#just some thoughts... not all positive

[howtosingit]

Some good/bad/ugly (but not super ugly, I'm not a dick about it) thoughts on RWRB. Obvious spoilers.

The Good:

The cake. Different from the book in a few ways but so damn good and a really strong beginning for the film. Also, watch through the credits for a tiny post-credit cake moment.

Alex and Henry messaging back and forth and talking on the phone at the beginning. A perfect way to translate that to the screen, taking advantage of the visual medium. I laughed out loud multiple times during the segment and just really enjoyed watching it.

Zahra. All of her scenes. So good. Dare I say her relationship with Alex was the most developed in the film? Maybe. It was certainly my favorite.

The polo match was a lot of fun, too. Though brief, it was very much in-line with what was on the page and that was satisfying to watch.

The King. He's a very different character than Queen Mary and by casting Stephen Fry and refocusing the moment, it became layered and interesting. An implied foil for Henry. Probably one of the better changes from the book.

The Bad:

Nora and Bea don't have a lot to do. Nora certainly gets a little lost after the first part of the film, though she’s around. Bea doesn't really mean anything until the last half of the film. Neither of them really have any of the depth that their book counterparts had, which is a shame since they're so great on the page.

Percy (because I'm pretty sure he is never referred to as Pez in the film) is an absolutely nothing character. Surprised he wasn't cut, but they clearly wanted Henry to have a counterpart to match Alex's Nora. But he actually gets nothing at all to do.

Alex and Henry's Christmas phone call is gone, and they only really have one big moment of vulnerability before New Year's (the hospital closet), which kind of makes the big kiss feel unearned. They're definitely friendly by New Year's, so that's something.

We're told a lot about the cages that Alex and Henry find themselves in, but they're never clearly defined in the film (it's very tell, don't show), which makes the stakes of them breaking out to be together feel lower, at least to me. I wish we saw a little bit more of the world that they inhabit so that we could understand the risks, but instead it's all summarized in TV segments.

For me, Alex and Henry never really feel fully-realized, especially Henry, who doesn't get his big moments until the later half of the film. It's a shame, but none of their moments of sincerity felt truly earned. I don't know, there was some kind of barrier between me and them for the entire film, I struggled to feel for them outside of "oh that's cute" or "oh that's sad" or "oh how nice."

The Ugly (or, more accurately, things that still don't sit right with me 15 hours later):

Miguel. Oh, boy. I really, really don't understand the choice to include this original character. From the very beginning it's just very... what? And why? All of the leak and antagonism of the leak, instead of being contributed to the white conservative Republican was instead placed on a queer Latiné man with no depth and I'm just... so very very confused by this choice. Obviously it was to streamline a lot of the backstory and details of how the leak came to happen, but my god... I really don't even know. I don't know if Matthew will ever talk about his choices for this character, but I'd really like to hear them. Also, he's not Liam or Rafael Luna, not even close. A pity that comparison was even made at any point during promo because it's 100% not true.

We get maybe 3 mentions of Arthur, no sight of Catherine. In fact, while Catherine is an absent mother, it's not attributed to her grief at all, but more just that she'd rather be anywhere else than by her children? And Henry and Bea are both very resentful of that fact. And I was like... why are we doing that to Catherine? She doesn't deserve that writing.

So after the leak, we get the communications lockdown which makes it impossible for Alex and Henry to speak to each other. But the film decided to have Alex make his big public speech during that time, without having Henry by his side or without him even talking to Henry about it first, and I found that really really upsetting. That was one of my favorite parts of the book, that Alex got to Henry as quickly as he could and then they walked through the whole situation together, side-by-side, as a team, both consenting to the everything after their consent was ripped away from them because of the leak. The film didn't give them that and I really didn't like it at all.

I mean, there were other things, too (the big sex scene was in Paris and happened way too early in my opinion - not because of the sex itself, just how it was framed), but I'm really not interested in picking the film apart. It's an okay film. It's not a terrible way to spend 2 hours. All in all, it feels like a solid summary of the book with glimpses at a lot of the book moments that we love. That doesn't make it a bad film, just a straightforward, simple one. It was made to be palatable for a general audience and that's fine. There's a deeper and more complex story here, which we know from the book, but this film wasn't the place to tell it. It tells a version of it, and it does an okay job at it.

(But, like, I'll take a 5-6 episode mini-series one day so that we can get the fully complex Henry backstory and screen time that he deserves to have.)

