#like fully unironically genuinely Love that movie

[priestfrommidnightmass]

i just made the most Rad edit of all time of lost angels (1989) but i don’t know if i can post it i’m afraid adam horovitz will send me death threats if i do

[harufluff]

asking them to marry you on over the phone (unironically)

warnings - cursing, but that should be it.

genre - crack, fluff, bf!enhypen x fem!reader, established relationship au

wc - 1.1k

inspired by ‘you’re here that’s the thing’ by beabadoobee

yang jungwon

was stunned

actually thought he was having a heart attack for a second

he was doing something as simple as eating his gummies when you suddenly blurted out

"oh god- marry me."

man nearly choked on his gummy

more under the cut :))

"EXCUSE ME??"

if you were joking that was a bad idea cause he is fully prepared to marry you right that second >:(

either way, he's flattered

he thinks its honoring that you feel comfortable enough to say that

eventually you convince him to stop freaking out (it took way too long)

but even then, it still makes the heat rush to his face

thankfully it was just on facetime, so you couldn't see the red at the tips of his ears too much

he knows he's down bad fr 😋😋

lee heeseung

on the other hand mr i'm so confident on stage was like a little puddle

genuinely thought he heard you wrong at first

he was just sitting there zoning out for like two minutes and finally snapped out of it when he heard you say

"just marry me, you dork."

you thought it was funny lol 😎😎

probably should have thought that through cause you just messed up his heart with two words

"w-wait did you just- what did you say?!"

poor hee was so confused

"idk what did i say..."

"YOU SAID MARRY ME IDIOT"

"oh yea lol"

"FUCK YOU YOU CANT JUST SAY THAT"

he was a tad bit mad

just a little

literally walked over to your place so he could give you hugs and kisses 😤

park jay

he's been ready for this moment his entire life

literally got mad cause he wanted to say it

it ended with you having to beg him to stop talking

jay was cooking for the boys with you on facetime cause he was bored and everyone else would get in his way

so he gave you a call and you ended up staying on a call with him for over two hours

but the second he started tasting his food like the gourmet chef he is👌👌

suddenly he heard some of the best words he'll ever hear in his life

"ughhh- when we get married will you cook for me?"

poor baby whipped his head around so fast he almost broke it

"WHAT?? NOW?? BUT WERE ON THE PHONE AND- HEY YOU TOOK MY JOB I WAS SUPPOSED TO ASK YOU!!"

at this point you were staring at your phone with a blank stare

"what."

"you said marriage. you're stuck with me you can't leave me haha sucks for you."

"its ok i didnt want to anyway." 😊

whoops you just killed him with a smushy heart

sim jaehyun

he screamed

long story short, he almost fainted and quite literally did that "mrs rabbit has fainted" thing

the two of you were folding your own laundry together on facetime because, well, he gets lonely

obviously you said yes, because why wouldn't you??

"you look so cute and domestic, i love it. i could marry you this second if i could."

took him a couple of seconds

but eventually your words processed through his head and he SCREAMED

"THIS SECOND??"

"mhm!! you look cute." 😚

another puddle guess what you're the mop. come wipe up your jake puddle babe

he laid on the floor for a solid five minutes just processing.

anyway now hes at your house still a little jake puddle and he's making you watch movies with him on the couch.

park sunghoon

he was ready 🫡🫡

hoon got the phone and everything. he was ready to make the call to all the family

but obviously before that he took it a TINI TINY bit seriously

a tini tiny bit

basically it was morning and he was on tour so he was sad and alone (besides sunoo who was just offended that he even said that)

babe started drinking water until he heard

"i miss you a lot. when we get married, you're not aloud to do this to me."

spit water out of his mouth

it was kinda gross but did he care? no.

"MARRIED?? WHO SAID I WAS GETTING MARRIED TO YOU??"

he's a little mean when he's flustered ok?

"PARK SUNGHOON I'LL-"

"wait, you wanna get married to me? really??"

if you could slap him in the face you would, but truth is he was flattered.

he would marry you any day 💘💘

kim sunoo

also went along with it

you were going through all the snacks you found at the market with sunoo over facetime

to say the least he was just excited you were excited

"i got this thingy, and im not really sure what it is but it looks good."

the call went on with you eating the snacks and reviewing

"WAIT THIS IS SO GOOD SUN YOU HAVE TO TRY THIS SOMETIME."

"ill try it sometime then."

"we have to get it together and maybeeee you can buy it??"

"ill buy you any snacks you want, my love." 😋

"ugh marry me already."

SELF DESTRUCTION

"ANYTIME"

next time you go over to his place he had a little toilet paper boquet for you 😊😊

STOP I LOVE HIM

nishimura riki

my babe fr

another one who was a little too confident

you were on a ft with him late at night just for funsies

honestly the two of you were just messing around while eating snacks and making little crafts

anyway he was like quite literally about to fall asleep and he looked SO DAMN CUTE

like his eyes about to close and his lip is getting all pouty and UGH-

"night, ki"

"nooo i'm not asleep don't leave meeeee"

"lol you're so cute just marry me"

EYES ARE SHOT WIDE OPEN MAN HAS NEVER BEEN MORE AWAKE IN HIS LIFE

"married huh?? you're really that obsessed with me"

huh- OH WAIT THAT WAS A JOKE THO"

"NOT ANYMORE BABE IT'S REAL NOW"

aaaaaaand again you're stuck 😋😊

i literally love him sm

©harufluff 2023

[yuri-is-online]

One Sided Love Triangles: Tokyo Debunker

Link to Twisted Wonderland Post

Because I hate when people have to lose. Though I'd be way more comfortable writing a normal love triangle for tdb than twst... there's a few of these bitches who could stand to be knocked down a peg or two.

Haru vs Peekaboo- betrayal never comes from your enemies does it. Haru wants to be happy you get along with his baby, and he's really grateful for your continued help in the anomalous animal sanctuary, really. He even originally found your interactions with Peekabo really cute! He's got a bunch of videos saved on his phone and everything but he can't help but feel just a wee bit bitter. He really wants to be the one with his head in your lap getting scritches and being told how cute he is. Something he'd never say to your face but whines about at the bar enough for Romeo to record and send to you. "For free?" Yeah for free he's had enough of this shit please come get your man MC.

Kaito vs Luca- this one is cannon to a degree I think... Kaito is deeply insecure about how much more confident Luca is around MC compared to him and how the girls on campus seem to like him more. The fact that he's so painfully oblivious doesn't help, meanwhile Luca is just overjoyed that his two best friends are in such a good relationship. You're genuinely perfect for each other, why all these secrecy and making him promise not to tell the other about the nice things you say? Isn't it natural to gush about your partner???

Towa vs Ren- Towa is such a pouty baby who doesn't fully understand his feelings and Ren is just happy to have a friend who understands the concept of a log in bonus. Neither of you fully realize that Towa is attempting to flirt, or would it be closer to say woo? All you know is one minute the two of you are casually chilling and talking about horror movies or something and then *BAM* Towa's thrown some flowers at Ren and pulled you into his lap. He's happy you wiggle to get comfy with him but very upset that you keep up your conversation with Ren. Stop being a good senpai and pay attention to hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim.

Tohma vs Leo- just hear me out. I don't think Tohma really gets jealous? He seems super secure in himself and his abilities so he doesn't have much of a reason to get whiny and silly over MC, that's your role in the relationship. And he knows, logically that this little video Leo uploaded is bait to test the security on campus but it doesn't stop him from damn near cracking his phone in half when he sees it. That's how Leo wants to play this little game? Well fine, Tohma hopes he's ready to be thoroughly humiliated. No one can flirt with another man's partner quite as well as a bitch with a monocle. Leo is totally unaware any of this for the most part, he just assumes the extra irritation he's picking up on from Tohma is because he keeps spying on him and Alan. The fact he keeps teasing MC doesn't even cross his mind, he's just doing that to irritate you.

... as a side note can you imagine how confused everyone would get if Leo and MC kept picking fights about their upcoming "divorce" when no one even thought they were ever technically together. Except for Ritsu who sits you down to seriously try to talk you in to let him being your divorce attorney and still doesn't fully get that it's a joke by the time you're done. Actually while I'm at it:

Leo vs Ritsu- where that's exactly your dynamic but Leo starts catching some genuine feelings when he tries to crack a joke about you cheating on him with your divorce attorney only to realize that makes him unironically angry. How dare you, after everything you've been through. Wasn't he he enough? You know he can't treat you like he can. And you're just like "what can't treat me wrong?" And then you have a very toxic make out session Sho has to hear both of you scream about later while he seriously considers taking up a drinking problem.

