#more shitty edits jfc

[kenobster]

The work task I have right now is infuriatingly mind numbing... Thus, for my lunch break, I went rogue at work, installed gimp, and photo-edited some random American Heist screenshots in order to more vividly imagine what Anakin's face is about to look like in 5PE. 😍

Also, FYI, you should thank me because I searched all of pinterest yesterday and found no photo edits of this scene. None. 🙄 Like sheesh, y'all, is the concept of whump entirely foreign to Pinterest peeps? Do I really gotta do everything myself around here? JFC. 😆

P.S. If the photo editing makes these look overedited, then I am blameless and innocent, and you should totally blame my shitty work monitor. 😊 It certainly had nothing to do with me being a dweeb who doesn't know how to photoedit, no sir, not at all.~

P.P.S. If you like the photo editing though, you can absolutely use these for whatever purpose that strikes your fancy, babes. You can make them your profile picture. You can repost them to your blog. Hell, you don't even have to credit me. Do whatever you want with this bloodied up blorbo material ❤️

[thislovecamebacktome]

.

[imperial-nuisance-rudje]

Time to start a series of EW effortposts, i guess.

Note that I got sick (AGAIN) and had pretty bad weather-based connectivity issues since i took the earliest of these screenshots, so my memory will be pretty shoddy.

Anyway, postin'.

I've already hollered about the twins' shitty dad so I won't reprise that, instead skipping forward to when you pick who visits you. I've been too busy moving MSQ forward to re-check everything, but given my faves it's probably not shocking that i chose...

Estinien.

I didn't get most of his little speech, but he just wanted to express support and a desire to protect in his cute, awkward way.

Also, jfc if a character as pale as Shayun is nearly invisible due to the cutscene lighting, anyone with darker skin is just going to be a shadowy blob.

Anyway, Estinien flees.

Out the window. You know, as you do.

Also if I hadn't established that Shayun and Estinien are just utterly incompatible this cutscene would have had me making jokes, but no it's just more autism to autism communication.

There's a couple cutscenes I didn't grab establishing both what people are thinking about the Garlean prisoners as well as setting up ominous shadow effects on people.

Which Erenville seems to be able to sense? Not sure if it's a nod to how Viera are typically very magically sensitive in other FFs or just Erenville being sensitive to changes in his environment, since the former hasn't really been established in 14.

Anyway!

So Thavnair has a mild case of the Armageddons (as in, the weather is literally "Apocalypse")! I'm sure it's fine, says the dog sitting in a burning house.

The dungeon wasn't anything special, but the final boss is incredibly fucking rude to the photosensitive--one of its attacks causes the whole screen to pulse red or blue as the tell, and it's really bad to look at. Not quite Paradigm's Breach tier, but at least on the level of World of Darkness. Very nasty.

I still murdered the fuck out of it, of course.

Ahewann trying to convince Vrtra that his fears are unfounded and revealing himself as the true leader of Thavnair would only help.

I can't remember the lead-up to this, but Estinien refuses to let a troubled member of the First Brood pass by without getting into position for Dragon Therapy.

I think investigation into why people were transforming into monsters happens after this? Which, uh, leads me to a major issue I had.

So. Ahewann's death.

Besides being another victim of the two-for-one deal that is Endwalker (if we'd had an expansion+patches to come to know and care deeply for him, his death would have hit MUCH harder--as it is it feels like he jobbed), it's also just really badly blocked out. The last time the WoL has a case of the Glueboots this severe is when Asahi is beating the shit out of Yotsuyu, and it feels just as bad now as it did then. If they didn't want to have the WoL have to pause and attack bc of job reasons (tbf the correct distance for one job to feel right is different from another, so i don't blame them), they at least should have put them further back.

It's just way too obvious that Ahewann died entirely due to authorial decree. It doesn't feel like a natural outgrowth of the events of the cutscene. Given how little time we've had with Ahewann, it also feels like a cheap move for free emotions!

I do not like Ahewann's death.