Also, Taylor Zakhar Perez's bare ass is a 10 out of 10, would recommend. There will be plenty of gifs of that in the next day or two, and no one will be complaining about it.

Oh, the opening credits were cute too and had an early-2000s rom-com vibe, which was great!

[puppyeared]

axolotl

[suja-janee]

I love Lucy Maclean, she’s such a sweetheart

[uncanny-tranny]

I went to a local yarn store for the first time, and while I was there, somebody was talking about getting a beginner's knitting kit, and she inquired about when lessons were, and when she was told that they'd be happy to sit down with her and teach her, she was so delighted. She talked about how excited she was and how much she wanted to learn to knit, and it just... it made me fall in love with humanity. It was this pure, unadulterated happiness coming from somebody and it was so genuine and kind, and I couldn't help but smile.

I guess all of this is to say... every moment, there are tiny little joys like this all over the world, and it makes this life worth living. I hope you witness and feel joy this simple, this pure.

[thelaurenshippen]

I know we love the “you only get two” triangles, but idk that I’ve seen one that is, like, the grand theory of fandom, like, you know—

you only get two. do you see my vision?

[sysig]

i want to go on a big and elaborate date with papyrus SPECIFICALLY bc of the way u draw him bc he’s so bbg cutie patootie

PapyrACE 💚💜 Happy Valentine's Day!

[plushie-lovey]

Anyone who's an adult and a plushie collector. Do you still play with your stuffed animals/have you gone back to playing with them? And I mean full on playing, not just taking them someplace to take photos.

I have an urge to start playing with my plushies again, but idk if I could actually do it. Atm my version of "playing" with them is taking pics, or staring at them while imagining the stories I want to tell with them. Or I'll pick one or two of them up and wiggle their limbs and stuff around a bit then put them down back. It still feels...silly? I guess? To play with them? But I still want to. But the part of me that cringes holds me back. So it'd be nice to know what some other collectors do!

[raisinushigher]

fuck this show

[adhdew]

i'm constantly finding new ways to prove to myself that i'm kind! that i'm better than my intrusive thoughts! be patient with yourself while you grow past trauma habits that aren't serving you anymore :)

[foryoupeko]

I know I’ll never take the crown of #1 kuzupeko shipper from thewildwilds

But I would like a title nonetheless

Tentative title being: Silliest kuzupeko shipper. The court jester, if you will.

[aromantic-nerd]

Here’s to the aros:

Here’s to the aros who love. Here’s to the aros who don’t.

To the aros who desire relationships, those who don’t care for them, and anyone who is undecided.

Younger aros, older aros. Aros of every race and gender.

Here’s to the aros who like labels, and to the ones who choose not to label or label further.

To the aros who like romantic things, in concept or practice, to the aros who are just really not into that, and everyone in between.

Here’s to the aros that have conflicting feelings about aromanticism, and to those that fluctuate between feeling great and not-so-great about it.

To the aros who love their identity and wouldn’t want it any other way. To those that feel grief. To all those who celebrate aro joy, in any form.

To the aros who are out and proud, and those who potentially aren’t quite in a space for that yet.

Here’s to every aromantic person, each who contributes to our wonderful and diverse community, and all of whom are valid and valued.

Here’s to the aros.

[fortyfive-forty]

i've been ruminating a lot on it because i think i'm bad at putting my thoughts into words but i need y'all to understand that while there are absolutely a lot of Not Good Things about the finals being held in saudi arabia for three years...the way people seem to treat is as morally black and white is shortsighted and unhelpful.

realistically the players traveling there will be protected. it may be uncomfortable, it's certainly not ideal, but they will travel there for a few weeks, play their tennis, then leave. there are a lot of women, a lot of queer people who actually live in saudi arabia who cannot just leave, who are actually subjected to laws and social climates...and to me it just seems very disrespectful to that actual lived experience, for everybody to sort of turn their noses up and get on their high horses. of course, if the players wish to opt out, that is their choice, but that is their choice to make. that's their judgement. not ours.

and then, what about a tournament like miami? florida is literally experiencing one of the worst active regressions that i've seen in the us (granted i'm young). things like critical race theory and lgbtq+ ed are being removed from curriculums, rights for trans youth, trans healthcare, etc. are going backwards. abortion rights? gun violence? and yes i know that the laws and climate in saudi arabia are different gravy, i understand that, but my point is, no one would ever DREAM of arguing against hosting a tournament in miami despite all of these issues. and we can extend this to a lot of other tournaments! i mean, all the outrage about fifa hosting a world cup in qatar, but we don't have any of these sentiments about doha? i've seen other people bring up that the finals were hosted in singapore when gay marriage was still illegal there. we've already talked about italy's fascist prime minister. and i could go on and on and on about the war crimes of countries like the us or the uk - is the us not participating actively in genocide right now? where is the standard? if you argue against hosting the finals in saudi arabia for the reason of human rights, to me it seems you have to uphold that standard for the location you do land on. and i can guarantee, you will not find a single country in the world with clean hands.