Taiga vs Haru- this game has one character named Haru (ginger, baby) and one named Haku (green, evil?) Which confuses me an unreasonable amount. I already mentioned I wanted a serious Taiga vs Haku love triangle... but Taiga vs Haru would just be silly. You have MC who loves anomalous animals and hanging out in Jabberwock and Taiga who hates emotional intimacy and his feelings for MC just as much as he hates the idea of you being with anyone else. And of all people why Harry? He thought they were friends... or cool at least even if he won't let him eat that chinchilla thing. And now he's got MC playing defense for it too, it's irritating. He already has to fight himself to remember who you are every time he sees you again and go through the annoyance of recognizing he's a bit in love and now he can't even break into the animal sanctuary without tripping over himself and paying attention to you instead. It's annoying and it's all Haru's fault for having everything he wants. (If you ask he'll say that complaint is about Peekaboo but Haru and Romeo know it's not.) Haru is just trying to get some help from a trusted friend he's so stressed out ;-;

Sho vs Jin- Sho and his excuses... he doesn't want to just invite you to hang out and he doesn't want to ask you to come help him with the food truck because you've got so much else to do. You deserve a chance to rest, and he wants to be who you come to do that with. But Jin... he'd make that so much easier if it was him wouldn't he? He's rich and connected, and you're so sweet he's sure you could thaw that frozen heart enough for him to see you as human and not a gopher. Sho knows you, the moment he started paying attention to you he saw you as a person. But he still hurt you... and Jin didn't really do that did he? Jin doesn't like Sho because he's in Vagastrom and he doesn't trust him with your safety. Sho might see a rival and a better option, but what he's really dealing with is MC's disapproving dad who can't stand that their boyfriend has a leather jacket and a motorbike. He bets he's got tattoos and an arrest record too doesn't he MC, Jin is judging you so hard.

[lakesbian]

basically alec doesnt think he deserves a gold star for not killing because he has no idea what hes doing. ever. at any point in time. he thinks he has 0 opinion on killing. he has no idea that he doesn't want to kill. his sole mental barrier between him and killing has the tensile strength of a single strand of human hair. he has no idea what his moral stances are. he has them, he just doesn't know he has them. him trying to figure out how he feels about literally anything more complicated than "what's my favorite flavor of ice cream" or "do i feel like watching a movie tonight" is like someone who's never seen a cloud before trying to read a meteorological chart on live tv. he literally unironically fully genuinely is not sure if there are circumstances where torture is okay or not. there's so much wrong with him it reaches the point of being comically unbelievable. however oblivious you think he is he's worse. he doesn't want a gold star for not killing because he's both unaware that he wants a gold star and unaware that killing is bad. I love him.

[theriu]

River Reads Midnight Sun

Chapter 3: Risk

In which Ed struggles with his Plot-driven feelings and Bella is almost squashed like a bug.

<-Chapter 2

(NOTE: So it occurs to me that I’ve not been clear about how hard Edward has been working to do the right thing these past couple chapters. While he has his faults, Edward and his vampire family have sworn off eating or killing humans, and he very much does NOT want to kill and eat Bella, morally speaking. He’s struggling against unusually strong vampiric urges her smell is setting off in his system, and the question of whether he should run away from his Found Family and avoid Bella for her safety, uproot his whole family from their current home if they choose to go with him, or face and overcome this trial, the face of whom the Plot has unfairly branded onto his brain. Also, Alice and Carlisle have been very supportive yet sensible, and I love them unironically.

Okay, got that off my chest! Now we can get back to mocking the teenage angst!)

So the opening scene of this chapter is genuinely nice, in my opinion. Edward and Dad Carlisle go hunting together (deer, because this family only drinks animal blood), and we get a little review of Carlisle’s concern and understanding a week ago when Ed had to leave (including how he let Ed take his car). Carlisle seems a genuinely good person (and a doctor) who fully supports Ed doing whatever is necessary to stay sane and keep from taking a life, even encouraging him to leave if that’s what it takes (despite how much they would miss him). He checks with Edward that coming back isn’t just about Ed’s pride. He’s even openly willing to go with Ed and start over somewhere else if it will spare a needless death while letting their family stay together. +100 Dad Points, Carlisle gets an award for top tier dadding.

Of course, Ed can’t quite put into words for Carlisle WHY he is now so determined to stay, other than it not being pride anymore. This is probably because it is difficult for a protagonist to describe the irresistible pull of The Plot on his affections and sensibilities. The scene changes as they go gallivanting into the woods, and Ed, now fat and unhappy on deer blood, chills by an icy river and spends more time pondering why he cares so much about this girl and why he is risking her life by staying.

I find it hilarious that HE keeps noting how his feelings make no sense. Why does he care about this girl? What about her draws him to her? Why is he unable to think about anything but her? GREAT QUESTIONS, ED! IF ONLY THE ANSWER WASN’T “YOU’RE IN A PARANORMAL ROMANCE”! The poor boy doesn't know what powers he is truly struggling against, even as he considers such self-aware drivers as his “obsessive curiosity” and “unsatisfied appetite.” However, he DOES decide he is going to follow Carlisle’s advice and leave after one more day, because he DOES want to be responsible and selfless! A fruitless determination, no doubt, but let’s give the guy some credit: That was a valiant effort to resist the unstoppable hands of plot-fate.

When he goes back to the house, he chats with Alice, who once again foresees him planning to leave. She doesn’t want him to, and NOT for romantic reasons but out of genuine sister/friend love. They have a moment of mental movie time watching her highly scattered visions about him, wherein she predicts his life is at a crossroads. He makes a joke about her sounding like a carnival fortuneteller, which is actually a good jab, well done Ed. He and Alice go get ready for school, with her still openly sad that he might leave again and making sure he knows she will miss him if he has to go. ALICE AND CARLISLE ARE REALLY NICE OKAY, HUZZAH FOR LIKEABLE CHARACTERS

Off they go to school! During which drive we learn Rosalie and Emmett are sickeningly in love, which…did NOT seem apparent in the first two chapters. Seriously, they've barely interacted onscreen so far, and Ed only mentioned that Alice and Jasper are a thing, so these two staring adoringly into each others’ eyes felt a bit outta left field. Turns out the other six vamps in this family are paired off in sweet adorable couples and Ed is the self-proclaimed grumpy old man, which amuses me greatly. Of course, Singleness Is Bad, so naturally Ed will find his soulmate, even if The Plot has to ram feelings of attraction for her down his cerebral cortex!

As the others head into school, Ed and Alice hang out by their car to watch Bella drive into the parking lot. Bella is obviously very nervous about snow-driving, which Ed realizes must mean she is Serious and Responsible. Ed finds her worry and Bambi-like clumsiness on the ice endearing, and notes when her snow tire seems to make her emotional. (???) 

Ed is working himself up to possibly go talk to her, which would be unwise and bad probably, when suddenly Alice has a VISION OF DOOM!!! In SECONDS, a van will come careening into the parking lot, and Bella will be CRUSHED LIKE A BUG!!! Woe!!! Calamity!!! Convenient!!! (Seriously, what are the odds someone would have a life-ending car accident in THIS school parking lot with ACTUAL vampire students watching, and of course the target is one vampire’s new obsession? I don’t care what the OC shows have taught us, fatal car accidents on school grounds are NOT common enough for this.)

So Ed ROCKETS into action, SWOOPING her out of the way in the nick of time! But oh no, the van is bouncing back towards them again! He’s risking exposure already, but dangit, this homicidal vehicle shall not take the girl! Edward grabs it and is slammed back, leaving a nice imprint of his shoulders on another car for his trouble. And NOW he’s stuck holding the van up because if he lets go, Bella will probably lose her legs under the tires.

Ed is so done with everything by this point, resulting in my favorite line of the book so far:

“Oh, for the love of all that was holy, would the catastrophes never end?!”

(Dangit, Ed, why can’t you always be this relatable)

Fortunately, between supermanning the van and Bella into safer positions and panicking over Bella having bonked her head on the ice, he’s able to resist his homicidal cravings, even when he tucks her neatly against him. Now he notices she is alert and seems mostly okay aside from the head bonk. To his consternation, however, she immediately asks how the heck he got over here so fast. Ed lies like a professional and badly wants to get her to Carlisle, who has ACTUAL medical experience as opposed to Ed’s “theoretical medical study” (so that answers the question of how useful Ed’s two medical degrees are). 

Despite them lying under two vehicles on ice (and Bella complaining that it’s cold when he won’t let her try and crawl out because she could have a neck injury, which YES THAT IS A REASONABLE CONCERN BELLA), Bella chooses this time to call Ed’s bluff. She is DARN CERTAIN he was OVER THERE and NOT right next to her, and Ed is NOT convincing her otherwise. He finally gets her to shush by promising to explain it later, all the while plotting to use her possible head injury to gaslight the heck out of her and everybody else into believing he was definitely standing right beside her and didn’t practically teleport.

People finally get the van away from the trapped duo, and Ed knows the registered nurse who pops up. He discloses Bella’s head injury to said nurse, and Bella acts BETRAYED, reminding Ed that she likes to suffer in silence, to which I say BELLA, POSSIBLE CONCUSSIONS ARE NOT THE KIND OF SUFFERING YOU DO IN SILENCE!!! The girl needs her head checked in MULTIPLE ways!

As Bella is humiliated over enduring standard medical care after an accident, Ed uses his foot to rearrange the reverse sculpture of his shoulders in the other car. Then Bella’s dad, the chief of police, shows up, justifiably freaked out, and Ed realizes how accurate it was when Alice said killing his only daughter would kill him. (AWW!!!) Ooo, ALSO, Ed notices Charlie Swan’s thoughts are a little hard to read! Not as much as Bella’s, but it seems this cerebral lead lining against mind radar is genetic? And here he thought Charlie was slow in the head! (Ed gets +2 points for noting that HE (Ed) was the slow one for assuming that and never noticing he actually just couldn’t hear Charlie’s thoughts clearly.)

