#kaos writes stories

[the-writings-of-kaos]

Criminal digest

“This is an intergalactic criminal conspiracy broadcast! To anyone currently inhabiting the Yatta-Ratta-BimBop Quadrant, this message is for you! A pack of criminals have been spotted in the area, and were spotted conspiring with human terrorists! If you see any humans, report them immediately to your nearest station of-“

*Jim cut the transponder off, rubbing his eyes as he rolled out of bed. Putting on a fresh pair of underwear, some socks, pants, a shirt, and a nice well fitting tie. As he answered the knock on the door, two officers, one a Yittlian and the other a Corbatich.*

“Good morning Officer Grus, Officer Chitic. Would you like to come in for some breakfast? It’s awfully early of you to come to my door before I’ve even dressed, today must be a special occasion.”

*The two officers, the insectoid grasshopper like Yittlian Grus’s antennae twitch excitedly, as the bipedal six armed boar like Borbatich stopped his younger officer.*

“We’re sorry Jim, I don’t think you’ll have time to eat today.” *Chitic said apologetically.*

“Huh? Oh, is it time for my papers to be restored? I coulda swore that was next Friday.”

“No- uhh…”

*The senior officer snorted, an action that Jim recognized whenever Chitic would get lost in how to put this poetically.*

“They want to kill me today don’t they?”

*The younger officer looked surprised, clearly the much less mature junior officer had been kept out of the loop for their own sake. Seeing the sadness in the emote-less insectoid, just from the amazing amount of twitching in his antennae, Jim went inside and grabbed the now half burnt sausages off the stove, aswell as the pot of coffee. Putting the two in air tight containers he went back to the front door, somberly following the two officers to the car as the neighbours watched with prying eyes as the elderly male human was finally ‘dragged off’ as they saw it. But some knew better, some even began to mourn. It was a sad day, the day that a kind soul would be killed for the faultless crimes of his kind halfway across the galaxy.*

*Jim opened the containers, getting the spare cups he always left in the patrol car and offering some of the coffee to the two officers who took it gratefully, the insectoid lapping it up happily.*

“I’m guessing they did something real bad today, did someone die?”

*The officers sigh.*

“Worse.” *Chitic started.* “a human lawyer found a hole in a planetary incarceration contract, and used it to justify the liberation of the planet, now all the humans, or what few are left, are being rounded up in the core worlds to be… ‘uprooted’l

*The old man chuckled.*

“What a bunch of idiots. Want a sausage Grus?”

*The insectoid happily took the artificial meat link, chewing it happily as Jim ate in the car.*

“Hmm… Clarice died of heart attack a year ago, and Stan fell down his stairs last week, is there anyone left besides me?”

*The officers were silent, simply sipping their coffee.*

“Right…”

*He took another sip of his coffee with them.*

“…I’m the last human. The last man alive on this side.”

*The younger officer’s antennae drooped down, the reality of it leaving the air thick from the cursed truth, as Chitic spoke.*

“They said they were going to execute you in a traditional human way, as a show of faith that the humans will see reason.”

“Oh goodie, and knowing them it’s what… a guillotine?”

“Try smaller.”

“A hangman’s noose.”

“Smaller.”

“…they aren’t nailing me to a dammed cross are they?”

“No! No- they aren’t that idiotic.”

“Then what?”

“They are going to press you between stones, until you admit to being a terrorist.”

*Jim went silent, contemplating.*

“Like the male witch of the Salem trials?”

“The very one.”

“Hah, hehahahahah- oh that’s just rich.”

*The old man couldn’t help but laugh, he laughed as he was wrenched from the patrol car, as he was stripped nude in-front of the galaxy’s cameras. He laughed as he was tied down, and pinned on an old oak wood panel. It smelled like his home, like the cabins of his home on earth, it made him laugh. It made him laugh even as his bones were crushed, as they demanded answers from him, as they beat him even as he lay crushed under stone, until finally his suffering was ended by a human pistol.*

*As blood feel from his mouth, filling his lungs, the old man spoke his last words.*

“Can you feel your heart burning? Can you feel the struggle within?”

*The old man couldn’t help but laugh, as finally they planted another human bullet into him, this time in his brain. The second the bullet spattered the old mind of the defiant human, the sky seemed to shatter with light, human ships dropping out of FTL, as soldiers landed from above.*

“You cannot kill me, in a way that matters.”

*The soldiers were chanting this, the final line to the old man’s speech, as the grip of the federation was cut and uprooted from its hold on the galaxy.*

————————

As always thank you for reading. Dunno what this is but I made it and now I’m tired, sleep well, don’t add or subtract from the population, don’t end up in the paper, news, or jail. If you end up in jail establish dominance quickly.

Have a good weekend!

[dionysiaproductions]

Another thing I like about the writing on KAOS is the Easter Eggs for whatever weird bits of mythology you know about. (i.e. Eurydice wearing all her snake jewelry.)

Because I know that Dennis is the anglicized version of naming your kid in dedication to Dionysius. So the whole time, I was waiting for this kitten to meet his namesake.

[inkingthingsintotrees]

i don’t know how much i like the whole ‘orpheus being so incredibly smothering in his love’

i especially don’t like him being so obsessive that he steals eurydices burial coin so that he might see her again.

[snoopyrps]

something about “four minutes” is strangely comforting...

[alatismeni-theitsa]

In "KAOS" nothing is anything, and everything is wrong

Two disclaimers: I am no stranger to modern art, and I have no issue with queerness in shows, or in my own mythology (I'm Greek). I am also aware that KAOS is a comedy. It's in the gutter of British comedy, but still part of the genre. At least I laughed every time they said "Oh God!". I don't believe this is the same person who wrote the great and amusing "End of the F**king World"! The premise of "The gods in our modern world" appeals to me a lot, so that wasn't my problem either. My general issue with KAOS is its horrible delivery, bad writing, and piss-poor Greek representation.