Oh yeah, and afterward catboy proves that he is also the Crystal Exarch so anyone who thinks i should chill over things the Exarch did can shut it, the game itself says they're the same person now.

Final WoLshot for this post, bc the next post is a behemoth and will need every last bit of image space I can give

that's right it's time for

DRAGON THERAPY WITH DR ESTINIEN (vrtra edition)

[izusun]

head empty no thoughts just bakudeku journalist/yakuza au where izuku is a rookie journalist who decides to (try to) go undercover to get a story on the yakuza and gets the shock of his life when he runs into his childhood friend katsuki (who he hasnt seen since grade school). But katsuki is actually a double agent ALSO working undercover for the special victims unit in the police force (its still fuck twelve tho) to find several missing girls in a sex trafficking ring (they chose katsuki cus if his ties to the yakuza through his maternal grandfather) and basically both of them lying to each other about everything except their feelings, maybe throw some angst in there with a shootout scene where one takes a bullet for another (its katsuki taking the bullet lbr), then at the end they both find out the truth about each other and turn into that spiderman pointing meme. Anyway this is all just one massive excuse to imagine bakugou with a yakuza tattoo sleeve and on his back.

I HAVE A BACK TATTOO EDIT!!! IT’S NOT BKG BUT IMAHINE IT’S JUST HIM

wowie, isnt it? (i did this out of simping. toji’s just a fine fine man)

izuku’s a freelance journalist. while some of his works are already published, they were published under his pen name deku. no one truly knows who deku is, thus infiltrating a yakuza under the pretence of being a low ranking gang member who was desperate enough to sell their… themselves to the yakuza was easy for one akatani izuku.

he used a fake last name, forged papers acquired with the help of his best friends ochako and mei. the fake last name was the easiest way for izuku to protect inko and his step-father toshinori (who he doesn’t know is the chief of the police department).

izuku’s background was also changed. instead of being the loving son of yagi-midoriya inko and yagi-midoriya toshinori, graduating as the top of the class of both his high school and university, and earning his master’s earlier than the rest of his peers, he became the orphaned son of one akatani mikumo.

akatani izuku did not finish university and worked at the local library and at the restaurant to save enough money to pay for his student loans. this is what the yakuza saw when he was steadily climbing up the ranks.

he started as a member of the street gangs, then increased his depth of importance that the yakuza was able to recognize his worth and accepted him in the family.

the moment his position is secured, izuku gradually and steadily stops the production of his intel, and began recording and collecting evidences about the yakuza.

he was able to establish good rapport between him and the yakuza and so they began pulling him within the inner most circle of the yakuza. izuku doesn’t let the chance slip and pretends to work with them with more vigour.

that’s when he meets katsuki.

katsuki who happens to be the yakuza’s leader’s heir’s bodyguard. (jfc thats too much ‘s)

izuku sees katsuki who looks well off (playing the part of being a well paid member) and izuku feels like hiding away because he’s dressed in a ratty sweatshirt and faded black jeans (again, playing the part of underpaid college drop out who’s desperate enough to join an actual crime organization.)

izuku was scared that katsuki would call him out on his front, but katsuki was just shocked that this was what izuku ended up being. he doesn’t know that izuku’s faking everything and thought that izuku went off the grid only to pop up as a member of the yakuza.

katsuki feels torn because fuck, how can i bust this shitty yakuza when it might catch deku in the crossfire?

so katsuki tries to distance himself. at least maybe then he wouldn’t feel guilty of throwing deku to the police or he wouldn’t need to have endless one-sided debates about what to do.

then the fallout happens.

someone other than katsuki was undercover, but their cover was blown and they were killed. katsuki’s position was almost jeopardized, but he was able to slither his way and smooth out the accusations.

it was izuku’s cover, however, that did not leave unscathed. someone was able to dig up izuku’s real life and that’s when the warehouse that they were in exploded in series of gun fight. izuku and katsuki were running away, shooting anyone on sight. katsuki called backup but they were arriving too late.