Anyhoo, they get to the hospital, and Ed keeps a mental eye on Bella via the paramedics while he finds Carlisle. He’s ashamed he might have revealed their secret, but Carlisle is just proud of him for doing the right thing and saving the girl’s life. THEY HUG! Carlisle is the BEST, guys!!! 

After a chuckle about the irony that Ed ended up protecting the girl he was afraid he’d hurt (and Ed quietly angsting about how likely he still is to hurt her), Carlisle goes to check on Bella. Ed fidgets and watches Hospital Brainwaves TV for a while, so despite the agonizing wait, he has plenty of entertainment. Tyler, the van driver, is hurt bad and feels horrible that he almost smashed Bella, and won’t stop apologizing. To Ed’s relief, Bella is sticking to the story Edward gave about his standing right next to her, even though Tyler also didn’t see him. Ed hears Bella say his name for the first time, via Tyler’s thought-ears (???), and wishes he could hear it with his own ears! He also notices Tyler thinking about asking Bella on a date to make up for the near-death experience, and that is somehow so VERY dumb and also feels accurate to how some high school guys might think, so I can’t really argue with it. Ed, naturally, continues to struggle with the realization that his understanding of his own emotions is nowhere near as comprehensive as he’s believed for the past century.

Ed and Carlisle soon have a brief chat over Bella’s X-rays; she’s fine, although Carlisle notes how many healed fractures her skull has and jokes about how often her mom dropped her as a baby. (No, the jokes are too easy, I mustn't. He’s already claimed the best one anyway.) Ed goes on ahead to smooth things over with Bella, who is impatiently pretending to sleep in hopes Tyler will stop apologizing. She also manages to be pouty that Ed didn’t also have to endure the humiliation of a stretcher, be impatient about being asked about her head again, and deny to Carlisle that her head bump feels tender. Ed, who isn't at ALL influenced by his inexplicable sense of attraction to this girl, determines that because she doesn't like to show weakness, she is Brave. I might argue that she is showing more signs of being a self-focused pity-partyer who thinks she knows better than medical professionals and has low tolerance for petty annoyances, but who am I to disagree with the male protagonist?

Bella is released to go home with her dad, which she…doesn’t want to do? Is it going home or being with her dad that bothers her? Between being annoyed at Tyler for his understandable (if repetitive) remorse, being annoyed Edward didn’t have to be fussed over by hospital staff like she did, and apparently not wanting to hang out with her clearly concerned father, she isn’t doing the best job of earning that Selfless tag Ed gave her last chapter. She’s also highly embarrassed that, as Carlisle puts it, “most of the school seems to be in the waiting room.” Ed, on the other hand, is pleased he guessed her reaction correctly. (He’s also envious that Carlisle can touch her like a normal person and not be tempted to eat her like Ed is, but he doesn’t make it awkward. Apparently different vampires don't find the same human hyperdelicious, which is definitely a positive.)

Naturally, Bella is determined to talk about what REALLY happened before she goes home. Ed, once again gripped by the struggle of not eating her, agrees to talk it out in private. It’s time for Vampire Gaslighting! He’s determined to be mean and a jerk and make her disbelieve her own senses (despite aching for her to trust him), and then he will disappear from her life forever. It starts out pretty well, with him being cold enough that she drops her tough girl act. However, she’s still pretty dang determined and reveals just how much SUPER WEIRD STUFF she DEFINITELY NOTICED, like him leaving dents in multiple vehicles but being fine as sunshine!

Ed’s getting a bit nervous at this point and doubles down on the dismissive act, but then she startles him by saying she’s not going to tell anyone. Regaining his footing, he wants to know why it matters, then. She says she doesn't like lying, so she’d rather know the reason why she’s lying for him. I’m given brief The Princess Bride vibes as Ed essentially tells her “get used to disappointment.” 

They scowl at each other for a bit, until finally she, once again more annoyed than self-preserving, wonders why he even bothered to save her. To which he gives what he feels is his first honest reply of this conversation: "I don't know." With that, he ends the discussion by walking off dramatically, as one does.

AND SCENE!

I'd say this chapter was more interesting than the last two! Carlisle is a gem, I am ALWAYS down for a positive and supportive dad character and I will fight for this compassionate good-humored doctorpire. The exposition was SLIGHTLY less focused on Ed’s INNER TURMOIL thanks to the action scene, but don’t worry, there was still plenty of inner turmoil. Bella continues to act contrary to the definitions Ed labels her with, although I can kinda respect her refusing to be gaslighted and standing firm on what she knew she’d seen. Despite Ed’s numerous declarations that today would certainly be the last day he sees her, however, I do not hold out much hope for his success.

As we leave this chapter, here’s my recreation of the “small list” Edward is reportedly keeping of Bella’s character traits! I sure can’t wait to see what else gets added in the coming days!

Ed’s Questionable Bella Vocab List:

Advanced (See Also: Intelligent For A Human)

Selfless (See Also: Martyr)

Fascinating (See Also: Interesting, Not Like Other Humans)

Discerning (See Also: Intuitive, Perceptive)

Amusing

Serious

Responsible

Brave

Chapter 4-> (Coming Soon)

[pinkacademic]

My Top Ten Barbie Movies

With the movie approaching, I'm dubbing this Barbie Month, and pushing back on the Studying part of the Masterpost for a little longer. July is pink party time!

Today, I’m sharing my Top Ten Barbie movies, which I wonder if they’ll be controversial! Share yours, lets compare!

10: Christmas Carol. She cast herself as the villain, we love that! This is unironically a good adaptation of A Christmas Carol. It doesn’t beat the Muppets, but there are many worse adaptations that get way more praise. Eden Starling is a fantastic Barbie-fied Scrooge, and I love Morwenna Banks.

9: Star Light Adventure. I love Star Wars, I love Star Trek, I love big dumb himbos whose entire motivation in life is Eat Food, Drive Fast, Drink Respect Women Juice. Sometimes Barbie movies should be ranked by their Ken, and Prince Leo is just great. Also, a unique sci-fi plot that could only come from a Barbie movie.

8: Spy Squad. Listen, sometimes I just like dumb, fun movies. This is a stellar spy movie with a fun premise, quirky characters, a spy HQ in the H of the Hollywood sign, and the baddie is just their rival in a wig. Its cute, its colourful, they give Barbie a knock-off lightsaber. No complaints.

7: Big City, Big Dreams. We’re finally back to a good, queer-leaning Barbie movie! I love Malibu and Brookln’s dynamic, I think they’re so cute platonically or romantically, and I had fun with Mermaid Magic and Epic Road Trip too. I don’t love the tragic miscommunication moment, but I guess they had to add conflict in the last ten minutes. I love the songs and their final performance enough that all is forgiven.

6: Video Game Hero. I just think its fun, ok? This is the “there’s more than one way to ___” thing that Pink Shoes tried (and I still love, just not enough to Top Ten it) but went the wrong way about in my opinion. Video Game Hero is not a groundbreaking political commentary, or a classic musical, but it just has a special place in my heart.

5: Three Musketeers. I genuinely do not care for any other version of Three Musketeers. No one will ever beat Barbie. I love the secret society of swordfighters, I love that Prince Louis changes his tune by the power of… well, the Power of Four forevermore, I guess. I love that every version of Three Musketeers features precisely 0 muskets, and the Barbie version took that new heights with one of them fully just having ribbons.

4: The Fairytopia Trilogy. I think they get better and better with each iteration. I love the story of a wingless fairy getting wings, and then giving them up selflessly in 1 and 2, and I love that the ultimate message is that of kindness and courage. It’s also absolutely just me being blinded by childhood nostalgia, but Laverna is a top tier villain too.

3: Magic of Pegasus. I have a lot of positive thoughts about this one, but the main one is Aiden!! I think his story is quite unique and complex and he’s one of the strongest love interests of any of th Barbie movies. I also think this one is so pretty and purple, and Cloud Kingdom is glorious, and the quest plot is fantastic.

2: Princess and the Pauper. Now I know this one will not be controversial, except that it’s nt number one! Annaliese and Erika are both delightful, Julian and Dominic too, and even the characters lower on the roster are fun. Not to mention the best songs that make me want to do a full stage production.

1: Princess Charm School. This probably comes as no surprise if you’ve read my essay. I think that the socioeconomic implications are intense, I think that the murder plot is exciting, I think Hadley and Isla as Gardania Unsolved have to be among my favourite Friend Characters, and I think Blair is actually a great character too. I also love Delancey’s redemption, and how it comes from being faced with real-world consequences.

