And even he could tell that the present difference between his Chao-er and Lan Xichen, or even Lan Wangji, was quite wide…

“He’d probably just hit them really hard on the head instead,” Lan Xichen concluded. “At most.”

“Mm. That would work.”

Very cute.

There was no point in telling the boys that Wen Ruohan was both so powerful that he could easily sense and avoid anyone coming their way and also a master of arrays, including those that were more than capable of hiding two children. It would be much funnier if he told Lan Qiren later about how they had plotted for him to incapacitate any enemy that came across their path. Lan Qiren would make such a face…

Ah, and just as he thought of him, Wen Ruohan turned a corner and there was the man himself, standing right outside the entrance to their rooms. He was unmistakable in his white-and-red robes and Lan sect forehead ribbon, his back straight and his face turned away from where Wen Ruohan was standing.

He was not alone.

He was talking with a woman – or perhaps more accurately, a woman was talking to him. She was tall for a woman, dressed in clothing of a rogue cultivator with no clan insignia, though there was a horsetail whip tucked into her belt alongside her sword. She moved one of her hands as she spoke, almost as though she were signing what she was saying.

The nails of the hand she was waving around were lacquered a very dark red, and very sharp. Not just the ones for playing guqin, either, but all five. Her other hand –

Her other hand was wrapped around Lan Qiren’s wrist.

And Lan Qiren was letting her.

Wen Ruohan stopped, knowing that the two boys were too small to see as far as he did, and glanced around – ah, there was another set of rooms here. Probably one of his subordinate sects, since no one else would agree to be placed so close to his Qishan Wen. The entryway was locked, but he forced it easily with a palm and held it open for the children.

“Your uncle is not far,” he told them, observing the way their faces both took on a hungry cast, as if they could think of nothing that they longed for more than the sight of Lan Qiren. “But he is not alone. Wait here until you hear me call.”

They went in obediently, although Lan Wangji had to put his clenched fist to his mouth and bite it in order to motivate himself to do so – he clearly wanted more than anything to run straight to his beloved uncle, as if simply being in his presence would cure all previous ills.

Ah, the stupidity of youth. Was I ever that young?

Perhaps once. He’d learned better quickly enough – betrayal had a way of doing that.

He didn’t bother applying another privacy talisman, knowing that the flare of spiritual energy would be enough to draw the attention of other cultivators, particularly one as sharp as Lan Qiren. The children would be fine without it, and if they weren’t…well, that wasn’t really his concern, in the end. What did he care?

They were just Lan Qiren’s nephews, not his.

Moreover, Wen Ruohan wanted to maintain the element of surprise. He wanted to see Lan Qiren’s face when he tried to explain what exactly he was doing, as if he’d completely forgotten that he’d written Do not give your wife reason to doubt your fidelity with his own hand on his own list of personal rules on how to be a good and worthy husband. Rules he was meant to follow.

Had that one been included as a trick? It only said “do not give reason to doubt” – could that be the loophole, that it focused more on Wen Ruohan’s doubt than Lan Qiren’s own fidelity…?

“I am fairly certain that cannot be accurate,” Lan Qiren was saying as Wen Ruohan stalked closer. He sounded somewhere between appalled and resigned, as far as Wen Ruohan could tell; it was sometimes difficult to determine given his general inclination towards monotone. “Why in the world – no, on second thought, please do not explain. I have no desire to hear any more.”

“Don’t give up on learning,” the woman said, her voice surprisingly deep, lively and cheerful. Was this the type Lan Qiren liked? She had a certain wild beauty about her, barely tamed, and even her hair was set in something that was neither the style of a maiden nor that of a married woman, more like that of a man at leisure. She was powerful, much more so than he would have expected of a woman her age. Nowhere near Wen Ruohan’s own strength, but he supposed that meant that at least Lan Qiren’s taste in partners had that much in common. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten your family rules so quickly after marriage. Your memory isn’t supposed to be one of the things you give up when you make your marriage vows – you should pick something less necessary. Like freedom, or blood.”

Wen Ruohan paused. What?

“I…do not think you are supposed to give up your blood,” Lan Qiren said slowly, although he was oddly hesitant. Possibly he was simply wary of upsetting an obviously crazy person. “Or that such a thing is – possible.”

“You’ve been talking with the wrong people, then,” the woman said, brisk but cheerful. “Or thinking too narrowly, which you have a bad tendency to do. You and all the other Lan, always thinking straight! You should look around more – to look down more. Being in the Wen sect will be good for you. It’ll broaden your horizons.”

Then she giggled.

“Get it?” she said. “Horizons?”

Lan Qiren was visibly staring at her. Maybe she really was crazy. Maybe she’d been the one to grab onto him, and he’d only refused to shake her off because he feared what she might do.

“…no,” he said. “I do not ‘get it’. At all.”

“I think it’s especially apt now that you’re married! If there’s one thing I’ve found about getting married, it’s that it means you spend a lot more time being horizontal – ”

“Cangse Sanren!” Lan Qiren shouted, having clearly ‘gotten it’ this time.

Wen Ruohan’s eyebrows arched up immediately. He knew that name: Cangse Sanren was the immortal Baoshan Sanren’s disciple, who had descended from the celestial mountain. It would certainly explain how powerful she was, the spiritual energy coiled within her and glowing with strength.

Wen Ruohan had seen her once before, shortly after her descent from the immortal’s mountain. He’d been as curious as the rest of them, possibly more so given his own personal quest for immortality, but he hadn’t managed to make many inroads – she’d been quite fiercely protected by Jiang Fengmian at the time, the young man nominating himself to act as her escort and guardian as she traveled through the cultivation world to visit various sects. He’d been right to be so protective, of course, since at the time, it seemed as though half the world had been in love with her. It was no wonder Wen Ruohan hadn’t recognized her; it had been quite a few years since then, and she was no longer the young girl she had once been. He’d heard that she’d become a rogue cultivator after marrying Jiang Fengmian’s servant rather than the man himself – perhaps that was why she was here to visit him during the discussion conference, when the publicity would help quell the inevitability of gossip, rather than in private.

If Wen Ruohan recalled correctly, Lan Qiren had been acquainted with her back in their youth as well; they were of an age with each other, and would have been peers. She had spent a summer in the Cloud Recesses. In fact, from what Wen Ruohan had heard, while Lan Qiren had not been one of the many suitors that had proposed marriage to her, he was said to have liked her a great deal…

Wen Ruohan’s anger, which had been temporarily dampened by confusion, rekindled.

“I suspect the joke may relate to me,” he said as he came up to them, voice intentionally chilly, reflecting his displeasure. Oddly enough, Lan Qiren didn’t jump or try to hide away from him, which meant that he was either a better actor than Wen Ruohan had assumed or perhaps that he genuinely possessed no feelings of guilt. “The midday sun faces no horizon and looks down upon all the earth.”

“That’s the one,” Cangse Sanren said agreeably. She didn’t seem bothered by his presence either, and rudely pointed to him with those sharp red nails of hers – though interestingly now that he was close by, he couldn’t smell any lacquer or powdered herbs on them. Surely they weren’t that color naturally…? “That’s the joke. But also the Wen sect are all a bunch of arrogant – ”

“Cangse Sanren,” Lan Qiren hissed. “Do not use vulgar language!”