from behind, katsuki sees some henchman (who’s been shot and ready to pass out, but still so so loyal to the family) fire his gun. katsuki jumps and covers izuku, intercepting the bullet with his body.

the police arrive at that time, thankfully, and was able to apprehend the main members who were in the warehouse. in different locations, other undercover agents began worming their way in the family and effectively taking it down.

katsuki’s rushed to the hospital and izuku’s taken in custody for series of questioning. his many evidences in regards to the family and their ties (within the government, the banking systems, the police) was able to prove that he is innocent, and was rewarded for his work.

once he’s let go, he visits katsuki’s hospital room and sits by katsuki’s bed, waiting for him to wake up. they have a lot to catch up on.

[honey-acre]

The Knuts (Part 1): An Introduction

During the summer of 2020, the pandemic was getting worse and I had nowhere to be and nothing to do (this is a lie i had so much to do). So I thought, why not spend too much money on a game my shitty laptop couldn't handel?? Thus, the Knuts Family Saga was born. I've been playing this save file for 2 YEARS now and I'm only on the 3rd generation jfc (playing on long lifespan and only on the weekends). I was never planning on posting about my freaky little sims story, so I never took screenshots for the majority of the 1st generation (mostly cause i didn't know how). But today, I learned how to edit the screenshots and thought it would be fun to chronicle the game that's been plaguing my mind for the past 2 years. So let me introduce you to the First Generation of the Knuts:

Cashew Knuts

She is the myth, the legend, the chaos gremlin to end all chaos gremlins: 1st heir to the Knuts family, Cashew!

at this point in my save, she is long dead, but her legacy will continue to live on (more of a "generational trauma" than a legacy..... 👀)

Dez Knuts

yes, you read her name right

younger sister of Cashew

she's just good 😇, too pure for this world

originally intended to be our child servant, but i forgot kids had to go to school

spent most of her days cooking and gardening, which she passed down to the future generations

Backstory

Cashew and Dez moved to Willow Creek after their family home tragically burned down. The two sisters were able to escape unharmed, but their parents weren't so lucky. Authorities were not able to find the cause of the fire, but they said it was likely due to faulty wiring. Amidst the death of their parents, they inherited a comfortable sum of money, which they used to buy a small house in Crick Cabana.

[cryptvokeeper]

editing this post cuz I watched it and now have thots:

Ok first off the line was a really brief moment. ya'll acted like it was some fuckin show-stopping scene when its literally just...more of the same. it was a one-off line, and quickly moved past. for the love of god please learn to interact with content within its own framing jfc.

but if you INSIST on making a mountain out of a molehill...

Tommy responded poorly to someone attempting to show vulnerability because of his own flawed view of how trauma works and manifests itself. He’s assuming that because he doesn’t see someone having the same emotional breakdowns as him that their emotions are less intense or legitimate. that is wrong. That does not make him an evil character or horrible person. It is merely an opportunity for growth.

But that ALSO doesn’t mean that his words and dismissal didnt hurt, and probably also contributed to tubbo’s already pretty bad method of coping. And trying to make excuses as to why actually it’s not a big deal that Tommy did that is kinda shitty, and at the very least hypocritical given how many times we’ve criticized other people trying to make excuses about how what other characters did to Tommy wasnt that bad actually cuz trauma.

no character having their own issues excuses the way they treat others.

[dirhwangdaseul-archived]

did we never really discuss infinity war and endgame as the piece of trash it was or what like do you all forgot that that iw really says "the populations of the universe must be culled to create some utopia in which resources don't dwindle" and like not one hero actually challenges that notion???? seriously, not one, not one, not one, but hey disney is not done hammering home the subtle conservative politics, no, in fact in endgame doesn't, steve say that whales are back to the shores of new york like that proves sth like the genocide of people is good in the end because the avengers great philosophical moment is basically diluted to "killing people is bad" and nothing else, and like what gets me is that the russos took moments to take shots of other characters blank dumbass expressions when faced with thanos beliefs, i got cheated out of a cosmic romance with death over fucking eugenics like fr when i say the mcu is trash to the bones and each layer is just shit stitched together, i fucking mean it... like jfc they really made cap an eugenecist with one line