[domorebemore]

literally like that's why i kind of try to be a little off-putting when i date people and say weird shit right off the bat because i want to see how much they're willing to put up with at first. but then that backfires because then they get to project a manic pixie dreamgirl thing onto me like wow this girl is sooooo weird that's so funny and epic. and then they get to talk to me and it's just like. wow this bitch is annoyingly obsessed with a lot of weird shit isn't she.........................

also a lot of it is because until recently, even though i've always been very in-tune with my emotions (i'm extremely emotional always have been i'm a triple water sign babey), i felt like it was cringe and embarrassing to show it to others. so like i always had to do some sort of Bit around it. which is why i've fully embraced my dps love now because i used to be like wow it's embarrassing how much i love this movie. because it's so earnest and unironic and i usually would call that corny. so i have to do a bit about liking it instead. and pretend it's just because i was horny or whatever.

idk none of this makes any fucking sense i'm literally just like trauma dumping on my own blog (i'm jk this isn't trauma lmao) but anyway ............ i just always had to turn all of my emotions into a Bit because i've turned my entire life into a performance art piece essentially by putting myself out there online for my whole life. like everything i do is so performative bc i feel like i have to put on a show for others. and if i feel a genuine earnest emotion i have to immediately turn it into a joke and put it online for others to see bc i can't stand to be alone with it for a single second LOL......... BUT NOW I'M TRYING TO NOT DO THAT!!!!!!!!!! LIKE THAT'S PART OF THIS ENTIRE NUMANDA MOMENT IS I'M LIKE TRYING TO BE A GENUINE EARNEST HUMAN BEING BUT IT'S HARD BC IT IS EMBARRASSING TO BE A HUMAN

[hartmannyoukaigirl]

attack on titan's ending is just. so so stupid.

as of writing this, i have calmed down from my fury after witnessing the astronomical bullshit also known as season 4 and Especially the two movies at the end. But clearly not enough because the sheer betrayal i feel pierces through my heart and it. hurts. why did the author do this? we had such a good relationship... attack on titan is such an old anime and so mainstream that everyone and their mother watched it. i just hadn't watched it fully so i thought to

rewatch from the very start and experience what once was a 10/10 unironic masterpiece of fiction that... made me discover and dive deep into the anime world as a newbie. as an irl newbie too i literally was 8 years old ( a bit Young to watch extreme death and murder but god did i love it. it was new and unique and it felt real unlike anything else i watched at that time. and also, ive always been edgy )

i just. can't explain the sheer greatness of the first 3 seasons even if i wanted too. the thing is the anime IS too painfully real and it's such a great story with a greater idea and it.. was apparent that the author knew what he was doing. that he was writing the story with a purpose.

in season 3 i genuinely wailed when THE EVENT happened where i hadn't cried that much in easily 5 years or more. It was dramatic and tense and horrible and yet. it was for a great cause.

AND THEN THE BULLSHIT OF SEASON 4 HAPPENS

HOW

COULD SOMEONE RUIN THEIR BELOVED MANGA OF 10 YEARS THAT HIT WORLD WIDE FAME SO EASILY AND WITH SO MUCH CONFIDENCE.

I GENIUNELY DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT KIND OF ACID THE AUTHOR TOOK. The characters felt so weird and bad and ESPECIALLY ARMIN WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO HIM other than the obvious he geniunely wasn't any more useful than a stone on the street or a sack of potatoes. no, seriously what. after the events of season 3 and him becoming such a big favourite character to me he just became... while we are on that topic how the hell did every interaction he had with eren especially in tense moments go so hard and in the final movie it was... worse than the shittiest fanfiction you could imagine. i geniunely was just laughing at it it was so absurd this is the exact type of things i see on wattpad and yet it is CANON? AND THE ENDING OF A DECADE OLD SERIES THAT EVERYONE GREW UP WITH.

I Absolutely did like eren killing every non eldian however things got a bit annoying. I really didnt like his personality after its shift when he touched historia's hand and having finished the anime i Understand what happened but it left a really sore taste in my mouth. and the ending speech where he came true about why he was acting like that just made me cringe. i missed the old eren. and old armin. :"( however, admittedly

i like that mikasa FINALLY got some semblance of personality in season 4. she didnt scream EREEEEEEH every 5 seconds and Actually stopped mentioning him 24/7 and only existing by his side, actually, a big reason i didnt like that season was bc eren was ?? ? ? god knows where most of the time but the positive of that is that mikasa has... independent moments. ikr. i couldnt believe my mind.

actually after writing this i feel alot calmer, just hours ago i wanted to strangle the author with my bare hands but it is whatever i guess. i predicted this anyways because the first 3 seasons where bombshells upon bombshells and literally everything was perfect. and nothing is perfect and all humans are a proud of a sin and inherently could never rise that far. so it is fine, the author did good for 11 years without breaks to always work on the manga. he couldn't have done everything after all.

i miss the old attack on titan, and i sort of wish i hadn't finished it and instead left it as this perfect anime that was all sparkly and cool and emotional and well written but... alas. :(

somehow, the anime was better when they still remained inside the walls. im not even sure what should've happened, but it definitely wasn't that.

[vampiremeerkat]

The Lorax movie had a predecessor to How Bad Can I Be?, this being a rock musical ditty called Biggering. I'd say the song's genre matched the man singing it; this Once-ler wasn't going to be a fedora-wearing teenager. I would've liked a genuine villain, but most movie companies don't want unironic antagonists in their kids entertainment anymore. A solution to this could've been a Lorax movie for adults, and why not, it's a demographic with the brain capacity to fully understand the message, and the control to make a change. The problem with children is I HATE THEM BUT THEY ALWAYS LOVE ME LIKE THE DAMN CATS THEY ARE, but also, they're first to point at a thing and shout: "PARENTAL FIGURE! I DESIRE THIS USELESS OBJECT! I SHALL SCREAM AND HUMILIATE ALL WHO HEAR IT IF MY WISH IS NOT GRANTED YESTERDAY.". They don't care if you tell them their toy was made with slave labour, they're gonna want that Five Nights At Freddy's plushie. The one with the empathy and final decision will always be the adult caretaker. This is why I kinda think the original Lorax book is not effective, either. Some people say the replacement of Biggering for something more tongue in cheek is thanks to companies' reluctance to blow the whistle on themselves. After all, tone-deaf ads came with the movie, starring The Lorax, happily endorsing the products featured. I'd call it a believable take if this demo song wasn't published on official soundtrack CD's and Youtube. Illumination is not exactly hiding its existence. It's a shame How Bad Can I Be will forever surpass it in views and adoration, but I'm not going to act too dramatic over it, as the songs in this movie are the only things I enjoyed about it. I boogied, what can I say. I don't think it's ever been in Illumination's interest to create heavy messages. They target the youngest, who want bright colours and pop music. It's a formula that works, why deviate. It's about the money. It's about the biggering. It makes their choice to adapt The Lorax, of all things, pretty bad, but knowing them, they'd just sing How Bad Can I Be at me in response. Anyway, there's the unnecessary context for the song I uploaded. It's a remix of Biggering and a Gigi D'Agostino track, only the good things in life. I made sure not to copy-paste and retained demo Once-ler's vibe. Rest in peace, my evil murderous swine, you never stood a chance. Got a lyric video if that's something you think is cool. Well. Change da world. My final message. Goodbye.

[wildrisen]

ranking every season of pleasant goat and big big wolf

//// SPOILER WARNINGS. ////

S tier: the best of the best. will always go back to watch.

A tier: awesome, will return to watch

B tier: may periodically rewatch

C tier: probably won’t rewatch unless i’m on a XYYYHTL marathon

D tier: not my favorite tbh

note: i’m not including most of the earlier seasons cause i don’t remember enough of them

starting with:

D tier

⭐️ Dear Little Wish (2014) ⭐️

or, the one where the goats have to grant all the wishes from this tree to send this old star back home.

i don’t think i dislike this one at all, but i’ve never gone back to rewatch it since the first time i saw it in 2017 and tbh, i don’t even remember the ending. just not memorable to me.

🧵 The Tailor’s Closet (2014) 🧵

or, the one where the goats have to make clothes to send their sentient tool friends back to the tailor’s world.

similar situation to DLW. i’ve never gone back to rewatch this season because of the fact that it’s just not… memorable. all i remember is wolffy getting stuck in the tailor’s world at the end lmao. it reminds me quite a bit of Paddi the Amazing Chef.

i will give it extra points for the theme song, though. 3/4 lyrical music is underrated.

❤️‍🩹 Love You Babe (2014) ❤️‍🩹

or, the one where wolnie gets brainwashed into thinking she’s a goat and is paddi’s mom.

…mkay. this one fully deserves the D tier more than any other (except maybe Adventures in the Primitive World). they literally just recycled PTAC. if cpe wanted a second season of PTAC, they could have just… made a second season of PTAC!!

i literally never finished watching this season because of how much it annoyed me lmfao. so I have no idea what the hell happened to wolnie at the end. this is probably one of only 3 seasons I genuinely dislike.

🪶 Adventures in the Primitive World (2015) 🪶

or, the one where the goats and wolffy are teleported back to the world from the 7th movie.

yanno, i like this premise, but?? the primitive characters are so annoying. forgive me for being a weslie stan lmfao but the primitive chief kept using weslie as this scapegoat and kept gaslighting him and shit.

the 7th movie is also the worst one imo, so it never gave me much to begin with. it makes me think they had the idea for the season before the movie and ended up switching it at the end.

now the theme song for this season is by far my most favorite. a shame that it had to be wasted on such a shitty season ngl.

ultimately, the shitty characters, the poor plot line, and the awkward continuation of a not so nice movie just made this season really lackluster and unexciting for me. this is probably my least favorite of all.

🔫 War of Invention (2017) 🔫

or, the one where they go to some other planet and start… inventing stuff.

maybe this judgement of mine is unfair because i never got past a few episodes in, but i had a good reason to quit it.

the animation style. the. fucking. holy shit. literally i am never watching this season properly just because of that. thank god cpe dropped it because what the fuck man.

C TIER

🚘 Happy Formula (2015) 🚘

or, the one where they all get these vehicles that hatched from eggs.

this season kinda marked the turn of more… themed seasons, i suppose. while a plot here doesn’t really exist, the individual episodes are interesting enough for me to revisit at times. i loved weslie in this season tbh.