“I was going to say surgeons!” Cangse Sanren turned to look at Wen Ruohan, fixing him with an unexpected glare. “You’ve got medical skills, don’t you? You took long enough to get here. Fix him.”

She nodded at Lan Qiren.

Wen Ruohan frowned and turned to follow her gaze to Lan Qiren – who looked awful, now that he was actually looking at him. His lips were thin, pressed tight from tension, and all the skin of his face unusually pale, his lips unusually red. There was a smear of blood at the corner of his mouth that hadn’t been wiped off properly, and a matching stain on his sleeve.

He’d been coughing up blood.

“Didn’t you go to feed ducks?” Wen Ruohan asked, the chill that had filled him abruptly melting away in the heat of his irritation. He grabbed Lan Qiren’s other wrist to check his pulse – weak, miserable, distressed – and immediately started transferring over spiritual energy to stabilize him. As Cangse Sanren had been doing through his other wrist, he could now see. “How did you manage to get into a state like this? Did a particularly violent goose break one of your sect rules?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Lan Qiren said, equally irritated. Wen Ruohan was pleased to note that he immediately shook off Cangse Sanren’s hand as soon as he was in possession of superior assistance. “It seems that I am too regular with my habits. My brother was waiting for me there.”

Wen Ruohan’s eyes narrowed.

He’d known, of course, that Qingheng-jun wouldn’t take well to seeing Lan Qiren well and whole and intact – that had been part of the fun he’d been expected – but he hadn’t anticipated that the man would actually take action against Lan Qiren. He knew he hated him, of course, he’d based his entire strategy in making the marriage offer to Qingheng-jun on that fact. But even putting aside the taboo of injuring your own blood kin, surely the man didn’t hate his own brother enough to waste the benefits he’d managed to use Lan Qiren to obtain for his sect, and certainly particularly not before he’d actually had the chance to seize them…? After all, Qingheng-jun was a sect leader, however long he had lapsed in the position, and for a sect leader, the sect always came first.

But if, despite all that, Qingheng-jun had still raised his hand against someone wearing Wen Ruohan's colors –

"He didn't do anything to me," Lan Qiren added sourly, presumably picking up on Wen Ruohan's murderous expression. "I did it to myself."

"To yourself?" Cangse Sanren echoed. She sounded suitably skeptical. "How, exactly? Walked into a post hard enough to cause internal injuries, did you?"

"I really did walk into a post that time," Lan Qiren informed her, confirming Wen Ruohan’s sudden seething suspicion that it had been a reference to some shared past event. "But no. Nothing so crude. He baited me with words, not even objectionable words, and I fell for it. I allowed him to get to me to such a point that I grew unbearably angry – to the point that I nearly died of rage like…like some sort of Nie!"

Wen Ruohan choked. That might be the rudest thing he’d ever heard Lan Qiren say, scornful and definitely violating the rules against sneering and contempt.

(Wen Ruohan was such a bad influence on Lan Qiren. He gloried in it.)

“I don’t think we can go that far,” Cangse Sanren said, unmoved. Presumably she didn’t realize what a momentous event Lan Qiren coming anywhere near the vicinity of a pejorative was. “I’m no doctor, I’ve got no medical skills, but I’m pretty sure your current state can’t be diagnosed as ‘dying’.”

Lan Qiren glanced warily at Wen Ruohan.

“It’s not,” Wen Ruohan confirmed with a scoff. “You’re hardier than you think you are.”

It was that pure and shining golden core of his again, keeping him stable and helping him swiftly recover his equilibrium. Absent some truly tremendous trauma, some deeply intimate betrayal, Lan Qiren would be a hard man to break.

“See?” Cangse Sanren said haughtily. “Nothing but exaggeration. You’re worse than my son, and he’ll complain just to hear the sound of his own voice.”

“I recall hearing that you have a son,” Lan Qiren said. “Around the same age as my younger nephew, I believe? I never had the chance to offer you and Wei Changze my congratulations.”

Wen Ruohan glanced at him, wondering if that was sarcasm or jealousy, but he seemed genuine.

“My news is old news,” Cangse Sanren said dismissively, waving a hand. “Yours, on the other hand, is far more interesting. Why are you wearing Qishan Wen’s suns?”

“Yes, Lan Qiren,” Wen Ruohan drawled. “Why don’t you introduce us?”

Lan Qiren blanched, clearly realizing how rude he’d been. For her part, Cangse Sanren laughed at him and made a gesture that appeared to be mimicking stroking a fake beard, intoning, “No improper behavior” in a deliberately exaggerated manner.

“Sect Leader Wen, Cangse Sanren, disciple of the immortal Baoshan Sanren,” Lan Qiren said stiffly, not paying her any attention. It was near enough to his usual behavior that it was hard to tell whether he felt anything more for her than others, but then it would, wouldn’t it? “Cangse Sanren, Qishan Wen sect’s Sect Leader Wen, Wen Ruohan. We were married a few months ago.”

“You got married? To him?” Cangse Sanren grinned widely, showing off some rather sharp tiger teeth. “Wow, Qiren-gege, who would’ve thought you’d like – ”

“If you insult my wife, this conversation is over,” Lan Qiren snapped, causing both Cangse Sanren and Wen Ruohan’s eyebrows to jump up in surprise.

“I wasn’t going to,” she said primly, obviously lying, but then she smirked. “Is that why you were asking about a wife’s duties?”

“No!” Lan Qiren exclaimed, abruptly flushing red. That was good, it meant he had enough blood to spare for his face now. “I was merely – a suggestion had been raised earlier, and I found myself unprepared – I mean, I know they manage the household, but – and – I was only making conversation! And it’s not as if you had anything useful to say, anyway!”

Wen Ruohan felt his lips twisting involuntarily up in amusement as Cangse Sanren outright guffawed.

“Of course what I said wasn’t useful,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You were coughing up blood. I would have said anything that kept you talking, or else otherwise I’d be worried that you’d faint.”

Lan Qiren spluttered, but Wen Ruohan was already nodding in approval. Judging the moment right, given Lan Qiren’s improved appearance, he took the opportunity to stop transferring energy, though he kept his fingers curled loosely around Lan Qiren’s wrist.

Perhaps he really had misjudged the situation between the two of them, he reflected, his mood vastly improved for whatever reason. Lan Qiren was precisely the sort of tactless person that would on first meeting ask an old acquaintance for advice on his personal life, provided that he perceived them to be a potential expert on the subject, and for her part Cangse Sanren seemed a practical sort of person, familiar enough with basic first aid to realize that the damage would have been worse if Lan Qiren had lost consciousness or kept stewing.

“What did your brother say to you to get such a result?” he asked. Not that he couldn’t guess, but he wanted to see a little of the rage that Qingheng-jun had inspired.

Sure enough, Lan Qiren’s face soured, his lips pressing together once more and his eyes narrowing. “Nothing that anyone could object to,” he said. “He updated me about – about my nephews.”

Wen Ruohan nodded, feeling his own smirk start to grow. He noticed Cangse Sanren’s eyes flickering between them, frowning, but he ignored her. This was going to be fun.