This is gonna be long and full of stupid gifs, so sit comfortably, grab a coffee or some popcorn and... pame!

The "ILoveGreekMythology" Kid

Art without context is just a pretty thing to look at. Most of the time, this context can be found within the art piece itself, as the artist has taken care to weave it in. KAOS refuses to connect itself to any context besides the names and a few vague powers. It aims to exist outside of those "boring old stories of the Greek myth" and be entirely "fresh and modern". Something impossible when the entire show and the meanings are based on ancient recorded material. In other words, KAOS is so meta that it ends up being nothing. KAOS cannot stand on its own because you need more than the viewers being familiar with the Greek myth basics to pull such a show off.

KAOS tells us "See? I know all the names of the gods, and what they did, and I know all the locations, so I am qualified to tackle this". More or less like any Western kid who takes all their knowledge from PJO and Marvel and proceeds to unironically hate ancient deities and make a girlboss out of Medusa.

Here's a Greek word for you guys, ημιμάθεια, meaning "half-knowledge". Α Greek saying very well declares "Half-knowledge is worse than no knowledge". The confidence of thinking you know enough often leads you to grave mistakes whereas the humility of not knowing prevents you from touching shit that you shouldn't. When you have no idea what the original myth is trying to say and spit on its meaning, knowing a few names and locations is just smoke and mirrors. I don't believe the audience fell for that.

And don't get me started on the "subversions". A good subversion is intriguing and thought-provoking. In KAOS, every twist was hollow - Greek myth related or otherwise.

"What if Euridice doesn't love Orpheus?" I don't know, babe. What if??? What was the point of that? What did you show us? That women's stories are dominated by men and men don't listen to women, perhaps? And you chose to twist... the love story of Orpheus and Euridice to show this?? One of the best and most tragic love stories Greek mythology has to offer?? You just mocked the myth, you didn't make anything profound out of it.

The Greek Stuff (Nothing salvageable)

I was surprised to see they had a Consulting Producer (Georgia Christou) and an Assistant Script Editor (Isabella Yianni) who happen to be Greek. And I stress that because those people probably weren't hired or utilized for being Greek. We are not sure they were involved in cultural decisions because we have no evidence and because shows with no Greek elements can have more Greeks than that on their staff.

Okay, perhaps they took 5 seconds to ask Isabella about a greeting - which they proceeded to say in a wrong intonation 🙄🤌It's where Poseidon says "ya sás" in the Fates, by the way. How he said it sounds more like "for you (pl.)" than "health to you (pl.)".

Surprise! The only Greek actor present (Peter Polycarpou) has less than 5 minutes of screen time and plays the caricature of an immigrant with a thick (and inaccurate Greek) accent. He has a canteen, selling falafel which is not Greek, and Dionysus buys from him an unidentified tortilla wrap (which... is also not Greek, if you haven't caught up).

For the show they brought in actors of Maori, Nigerian and Sierra Leonean, Pakistani, Black American, Latvian-Jewish, Iranian, Egyptian, Indo-Fijian and Malay descent and you tell me it was impossible for them to seek and find an English-speaking, skilled actor of Greek descent in a show regarding Greek heritage. Sometimes I wonder, do y'all hate us so much?

They considered Greeks only to give us a simple (and wrong) greeting and a stereotype. Crumbs, we are supposed to be happy with. By the way, there are over 70.000 Greek immigrants just in the UK, usually in the urban centers, many of them students or fairly young employees in the corporate workforce. Not the largest minority but not hard to spot either.

Another plague of Anglophone shows: Almost everyone's Greek name is shortened. Yes, we know their full names but we are told that we will use the short ones. Greeks and their "long and difficult" names am I right fellas? Because saying "Ariadne" apparently requires 5 years of Greek language training, and no English word ever has more than two syllables.

Coincidentally, short names are cool in Anglophone imaginary universes and the "long" names are not. it's so strange Anglophones never make universes where it's cool for Greek names to be spoken in full hmmm... They don't even want to practice saying a whole Greek name for just 2 minutes in preparation for a show full of Greek names. And don't give me that "Greek is hard" shit when we only talk about a few syllables. If Greek kids can learn English since first grade and people here can sing English songs and spell English names, you have no excuse.

They also said the name "Fotis" means light, which is close enough but... ugh.. It's like saying Sebastian means "respect". I am not sure if they asked anyone or what their research was here. If I had the writers in front of me, I'd be like:

(This character from an all-time favorite Greek show is called Fotis)

They also made the flag of "Krete" an alteration of the Greek flag and the local Cretan flag. Which is the stupidest move, because they had to remove the religious symbol of the cross to make the flag fit the universe. These are flags created based on 1) Christianity 2) the Greek Revolution of 1821.

National Greek flag to the left, local Cretan flag to the right:

Flag of the KAOS' "Krete":

The only time they seriously took into account anything Greek, was the time when they decided to remove the religious symbol of our ethnoreligion AND (from what I could observe) keep the nine stripes?? The nine stripes of our national flag represent the syllables in "Freedom or Death". The colors are from the white foustanela of the mainland attire and the dark blue vraka of the island attire, the clothing of the Revolution fighters. (That's more of a meta explanation but the characteristics of the flag were decided during and nearly after the Revolution.)

I think I don't have to explain it more but it's not a homage to put the nine stripes in an ancient era where they have no meaning, and to replace a cross??? Let's... not replace religious symbols on national flags, okay? Thank you.

Another cultural element they changed was making everyone have a dedicated coin to pay Charon. Orpheus has Euridice's coin, "her coin", and he's meant to put it on her before she got buried. In Greek culture, any coin would do. Sorry that our culture restricts your script, dear writers. I guess you had to bend this too, in order to create a cohesive plot with a semblance of a twist.