(how many times did wolffy get ticketed for speeding???)

🐳 Adventures in the Sea (2017) 🐳

or, the one where the goats and wolffy travel to the ocean for the ocean orb.

the second in the Marching to the New Wonderland series.

see, i originally gave this one a rank B, but that felt a bit generous. some of the episodes are just too redundant and uninteresting. though my favorite part was by far the part where slowy got stuck on wolffy’s submarine because his handprint was needed to stabilize the bomb lol.

the theme song is also a massive bop!! i unironically listen to it all the time. so while this season wasn’t especially interesting, the oceanic theme follows MTTNW perfectly.

👽 The Intriguing Alien Guests (2020) 👽

or, the one where weslie discovers he has a little sister, who is getting hunted down by aliens.

third Mighty Little Defenders season. unusually low ranking for one of the newer seasons. but it’s just… a bit boring. apart from the conclusion of weslie’s family story plus the intro of bingbing, this season didn’t hook me that much.

i think this season was really just an excuse to 1. use up all the old ideas for the earliest seasons they never put into place, and 2. pull the angst card. literally almost every episode just looks like rewritten versions of wolffy trying to catch the goats, except it’s the aliens catching bingbing. and they made us all cry at the end with weslie and his family lol.

overall not the most fun but i appreciate the nod to their beginnings.

B Tier

🍳 Paddi the Amazing Chef (2013) 🍳

or, the one where the goats have to cook for this mouse to send her and her sentient kitchen too friends back to their universe.

this season is a lot more memorable to me for an older season. i like the focus on paddi tbh (he was originally intended to be the main character of the show).

the pink mouse girl got attached to wolffy, which made things awkward lol. i recall an episode about trying to make it snow in june + the ones where they had to enter the mouse’s dreams to find her favorite food.

overall, a playful and fun season with a boppy theme song!

🌦️ Flying Island: The Sky Adventure (2018) 🌦️

or, the one where the goats take their trains, now planes, into the sky.

the third edition of MTTNW <3 originally this was supposed to be space adventures i believe, but i do think the sky fits the series better here, after ocean and earth.

here we see the real beginnings of the more plot-based seasons. my favorite was the balloon island and how wolffy & the goats & the citizens worked to drag the town out of the tornado!!

🏀 Dunk for Victories (2021) 🏀

or, the one where the characters play basketball.

though this one was unexciting to begin with, it grew on me. i learned quite a bit about basketball lmao.

tibbie got some serious character development here. i’m happy that cpe has kept her personality and girliness while also removing her from just being the token female character in the cast.

(also i’m gonna take this opportunity to say. i love Dunk for Future (the movie based on this) so so much <3)

my one gripe is that the… thing about the robots didn’t really get solved?? i know it was mostly answered in the next season but i don’t particularly like it when they just leave us hanging like this ngl. i suppose they made it work though.

🍃 The Season Towns (2023) 🍃

or, the one where the goats and wolffy have to defeat the evil king ruling over this fantasy land.

this is the newest season, the sixth in the MLD series. i binged it and?? it’s quite good! they really set us up to expect a straightforward superhero story, but then at episode 45 onwards, things start to get… very interesting very fast. i knew that xiaomu guy was sus…

also, weslie getting possessed by the evil king?? weslie and wolffy FUSING TOGETHER at the end???? >>>

i didn’t particularly like the… inconsistency with the “defense stones,” but other than that, this wasn’t a bad season. i’ll probably rewatch it later down the line.

A Tier

🚂 Marching to the New Wonderland (2016) 🚂

or, the one where the goats take their trains and deliver a vital seed to the center of a huge tree.

when i had my XYYYHTL reawakening in 2017, this is the first season i watched. this was the last season to use the old art style.

can i just say… the aesthetics and the music here are so good??? i love all of the new characters they introduced!! i wish cpe had used the soundtrack again in later seasons but also i enjoy their habit of using music specific to each season.

would have made this S tier except the plot itself didn’t quite meet the mark. but i really really love this season!!

🔎 The Little Detective (2016) 🔎

or, the one where weslie and wolffy have become detectives.

see the reason i like this season so much is because weslie gets to flex his smarts lol. this was also the first one with the new animation style.

also, the friendship is developing consistently between weslie and wolffy?? like. the two will see each other the forest and just be like “oh hey, what are you up to here” and weslie’s not gonna be scared and wolffy’s not gonna attack. seriously it jarred me a bit at first.

i really want to see a sequel to this. just then spending every episode solving cases, convicting the guilty, proving the innocent. didn’t have a plot quite as well as the S tiers but still so good!!

🐱 Against the Dark Force (2020) 🐱

or, the one where all except paddi and wolffy get brainwashed and turned into cats.

seriously the catification of these characters was hilarious and wonderful. it’s like taking the lid off the id lol. ngl, guxin lang deserved better, poor guy. the powers that got introduced in this season are wonderful, especially with how wolffy learns to control his lightning.

this season kept me on my feet. i didn’t want to stop binging it at all. it’s action after action, and then of course there’s the angst of weslie almost dying (cpe is surprisingly sadistic, huh…)

paddi’s character development was incredible here. that’s all i’ll really say cause it’s something you really need to see for yourself!!

the main reason why this is not in S tier is because the ending was… a bit weak imo?? it’s the most basic Power of Friendship(TM) ever and i just. it didn’t really land as hard as i think cpe wanted it to, which was unfortunate.

but the theme song is KILLER and i am definitely coming back to watch this one!!

🤖 Ultimate Battle: The Next Generation (2021) 🤖

or, the one where wolffy and weslie get teleported 15 years into the future, where everything has become all about robots.

this is the 4th MLD season. and i have some stuff to say.

first of all, cpe was clearly feeling nostalgic when they made this. the first episode uses music that hasn’t been used since MTTNW. also, making weslie&wolffy jump 15 years into the future? assuming this season was made in 2020, that means it was also 15 years prior than XYYHTL debuted.

second of all, i think i know where the idea of this season came from. wolffy always says he’ll definitely be back. so what if haha omg one day he didn’t? this is played with so many times in the season and it hurts so good :’)

third of all, the episode where it’s weslie’s birthday and he&wolffy get locked inside a freezer. and they’re just laughing about it. and this is the seasonal angst card all over again.

fourth of all, everyone being turned into robots. tibbie being the Impostor in the station. her backstory being revealed and developed. wolffy slowly getting turned. weslie helping them gain sentience. please omfg

and then the plot twist of the professor turning out to be a robot, deploying all the previous MLD villains.

ngl there was a massively misssed opportunity to add something about weslie’s family?? why didn’t they give us something about bingbing growing up without her brother, or smarc/lily grieving their son??? oml. see this is why this isn’t S tier. good but i’m just too salty abt this part lol.

S Tier

⚔️ Mighty Little Defenders (2019) ⚔️

or, the one where the wolves and goats become friends.

of course MLD had to be here. of course. this was the big one, the one that changed everything. see my favorite favorite tripe ever is enemies to best friends and look, weslie and wolffy kinda had a 900k platonic slow burn building up for the past movies and seasons. and it finally cracked here!!

see i also love the development of all the wolves in general. like. wolffy yes, he’s questioning his entire life, does he want friends or belonging?? but ultimately he chose his friends. you can tell when he decides not to question it anymore.

also, the seven evil wolves. it makes a lot of sense. the toxic wolf spirit reminds me a lot of toxic masculinity tbh. they all got pushed to be this certain idealized image of a wolf but this ended up resulting in a lot of unhealed trauma for all of them. and it wasn’t until they unpacked it that they were able to truly be themselves.

i used to find wolffy annoying and quite bothersome but now? he’s starting to rival weslie as my favorite character. i really value the multidimensionality that was built.

i was sort of expecting this season for a while now. in almost all of the past seasons and movies, weslie and wolffy learned to somehow work together and trust each other, and i was like, how does wolffy even have the heart to still eat someone he’s saved the world with, lol. cpe did a wonderful job this season was perfect i love it

⏳ Rescue Across Time (2019) ⏳

or, the one where the characters time travel to same the world.

the final MTTNW season, and my favorite season of the entire show.

1. the continued character development of from MLD. wolffy’s new friendship with the frosts, and how this helps to uncover a new side of him. yet he’s not immune to his old ways, because he almost destroys it at the end by pretty much betraying them.

2. the time travel. i am a sucker for anything time related in shows and movies!! this show was the perfect one to mess with time because of the fact that you have all these teens or adults who watched this as kids and are now grown, so referencing the old movies and seasons is… oh boy. punches you in the gut really.

3. the backstory of wolffy. it’s finally explained and there couldn’t have been a better way to do it. the ANGST oh my god. he’s still struggling to process the trauma he had from losing his dad and also the generational trauma that his dad probably passed onto him. we have weslie trying to process the grief of his parents ditching him for outer space, and slowy working through his unresolved feelings for stacy. like. dang since when did this kids show get so dark?? my god!!

4. the plot twist. classic “villain reveals true identity” trope but it hits especially hard here when you’ve seen the foreshadowing and all the little details. then it finally ties back the ending from MLD. seriously i fucking gasped this was done SO perfectly.

kay. cpe outdid themselves here. the time travel theme was perfect for concluding MTTNW. the grief, the nostalgia, the angst, the sequel to MLD. i’m always coming back to this season ALWAYS. did not expect a kids show to get this amazing but it did and i’m in love.