“There is no point in dwelling on it,” Lan Qiren said, clearly trying to convince himself more than anyone else. “There is nothing I can do about it, far away as I now am. And after all, they are his sons.”

The way he said it sounded not unlike a man stabbing a knife repeatedly into his own chest.

“On that subject,” Wen Ruohan began, figuring now would be the best time to strike, “regarding your nephews – ”

Sadly, he never had the chance to finish his sentence: it seemed that he had delayed too long, outlasting childish patience. A small quavering voice interrupted him, shouting, “Shufu!”

Lan Qiren nearly jumped out of his own skin, then twisted around, gaping as two small bundles of white hurried down the floating walkway towards him. “Wangji…? Wangji! Xichen!”

He fell to his knees with an almost audible crack, holding out his arms, and the two boys rushed into them, both children sobbing so hard that they seemed scarcely able to breathe, let alone talk.

Emotional, just as Wen Ruohan predicted.

It was a pity that they’d come out so early, Wen Ruohan thought to himself, since he probably could have extracted some fun concessions from Lan Qiren before revealing them. Still, he didn’t mind it as much as he might have otherwise. Lan Qiren would know that it was his doing regardless, and he would find a way to make it up to him. He was good for that, dependable.

“You seem improved from when I last laid eyes on you, Sect Leader Wen,” Cangse Sanren commented, crossing to his side of the walkway and idly pulling herself up to perch on the railing like some sort of monkey or bird. “Less maliciously destructive, which I assume means less bored. Could it be that married life suits you?”

“My wives would likely dispute that claim,” Wen Ruohan said dryly. “At present I have two which preceded him, and neither reported any such improvement.”

“Ah, but now you have Lan Qiren. That’s different!” She grinned and tapped the side of her nose knowingly. “They say one mountain can’t hold two tigers, but that doesn’t apply if they’re one family. Put a tiger in a cage with nothing to do, they’ll destroy everything and then themselves…sometimes you need two.”

Wen Ruohan shrugged, not disagreeing. Lan Qiren was certainly far more tiger than either of his wives had ever been – and he himself was indeed a great deal less bored.

“It’s good, though,” Cangse Sanren chattered. “I haven’t spent any serious time with Lan Qiren since I was sixteen, and I’ve been meaning to make that up…anyway, it means I can stop avoiding the Nightless City, and just in time. I was going to go over to Xixiang to check out the rumors about that old mine, but after that, my little A-Ying has been begging me to take him somewhere new.”

“Naturally he has, if he hasn’t been to my Nightless City,” Wen Ruohan said, practically on automatic. “You will find nowhere finer in the cultivation world…”

He paused, the idea coming to him in a beautiful burst of light. No one ever paid attention to rogue cultivators, who came and went wherever they willed – and Baoshan Sanren’s wild disciple more than most.

“Cangse Sanren,” he said, and she turned to look at him, a questioning expression on her face. “Your son is about the same age as Lan Qiren’s youngest nephew, is he not?”

At her nod, he smiled with teeth.

“I think it is an excellent idea for you to bring him to visit my Nightless City once you are done with your next night-hunt,” he said. “And, perhaps, you could see your way to also bringing along a few small traveling companions…?”

Cangse Sanren’s eyes followed Wen Ruohan’s to look at the two young Lan boys, talking excitedly with Lan Qiren, all three of them smiling with faces wet with tears.

Her answering smile had just as many teeth as his.

[angelphonia]

Okay, I've been binge watching the Stop!!Hibari-kun anime and I've got some thoughts I need to let out.

Firstly, watching the anime makes me appreciate the Manga a hundred times more. Sure, the Manga had its problems, mostly the racism and the casual homophobia jokes and transphobia, but you could save stuff from it, like that even though there were homophobic jokes there was a gay woman who wasn't mocked because of her attraction to Hibari, or that despite the transphobia Hibari was never outright shown as being wrong by being herself.

Now, the anime does a lot of things I dislike. Firstly they make Kosaku's reactions be way more negative than in the Manga. While yes, he reacts negatively he is also seen blushing a lot when Hibari flirts with him. I may need to read the Manga for fourth time, but I also don't remember Kosaku constantly mentioning Hibari is a "guy" everytime she did anything.

There is a lot much more racism in the anime. There were problems with this in the Manga but it just feels way more present in the anime.

This one doesn't bother me too much, but I'm pretty sure the chapters do not align with the Manga, but again, this doesn't bother me.

I also noticed way more incest jokes, I don't care about them. Also the Seiji chapter where he falls in love with one of Hibari's bullies when she's 15 and Seiji is around 25/30 is very questionable. Again, this is a work of fiction so while I was like "why isn't this seen wrong?" I wasn't really uncomfortable. I do gotta say that in the Manga when the Japanese mob grown manchild son asked for Hibari's hand in marriage, it was inmediatly said he was 28 and Hibari was super taken aback. This doesn't happen in the anime, his age is NEVER mentioned. I can't quite remember, but I am sure Hibari also doesn't go on a date with him.

Oof, but here we go with the thing that has bothered me the most. The REALLY bad erasure of Jun's story. They absolutely took away her lesbianism, making it seem as if she was only interested in Hibari because of her volleyball abilities. They also totally changed the episode and made Jun be deeply ashamed of her family, that while in the Manga she was a bit embarassed it wasn't a main focus. In the Anime it was, even making her leave the volleyball club, which is crazy to me. Oh, and I'm NOT forgetting that they made Hibari enjoy getting gropped in the bus, when in the Manga she was clearly just disgusted by it.

I haven't finished it yet, may edit this post with more complains. Positive things? I'm sure Seiji and Sabu didn't have names in the Manga, so now they have identities. They try and give them more backstory, even adding an eye scar to Sabu, which was appreciated. Hibari's voice is absolutely the cutest. I liked the wrestling episode. Oh, the episode with Hibari's mother and her father was a delight, she didn't express this much emotion in the Manga, so actually seeing how she feels was great, and her end interaction with her father was adorable.

Can't remember anything more rn. As a side note, I've developed a little crush on Sabu and I'm gonna draw him. Hope you enjoyed my rambling!

EDIT:

Remembered the Honda thing. In the Anime he almost reaches his 1000 girls flirted with, but with one it is half a girl. In the Manga this was because he looked at a 5 year old by accident and she fell in love, while in the anime they made it so he flirted with a new half. For those who don't know, new half is an old Japanese term for transgender people, mostly trans women who were post op. In the subtitles this is translated as crossdresser, which I don't like. This isn't the first time this term is mentioned, in the spartan son episode, he calls Hibari a new half, which Kosaku tells him to not do. In another chapter there is a trans woman, and she refers to herself as New half, which again is incorrectly translated to crossdresser for some reason.

Even then there was some sort of minimal knowledge of trans people, not only with this, but in the Manga the addition of Genkijirou being a canonical trans man in hormones. Eguchi was aware and while his first idea was to make Hibari a feminine man, it obviously end up with her being a trans woman.

[veliseraptor]

Inspired by 'it's not love, it's obsession': what are your thoughts on the parallels between Luo Binghe and Xue Yang?

oooh this is a fascinating one.