Finally, the many "Kerberus" dogs were cute and I can understand the creative decision behind that. However, in a show full of inaccuracies, this made me roll my eyes a little. I think the showrunners know that Kerveros is not a breed of dog, and there can only be one of him because he doesn't have any other "Kerveros" to breed with. On the other hand, as demonstrated from art/writing on the internet, quite a lot of Westerners are not exactly aware of how our monsters work, so forgive my uncertainty 😅

Nothing is Anything

Every element KAOS played with ended up meaningless. In the words of a Lifo article:

“Zeus is a paranoid authoritarian dictator in mid-life crisis who fears losing his power and murders his aides to vent. Hera is a promiscuous goddess who repeatedly betrays Zeus and has mutilated mute priestesses for protection. Dionysos is a spoiled and immature zoomer who, apart from pranks, indulges in orgies with all genders. Poseidon a sadistic god of the sea, who tortures the crew on his ship for fun. Prometheus is gay and killed his lover so he could overthrow Zeus. Orpheus is a famous pop singer and Eurydice does not love him. Theseus is black and gay. The Erinyes are tough-as-nails mechs that look like they stepped out of ‘Sons of Anarchy’. The Fates resemble a three-member jury in a talent show. The Trojans are a terrorist group that acts against the gods. Crete is more reminiscent of California than the Mediterranean.”

The "River Styx" is a sea, the "River Lethe" is a lake, the gods are nothing more than spoiled humans, the Moirai are drag queens, the Cave is a club where you have to take a quiz to enter the underworld, and generally everything is modern, flat, mundane and anticlimactic. The producers aimed to achieve a work so meta that a "river" is now a concept, a metaphor, whatever you have in your heart. And those who want to see a river when we speak of a river are probably uncultured swines and don't understand postmodernism. Never mind that rivers are rivers in Greek mythology for a reason. That's not culturally interesting enough to explore compared to the new, cool approach of not assigning meaning to anything. That totally shows love for the original rich and meaningful material...

And the reason behind all this subversion? Probably the shock factor. They brought the characters to a point where they said "We have to save the world from Zeus" - Zeus! The father of gods, heroes and humans! - just because they could. It gives off a certain type of smugness that I personally don't like. I mean, I would like the smugness and cheekiness of KAOS if it wasn't a vapid and practically meaningless show. As nothing symbolizes anything anymore, we are just led from hollow plot point to hollow plot point.

If you cut it out of any cultural influence and see it as a story then it's... okay, I guess. But when you consider that it's meant to derive from certain material and it fails spectacularly, it's not a good story. It forgets its bases and doesn't play with the ancient elements at all. Disney's Hercules did it better, FFS!

Bad Writing (pt.1)

KAOS is not without recognizable themes but their demonstration is so juvenile and heavy-handed that it fails to influence a viewer of average intelligence. For instance, "Riddy" says to her religious mother "You dedicated your whole life to Hera, what about me?" Okay, KAOS, we get it. At the same time, this theme nulls itself because it turns out that Ridy's mother was right to do what she did, as she had a greater goal in mind. (And this, kiddos, is called Bad Writing, because your themes and scenes contradict each other)

The biggest theme I spotted was a criticism of religion and religious people who say "Do as I say, not as I do" and create exceptions for themselves. Only, it's not a criticism of anything real, in this case. It's a fact that some people in the clergy tend to preach peace and love and then they do harm, but we don't know, for example, that The Goddess of Marriage is a cheater and yet she pressures everyone into strict marriages. By focusing their wrath on divine beings who are not known for their hypocrisy, the creators missed the mark.

I can give KAOS props for how it handled Trojans to reflect real issues regarding how immigrants and war refugees are mistreated and blamed. I'd argue it was the only (nearly) well-done theme in the whole show because it had the least on-the-nose delivery and some genuine/serious scenes. But that's it.

More Bad Writing!

Jeff Goldblum's Zeus is shit. He'd crap his pants in an argument with a stern Greek dad/uncle his age. Is this character supposed to be intimidating? (Laughs in Mediterranean) That's not to say that Goldblum is not a good actor, but this role wasn't for him. The same can be said for the other actors, too. They are competent but they only give off the air of "The Greek gods if they lived in London, from the minds of people who think beards and body hair are an affliction". In addition to being misplaced, the actors cannot show their talent when following a script that resembles a children's book.

Why does THE GOD Dionysus have the maturity of a 15-year-old? I repeat, The God Dionysus. He's a freaking deity, and a very old one at that. He is not a teenager neither in appearance nor in experience. In our culture, he is mystical, mighty, wise. Why did they downgrade him so? Just for the plot? This is not Dionysus just because you named him so.

The dialogue rarely takes itself seriously to the point it has you wondering at times "Do people talk and behave like that?". In a comedy where everything is meant to be already extreme and parodied. Even in comedies, something must occasionally be serious so there is a healthy fluctuation in tone and the funny moments can hit you. In KAOS very few scenes treated their impactful dialogue as it should be treated.

The queerness and diversity (good elements, in general) were worse off for being in KAOS. Like, I want these elements to be there. I'm just sad about the whole situation. It's not enough that the show is shit, now you also give an additional reason for conservatives to shit on diverse and queer characters because they are part of a stupid narrative.

I'm the type of person who doesn't mind the queerness of Astyanax and Theseus being lovers in the context of this specific show but they're still the oddest pairing to me because they're from the most irrelevant myths and eras. Also, Astyanax in my mind is a baby who died tragically, for little reason if we are honest, so to bring him back and make him a love interest is... ekh.

In addition, isn't Astyanax supposed to be crippled after a fall from the city walls when he was a baby? Sorry to change subjects but the show is so convoluted and with so many issues that it's extremely difficult to stay on track with what's wrong.

To the person who thought this show was a good idea:

Whatever. Bye. I'm fucking done.

[bengiyo]

The Knowing: Being Queer in BL

I’ve been talking about The Knowing a lot lately with @lurkingshan @waitmyturtles @ginnymoonbeam and @shortpplfedup and so I felt it was time to gather all those thoughts into one place.