🐶 The Great Rescue (2022) 🐶

or, the one where the dark force has infected the nearby dog kingdom.

the second season of ADTF, and the 5th MLD season. just like ADTF, this one really kept me on my feet! action after action!! the goats battling their infected selves in the power locks! wolffy slowly getting infected! an explanation for the origin of the dark force at last!

wolnie’s bond with mingri and tibbie was honestly unexpected but i adore it so so much. also, just. wolffy and weslie battling each other at the end and the heart stabbing moment when it looks like wolffy’s died. aaaaJOJSOJS

see now having this season, i understand why they left off ADTF where they did. i wonder if they’re gonna make an ADTF 3…?

—

well that was a long ass post BUT BUT that is it for all the XYYHTL seasons!! i should rank their theme songs next tbh. i think i know which one is my no. 1, maybe my top 5??

wish this fandom were a little more popular in the western world because i LOVE it so so so much 🥹🥹🥹❤️

[magentagalaxies]

4, 6, 11, 40

(jsyk you sent me these numbers for a completely different ask game that i forgot about but i'm using them for the ask game i just reblogged bc dammit i wanna talk about music lmao)

4. Is there a song you love but don't like its music video?

tbh i don't watch music videos a lot, so most songs i like either i don't know the music video, think the music video was "just okay", or actively like the music video. however if i could just platform my younger self for a minute, i remember back when i was super into melanie martinez in like 2015/2016 i came up with my own idea for the mrs potato head music video and i got so mad when the official music video came out that i fully stopped listening to her music for years lmao i still think my concept was better.

6. Who's an artist you really like but are embarrassed to admit it?

the first one that comes to mind is ajr. like tbh every single criticism people have of their music is 100% correct but also neotheater came out at the exact moment for me to be earnestly emotionally connected to it so i'm always gonna love it even if i roll my eyes at some of the songs. however tbh i don't listen to their other albums as much anymore

ok fuck it i feel the need to rant about ok orchestra bc i have a LOT of opinions. this is going to be such a tangent but when will i get this opportunity again? anyway

brief intermission as i rant about an album i haven't listened to in years

one thing i actually love that ajr does is how most of their albums start with an overture mashup of most of the album's main motifs, blending them together and sometimes doing a variation with different time signatures. the only thing i love more than this that they do is how big and grand their closing songs are. take the click: we get a full overture as the beginning, and the final song "come hang out" feels like a finale. the bridge switching to 3/4 in an otherwise 4/4 song??? the conflict of going after your passions while sacrificing your relationships despite the other person having different priorities embodied in the backup singers??? idc if ajr is cringy it's a well made song.

now, notably neotheater does not follow this formula. it starts straight in with "next up forever," but this is actually the best move since next up forever is a near perfect album opener. is it a near perfect song? oh god no. my 16-year-old self thought it was for sure, but relistening now there's a few lyrics where i'm like "jfc why are they like this." but for now lyricism doesn't matter bc no matter what you think about ajr's lyrics, their composition is what i'm focusing on and it's generally pretty good. next up forever contains choir vocals a la a vintage disney movie, a slow build before exploding into a drum beat channeling the anxiety and anticipation the song is focused on. a lot of the themes (both lyrical and musical) are present in all the other songs on this album, so despite not being an overture in the traditional sense it perfectly balances giving us a taste of what's to come while also standing on its own as a song you can listen to separate from the full album context. but most importantly, it coheres with the final song so fucking well. the last song on the album "finale (can't wait to see what you do next)" continues this exact same theme, with the most similar instrumentation to the album opener out of this set of song, while still distinctly standing on its own. it genuinely feels like this album was a full exploration of standing on the precipice of your career, and the singer reaches a moment of clarity on the last lines of the song. seriously, i'm embarrassed to admit i still get chills from "if it's my final album / and if i am forgotten / i hope i made you smile / that's all i ever wanted"

(ngl i honestly kind of wish this was ajr's final album bc what a note to go out on. also bc this was the last time i was in the exact space in my life where i could 100% unironically feel seen in an ajr album)

but then we have ok orchestra: the much anticipated follow-up to neotheater. we get the return of an overture, mixing together some of the biggest hits on the album (of course it helps that the chorus of "bang bang bang" and "way less sad" are basically the same). idk, maybe it's just because i grew out of my ajr phase by the time this was released and was still in denial about it, but something about this overture just doesn't hit. it doesn't feel as much like it exists for a reason as the click's overture. the click substantially modified these songs' tempo/time signature to fit together, and by starting with the simple metronome (the titular click) and the repeated calls of "come hang out, don't you leave us behind" it immediately gives us the thesis statement of the album, what it's all trying to say. ok orchestra just,,, doesn't do that??? it's like ok cool the songs fit together and i'm gonna hear longer versions soon. what about it.

but that doesn't say anything about the main reason i don't like this album: christmas in june. after 2 great album closers, a lot is resting on the final song of this album to put it all in perspective and make sure it coheres, and christmas in june just doesn't do that. there's no sense of finality, no deeper focus on the central theme of the album (which is????). and ok. christmas in june is a fine song, i get the message of it (trying to balance the pursuit of success in your art with your personal relationships) but WE'VE DONE THIS ALREADY. this is the whole point of come hang out, and it explored it with some great tension and interesting instrumentation!!! but compared to that song, christmas in june just feels very shallow. and the instrumentation definitely is the main reason for this. since i hadn't listened to the song in a while, i misremembered it as being acoustic bc it's so scaled back, but it's not acoustic. that would've at least been an artistic choice. it's just quiet. it does not feel like an album closer at all, it feels like a fine little variation in the middle tracks which might be referenced in the finale, which is coming any second now, right?

but tbh the lack of a satisfactory narrative conclusion and quieter production don't inherently make it a bad song. i mean, let's compare this to bleachers' most recent album closer "what do i do with all this faith?" while the previous two bleachers albums contained an interlude called "i'm ready to move on" which led us directly into their finales, this album isn't ready to move on. and sure, this is probably my least favorite bleachers album of the three (tho tbh it's hard for anything to top strange desire and gone now), i still appreciate this (actually acoustic) ending a lot for its recognition that sometimes you don't get an ending to your emotional arc. it still fits sonically with the rest of the album (which is also generally scaled-back and guitar focused), and it fits thematically with the rest of the lyrics

but the thing that makes me dislike christmas in june most is that it doesn't commit to the bit. see, each ajr album has kind of a "gimmick" that ties it together. these gimmicks aren't present on every song, but they're present on the beginning and ending and several moments in between. "the click" had the integration of string sections with electronic music, which doesn't always work but is an interesting choice. neotheater has the aforementioned choir, as well as this general old musical feeling (side note doesn't birthday party sample fucking eraserhead???). what does ok orchestra have? the closest thing i can identify is pitch-shifting vocals, most notably on "the trick". generally i do not like it when this gimmick is implemented, and it's very telling that my favorite song from ok orchestra (and the only one i listened to in the past year) is 3 o'clock things, which feels like a holdover from neotheater thanks to its choir returning. but as much as i was annoyed by the pitch shifting, if they'd just stuck the landing and used it in the final song, it would have at least felt whole. but they never used it again. i guess you can argue that christmas in june leaving me feeling empty inside was intentional bc the song itself is about this stressful feeling of being spread too thin, but i don't think this lack of resolution is what ajr was going for. i think they wanted that last line about a hypothetical kid to hit as hard as dear winter (which, yes, i'm embarrassed to admit, i still actually kind of love) but it doesn't.

idk, maybe i'm being too hard on ok orchestra, or maybe i'm not being hard enough on the earlier albums. or maybe this is mostly a case of sometimes the music you love in 10th grade isn't the same music you love in your third year at university, and it sucks to confront that. even if ajr releases another album soon that lives up to neotheater, idk if i'll even listen to it more than once since i've discovered new music since that also does all the things i used to love about ajr but much better. but idk. there's still a part of me that wishes ok orchestra was at least a bit more cohesive, especially when i hear so many people who both love and hate ajr saying it's the best thing they've ever written. justice for neotheater

[thirdmagic]

honestly if barbie had been a 100% uncritical and unironic celebration of barbie as an empowering feminist figure i would have really checked out of it quickly. because yes, the takes that barbie is literally ruining the world and is a literal agent of the patriarchy is wrong and unfair and the idea that she's single handedly responsible for causing body image issues is really reductive, there's a reason it's in the movie and it's from the mouth of a tween girl in its most cartoonish exaggerated form lmao. but we've all been that pink-hating tween girl at some point who has only just discovered these words and terms for things we've always felt all our lives and our understanding of it is still kinda immature and reactionary. i do broadly think and feel very positively of barbie as a cultural icon, and I mean yeah a lot of it is nostalgia some of it is just me wanting to reclaim this symbol of everything girly that is derided for being girly and we feel we're forced to give up because its considered lesser. but genuinely i do think she's been the target of lots and lots of very unfair and bad faith criticism over the years. At the same time, if the film had unironically taken the "Barbie is Only a force for good and Has Solved Feminism" stance, like- that would have just really stretched my ability to engage with the film, because well, that's not really true or fair either, and I just wouldn't be able to buy it even from a very good film.