i want to be clear i am not arguing that hosting the finals in saudi arabia is a good thing, especially for three years, especially because it's definitely going there because of money, and not for any of the "good" reasons i think some people want us to believe about "improving the region" (which is very weirdly white savior-esque anyway). i don't really have an official "conclusion" to this discussion.

what i am arguing is that i think a lot of the protests against saudi arabiahosting the finals are more an example of implicit anti-arab bias and islamophobia, rather than genuine discussion. key word implicit: i don't think most people are purposefully trying to be anti-arab/islamophobic. or at least, i'd like to believe nobody is. but i also think, particularly in the west, there is already so much of this xenophobic sentiment ingrained. and this is why i think it's really really REALLY important to check ourselves when we talk about it instead of just jumping straight to the human rights conversation without a second thought.

i'll say it plainly: i don't think the finals should be held in saudi arabia. but for me, it has more to do with sportswashing, with the dangers of the way money is thrown around in sports, and because i think it's more evidence that the wta doesn't care about player welfare but rather about making a profit (what else is new). human rights are absolutely a concern of mine, but how is it fair to hold saudi arabia to a standard that we don't seem to care about for literally anybody else?

literally look at the us's ugly ugly history, past and present, and tell me why we deserve to host a tennis tournament.

[stcecelia]

mocumentary-style sitcom about an LDS institute class / student ward about all the shenanigans the YSAs get into. featured arcs include general conference viewing party, attending trek with the stake youth, returned missionaries adjusting to being off the mission, road trips to church historical sites, The Wedding Episode, someone invited their non-member roommate and the talks are kind of weird/its Fast Sunday, Baptism Episode, etc. would ideally include lots of references to LDS cult classics such as The Best Two Years, the singles ward, and such. also one character would have a Tumblrstake / Queerstake blog

working title is just "The Student Ward" but im open to suggestions lol

EDIT: IM SO SORRY I DIDNT MEAN TO TAG THIS AS LDSHADOWLADY I THOUGHT I DELETED THAT ACCIDENTAL AUTO-TAG LMAO THATS MY BAD

fun fact I used to watch Lizzie all the time as a kid (still occasionally do) and I used to think she was Mormon because... LDS hadowLady lol

[coquelicoq]

i am such a clown. decided to make stickers for my siblings even though i have ZERO design skills or knowledge of any programs that allow you to rotate text except for powerpoint. so i made them in powerpoint. (this took, mmmm, maybe 6-8 hours btw.) then had to find a website that would print and mail these stickers to me. no i don't want 50 stickers. i want one circle sticker and one rectangle sticker. oh that's not an option anybody wants to give me? okay then i guess i will buy 16 circle stickers (the least offered) and 50 rectangle stickers (the least offered. why not 16 also? a mystery). one of the designs is for my sibling's band, so if they like it theoretically they could use the stickers as merch or something lol. but i'm not holding my breath, on account of the aforementioned lack of design skills. i get away with a lot among my family because they're all so willing to react to my questionable creations with aww look, she Tried! but that probably doesn't work for strangers who are fans of my sibling's band. so i guess they will just have 49 extra stickers that they can idk stick to streetlight poles or something. not my problem.

[bubblegumflavor]

Johnny Lawrence is a character that is always pushed down. Him being physically stronger than Daniel doesn't help his mind being constantly challenged. He enters the Karate Kid with his mind strong, with the will to make it better, to make it work. Yeah he beats up Daniel a lot and worse than excusable, but he just wanted to talk to Ali and Ali is pretty mean to him, promising she will talk but then just plays the music again... Daniel sucker punches him first. Daniel humiliates him at the Halloween party and yeah, they beat Daniel up but Mr. Miyagi.. an adult.. breaking a teenager's arm? (Tommy) instead of acting like an adult and de-escalate the situation? Well..

While Daniel is provoking Johnny constantly, Johnny leaves Daniel alone until the tournament, where he again, gets manipulated, humiliated, loses his father figure, gets robbed of his chance to win fairly, still has the courage to get up and give Daniel the trophy, saying he's alright which is an apology, I don't care what other people say. Then outside him getting beaten and humiliated continues with Kreese almost killing him for ending up second place.