I define The Knowing as “growing up and suffering with the knowledge that you are queer (specifically that you are not like other kids) and understanding that you must keep that knowledge to yourself.”

Part of what initially drew me to BL was how often many of these shows took place in what @absolutebl calls “The Bubble” where cultural and structural homophobia is less prevalent or nonexistent. Many of these stories are about guys learning something about themselves for the first time when it comes to being attracted to other men. However, I always find myself drawn to the characters that clearly Knew who they were a long time ago. What’s interesting about these characters is that many of them carry an intense sadness and loneliness that plagues them and their relationships.

I am in my mid-30s. I’ve had to unlearn a lot of language over the decades. When I first realized I was different from other kids I was eight years old. I was a lot like Chiron in Moonlight (2016) asking the question, “What’s a faggot?” I wish I’d had someone like Juan around to say, “A faggot is a word used to make gay people feel bad.” To which Chiron asked, “Am I a faggot?” and Juan quickly corrected. “Nah. You can be gay, but you ain’t gotta let nobody call you no faggot.” I know it’s hard for some of you to read slurs written out so plainly, but I grew up with them being part of the day-to-day language used by kids around me. If you instinctively recoiled at me typing the word four times, imagine experiencing that constantly for your entire adolescence while also fearing the consequences of being discovered by your peers. That’s what I survived. That’s what some of these boys survived.

Before I learned other words, I thought I was weird or broken. I knew I was drawn to boys before I even hit puberty, but I didn’t have language for existing on the ace-spectrum until I joined Tumblr in the early 2010s. Before that I just thought there was something wrong with me. When we see a character in BL who has clearly been gay for a long time, I find myself examining the environment around them to see if they suffered The Knowing.

The worst part of The Knowing is for the boys who can pass as straight if they try hard enough. I always talk about how I think femmes are stronger than those of us (like me) who can pass. They face the public scrutiny of being queer and the danger of that constantly. People like me often go unnoticed unless we’re amongst our peers or explicitly tell people who we are.

I’m writing this post as a love letter to the boys who suffered the Knowing. Sometimes these characters get a bad reputation in fandom for being boring or sad sacks, but they are the characters I love the most. I’d like to talk about some of my favorite boys who Knew. Unsurprisingly, the exact kind of melancholy Japan is willing to play with means they have strong presence on this list.

Korn (Until We Meet Again)

Korn is the character who began my discussion about this in a conversation with @wen-kexing-apologist about Kao’s acting. I pointed out that the saddest thing about Korn in Until We Meet Again is that he knew what he was going to do the entire time. The tragedy of UWMA is that Korn loved Intouch and let him in, and unfortunately learned that Intouch’s love couldn’t fix the horrors that plagued him. You can see it in Kao’s eyes for the entire show whenever we see the In and Korn flashbacks. He suffers under the weight of masculine expectation and crumbles.

The Entire Cast of What Did You Eat Yesterday?

WDYEY is all about characters who Knew. Kenji and Wataru may have been unable to pass and have chosen to accept who they are, but we know Wataru suffered for it because of his feelings about family. Shiro hid who he was for a very long time, and still hides it from most people. His trauma from The Knowing regularly threatens his relationship with Kenji. Kohinata also clearly knew who he was the entire time, and works diligently for the life he’s built for himself. So much of this show is about being gay in a world that does not value us.

Book, Christina, and Yok (Make It Right)

Book is actively victimized because of The Knowing. He left his previous school and doesn’t live with his family because he was outed by a past boyfriend, and is disowned after revenge porn of him is posted.

Both Chrstina and Yok are femme and cannot pass. Unlike many of the boys in this show figuring out who they are, they are trying to survive without losing themselves.

Li Ming (Moonlight Chicken)

Li Ming has a gay uncle and still suffers The Knowing. He is hiding his attraction from everyone until he develops feelings for Heart.

Itou Akira (Life: Love on the Line)

We experienced the entire arc of this man’s life and how much The Knowing crushed him. This is probably the most The Knowing character on the list.

Oumi Mitsuru (Eternal Yesterday)

Oumi has such a frank expression of The Knowing and how much it hurts that he likes Koichi but feels like he can’t express it.

Takahashi Satoru (Koisenu Futari)

The man literally blogs about The Knowing, and it’s how Sakuko began to understand herself. He has a questionnaire prepared to help you figure out how long you’ve Known.

Ren (Tokyo in April Is…)

I wrote multiple posts about Ren and his experience with The Knowing. So much of what goes wrong for them is because Ren couldn’t believe that Kazuma could like him, too, and he knowingly faced the consequences of being discovered to save Kazuma’s life.

Pete (Love by Chance)

Pete knows who he is and can’t change it. Trump uses this against him. Pete doesn’t want Ae to be gay like him and suffer with the realities of being a Known Gay. Pete has one of the first coming out scenes in BL that I really enjoyed.

Cairo (Gameboys)

Cairo was clearly struggling with Knowing, and his close friend took his coming out from him. Cairo is a brat, but goddamn do I appreciate some of his angst.

See-eiw (My Only 12%)

He watched The Love of Siam (2007) and had a complete emotional breakdown as he was finally able to name his feelings for Cake. Top-tier expression of The Knowing.

Shin (3 Will Be Free)

I mean, we don’t have to look much further than his entire sad existence and being pushed into sex with a prostitute in the first episode. Also there’s, “It wasn’t that you didn’t like boys. You just didn’t like me.” Shin is the only boy in BL-adjacent media to suffer a specific version of The Knowing: being rejected and discarded by your own people in a homophobic way so they could stay closeted.

Phupha (A Tale of Thousand Stars)

Phupha’s entire romantic angst is built around The Knowing and what others seeing him for who he is will do for him.

Pran (Bad Buddy)

Though Bad Buddy exists in The Bubble, Pran has one of the most painful versions of The Knowing I’ve ever experienced because his is wrapped up in family angst and an unrequited crush.