One of my favorite things about looking at MXTX's books as a corpus of work taken together is the ways in which you can see her evolving as a writer. I don't necessarily mean stylistically (I don't feel like I can speak to that, since I can't read the original), or even necessarily narratively (though I do think TGCF is the strongest narratively, for all it's probably longer than it needs to be). What I really mean is how you can see her coming back to the same themes over and over and exploring them with variations and shades of difference. There are very clearly things that are MXTX Concerns, as it were, that she revisits and echoes and plays with in all of her works; questions about justice and the cycle of violence are one big one that I've thought a lot about personally.

And when you're looking at the three books together, there are places where you can draw throughlines - for instance, from Yi City > Black Water Arc, or from (arguably) Xiao Xingchen > Xie Lian. In light of the trivia that Yi City comes at least in part from an older, abandoned story MXTX worked on when she was younger (per an interview with her, I believe), I feel like you can draw the line from Xue Yang > Luo Binghe as far as some of the tropes being played with. Xue Yang is (in some ways) an echo of Luo Binghe is an echo of an older story that had a character who may or may not have been named Xue Yang.

In obvious ways Xue Yang takes a different position in the story he ends up in than Luo Binghe does in his (he ends up an antagonist), but while one could look at the Song Lan/Xue Yang/Xiao Xingchen trio and posit Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan as the intended pair of whatever original story they came from, that doesn't, in my eyes, fit with the other relationships MXTX chooses to write. Xue Yang lives at a nexus of a lot of the things MXTX pokes at with Luo Binghe and, yes, Wei Wuxian, but also (to a lesser degree) Hua Cheng - the legacy of childhood violence, the importance and weight of small kindnesses in changing a person, the probing at the idea of people as irredeemable or incapable of change (and finding it lacking).

He comes from a disadvantaged, marginalized background (as do the other two protagonists) and, despite perpetrating atrocious acts of violence (Wei Wuxian actually, Luo Binghe less so in SVSSS canon but explicitly so in PIDW, which is the way Shen Qingqiu relates to him initially), kind treatment from a single person having a deep impact on their behavior. There's also the quality of deep, obsessive devotion, notably beyond death, that Xue Yang shares with Luo Binghe, Lan Wangji, and Hua Cheng (portrayed in the latter two cases as clearly and explicitly romantic and to be valued). Xue Yang doesn't occupy a protagonist role in MDZS (obviously), but he has some of those thematic qualities that tend to pop up in MXTX protagonists and/or love interests.

(Hua Cheng might stand out here, and he is different, certainly, but I would point to the very, very early identification of him as inherently ill-fortuned and bad to be around. Xue Yang has TGCF echoes, I'd say, to a lesser extent in Hua Cheng than in Jun Wu, but I don't think the echoes are absent from Hua Cheng, either.).

This positions Xue Yang, potentially, as (if we're using a crude metaphor) a little bit the Luo Binghe to Xiao Xingchen's Shen Qingqiu, with Song Lan potentially occupying more of a Yue Qingyuan place (but of course that's just speculation and we'll probably never know).

This is a lot of tl;dr but I guess the main thing I'm thinking about here is that while it's I think shallow to describe Xue Yang as a proto-Luo Binghe (or rather, ur-Xue Yang from that older story as), I think it's fair to see that relationship between the two characters as part and parcel of MXTX's revisiting, revising, and reconsidering the same themes over and over again in her work - in the same way, I think, that within the same story Wei Wuxian's parallels with both Xue Yang illustrate that same impulse. (And not, to be clear, as a simple "this one good, this one bad" morality tale; what MXTX is doing with her parallels is, I daresay, more interesting than that.)

anyway, there you have it. I feel like this went maybe a little left of what you were asking (maybe you wanted me to talk about the actual parallels in terms of character?) but this is a sub-category of that subject I personally find very fun to think about.

[frogizz]

SVSSS End of Novel Spoilers

I like how the SVSSS villain was the Old Palace Master.

He didn't show up as much but he played a very important role. Because Shen Qingqiu didn't play as the villain anymore, certain events still needed to happen that Luo Bingmei wasn't driven to do, so there needed to be additional characters and extra context to make those events happen.

(Of course those characters existed beforehand, just in PIDW they never went into the details of the Tianlang-Jun and Zhuzhi-Lang wasn't even originally a character if I'm remembering correctly).

Luo Bingmei didn't have the motivation to combine the demon and human realm because he was too busy worrying about Shen Qingqiu. So, the system added Tianlang-Jun (and Zhuzhi-Lang) to fill the role of bringing those two together. He had a motivation from the very beginning, and it all started from the very origin of Luo Binghe. How the Old Palace Master was the one that ruined a pretty innocent love story.

Of course it was under the orders of the Old Palace Master that Su Xiyan and Tianlang-Jun just so happen to meet, but it was the jealousy and creepiness of that man that ruined their relationship. Su Xiyan had real feelings for Tianlang-Jun, she didn't want to have him hurt or anything. Tianlang-Jun had feelings for Su Xiyan, it wasn't like he was manipulating her into anything, he just like human culture (he's weird and a demon lord but it isn't like he was actually plotting to take over the world).

With the assumptions of the Old Palace Master and his prejudiced views on demons, he forced Su Xiyan into a "choice". Tianlang-Jun didn't know that. He lost someone he loved, albeit I'm not sure how much he loved Su Xiyan as a person, he could've also loved her more because she's just human and he is very interested in human culture. But, regardless, he still loved her. They both actually loved each other. The Old Palace Master ruined it. Su Xiyan could've had Luo Binghe and raise him with Tianlang-Jun but she couldn't.

Besides all of the stuff that happened in the past, the actions of the Old Palace Master still had effect after he died. Once what he did was exposed to Luo Bingmei and he found out who his real parents were and what happened, it drove the process of merging the two realms to be more chaotic due to the corruption of Xin Mo.

Like, the Old Palace Master is the actual villain here is what I'm saying? It wasn't exactly Tianlang-Jun, it couldn't be Shen Qingqiu anymore either. I like how this story has sides that don't explicitly include a hero or a villain (especially since we are in the perspective of our protagonist playing as the villainous character turned love interest). But the true driving force of everything happening is the Old Palace Master's actions.

The creep's obsession with Su Xiyan really messed up big time, didn't it?

(I haven't gotten to the extra where Tianlang-Jun and Su Xiyan go on a date with the iconic third wheel Zhuzhi-Lang yet, but I'll share whatever pops into my head when I get there)

[sunskate]

former US ice dancer Morgan Matthews has been writing about fs on substack. she wrote a post about trying to become a judge, but it's not yet up on her page somehow - but really interesting for how she says low level judges were really unfriendly and resistant to her trying to become one of them. that the gatekeeping and territory guarding were rough to encounter and that at that level, their knowledge of skating wasn't great. that there are a lot of people in the sport with a deep knowledge of it, and their continued participation is necessary to ensure continuity in the sport. but that there are barriers to them becoming judges, even though they could do a lot of good on panels

I tried to become a judge and it sucked...