in the end the place barbie holds in legacy and place and culture is just... complicated. good or bad isnt really the question, she is a cultural icon, she responds to certain trends, she represents certain trends, she defies certain trends, she is shaped by the culture she is part of. and people will respond to that differently. that's why the trailer tagline was 'if you love her barbie or if you hate barbie, this movie is for you', and i think why the film really really works for me is that it delivers on that promise. it does what i most wanted and hoped it would do when i saw it would go for that more meta angle, by wrestling with the many different complicated layers of her legacy and what she means to many different people, good and bad, without damning her or elevating her on a pedestal.

because yeah i don't think we can deny that in many ways she is an embodiment of a sort of ideal and stereotypical femininity that yes is a largely patriarchal standard. but it's also the fact that she does do a lot to empower girls to have dreams and ambitions and to seek out self fulfillment and creativity in their play, and that is important and significant and beautiful about what she does do. but the other side of that is the insane amount of pressure you might feel as a girl to Be Something and how your only worth is if you're exceptional in some way, and she does interact with that, the messaging behind her does feed into that, if only because its an idea that already exists and is ingrained in us from society on the whole. and the film responds to that by making 'it's ok to just be you' its core message, by emphasizing with that struggle, by having barbie herself decide to just be regular and human and find worth in humanity and human flaws of flesh and aging and body. and a fully grown adult woman, a mom with a desk job who understands full well that nothing about barbie is realistic and didn't fulfill any of the ambitions barbie represents, can find joy and relief and value and beauty in playing with her.

it doesn't offer an easy answer of 'is barbie good or bad' because there is no easy answer to that, and it gives us the veneer of a hollywood happy ending but ultimately it doesn't pretend that everything's been solved forever and now everything will be good. there is a fair bit of cynicism in the line 'one day the kens will hold as much power in barbieland as women do in the real world' with how the film understands that inequality cant be magically fixed and it doesn't try to sell you on that either- again, if it had been the kind of Inequality Has Been Solved And Everyone Is Happy ending you kind of expect from most fantasy-ish movies to this effect I would have just not bought it. Ending on the note of and "our Barbie, the main character, found her path in life and is happy even if the world isn't fixed" just feels more honest for this kind of personal story really.

beyond saying only one specific thing about it, the film is in conversation with the legacy and the discussion around barbie, which is the most important thing that a film about barbie, as a brand or as a character, can be. it brings it into the film and makes that entire conversation the central conceit and uses it as a vehicle to explore ideas about womanhood on the whole, which i think is ultimately a good choice because it's that very legacy and discussion that makes barbie as a character and a cultural icon perfect for this kind of metaphor.

[auroral-melody]

how're you feeling about the sandman casting that just got announced

it's unironically really good

i think it's SO funny they cast someone who kinda looks like neil gaiman as dream

kirby howell-baptiste as death....literally fantastic, no notes

i love jenna coleman and i think she's neat :) it's. Interesting that she's playing john constantine, to say the least. i have to say that matt ryan is still my favorite choice to play him. i hope they don't tone down how much of a mess john is, just bc of gender

the fact that remy ratatouille is matthew is very funny actually

idk anything about gwendoline christie but i listened to an interview from her for like 2 seconds and i think she's great. i hope they keep the he/him pronouns

cassie clare :eyes:

i genuinely don't know much about actors so most of my knowledge of these ppl is short clips of their voices and faces. i think as far as faceclaims they did a really good job!

idk anything about acting ability or w/e so i won't comment on that, but overall unlike for GO, i think the casting looks pretty strong for sandman -- i just am really hoping that there won't be . like. any tumblr fandom for it. bc oh my god i will not be able to exist in the same space as discourse about desire.

i worry that people will be like "oh i love good omens (2019) im sure this other thing by gaiman will be similar" and then they will be blindsided by the massive trigger warning that is the sandman universe.

as with all tv/movie adaptations, i hope against hope that there will still be some differences in how characters are interpreted online & the sandom will stay small. i fully have not really been on tumblr since tv GO bc of it and i don't want sandman to be another one of those things i have to explain to people that there are different versions of it

thanks for the ask :)

[alertarchitect]

Sorry if this meanders a bit, I'm writing this as the thoughts go through my head early in the morning running on maybe 3-4 hours of sleep, tops. I do have something I want to say here, though, so if you want to see my rambling then please continue.

I used to feel terrible about missing out on live events, both in-person and online. Like I can't support a creator whose work I enjoy, especially the less well-known niche creators, as much as I wanted to. But I had a realization last night...

My best friend and I both really enjoy the work of WayneRadioTV and his friends, and last night he did a livestream involving a social game the two of us play - Tower Unite, of you're curious - where viewers could get involved in some capacity. I'm not fully sure, though, because despite the excitement, I had something else going on; an online date with my boyfriend.

See, I got him Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Steam as a part of his birthday present, both because he was interested in it and because I wanted to go through the games and share with him what is unironically one of my favorite sci-fi franchises out there, despite the reputation it has as a "bro game" with all of the toxic bullshit associated with it thanks to it pioneering online console multiplayer and the, rightfully deserved, reputation that brings with how early-mid 2000s multiplayer lobbies were. It's a way of showing him something that I genuinely adore as one of my more consistent hyperfixations, and sharing with him a part of what has made me, me.

And that's where the realization came in. Yeah, it came about because of me having something else going on, but honestly I don't think I would've had the energy for something as intensive as a high-energy livestream like that without some adverse affects to my mental state last night with everything I currently have going on. So, here's that startlingly simple realization that should've happened far sooner, as it would have helped me immensely in our current capitalist hellscape of subscriptions and content churn and all that other bullshit - you don't have to experience something immediately, or even within a similar time frame as others, to enjoy it just as much. Just because I was too young to ever see some of my favorite bands live at their peak doesn't mean I'm "less of a fan." Just because I'm not binging every show that catches my interest doesn't mean I like them less than someone else.

The time at which you enjoy something, and your method for doing so, does not determine how much you like it.

I think that is honestly an important message we need to spread around now. We have all of these games with FOMO-based systems, their battle passes & shit, all of these movies and shows that get released and stay up for a couple months before getting dropped as a tax write-off (looking at you, Warner Brothers, and how you treated all of those Cartoon Network shows we adored and your fuckery of discarding Wile E. Coyote vs. Acme for tax breaks), all of this relentless content churn. It's the reason we get burnt out so hard on things we used to love - instead of having a world where we pace ourselves, and enjoy things in a way that still lets us enjoy it afterwards, we still have this mindset leftover from the days of only getting maybe one new episode per week of a show, or maybe 2-3 big movies a year, or being fine waiting for sequels to games instead of demanding them to be released immediately - watching things as they were released. Before the explosion of streaming services due to the pandemic, that was more sustainable. You got a bit of new stuff on regular or semi-regular intervals. You had a chance to savor what you saw, to process what happened, and to theorize and work on those theories for fun. Now we get so much, so often, with the expectation of something new every week not being a new episode of a show, but a new series entirely to binge. Things appear, get talked about, and then get discarded more quickly than ever. Hell, the original foundations of this site, the fandoms, don't even last anywhere near as long anymore as the bulk of people find something, engage with it for a short time, and move on. It's to the point where the only fandoms you really get to see stick around like they used to are the ones that already existed - your Trekkies, your Whovians, your LotR nerds, and even the ones that only came about a relatively short time before all of this content churn bullshit, like the Undertale, Homestuck, and Critical Role fandoms. Now the years-long communities like that are relegated to the existing works, the old reliables, and literature fandoms like The Locked Tomb where the very nature of it necessitates longevity thanks to how long it takes to write a novel.

It's relentless. But it doesn't have to be.

We live in a world that prioritizes this content churn, but y'know what? Fuck that. Fuck these big companies that try to sell you a monthly fee for what was once a one-time purchase. Of course, try to still support smaller, indie creators where you can - small-medium size streamers, those YouTubers who make video essays that take so long to release they have to rely on fan contributions in between them to survive due to lack of ad revenue, smaller film productions, etc. - but don't feel the need to do so when you can't afford it, either in terms of how much energy you have (like how I would've been absolutely fucked had I attended that livestream I mentioned at the start of this due to the high-energy nature) or monetarily. Hell, enjoy those big shows and movies too, but what matters most is that you don't - or at least shouldn't - have to enjoy them at breakneck speed.

Pace yourself. Give yourself room to breathe. Take some time to enjoy your content, and to have fun with it, goddammit! There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Hell, if you're someone that derives enjoyment from waiting for all of a show to be out just to binge it, go ahead - but maybe you don't need to binge-watch something new every week. It gets tiring. But at the end of the day, it comes down to this:

Leave time for the discussion. Yes, enjoying the content is fun, but picking something up and then moving on almost as quickly misses the point of why we love these fandoms so much. The content churn gets in the way of us getting to do our thing of talking about our passions, theorizing about them together, infodumping about them to our friends. Give yourself space to talk about it. You don't need to see every livestream from that streamer, you don't need to watch all 10 hours of that new Netflix show in a day and then watch another one the next, you don't have to watch every movie you're interested in like a marathon of back-to-back productions, you don't need to beat every level of that video game in your first sitting. And that's okay.