Lee Wan (Our Dating Sim)

Lee Wan suffered The Knowing and broke things with his best friend after confessing. The Knowing destroyed his ability to see a version of his life where he and Shin Kitae overcame the upcoming challenges together and so he takes that choice from Kitae. Crushing.

Ueda Minoru (Our Dining Table)

Minoru is so familiar with The Knowing that he preemptively breaks up with Yutaka after kissing him.

Kiyoi (My Beautiful Man)

The reveal that Kiyoi already knew who he was and noticed Hira the entire time? Beautiful. One of the best reveals in J-BL history.

Minato (Minato’s Laundromat)

This man is one of the sadder examples of The Knowing because he’s in a place where he understands who he is now, but the internalized homophobia cripples almost all of his romantic and closer relationships.

Han Baram (Sing My Crush)

This boy is suffering so much from The Knowing that his love confession song is literally titled “Letter of Apology.”

Oh-aew (I Told Sunset About You)

He Knew. “Are you proud of me?”

Noh Shinwoo and Shin Daon (Light On Me)

Noh Shinwoo clearly suffered The Knowing and was discovered. His bullies still plague him on the streets when they see him. Shin Daon was not surprised by his attraction to Woo Taekyung; he struggled with his parents expectations.

Nagisa (His: I Didn’t Mean to Fall in Love)

Nagisa definitely Knew who he was and was probably going to stay quiet about it until Shun showed up in his life. What upsets me so much about Nagisa is that he is the one who leaves Shun later in the movie after pulling queerness out of Shun.

The Secret Crush on You Quartet

All four of them get a spot on this list for The Knowing. Toh, Kaojao, and Daisy clearly suffered The Knowing, and Som has clearly taken care of them for a long time.

Rocky and Judah (Quaranthings)

I love that these two explore The Knowing from a class perspective. Judah is wealthier and eventually comes out, but Rocky is poor and struggles with it a lot longer.

Han Tae Joo and Kang Gook (Where Your Eyes Linger)

The Knowing, bodyguard edition. The yearning between the two of these is palpable. It hurts that they can’t even talk to each other about it.

Mafuyu (Given)

He Knew and lost his boyfriend to The Knowing.

Kim Dong Hee (Unintentional Love Story)

He won’t acknowledge Go Ho Tae’s feelings because he feels a sense of loyalty to Ho Tae’s mom for taking care of him after his parents disowned him over the gay thing. Huge case of The Knowing.

Edit: New Additions October 7, 2023.

Nekoyashiki Mamoru (Kabe-Koji Nekoyashiki-kun Desires to be Recognized)

He describes a textbook case of the Knowing and finding community at the convention.

Zo (Hidden Agenda)

He definitely Knew, and got messed over by his friends badly for it.

Yuuki (Me, My Husband, and My Husband's Boyfriend)

We almost lost Yuuki to the Knowing.

All of the Eclipse Gays

Literally all of them. The entire show is about how fascism turns queer people into agents working against their own community.

Joe (The Warp Effect)

He clearly Knew before his encounter with Army, and he also suffered for being outed.

[midnightmindcave]

I don’t even know if I want to talk about the relationship (classical, mythological) between Orpheus and Dionysus, but I kind of do want to very much. So many Kaos fans have picked up on Orpheus becoming a priest of Dionysus and how Orpheus discovers the Dionysian mysteries but… do y’all know how the story of that partnership ends? Does anyone want to talk about whether or not it will come into play in the series? Is Orpheus really going to fuck off in his dirty old car and never be seen or heard from again? Because I devoted almost five years of my life to studying and writing about Orpheus (amateur, dilettante) and… there’s a lot more to their story.

I’m tempted to start a sideblog or a community over this series…

[genericpuff]

wait. if in LO, hera is metis’s daughter. and metis had athena with zeus and was briefly his wife. and then zeus married hera….. how fucked is this family tree? i think rachel actually managed to make the incest worst somehow

someone actually did make a family tree a while back and yeah it's as messy as you probably expected it to be to the point that she would have almost been better off just going "fuck it they're siblings, welcome to Greek myth" instead of trying to avoid the incest entirely just to accidentally write it back into the story again LOL (Kaos actually did that, they just briefly mention in Hera's introduction that she's Zeus' sister and then they move the fuck on from it, they know fully well that Greek myth is full of incest and they simply ask you not to care if you're gonna watch the show LMAO)

(credit to @mossmanismoss for making this!)

[lurkingshan]

A list of sins in the Wandee Goodday finale

Yak finally confessed that he is still having hallucinations when he steps into the ring—and Dee did NOT tell him to bow out of the fight.

Dee magically cured Yak’s years long trauma ringside and there were zero consequences for Yak lying and hiding his mental health struggles for the entire show.

Yak gave a big speech about Dee believing in him more than he believed in himself—which is not the actual story we got on our screens. Cool fanwank of your own show, though, I guess!

The show began with telling us that Yak could not be out with a man because of the effect of homophobia on his career, and now he’s doing love confessions in the ring and this is apparently fine. Add it to the list of GMMTV shows trying to have it both ways with the bubble.

They only gave us Kao’s love story via a retrospective exposition dump and an awkwardly shoehorned in asexuality PSA. They could have actually written him a plot and showed us these themes, but I guess that was too much to ask.

The money problems magically went away by Yak winning one fight, and there was no fallout for Yei hiding things from Cher.

Ter and Taem were paired up as expected—A POX ON YOUR HOUSES WRITING TEAM. Everyone who caught the signs that they intended to redeem Ter was correct; I have no idea why they chose to have him harass and assault Dee when this was their intention the entire time. Pairing him with a character who survived a different assault makes it so much worse. Just another sign of the poor judgment behind this show.

Yak’s graduation becomes a background detail handled with a two second appearance in a montage.

And instead we spend time on a very strange PSA telling us that old people have sex, too? How this is relevant to anything I could not tell you.