Morgan Matthews

Jun 17

Figure skating judges are nearly the opposite of the sequin clad athletes that they judge. It’s their duty to remain subdued, evaluative, and most importantly impartial. As a child, I recall only judges that embodied a certain archetype: grey hair, enormous puffy coat, glasses and a clip board. As my competitive career evolved I saw a bit more of the humanness behind the silent figures that anonymously shape our sport. I came to understand where some of the judges came from and what compelled them to volunteer endless hours of their time to the sport of figure skating only to remain a name without a face in the annals of figure skating history. But never in all of those experiences did I consider becoming a judge myself. That is, until I went down a rabbit hole sifting through detailed competition results and realized that the judges listed on those results were largely the same as the judges who judged me, and they were not spring chickens in my day so that meant they must be well beyond retirement age. This realization combined with a look at the obituaries page in Figure Skating magazine made me realize, with fear, that the figure skating judge, the tireless volunteer who dedicates their time to the sport of figure skating for nothing more than front row seats and a bit of sway over the results, might just be a dying breed.

Who will be the next generation of figure skating judges? Will they be parents, fans, or former figure skaters? I decided that the latter category must step up and take their place on the judges stand. The sport would be best served if judges had experience being on the other side of the boards. And so, I decided that I would be among the first to volunteer.

In the spring of 2019 I googled, “How to become a figure skating judge.” One would think that after years of competitive experience I would have a plethora of resources available to me if I were to decide to become a figure skating judge. How else will the sport survive if figure skaters aren’t encouraged to become judges themselves one day? But I did not have those resources. As it turns out, the figure skating world is often quite hostile to its athletes once they retire. A former figure skater who wants to become a coach is met with fierce, sometimes bordering on unprofessional competition from existing coaches who are afraid of losing their students. And judges are so silently protective of their slice of the sport that opportunities to join their ranks are not well advertised. So I turned to my friend google and found some online forms that eventually directed me to a “monitor.”

I was assigned a monitor who would guide me through the process of becoming a judge. Monitors are essentially super volunteers who not only volunteer their time to act as figure skating judges but also agree to mentor new judges. The mentor that I was assigned was a local judge who mostly judged tests but also mentored several other beginner judges in the area. She was a calm, mild mannered individual who answered my questions with efficiency if without enthusiasm. I felt equipped but not encouraged to pursue my training as a judge.

For my first trial judging session, I showed up at a local ice rink and made a beeline for the judges room. I still knew a lot of the figure skaters and coaches at that ice rink and didn’t think it would look right for a prospective judge to be found mingling with the talent. I opened the door of the judges room to find a room full of food and unfriendly faces. I felt like a puppy who had just been brought home for the first time to a household full of old cats. If the judges’ expressions could speak they would say, “You will be tolerated but you are not welcome.” The kind, doting test chair then brought me a clipboard and showed me the latest schedule. I am nothing if not an eager student and had brought my own clipboard and prefilled test papers so I didn’t need much help but appreciated her warmth. I tried to be as gracious and humble to everyone as I could be. My presence was tolerated and I maintained a cool, silent composure until it was time to get sign off on my judging papers from the judge in charge of each test.

I’m going to break with my efforts to be humble in all I say and do for a moment to say that I am confident that I know more about figure skating than your average low level test judge. I am happy to hear other perspectives on my candor or the content I produce, but I am not willing to bury the knowledge I gained from decades of hard earned experience as a competitive figure skater. My parents spent close to a million dollars for me to gain that knowledge, more than most people spend on an education in other fields, while most test judges have very little on-ice experience and have learned most of what they know about figure skating from their place on the bleachers. So when I was directed to hand my test papers over to the judge in charge to receive their input on my comments and scores, I was happy to receive feedback on the tone and content of my comments, but I was not happy to be told that my ruling was flat out wrong. Furthermore, when I went back to the judges room afterwards and heard the judges loudly gossiping about the performance of the skaters, I could not help but notice that both their criticisms and commendations of the skaters displayed a deep misunderstanding of the sport. And I took it upon me to interject and correct them on a few points. That is when the old cats showed their claws.

Many figure skating judges posses a masterful understanding of figure skating technique and artistry. However, the low level test judges that act as gatekeepers for new judges do not, in my experience, have a solid background of figure skating to stand on when they make their judgements. In figure skating there are many, many people with a deep knowledge of the sport, but very, very few of them become figure skating judges. After my experience with trying to become a judge I am not surprised by that.

I was not swayed away from my endeavor after my first trial judging experience. I kept going to test sessions and racking up experience. I learned to be quiet and accept whatever comments the judges handed me. I learned to be gracious. I probably would have kept at it if the COVID-19 pandemic hadn’t shut everything down. I then had a baby, which made it hard to be away from home at a test session for several hours. I’ve thought about going back to it a few times since I still think it’s important for former figure skaters to become the next generation of judges, but I’m not sure that’s possible since I’ve been writing so candidly about my experiences as a figure skater on this blog.

Being candid does not befit the current figure skating judge archetype. Outside of the judges room, judges are expected to be quiet, subdued, and straight faced—qualities opposite of those celebrated in figure skaters. Being on the judges’ side of the boards is a completely opposite experience compared with performing on the ice, where showmanship and spark are awarded. Making the transition from figure skater to figure skating judge therefore requires a complete transformation of character that few have managed to succeed in. I can think of a few judges in U.S. ice dance who have managed this transformation: Shawn Rettstatt, Elyse Matsumoto, and Julia Rey. These judges show that the transition is possible. However, look at almost any judges panel and you will see very few former elite figure skaters.

Of course, money does come into play when considering the dearth of former figure skaters choosing to become judges. Elite figure skaters often go into coaching once they retire. And one cannot be both a coach and a judge (I am not talking about tech specialists here, only judges). So only figure skaters who go onto other career paths can become judges. This reinforces what I have written about in previous blogs concerning the need for figure skaters to stay on track with their education. From this angle you can see that this is not just important for figure skaters themselves but also for the continuation of the sport. If we want new blood on the judges stand, if we don’t want to see all the decent judges out there die off until all we’re left with is skating fans turned rudimentarily equipped competition judges, then we need to ensure that figure skaters don’t get burned out and that they are well equipped to transition into other careers outside of figure skating.

While I am not always the most subdued type, I mostly fit the bill regarding the kind of former skater who should become a figure skating judge. I have, or have had prior to becoming a full time mom, a career outside of figure skating. I’m good at math. I wear big glasses and have a big puffy coat. And most importantly, I am compelled to volunteer my time to give back to the sport (I am doing exactly that through this unpaid blog and my other writing after all). But my experience trial judging at test sessions reminded me too much of the “sit down, shut up, and wait your turn” kind of attitude that always made me want to smash through barriers as a figure skater.

If we want this sport to survive then we need to give athletes more opportunities to get involved in the sport outside of becoming a coach. We need to stop burning out figure skaters so they can be the next generation of fans. We need to make them feel welcome on the other side of the boards. When they want to become judges, technical specialists, referees, club officials, and any other volunteer or low paid job that must be performed to keep figure skating alive, we need to teach them new skills while respecting their existing knowledge. In a world where women especially are encouraged to stand tall, break barriers, and proudly be themselves, it will not work to make figure skaters and former figure skaters bow their heads and conform in order to go the places they want to in this sport. They will leave and go onto other endeavors as figure skating slowly dies. Change is not an option, it is a necessity to breathe fresh life into and ensure the continuity of this sport we all love.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Andrew Doyle

Published: Jun 4, 2024

Here we go again. The culture war is apparently nothing more than a myth, a fabrication intended to distract the lower orders. It’s like the “bread and circuses” of Ancient Rome, or the Easter Bunny, or Milli Vanilli.