and like didnt the mcu just reinforce that belief in fatws by giving karli entire politics based around w/e unexplained shitty utopia the russos tiny nut brains couldn't come up with but that still distills into "the world was better before the people came back" and for all that karli was talked about as the villain the show did want to acknowledge that her politics were correct, so karli as the rest of tfatws is a mess of incoherent superficial understanding of politics

like why am i still seeing praise for the russos or mcfeely or any of the avengers writers over this??? joss whedon provoked the attempted comicbook whitewashing of wanda maximoff by trying to remove magneto as her father because they couldn't have fox's fucking money, for profit, and with other white directors all the talk about manipulation particularly after the winter soldier is very much true but then again there's the demons that wrote captain m*rvel like it isn't whitewashed anti Black colorist militarist proapanda, even if these directors are somehow manipulated by the mouse the interviews with them proved that they didn't even understand nor made sense of the timeline plot which doesn't work like ive seen months of explanations give it a rest it's not supposed to have an answer is trash like people keep treating this shit as sth so deep but like in a good way or some shit and like yeah its deep in the sense that it should be to understand the workings of propaganda like i cannot even get behind anymore about the mcu being entertainment because of shit like this subtle out of the mess and superficiality and feel good it creates, people actually going out of the fucking movies and then saying yeah thanos was right and it's like surely the fiction is not reality crowd would have sth to say now? but this shit is international dude like these reaches way beyond amerikkka and that's when it gets even more fucked up right like fatws mentioning interventionist politics on chile like it's fucking tea talk, fucking insane and people just let it pass to the point of praising the clowns responsible like nah stop that please stop that, these people are trash and ok with making conservative propaganda, they can choke

edit: added a bit to drag captain m*rvel's white feminist mess forgot the first time around

[straighttohellbuddy]

Listen at this rate anything you write esp with corpse, it’s just gonna fuckin live rent free in my head and I they will become comfort fics bc shitty time of the year and living alone so we love that. But honestly??? That scene literally held my entire heart and made me sO SOFT AND I WAS MUSH because it was just so good 🥺 I love it I love you and I literally cannot wait for what you have coming up for us all 🥰 also catch me regularly lurking in your inbox lmao -🐈‍⬛

PLease bruv, you’re absolutely welcome here! And ahhhh thank you, seriously you are far too kind, and I’m so glad to have had such a lovely warm reception back into the YT fandom!!

(side note, i’m currently trying to record an audio version of the hanahaki au to make it more accessible, but also its going to be hell to edit because every time i get to another character speaking there’s just me quietly going ‘ah fuck’ as i realise im going to have botched impressions of youtubers all throughout. odds i literally just pitch my voice lower for corpse’s lines jfc. im not a voice actor but im trying)

[xxgothchatonxx]

Clarice 1x03 Review

Um... I think Sister Michael can sum up my feelings about this episode

Now before I explain, I would like to point out that I have been enjoying this series. But I also want to be honest with my opinions. So... keep that in mind. 

In summary... this episode was exhausting. 

What I liked:

Most of the acting

I don’t have a problem with them fleshing out Krendler. And I will explain that in a separate post. 

Thank you for fixing the opening credits... even if it is a bit inconsistent now, but still thank you. 

So she’s ditching this shitty therapist? Good. (I actually didn’t mind that he was shitty because that is realistic.. not all therapists are helpful. Some can actually make things worse for you.)

What I disliked (and with some things, downright hated)

The ‘looking-right-at-the-camera’ thing... NO. NO NO NO NO NO. This show does not get to pull that trick, especially not in the THIRD. GODDAMN. EPISODE. And I know exactly why they are doing this. It’s to connect back to the Silence film. But this show is not like the Silence film! Yes it has connections to the story but trying to connect it back to the movie when it is nothing like the movie is just stupid! “But the Buffalo Bill flashbacks-” are annoying as fuck. They did not have to recreate those scenes from the 1991 film. Look, I do enjoy this show! I really do! But I would enjoy it a lot more if it just cut ties with the film and just said “hey, we’re doing a sequel to the book, we’re doing our own take, we’re not doing with Jonathan Demme did so perfectly”! Do your own thing! It’s what made The Show That Must Not Be Named Yet You Keep Trying To Do What That Show Did.. right down to the pots and pans music so successful! 