Continuing their bad dynamic from the entire story, Dee pretends he’s not going to thank Yak in his little beauty pageant speech (that he’s giving for receiving a professional scholarship, for some reason). Contra the writers of this show, I don’t actually think it’s funny that Yak feels so insecure and Dee is always fucking with him.

DEE SANG A GODDAMN SONG. WHY?!? This show has just gotten so embarrassing.

Dee finally asks Yak to be his “real” boyfriend, but it has no meaning because he already has been for weeks. And they already did the big public kiss moment in episode 11! It’s like they wanted the tension of not letting them get together until the end but were not willing to sacrifice the weekly ship moments so they tried to have it both ways. It just did not work. Tell a good story or make a branded pair content vehicle removed from story, you can’t do both.

They made Yei and Cher’s wedding kiss so weird by having Yak and Dee do it first whyyyyyyyyyyy

Welp! At least I got to see Oyei and Cher get married; I’ll be hanging onto that one.

This one goes down as the show that finally pushed me over the edge re: GMMTV and their tendency to start strong before completely losing the plot. I was primed to love this show and it thoroughly let me down. None of the threads they set up at the start were followed through and virtually nothing that happened in this story had real consequences or meaningfully mattered. What an absolute waste of a fantastic cast and a solid and fun premise. I will be skipping most GMMTV dramas going forward unless I hear they hold up all the way through.

[sarafangirlart]

I think another thing that goes against Kaos as a show isn’t the writing itself but Netflix being Hellbent on making tv shows shorter and like “really long movies” where the story isn’t episodic even tho it’s cut into episodes therefore the pacing is so confusing to the point that an entire side plot isn’t brought up for a whole episode or two.

Not to mention that it makes the character interactions bare bones and bland, if you want to write relationships that aren’t canon in mythology, fine, whatever, just give me good reason to care about this couple. Supergiant’s Hades (for all its flaws) succeeds at this.

We are supposed to be sad about Prometheus and Charon separating but we literally see them as a couple for like what? Five minutes? The show doesn’t give us enough time to gaf about their relationship other than it’s “good representation” to have two old men in a relationship.

Eurydice and Caeneus have known each other for what couldn’t be more than a couple of days then see the Nothing and have their entire world view shattered then they fall in love and have sex? Only for Orpheus to be going through hell and back trying to get his wife back so how tf are we supposed to be invested in Eurydice cheating? Again the show doesn’t give us good reason to care for this couple other than its good representation.

Bruh don’t even get me started on Theseus and Astyanax, that’s the most bare bones of them all, I didn’t even catch that they were a couple until they had sex. Theseus has more screen time and chemistry with Ariadne than his supposed lover. Also stop trying to make good guy Theseus happen, it’s not going to happen.

The only fanon relationship that makes logical sense (as in within the story but as an adaptation it’s dog shit and I hate it) is Hera and Poseidon, they actually get multiple scenes and dialogue together so even if you are like me and hate to see them as a couple, it still makes logical sense for them as characters to like each other, but only if you don’t think of them as an adaptation.

[moonmaiden1996]

His New Muse

Orpheus x Reader

Possible spoilers- Obsession warning

A new beginning—that’s what Orpheus was supposed to find. How he was meant to do that, he had no idea. How do you start over? How do you find another love as powerful as the one he lost? Someone worth descending into the underworld for, enduring trials for, dying for. That was until he met you.

It was your smile, your hair, your scent, your eyes. In the middle of a bustling crowd, you caught his attention. You didn’t even notice him, but he saw you, all of you. From that moment, something changed. Orpheus was determined not to repeat the mistakes he made with Riddy—clinging too tightly, suffocating her with his need. This time would be different. He would make it different. This time, he would ensure that you needed him more than life itself. This was the beginning of a new story—yours and his.

And there was not mistake you will be his.

Note-----------------------

I'm back! Sort of...I am so close to finishing a big qualification and soon as its signed off I will have time to write again and finish off my other stories. I promise I will be going back to my HOD and Sandman fics ASAP but I just finished watching Kaos and obviously I have a thing for Orpheus's :P Let me know what you think and if I should continue.

[the-writings-of-kaos]

The Greed of Fallen Gods Chapter 1

(A reiteration of my previous story, the title surmised as “protagonist with an itchy trigger finger,” re-written towards improving my writing.)

It was dark, dry, and cold. The sand billowed in the wind, sending choking clouds of sand into the piercing wind as the lost soul slowly marched through the barren sands. He was hungry and exhausted, and he could hardly stay awake in the frigid cold of the desert night. Consciousness faded in and out until, finally, blackness.

——————

He sat up; his bag was gone, and so was most of his gear. Looking around, he saw- nothing, no white, no black, just a complete lack of all sense and stimulation. Then, he blinked, and an entire sky filled with stars above and below him, surrounding him wholly and utterly.

“Greetings, human, I am Falafel! The goddess of luck! Congratulations on becoming my champion!”

As soon as the words echoed the seemingly endless space of starry void, a ting young girl, definitely no older than 6, appeared from thin air.

Blinking, I took a moment to catch up to the situation.

‘Okay… I’m hanging here weightlessly, and this little girl claims to be a goddess. There is- this can’t be real. Assuming it isn’t real, it must be some rich man’s little girl. If I play along- maybe they’ll pay me.’

“Am I finally back in the realm of the gods? It’s been so long; I had forgotten how it looked.”

‘Take the bait, take the bait- take the bait!’

“Wait- what did you just say?”

She looked puzzled, startled even, listening patiently for the mortal to answer her.

“Oh, my apologies; I don’t look like myself these days. I am the god of greed; I believe I went by the name Hastur back in the old days. If you don’t mind me asking- how long has it been since I was cast out by that rebellious twat during the civil pantheon war?”

Overwhelmed by all this information, Falafel shook and stepped back for fear of offending the ancient being.

“It has been- a very long time… I wasn’t born then, so I didn't see the war. Umm- mister, if you’re the great and powerful Hastur, why are you inhabiting this human vessel?”