[anitosoul]

My Favorite Albums of 2020, 50-41

50. Drake, Dark Lane Demo Tapes

Favorite Tracks: Deep Pockets | Chicago Freestyle | Pain 1993

I’ve done a full 360 on Drake: I loved his output through Views, felt lukewarm about More Life, and was fully disappointed in Scorpion. It was simply too easy for Drake to put out bloated records and know he would come out of it with at least two major hits. Early last year I found myself revisiting Nothing Was the Same (imo the best Drake album, sorry Take Care) and wondering if Drake would ever return to the level of quality of his older albums. Dark Lane Demo Tapes, despite being a collection of loosies and snippets, provides Drake’s most cohesive-sounding project since If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. It’s wild to think that a 49-minute album could sound concise, but for Drake standards, it does: each song adds to the late night vibe that Drake popularized in the first place, taking me back to what I enjoyed so much about his earlier work. And so, with a random collection of demos, Drake has somehow reeled me back as a fan.

49. Fennec, Free Us of This Feeling

Favorite Tracks: Boy-U | Dreemin | Together

This album came out really early in the year, so I must have found it when I was going through a heavy dance/techno/house phase: I’m glad I did, though, because this album is wildly underrated. Utilizing sampling as instrumentation a la The Avalanches, Free Us Of This Feeling is a sonic collage, taking bits from TV shows, video games, movies, nature, and other music (there’s even a sample from The Bachelorette tucked away in the album). The project is still very much a dance album, with my favorite song, “Boy-U,” featuring a bouncy looped sample that I couldn’t get out of my head for days. This is the first album of many where I’ll mention something about hoping to eventually vibe to this album in a Brooklyn club once COVID is over, but yeah, I can’t wait to vibe to this album in a Brooklyn club once COVID is over.

48. Mac Miller, Circles

Favorite Tracks: Blue World | That’s On Me | Circles

Posthumous albums are always tough, but Circles is an emotional last work from the late rapper Mac Miller. His death was the first that really hit me both in terms of its unexpectedness and because I got into hip-hop around Mac Miller’s era. Circles is a beautiful album stripped down even further from 2019’s Swimming: it provides an empathetic look into the mind of someone trying their best while dealing with depression and anxiety. It’s powerfully touching and at times difficult to listen to due to the circumstances of his death, but given the growing number of people struggling with mental health in the same way Mac did, Circles’ impact is immeasurable.

47. Joji, Nectar

Favorite Tracks: Run | Gimme Love | Reanimator

For some reason I feel like I have to defend my enjoyment of Joji, but I unironically love his music. “SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK” was one of my favorite songs of 2018 and he captures a vibey sadboy angst that I’ve definitely related to in the past. There’s probably some analysis to be had of Asian kids who came up on YouTube post-punk AMVs and whose only contemporary Asian celebrities came in the form of YouTube comedians (anyone remember nigahiga?) growing up to become Joji stans, but I won’t get into it. With Nectar, Joji has evolved musically, working with major producers like Clams Casino and Diplo and guests like Yves Tumor. He sounds genuine on this album, which features more complex lyricism and an expanded vocal range. While some of the songs are forgettable, it’s still a strong release that gets me excited for the sadboy anthems he has in store.

46. Dogleg, Melee

Favorite Tracks: Fox | Wrist | Headfirst

There’s probably not a timeline where I wouldn’t love this album given all of the references to Super Smash Bros. and classic Nintendo games. This album’s hardcore sound works extremely well, delivering a dose of high-octane rock fuel in a mostly played out genre: the tracks sound like a fresh mix of bands like At The Drive In, Deafheaven, and The Strokes. I can imagine any of the songs on the album serving as the next big anime’s opening credits theme, a place where I’m sure Dogleg would feel right at home.

45. Westside Gunn, Pray for Paris

Favorite Tracks: 327 | Allah Sent Me | George Bondo

Griselda, the rap group that defines themselves on grimy east coast bars that are (weirdly) a radical departure from the currently popular hip-hop today, has captured me since 2018 when I first heard Benny the Butcher’s project The Plugs I Met. With Pray for Paris, Westside Gunn released one of the sharpest iterations of the Griselda sound, infusing braggadocious opulence with his devilish raps (the cover art is also badass). One of my favorite moments on the album is how surprisingly well the Tyler, the Creator feature works on “327,” an admittedly softer side of hip-hop (at least in Tyler’s current form) that I would have never expected to sound so good in Griselda territory.

44. Don Toliver, Heaven or Hell

Favorite Tracks: After Party | No Idea | Cardigan

I remember first hearing ASTROWORLD’s “CAN’T SAY,” thinking it was Young Thug doing another weird voice thing. Since discovering it was an up-and-coming Houston rapper Don Toliver, I’ve really enjoyed his music and unique trap-singing voice. His early mixtapes became a mainstay of my late-night drunken train rides back to my apartment. It may not be revolutionary, but Heaven and Hell is a worthy debut from Don Toliver, leaning further into the sing-rapping that’s captured the hip-hop zeitgeist and providing woozy hip-hop that’s a fitting companion for both the pre-game bottle and afterparty blunt.

43. Run the Jewels, RTJ4

Favorite Tracks: walking in the snow | out of sight | JU$T

RTJ4’s politically and racially-charged catharsis was well-needed in 2020, the year when the Trump era reached new peaks of absurdity and fatal racism boiled over into global protests during an international pandemic. Killer Mike and El-P sound as sharp as ever, incisively pointing out the injustices of society with their signature whimsical irony (probably resulting from their Adult Swim origin story). The features are all great, including returning guest Rage Against the Machine-frontman Zack De La Rocha and Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age (which reminded me of how much I used to listen to them back in 2013). Protest music hasn’t sounded this good since Rage’s The Battle for Los Angeles.

42. Róisín Murphy, Róisín Machine

Favorite Tracks: Narcissus | Murphy’s Law | Kingdom of Ends

This is a must-listen for anyone who has ever in their life enjoyed dancing, even a little. The dancepop legend Róisín Murphy has released an hour-long mix of club euphoria that will instantly transport you to better times; I’m inclined to believe that Murphy actually is some sort of disco machine after releasing this album. It’s usually difficult for me to get really taken by music like this unless I’m sweating to it in a warehouse surrounded by other bodies, but Murphy’s ear for addictive grooves is too hard to ignore. It probably helps that my favorite track “Narcissus” sounds right at home on the acid jazz soundtrack of Persona 5 Royal, a video game I spent hundreds of hours playing over quarantine. This is yet another album that I’m impatiently waiting to experience on a dancefloor, an aspirational lighthouse for a post-COVID world.

41. Loma, Don’t Shy Away

Favorite Tracks: Thorn | Octotillo | Half Silences

I had never heard of Loma before, but found their album Don’t Shy Away through an r/indieheads post. I gave it a cursory listen and was immersed by its atmospheric gloom. The abstract darkness of the album was evocative of the rose in Beauty & the Beast or Maleficent speaking to the magic mirror, whimsical and murky at the same time. The band’s inverted take on indie rock, dark electronic, and even some elements of trip-hop were enough to garner the attention of ambient electronic legend Brian Eno, who’s featured on the final track “Homing.” The whole album is bathed in moonlight, a natural progression for fans of Radiohead’s darker, more downtempo songs. It even served as a big inspiration for a mixtape I curated inspired by the deep introspection that the nighttime brings, which I’ve included below:

[thelightofthingshopedfor]

I honestly can’t stand the loki fandom anymore lol. Most people i interact with aren’t outright awful but I also can’t say anything positive about the show without them going “youre objectively wrong but its ok to have ur own opinion :)” its so condescending. they cant be nice to us without first making sure that we know we’re wrong and that they are right. Like every “pleasant" interaction with them comes with a disclaimer

(( btw this is just my experience. i know many positive fans can be nasty))

AND THEN THERE IS ALSO THAT, YES. I unfollowed a few people for this exact attitude, in part because it often seems like somebody who's going "I don't hate the show! I love how bad it is :)" is a lot less likely to use consistent, helpful tags that others can filter. because they aren't being negative, they're just pointing out objective truths about how literally everything about it is terrible! that's totally different! (it's not different. I'm filtering certain tags to protect my own mental health. if a blog doesn't give me the tools to avoid posts that will pointlessly upset me, I can't follow that blog, and the exact opinion behind the lack of consistent tagging doesn't really matter to me.)

like...come on. we all have opinions, and it's fully possible for two different people to approach the same text in good faith and leave with two completely different opinions, and it's generally okay to have polite debates about those differing opinions, but recognizing that opinions are subjective is like...step number 1 to all of that. "it's totally okay to enjoy things that are objectively bad :)" is not the validating statement that some people seem to think, but it's also just...weird?? because yes there are things that are truly, genuinely, objectively, transcendentally bad, but I'm talking about shit like The Room and various movies showcased in Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes, and there's a vast gulf of difference between that type of "objectively bad" and anything Marvel's produced in the last decade. and, of course, there are dozens of major ways in which a thing like this can be good or bad, some of which can be quantified or otherwise objectively analyzed to one degree or another, but a lot of those things are inherently subjective depending on a gazillion different factors. yes, analyze the work; yes, examine whether it succeeded at what seem to be its goals; yes, love it or hate it and think about why it did or didn't work for you; but "this work that was very favorably received by critics and audiences alike is just objectively bad" is unlikely to be productive or accurate. acting like the options are "hate it (because you're smart)," "like it while recognizing it's objectively bad (because you're smart)," or "unironically like it (because you're stupid)" is honestly pretty rude, but it's also...kind of silly.