How is this episode the quickest-paced episode so far, when it’s in the fewest settings?

Well it’s nice to see Ardelia in her workplace outside of Clarice’s story- oh, and that’s it... also that first scene with her telling the guy to back off was just weird. Nothing wrong with telling a guy to back off but it was just weirdly executed.

So, it was great to see a scene with Ruth and Catherine... but whoever directed/edited that ADR about Catherine keeping Precious in her room needs to be re-trained because YIKES that was horrific! 

Look, I’m sorry to anyone who’s a fan of him but I hate Esquivel. I don’t care about his past, I don’t care about his connection with Clarice ...they’re going to hook up aren’t they?, I don’t care about him. And I have nothing against the actor, Lucca De Oliveria, but I think his acting is awful in this. It is so wooden, so lifeless. When he turned “bad cop”, I laughed. 

I had to pause during that whole “my partner offered me $20 if I asked for your number” scene when Esquivel spoke up. Jfc, the part in Silence when Miggs threw semen on Clarice was more subtle than that! And it added more to the plot! 

Okay I understand that the team still has trust issues but ENOUGH with the flipflopping. I do not want to watch the beginning of the next episode and see them go back to “FUCK YOU, CLARICE!”

So... this is probably my least favourite episode of the series so far. But it’s not enough to turn me off. I am hoping this is just a bump in the road. But this shit just annoyed the fuck out of me. I’m hoping the next episode is better. 

[captryanclark]

24-25 June 2020 // The days Hugh Laurie replied to me 2 times in 24 hours

Here’s the story:  -on the first picture 24th June 2020: someone tweeted about his book The Gun Seller being their current favorite book, then an anon account using Bart Simpson’s pic as pfp said something like “only 3 people read his book”, that’s why he’s saying “oh no, you’re not all three people Bart knows?”  then i wrote him that tweet, in defence of him of course and i wasnt really expecting anything but then his tweet notification came in, i saw him tweeted in Turkish but it wasnt in a “reply”. Twitter glitches sometimes like this or he accidentally hit the wrong reply button when he was trying to write in Turkish. It was so sweet of him and actually enough for me. I never ask for more, i know how to settle with what i’ve got in my life. Btw it’s not a translated version, he probably wrote it as he remembered Turkish, which is very sweet and kind of him. Because that “teşekkür” word is really hard for foreigners so we understand when they say “tessekur” instead. “Teşekkür ederim” means “Thank you!”. And this whole thing was enough to celebrate which i did for that night. But some people kept asking “uh, are you sure he replied to you?” like no he decided to talk in Turkish all of a sudden jfc. i had to explain this to people that day all day. Also i had a very long and shitty day so him doing that boosted my mood so it was all enough for me.

-the other day, on 25th June: i was still in shock of him replying in Turkish the previous night but you know, people gotta live on with their lives so i was living on, at around like 7:25 pm, i started playing the guitar, with my laptop opened, twitter tab was opened, my airpods were on but my phone was somewhere that my eyes cant see it, apparently, 5 mins later i started playing my guitar innocently, this man decided to reply to me properly like under something that i spent 3 days on, 45 hours to make for his birthday 2 WEEKS AGO!! 2 WEEKS AGO!! Man how did you even find that? Maybe he realized he replied under the wrong tweet the other day so he went there and found it. I assume he enjoyed the video cause thanked for the “send-off” haha, BUT HOW DID YOU FIND THAT!!! Some of my friends even saw it before i did and i literally checked my screen like “did he just... did he say this to me? Is this his real acc?? (there’s the fcking white tick) are we sure it’s him?....” once i came to believing that it’s actually him i started “what will i say him now....” it took me 15 mins to write a proper reply to him, and im still not okay with it cause i couldve made a better joke... Whatever happened in his mind and around there, i am so thankful, now i have a story to tell him if i meet him someday. The man i’ve been a fan of since was 16 years old, replied to me TWICE in 24 hours and i’ll forever be celebrating this. I literally wasnt expecting him to say anything or even see that birthday video i edited, he just went to look up my account or idk maybe searched my twitter handle and his own name and this came up, whatever happened, i cannot thank him enough for giving me the energy boost that i needed for a long time. Bless him for thinking of me and making me the happiest person on the planet for 2 days.... And if you now go to his acc on twitter, his last 2 activites were replying to me hahaskjdfhjksdf i feel privilaged hjsdhkasak