‘This is going better than I thought.’

“Ah, you see, when I was cast out, you might have been told he had killed me, but that was much more elaborate than what happened. In truth, he cut me in shreds and scattered my undying pieces to the stars. I am one of the larger pieces.”

Falafel nodded, the young goddess taking in all of the information.

“Right… so that means… you’re a broken god right now?”

“I suppose that is one way to look at it.”

I took a moment to write down the story I had come up with in a notebook, which I then realized had just- appeared in my hand for me to use, along with the pencil I was writing with.

“Oh! It seems being back here has brought back my summoning abilities; I even brought back my grimoire!”

Falafel couldn’t help but giggle at my feigned excitement.

“Say, mister, can I call you gramps?”

“That sounds lovely.”

I’d fake a smile, the dagger of being called gramps slowly digging into my soul.

“Oh, this must be fate sent by Clotho! I knew she would help me!”

“Pardon? Is my summoning convienient?”

“Yes! Listen, Gramps, I’m technically not a goddess yet. After you were scattered to the stars, the rebel god killed many other ancient gods before finally being struck down by the champions of the gods of creation, life, and death. Time passed, and holy beings began popping up all over the place! I’m one of them! But since there are so many, I need to prove I can take on the responsibility of being a new goddess!”

“Goodness, then it sounds like I must prove myself again. But that doesn’t sound very convenient for you; I can’t possibly vouch for you in this state.”

I listened carefully, waiting to hear what she wanted me to do.

“Then you’ll act as my champion! You’re just a human right now, but if you help me as my champion, I’m sure you could prove yourself and then vouch for me in kind! Greed and Luck! Hand in hand!”

‘This kid, so dam charismatic.’

“Alright, kid! You’ve got yourself a deal!”

I shake her hand, and she shakes mine, a green and white magic circle glowing beneath us momentarily, signifying the deal was made. Seeing that, however, and the book that appeared in my hand, I was beginning to doubt whether all this was fake or not.

‘That felt oddly powerful- this might not be fake. Dammit, too late now, fake it till you make it, that’s what they say, right?’

——————

Thus ends chapter 1

As always, comments and advice are appreciated!

[dionysiaproductions]

I've convinced everyone I know to watch KAOS and made sure to tell them before they watch the whole thing that I'm planning to dress up as Dennis the Kitten for Halloween.

I've gotten a lot of angry text messages.

No one is any less mad at me when I start ranting about how the metaphor is so good for Dionysius's lost youth/being forced to grow up that I wanted to be it. I have been told that wanting to dress up as the metaphor does not excuse my behavior.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Writer problems.

[waitmyturtles]

I was supposed to finally have a quiet moment this week, my first of 2024, to catch up on all the dramas I’m behind on, but alas — real life has gotten in the way, and it’ll still be a little bit before I have time to write big meta again. I’m way behind on thoughts for last week’s episodes of Playboyy, Last Twilight, and Cherry Magic Thailand, but I do very much want to write about them, so some quick notes on these three as follows:

1) I owe @poetry-protest-pornography and @chaos0pikachu my thoughts on camp and Playboyy. I intended to pen this post last week after last week’s episode, but said life (ha) has gotten in the way. Friends, please note that I still SO want to write this, because I think deconstructing why camp as a style works in art will be a wonderful conversation, regardless of the narrative success (or not) of Playboyy.

So, speaking of the narrative success of Playboyy — and the upcoming debate (maybe?) about a balance of style and storytelling in dramas, I watched last week’s episode of Playboyy with this post about The Sign in mind, because I think this post gets at a thing that I want to write more about re: Playboyy, which is, like — what makes a story/narrative contextually coherent, and what responsibilities do the artists behind a show have to viewers to make a story coherent?

I think one thing we were coming to in the conversation on camp at the end of last year was whether or not Playboyy could be considered a good, a successful, or maybe even a complete story by way of its various elements. At least for now, leaving camp aside, I still don’t think this show is working narratively at all. That Captain/Keen storyline had my head spinning — uh, your coach gave you one difficult practice, and you revenge on him by filming a sex tape without consent? How…..did we get there? Porsche now has feelings for Jump? I’m still not grabbing the whole Aob/Puen feelings debacle? The Nant/Nuth storyline has gotten momentum, but not enough to fill the majority of an episode, which is a shame, because it’s the only storyline element giving this show any context at the moment. And as @lurkingshan noted, the only real compelling moment in this episode was between Teena and Zouey about how they’d transcend reality to love better versions of each other. It was lovely to watch! But I’m still not sure why we’re watching all of these storylines and if, ever, they’ll come together in a coherent arc.

So, yeah man. I was so intrigued by the premise of this show. It ain’t workin’. I’ll have more to think on this regarding style. But the stories aren’t coming together — and I TRULY think that’s a shame, considering the important themes of the show.

2) From the little ability I had to poke around Tumblr last week after the last Last Twilight episode, I think (I think!) a general feeling was that the episode wasn’t as depth-y as it could have been for the MANY heavy moments of parental interventions that took place. I believe that’s right. I think there were too many gaps in the contextual flow of the show that left Day’s mom looking more like an enemy (like, even on Pran’s mom’s level) that could have been addressed with a touch more context coming from her.

Let me explain. When I see single moms in Aof Noppharnach shows, I first go to He’s Coming To Me. HCTM has the best BL mom ever — a single mom absolutely ready to embrace her son as he’s coming out.

We know Aof loves depicting moms; he wrote as much about it last year after Moonlight Chicken aired. He’s got some legendary moms — of course, Pran’s mom; Tian’s controlling mom (who I posit is actually a front for patriarchy in A Tale of Thousand Stars); Pat’s passive mom, who is actually way more down with reality than Pat’s dad; Kao’s mom that Kao is so fearful of by way of disappointment. (Special shout-out to Pete’s dad in Dark Blue Kiss as the best BL dad.)