And in Cobra Kai it continues... I mean it's also funny and entertaining but it also hurts me to think about how often Johnny is forced to take charity from Daniel, how he can't stop drinking, how everything is always his fault, how he just feels worth of Carmen's affection after performing miracles for her, how he wanted Ali but Amanda says hahah not on my watch, remember Carmen and he's like oh yeah... right then I must love Carmen, I figured it out! (But it was Amanda actually... lol)

I was just watching season 1 again and especially that scene where Johnny is literally on the ground to get his beer and Daniel shows off his dominance because he has the money, it hurts. I wish we had seen Johnny not taking the beer because Daniel paid it or something. Just walking out. Let the man have some dignity!! (I could go on forever I really feel like it got worse in the show to the point where his whole purpose is to fulfill Carmen's dreams but I am rewatching atm and see if I just made it worse in my head, I at least was able to enjoy season 1 again and thats a personal win since I wasn't able to rewatch after s5)

Johnny paying back Sid and finally cut him out of his life is so satisfying to watch, I'm so glad they did that.

I know he has some wins too like I feel equally sad for Daniel when Cobra Kai overpowers his Miyagi-Do presentation and Daniel was so excited for it.. I love watching them get back at each other and all just some nuances leave a bad taste in my mouth when I'm overthinking it.

I love Johnny so much.. He is my comfort character and thinking about all of this hurts me physically. So I try not to. A lot of this in Cobra Kai was done for comic relief and gave us hilarious moments and if I don't think too much about it I can enjoy them all but I, personally, will never enjoy content where Johnny is portrayed as weaker as Daniel or submissive to Daniel or anyone else. (Which doesn't mean he can't have weak moments and Daniel be the one comforting him, that is sth different and I love that!) (I don't enjoy Daniel being 'babygirled' either but that's a different story, lol)

Just some thoughts I needed to get out of my system with my sunday morning coffee =)

[dirtytransmasc]

modern got au in which asha is a "teen parent"

or more accurately, asha and theon have a much larger age gap, 10/15-ish years, type of age gap (she's at least 18/19 and theon's only like 4/5), and in a series of freak events, their lives are turned on its head.

their brothers were dead. their mother and father were ruled incompetent, the former left a shell of herself after the loss of her sons, no longer able to care for her remaining children, the latter was never a father to begin with and he didn't seem to have any wish to become one now.

she was an adult by law, meaning she was free from the hell that was the system. her kid brother - the one who smiled at her for seemingly no reason, the one who crawled into her bed when thunder rattled the house, the brother who held her hand on their rare family outings - was not.

she couldn't leave him there, even if she wanted to, even if it would make her life so much easier. she wouldn't abandon him like the rest of their shitty family. he was blood for fucks sake, she'd die before she let's him get taken away from her and given away to strangers to be used and exploited or treated like a shelter puppy to be pitied and fawned over.

cue asha fighting for custody of her baby brother, doing whatever it takes to be deemed a suitable guardian, and the two of them taking on the world together.

more thoughts:

they have to find an apartment cause they can't afford to keep their family home. moving into the cheapest place they can find with only the stuff they can fit in asha's truck, sharing an air matress and eating off of a coffee table while watching movies they rented from the library.

asha cleaning her brother up before his first day at his new school, trying to get him to look suitable, but not really knowing what suitable means for a kid going into kindergarten/first grade

theon comforting his sister when she gets overwhelmed with it all, doing his best to ease her tears. the night ending with them both curled around each other, just two scared little kids trying their best.

asha fighting anyone she has to to keep custody of theon, whether it be the social worker, the judge, people who called cps to report her. she doesn't care, no one will take away her baby brother.

asha taking theon to work with her (she works in a boat shop cause she already knows what she's doing) and having to keep him entertained while she works so they don't get sent home.

their first christmas/birthdays by themselves. theon putting together gifts at school (finger paintings or paper mache or something of the like) and asha cherishing it forever. asha spending all the money left to her name each time to get him something nice so eh can feel like a normal kid.

theon doing sports in school (little league or something) and asha making sure she goes to every damn game, being the loudest in the stands.

asha getting more and more used to being physically affectionate with her brother at time goes on. before everything she'd tense up when he'd hug her legs or hold her hand, but now she scoops him up like a rag doll, ruffles his hair, kisses his forehead, without a second thought.

{I'm so normal about them I swear}