On this week’s episode of Newsnight, the former Tory MP Dehenna Davison was asked whether she welcomed Kemi Badenoch’s recent attempts to clarify the Equality Act in order to ensure that women’s rights to single-sex spaces are protected. “I don’t at all,” she said. “I think regrettably the debate around trans issues right now seems to be used as some kind of political football for this mythical culture war that the Conservative party seems to be fighting.”

That’s a relief. So the disabled women who are smeared as bigots for requesting female carers are simply fantasists? And the female prisoners who are terrified of being accommodated with convicted rapists are just worrying over nothing? And victims of sexual assault being turned away from rape crisis centres because they don’t want to speak to a male counsellor have just imagined the whole thing?

Apparently, yes. Here’s what the Tory Reform Group had to say in a post on X:

“The Conservative Party has to think very carefully about the type of campaign it wants to run, and the longer term impact of stoking culture wars. It is clear that voters are rejecting the politics of division. We must not run on ‘wedge issues’ for a narrow core voter base alone.”

I remain unconvinced that the rights of 51% of the population qualifies as a “wedge issue”.

Of course the culture war doesn’t end with the ongoing erosion of women’s rights. Gay people are being shamed for being attracted to their own sex by the very organisations who were set up to protect their interests. We have men demanding access to lesbian dating apps and speed-dating events. We’ve had gay youth medicalised on the NHS for being same-sex attracted. We have the bullying and harassment of gay men and lesbians in the name of “progress”. And yet in her Newsnight interview, Davison claims that same-sex marriage is one of the Conservative government’s “proudest achievements” while in the same breath dismissing these attacks on gay rights as trivial.  

And what about the ongoing assault on free speech? What of those activists who demand that we should be prosecuted if we do not adopt their language (something that is actually happening in Canada and is likely to come to Ireland with the proposed new “hate speech” laws)? And what about campaigners who now leverage huge influence in all our major institutions attempting to rewrite our history, remove statues and monuments that they find “problematic”, censor books, and criminalise dissent? What about the ideologues in schools who are teaching highly contested theories as fact, from Critical Race Theory via Brighton School Council’s “anti-racist schools strategy” to this week’s revelation that 95% of Scottish schools are allowing pupils to self-identify their gender?

At this point, it’s difficult to believe that anyone genuinely believes that the culture war is “mythical”. There is an abundance of evidence of the antics of culture warriors who seek to reconstruct all the fundamental aspects of our society in order to better align with their ideology. I do make a point of assuming that people are telling the truth, and so the charitable explanation is that Davison and her ilk are simply ignorant of some of the most significant cultural developments over the past decade, from the fallout of the Black Lives Matter protests to the Scottish hate crime bill to the campaigns of harassment against gender-critical feminists. Perhaps she doesn’t read the newspapers. If only someone had written a book that provides a wide-ranging overview of the countless examples of how culture warriors have sought to reshape the world. Oh well…

Of course Davison is not the only political commentator to imply that the rights of women and gay people simply don’t matter. Former Labour strategist Alastair Campbell was quick to jump on to X to offer his contribution:

“I’m sure the world of trade and business will take note that the actual Secretary of State for trade and business has decided that the biggest issue on her agenda on her first big election outing is the weaponisation of trans rights. Anyone might be tempted to think Kemi Badenoch has less interest in the general election than the internal ideological shitshow likely to follow.”

As J. K. Rowling pointed out, Campbell seems to be unaware that Badenoch is also the minister for women and equalities, and so it’s hardly a stretch to suppose that women’s rights and the Equality Act fall within her remit. As Rowling put it: “Thanks once again for highlighting Labour’s complacency and indifference towards the rights of half the electorate.”

The culture war is often misunderstood as a matter of Right vs Left, but the ill-informed comments of Davison and Campbell show that it’s nothing of the kind. As I have pointed out many times, the Conservatives have presided over the worst excesses of the culture war during their time in office. We shouldn’t give them a free pass simply because matters are likely to get a whole lot worse under Labour.

Far from being trivial, these issues could not be more important. If we can’t preserve the rights of women and gay people, how can we claim to be living in a civilised society? And when activists are successfully pressurising governments to force citizens to declare falsehoods, how can we in good conscience remain silent?

The claim that the culture was is a “distraction” is, in itself, a distraction. Yes, other issues are crucial and require our attention. But resisting the creeping authoritarianism of our times should also be a priority. When those in power are not only insisting that 2+2=5, but demanding that we all repeat the lie, we cannot afford to be complacent.

[timingmatters]

As the tomo-chan anime is gaining viewers i need more ppl (those who have read the manga) to talk about how queer coded Gundo’s character is. Like !!!! On god this is not me projecting. You have:

1) decided to date Jun because he closed the gap of physicality with her and Tomo. She wasn’t hanging with Tomo because she couldn’t keep up and decided if Jun was back into their lives maybe she could hang more with Tomo like before.

2) she is so aware she doesn’t and won’t like Jun. never even blushed. She didn’t even hesitate when she thought it. It was just a fact to her that she knew she wouldn’t come to like him (not bc of tomo). BUT she also felt content to have someone that likes her because she didn’t think ppl liked her (and they do bc guys look at her all the time but she doesnt care for them lmao) (this is such a sapphic sentiment lmao especially before coming out).

3) decided to sabotage Tomo and Jun specifically because she realized if Tomo and Jun were together, that gap she feels with Tomo wouldn’t close. She wasn’t jealous or scare of losing Jun, rather her arc was accepting to let go of Tomo and that once she and Jun dated she felt like she couldn’t monopolize Tomo’s time like before.

4) Carol literally says this

5) she actually felt jealous of Carol and Tomo getting close once

6) she never blushed with Jun even if her heart gave a thumb when he called her by the first name (bc no one else had before in a dating context) but she was a blushing mess when doing Cinderella with Tomo.

7) literally even towards they very end she is never interested in any guy. She is only interested in money and tomo (and carol)

That is just on some things, i have so much to say about Gundo and Carol’s relationship bc oh my god they are so gay for each other😭

[lumiidragon]

So I’ve been on a bit of a break which is why I’ve been pretty MIA, so sorry about that!  but I finally got to watch Season 7 of TNR and I can finally put my own review on it~! Please note that this contains spoilers, so if you haven’t seen it yet, stop reading here!

So I’ll start with my season issues before its good points. First off, the dragon secret is out to ICARUS and it was...incredibly lack luster. We had a 1 month time jump and the big reveal of dragons was rather...anti-climatic. I was really expecting a bit more from that, but oh well. Also, in the first episode, we get to finally see nadders, but they’re all hyper aggressive and it’s the only way we get to see them. They don’t show up again. Sad on that one. Next, of course is Thunder’s “alpha”-type thing he did to stop the nadders. I REALLY hope it was just a dominance stance as in “I’m tough and I’m being loud, so back off” and not “Thunder’s becoming the new alpha like Toothless” or else he is going to lose serious character points from me. It’d make literally no sense, especially since he nor his family are obviously alpha’s of all dragons and an alpha status isn’t some unlockable ability, it’s earned.