I couldnt go to his Istanbul gig in 2014 cause i broke my foot 1 week before that and my doctor strictly banned me from walking for 10 days so i was really upset and angry at myself... you know what... 6 years later, that footache officially healed after all of this... 

Hugh Laurie is a living legend and one of the kindest human beings in this world, i love him with all my heart❤️

[amphtaminedreams]

I Shopped at YesStyle So You Don’t Have To: Lookbook no.10

Hi to anyone reading,

And welcome to what I guess is my first “review” post of sorts! Which is basically an excuse for me to rave about Korean street style and ask why the fuck Seoul fashion week isn’t more of a big deal!? Though I’ve pretty much quit fast fashion over the last few months and have been getting my clothes from Depop, I did want to talk about the website YesStyle which I ordered from back in May (jfc, the fact that May was almost 4 months ago now is terrifying) and how impressed I was with their service and the clothes I received. It should go without saying from the fact that investing in someone with about 200 followers on here wouldn’t be a very good financial decision, but this isn’t a sponsored post-I just think that if you’re gonna order from anywhere, YesStyle is a good shout for those of you who, like myself, are inspired by East Asian street style. I have to give credit to the incredible Katie O, otherwise known as StealTheSpotlight on Youtube and Instagram; she’s the medium through which I’ve been introduced to the world of “k-fashion” and YesStyle in the first place. Yes, my current knowledge of k-pop doesn’t extend far past fan tendencies to flood every popular tweet with fancams of their favourite singers and girl groups (I admire the dedication), but through Katie’s content and Instagram accounts like TokyoFashion on Instagram,  I have come to the conclusion that the stylists behind these groups and Asian designers in general are owed a huge amount of credit by Western trend forecasters. If you have any Instagram account or blog recommendations with similar content please let me know! For now, I’m gonna give a run down of the pieces I ordered (most of which are still available), prices and sizing, and also a bit focussing on ethical concerns and what I could find out about their practices from my research.

DISCLAIMER: The photos used as backgrounds are mine. Yes, I’m in mourning over the fact that this time last year I was inter-railing, in case the ham-fisted insertion of touristy pics didn’t make that obvious. Remember when we could leave the country? When it didn’t feel like the world was ending? When everything didn’t seem to be going to absolute shit all at once? When there was a glimmer of hope that we wouldn’t spend the next 4 years being governed by the Conservatives here in Britain? Simpler times :-)

The Pieces

1. The Alizio V-Neck Camisole Top in White: £4.97, Size M

So, what you’re gonna get from the off here is that YesStyle’s prices seem ridiculously cheap, which is something I’ll address in the ethics section at the end of the post. For £4.97, you’d expect an ill-fitting SheIn/Zaful style number but I was so impressed by how flattering this top actually is. I was a size 8 and 32C for reference and my only complaint is that because the neckline has a slight plunge, it was a little awkward to wear with a t-shirt bra. You know, unless you’re into that cups poking out of the top kinda vibe that was a rite of passage for all British teenage girls going through puberty back in, like, 2009 when you wanted everyone to know you’d been on your first bra shopping trip to M&Co with your mum at the weekend. 