In other words, we know Aof has the goods when it comes to commentary on parenting. We know from episode 9 that Day’s mom (Mhon) went through tremendous hardship to raise her boys, including begging for food. She’s a famous and successful chef by the time we meet her, a workaholic. She’s a single mom, a working single mom, and Porjai is about to be on the same cusp. Night happens to be the bridge to those two.

Mhon’s willingness to keep Day in his room….her ignoring Night to start the Christmas dinner. The taking away of Day’s phone, oof. Saying that Mhok crossed a line — all while she was aware that Day previously had a crush on August. These small points create quite the enemy storyline on Mhon.

This is unfortunate, because I actually felt, watching the episode, that there was a lot about Asian parenting that was being left on the table. Valuing work and the safety of one’s kids OVER their happiness is quite the social phenomenon in Asian parenting. A good bit of Day’s mom’s actions could actually be seen as appropriate by certain-minded parents in Asia.

Yet, to have Day’s mom then ignore Night during the dinner, to have Day’s mom take Day’s phone away without explaining why he can’t be in a relationship — even for an Asian viewer like myself, well used to a particular amount of conditional brutality in Asian parenting — those storytelling decisions seemed a little harsh without more context as to how Day’s mom was driven to be the way she is now.

We had plenty of context into Dissaya in episode 10 of Bad Buddy. That moment opened doors for us to get what the hell was going on. I would love to have a similar contextual moment for Mhon, words by her about her story, that tell us how she got to where she is by way of raising her boys and becoming successful. Despite her behavior to her sons — we know she worked damn hard to provide for them. A badass lies within, and I know a successful Aof show would show us that. I hope we get it.

3) Cherry Magic Thailand, episode 5! I LOVE what’s happening with Rock/Min against the Rokkaku/Minato storyline — I love this expansion, and how Rock is less clueless and much more emotionally vulnerable than Rokkaku. I love feisty Pai. I LOVE Junior’s Jinta! I have to continue covering my mouth as I cackle.

As compared to Adachi at this point in the storyline — I wonder if CMT is offering Achi a bit more of the clueless hand than he deserves. I love the embellishments to the jealousy storyline between Karan and Kurosawa — Achi and Rock pushing off in the boat alone was particularly poignant — but Achi is well aware of Karan’s heart now, and I’m a little surprised that he seems a dash clueless that his interactions with others would make Karan jealous.

This is a minor quibble, though. Achi and Adachi are two dudes unfamiliar with love. But I wonder slightly if this vibe I’m feeling is perhaps a result of the original Cherry Magic Japan story being literally doubled in time in Thailand.

Again — MINOR quibble. This show is a refreshing delight. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the next part of the storyline. I love that they found a similar place in Thailand to shoot Karan’s drunk flashback scene as Kurosawa’s in Japan. Will Achi offer us Thailand’s version of a classic JBL run? I sure damn hope so!

That’s it! I think I’ll be able to catch up on all of this week’s shows in real time, bless up!

[cheshire-salvatore-mikaelson]

TUA FANS

I have a show to cure your souls

TRUST ME

It’s called KAOS on Netflix! It’s an amazing modern adaptation of the Greek myths! ACTUALLY PJO FANS GO FUCKING WATCH THIS SHOW TOOOO

ITS SO GOOD

Please! Please go watch it!!!!!!!!!!

IT NEEDS TO BE RENEWED FOR SEASON TWO!!!!

It’s got representation and good writing and an amazing soundtrack and just gives vibes that resonate with the golden days of TUA and a good adaptation and story around the myths like PJO!

Don’t believe me go to the #kaos tag and look!

[kendoola]

You can’t change my mind: Netflix Kaos did Greece and Greeks a huge disservice by writing us out of our own stories

(To preface: I am Greek and this has nothing to do with the actual content of the story. Take of that what you will. I’m talking about people, language, culture, location, etc. if you dismiss me and say I’m just upset over “mythological inaccuracies” your comments will be deleted)

It ultimately boils down to a near total erasure of the people they claim to be portraying.

The production team could so easily have mitigated all of this by saying “this takes place in America actually” or the uk or literally anywhere else and I would have had no complaints. But they chose to specifically keep the setting while removing the people and any meaningful visible trace of our culture…

In 8 hours of content:

a single Greek actor appears in screen for roughly 45 seconds as a falafel vendor

a single Greek word is spoken - Γεια σας which means hello… said by Poseidon as he’s leaving…

there was not a single frame shot anywhere on location in Greece, they decided to film in Spain and Italy instead

Again, none of this would have been an issue if they hadn’t really leaned into “yes this is still Greece, see they just had the Trojan war and everything”

There are so many different accents heard on screen that you’d think statistically some of them would be at least vaguely Mediterranean sounding… But no. Even amongst people who are ostensibly immediate family members there was no consistency. Ariadne had a British accent and her father Minos the king president of Crete had an Irish accent. And there’s no excusing it saying that they were going for inclusive or blind casting, because that just makes it make even less sense that they managed to not include any Greek actors at all.

It especially upset me that the frequently repeated word “vero” that they all use to show worship to the gods isn’t even Greek, it’s Latin for truth. Meanwhile there is a very common Greek word that people use conversationally all the time to say something is true and it’s αλήθεια and that would have been such an easy thing to put in to give the show some veracity…

(Also it’s very visually apparent that they didn’t actually shoot anywhere in Greece for their show, which they claimed was set in Greece. The entirety of the it was shot in Spain and Italy, and you can tell not only because the architecture and city vibes are wrong but there are very clear major landmarks they didn’t even bother trying to hide)

Why not tell your own stories if you don’t want to include us in our own? Why film other islands and towns and say they’re ours? Why mispronounce our names with your ugly British accents when you could come up with different ones and tell the stories you clearly want to tell? Why the conceit of claiming to represent us when it genuinely seems like effort must have been made to not put us on screen?