So the next thing and probably my biggest issue with this (especially those of you who know me will know I was going to have issues with this) BUT THEY KILLED THE FUCKING DEATHGRIPPERS. YES. THEY. KILLED. THEM. The deathgrippers are the ONLY dragons that got this treatment and that is actual bullshit. Oh, and if I hear literally anyone say “BUT THE DEATHRGIPPERS WERE BAD AND EVIL AND BLAH BLAH BLAH, my eyes are literally going to roll into the back of my head so far that I am going to make actual eye contact with the demon that controls the meat puppet that is my body. I don’t want to hear this comment because they are WILD ANIMALS and literally an animal cannot be good or evil please stop pushing that onto the dragons because that is an incredibly toxic and harmful way to view an animal species. So yeah, this alone knocked off a LOT of points from me because there was actually no reason for them to do this.

My 2nd biggest issue is OH MY GOD CAN THUNDER STOP BEING A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS. The whole poison dart episode was the worst and it was so eye rolling that I could hardly enjoy it. We get it, Thunder needs special attention and saved every other episode. Let’s move past it because it’s so boring that it’s starting to hurt his character for me.

My last big issue is that for a season that introduces the Realm of Giants, we...didn’t see the realm??? What was the point of that? We saw hardly any of it and though we got the Octofin and the Shellfire, we didn’t get to see much else. Of course, I didn’t get my bewilderbeast either, so that’s a bummer.

My last petty, but still an issue is that they’re starting to force this Tom and Jun romance. I’m not against there being a romance, especially for these two, but it’s starting to feel more like a “Hey, here’s a main male and female character, so let’s make sure they have apparent crushes on each other for reasons” instead of working up a more believable romance.

As for good points, characters outside of Tom are getting some good development and D’Angelo is quickly rising to my top favorite character. Jun, also being my least and actually disliked character starting out is starting to really build and I actually like her a lot more now. Also, the humor in this series has also gotten a lot better, too. I’m loving it.

I think the BEST points for this season are the villains, however. Actions are starting to have real consequences and are things that can’t be solved in just a single day with a teenager’s big idea. Also Buzzsaw is FINALLY worth having in the series. He’s becoming a much more formidable villain who is doing actual damage and thus making his time in the series much more interesting. The cliffhanger for the series is the best one so far. Sledkin is also becoming a very enjoyable villain instead of just the “shady co-worker”. And Dagur being canon means that RTTE is canon to TNR, so that is AMAZING.

All in all, I give this season a 7/10. It’s shaping up nicely, but the deathgripper deaths and thunder hurt it a lot.

[elderflowergin]

Heya, me again! Thank you for getting into it with me. I finished Hot Stove League, what a fun and learning time. I honestly do not find baseball to be at all interesting but this one made me sit through it, and enjoy learning! I agree about Mr Bark and Mr Kwon here, I think they would have, at some point, loved to pulverize eachother from the face of the earth, but in the end came together for Dreams! And Park EunBin! I adore her so much, too much. AHH, what a delight, how amazing is she!

About JangHyun, I am looking forward to his growth. I think Part 1 was about GilChae's growth and part 2 will be his, I'm looking forward to seeing him unlock all of that trauma from his body and release it. Their parting was so horrible horrible horrible. I'm glad I wasn't online much after watching ep10, just so I could l figure out my own feelings about that ending without the many voices getting into my head.

Anyway, I think he will repent.

I'm so team GilHyun or JangChae that my assessment of both in the last EP is that they are both in the spectrum of the the five stages of grief, him: shock and her, maybe anger or somewhere further along the line. I hope I'm making sense. Because he returned to Joseon with the idea that he and GC will be talking about their future, he said they would when he 'proposed' to her before he left. And GC was probably overwhelmed when she saw him alive after thinking that he was dead for so long.(PS: what a horrific way to realise that you love someone). Maybe after a long time reflecting, he may, may, understand that he was asking far too much(the fact that YeonJun said things that make sense before Janghyun was able to see it says a lot.)

I'm very interested in how GC feels about RyangEum.

Extremely proud of GilChae( very sad that we have to keep emphasising this). I'm looking forward to their conversations in the future. To GilHyun or JangChae.🥂

Dearest Anon, I still don’t know how baseball is played but I’m glad that wasn’t necessary to enjoy the show.

I loved Park Eun-bin so much - she’s so smart and gutsy and hotheaded and full of love for her team. I deeply enjoyed her protecting Baek Seung-soo (and on occasion his one cheap suit) by throwing a shot glass at a player built like a tank. I enjoyed Oh Jung-se’s character very much as well - there’s a wonderful scene where he’s with his cousin who drops his key and waits for Oh Jung-se to pick it up - which of course Oh Jung-se does since this cousin will be his boss someday, and Baek Seung-soo observes this moment from his car. Lovely character work in that single thirty second scene.

Thank you for those amazing observations about Gil-chae and Jang Hyeon - it makes so much sense! I think they are deeply misaligned and I agree with you that they are also in two different stages of grief. I think Gil-chae tries to meet him in the middle, but Jang Hyeon didn’t wish to move at all (perhaps partly because he was in shock, as you pointed out). I hope like you do that he reflects on and regrets how he treated her. If there is one very sore point I have with the show, it is that they made Yeon-jun of all people (!!!) say the right thing to Jang-hyeon.

I think you were completely right to stay mostly offline for the post episode 10 discussions. I read very little and backed out. I think it’s just part of a larger cultural conversation that we tend to give men far more grace and leeway than we offer women. I find it ironic here because the characters literally live in an era where men had a lot of leeway to begin with and women had very little (and the show takes pains to address this too!), so it’s a real choice to place even higher expectations and tighter leeway on the women and doing the opposite for men. But this has been going on longer than the internet has been alive, I guess.

Anon, thank you so much for coming by and making these very cool and wise observations. As you progress in your Namgoong Min deep dive, please always know you can come hang out here, link arms virtually and tell me (and us!) all the Namgoong Min feelings. Here’s a hug if you’ll have one! 🫂

[zalrb]

The Summer I Turned Pretty 1x06 Review -- Why is this show so bad with details?

The funniest thing about Belly's dream about waking up in bed with Jere and then Conrad is that it's premature. It's the dream she should have when Conrad actually professes that he wants to be with her because he hasn't actually said that yet, he's just said I think about you but I can't be with you.

I haven't actually gotten to the switch from Jere to Conrad yet but if it's Conrad kisses her and she's like YEP OK I'ma go tell Jere, I feel like it would be less terrible if there was a pause and she'd have something like this dream before making a choice.

"Even my dream life is complicated" you could just not make out with two brothers.

"You've always been so good to her" -- haven't seen it. "Remember when you were the only one who would let you tag after her and the boys?" haven't seen that either, just one dance flashback.

Conrad was the only one who let her tag after them but Jeremiah and her are the best friends? This is also the issue, I'm not sure how her and Jere differ from her and Conrad and vice versa, they all seem to do the same things and react to each other in the same ways.

Like, in the drama True Beauty, I remember finding it to be an interesting love triangle in the way it was all pretty level because to me, Suho and Seojun were both doing the same sort of things for Jukyung so rather than one being better than the other, it was really a matter of who you liked her with more (although it was clear t ome that it was always going to be Suho for Jukyung) but even though they were doing the same sort of things for her, their contexts were different which made their dynamics different i.e.:

their affection manifests itself in ways that come down to preference

rather than which one is better

and that’s where the tags lose me.

Because certainly, Seo-jun and Ju-kyung have really sweet moments, I loved this moment

but I don’t think that’s inherently better than Suho keeping her secret and then ensuring that she had time in the bathroom for herself to wipe the cake off her face

so Seo-jun and Ju-kyung bicker and they’re quirky and they communicate through teasing, I totally get that, I totally love dynamics like that and I do really like this one

on the other hand, Suho and Ju-kyung, their relationship is rooted in seeing the other at one of their most vulnerable moments from the jump (no pun intended) -- for context Ju-kyung was severely bullied and she went to the rooftop where one of Suho's best friends, who was also Seo-jun's best friend, committed suicide

and then slowly peeling away different layers to access different aspects of their vulnerabilities

and embracing their insecurities

and that's my problem here, what is unique about each of her relationships to these brothers that when they do something for her or with her that is relatively the same those actions are contextualized by what their individual relationships to her mean. I don't get any of that.

Also Conrad's switches happen way too abruptly, one minute he's happy and the next minute he's pissed off and snapping at writer dude and that's what it should look like to the people around him but we should see him at least for a second internalize so instead of him grinning at Susannah when he says he'll think about playing in the tournament and then cut scene, we should linger on his face when he turns away for at least a couple of seconds to see that his mood is shifting so that when we get to the wood rot scene, it isn't bad whiplash.

This panic attack scene would be sweet if I cared about any of these characters.

And I see what they're doing here with his father figure vs his actual father because his actual dad is like "you're the oldest it's your job to look out for the younger kids" and his father figure writer dude is all "it's not on you" and that would actually be interesting if they leaned into that more, if it was more than just one line about how Conrad ha to look out for the other kids, if we see the pressure Susannah and even Laurel put on Conrad for being the oldest but we don't because Susannah is putting pressure on everyone, she bulldozes Belly into doing the debutante, she tells her, like, fifteen/sixteen year old son to never change, not even to always stay true to himself, which is different, but to remain exactly as he is, so like if we just got casual things throughout the episode that indicate that they expect Conrad to shoulder burdens and "be the eldest" without realizing the pressure they're putting on him or it doesn't even have to be Susannah and Laurel it could just be their dad but for more than one line or more than one episode, it would give this scene more weight.

Yeah, see Taylor has all the right lines and does all the right things but the actress is forcing it and trying way too hard to be That Friend even the way she does the hand gestures with "Need I not remind you" and the shrugging, she doesn't have the attitude for it so it's awkward to watch, Candice just had the attitude

Shayla is the best character on this show. Lmao.

And this is when I'll be able to understand Belly getting angry when she inevitably does because he asked her to the deb ball like he wanted to take her and then told Nicole it's because his mom asked him to and obviously Nicole is going to tell Belly or Jeremiah is going to tell Belly that he's going with her because Susannah asked and that's embarrassing. I'm also over here like honestly Conrad you couldn't also say oh but can you not tell Belly my mom asked, it's kind of embarrassing to find out that your friend's mom asked him to take her to the dance. BUT THEN THE DRAMA WOULDN'T HAPPEN ZAL.

I need to speak to the person who does the music. Bad Girls doesn't GO with this scene. I get it, they're bad bitches playing volleyball but it doesn't work. In TMP when Mindy is running through the subway to get to surgery and then is IN surgery and is a boss in it and it plays, that makes sense. This is a tournament for charity. The fact that Belly is so focused on winning the trophy instead of helping women at the shelter is just indicative of her self-centeredness. Like, it's not even as if Belly has been established as a particularly competitive character either but now she suddenly is. And before someone goes, well as a teenager --- if Blair and Serena had a conversation about charity, Blair being like "oh who cares about the shelter, I just want to raise more money than Nelly Yuki" that would be a commentary on who Blair is as a character, you would just love her anyway because Leighton as Blair is great.

I can't do another long volleyball scene that's only this long to make up for the lack of personality Belly has as a character. "We can't tell you who she is but you know what, she's good at volleyball."

Like, Conrad is supposed to be good at sports and Belly is supposed to be good at sports and you mean before this we couldn't even get a Yousana-like montage??

you guys are killing me, man. Just put in the effort.

I'm sorry I have to forward through some of this volleyball shit, I don't care.

LMAO Susannah being the one to tell Belly that she asked Conrad is funny but it also doesn't make sense because she tells Conrad that everyone knows he's her knight in shining armour so if she knows how big a crush she has on Conrad then she would know telling her that he only asked her out because she asked would be humiliating.

"if a piece of my heart still beats--" these writers need to be stopped.

because you're boyfriends.

"I'm not THAT rich. I never went to boarding school and I saw my parents for more than once a year." I feel like we could've done better distinctions.

Steven is so neglectful of Shayla.

... I mean, Nicole and her friends took their clothes but not her phone, she could easily text/call someone to pick them up. Like Conrad JUST texted. Just be like hey your kinda girlfriend took all our clothes and we're at so and so place can you please get us some clothes and meet us here?

It's also a trope.

Like The Parent Trap, Hallie and her friends stole Annie's clothes

Now and Then where they took the boys' clothes as vengeance

That 70s Show where their clothes were stolen

I'm not saying that to be like Nicole and her friends are right because it's shitty, I'm just like yeah, I know this trope and Taylor and Belly are making this harder than they need to. Call someone.

And I can see as a sixteen year old wanting to figure things out yourself but with no other real options and you have a phone, then you'd call someone.

"It's about doing things the right way." Then break up with Nicole?

And this isn't?? This is what I'm talking about, at a certain point ONE of you has to be smart enough to fucking CALL SOMEONE.

And that could also be another source of drama where Belly feels comfortable calling Susannah because she views Susannah is a carefree, non-judgemental mother and Laurel is like ... uh wtf?

I think this is funny

because Conrad isn't active enough for this.

"But isn't love supposed to be a little scary?" she said she kissed him not that she loved him.

Jesus Christ, finally. This call took way too long.

See, NICOLE is the one he's being an asshole to. "Nicole, I swear, my mom really did ask me" SHE SAW THE TEXT, CONRAD.

lmao are you going to second in front of your house? can't you two at least GO somewhere.

and it's funny because you don't like him, Belly, you like that he likes you.

"When The Party's Over" is wasted on these two too. I get that the situation is supposed to match the lyrics but you need some serious angst and chemistry to match this song and they don't have it. The s song should be accompanying their intensity not providing all of it.

Even her "It's too late" doesn't match the situation. Like Tim and Tyra did this better and Tim's voice is quiet but desperate, liiiiike

*siiiiiiiiiigh*