2. The Rhames High-Waist Plaid Mini Skirt in Purple: £9.12, Size M

Clueless being as iconic as it is, a plaid mini skirt is always going to be timeless and I know this is a piece I’m gonna be basing outfits around for a long time. It fit perfectly and is surprisingly good quality material; I was kind of expecting it to come in that super thin, semi-see through jersey that you get when you order from a lot of UK fast fashion sites, but a recurring feature of the clothes I picked out was that they were such good quality for the price and exactly as they appear online. I’ve found in the past that UK sites are deceptively canny with lighting and angles in that when the garment actually arrives (Boohoo in particular is a repeat offender in this regard) it’s a lot frumpier than it looks on the model. It seems to be common practice to pin back and temporarily alter the clothes during photoshoots to give the illusion that they’re a lot more fitted and structured than they actually are which ultimately just leads to disappointment when you try on the supposedly bodycon dress and resemble a sack of potatoes. Been there, done that. I worship the ground all carbs walk on but I don’t want to look like them. Should go without saying really. It’s nothing to do with size, but it’s just crappy tailoring and cutting corners on the brand’s part and that’s what irks me. I really appreciate that YesStyle has photos of “regular” people just wearing the clothes out rather than the outcomes of these overly edited, studio lit shoots that aren’t necessarily the most representative of how the garment is gonna look irl.

3. Nikiki Garter Belt: £5.59, One Size

As comfortable as garters come, I guess? I don’t have much experience with them tbh, lol. 2021 to do list, if we make it out of 2020 alive: try more garters.

4. Lucuna Floral Embroidered Cropped Cardigan in Almond: £15.61, One Size

Don’t get me wrong, this cardigan is adorable and there’s nothing misleading about the photo on the website. What I will say is that considering it only comes in one size, it’s pretty tight on the arms. I’m a size 6 right now and it’s really not like I’m ripped or anything (lol) so it’s safe to say that in terms of the Lucuna brand, their sizes come up very small. The cardigan wasn’t the only one size thing I purchased and whilst the others did fit, I think in general the fact that said “one size” is pretty much only suitable for UK sizes 4-8 is pretty shit. A few of the pieces had elasticated waistbands but in general in 2020, when we’ve come so far in the last few years with body positivity and being more inclusive of all sizes, to have a sample size that runs so small isn’t acceptable and this sizing issue is my biggest problem with the store. Though I recognise that YesStyle acts as an outlet for smaller East Asian brands (in this case Lucuna) and thus aren’t themselves responsible for the designs, more consideration should probably go into the harm that could potentially be done by stocking these supposedly “one size fits all” garments. Brandy Melville, I’m looking at you too. Your designs are cute but your lack of inclusivity is shitty.

5. Ohnana Ruffle Trim Strappy Cami Cropped Top in Purple: £5.01, Size M

I’m not as jazzed as I was about this top now it seems that everyone and their mother’s dog is selling it at an extortionate price on Depop but I will say that it’s also very flattering. Makes my strangely long torso look somewhat proportionate, which is nice. The material is pretty thin but it is for all intents and purposes a tank top and the price is reflective of that.

6. Sisyphi Plaid Shirt in Tangerine: £11.30, One Size

So the “one size” option strikes again, though this time with less vengeance-I would say this would be wearable up to size 12/14 so slightly better than with the cardigan.

7.  BBChic High-Waist Wide-Leg Jeans: £10.04, Size M

When it comes to these jeans, I only have good things to say. Like firstly, they make me feel like early 2000s Avril Lavigne AKA. my childhood icon/potential clone/queen of millennium grunge and an incarnation of Y2K fashion I can actually get behind. Secondly, they have an elasticated waistband, which is ALWAYS a good thing. Thirdly, they didn’t come up ridiculously long on me which I feared would be the case; I did wear the platform Filas with them but as you can see, it’s not like they’d be trailing over my feet even in flats. I’m somewhere between 5′3 and 5′4 for reference and usually go for petite in jeans  and trousers just to be on the safe side.

8.  HERMITAKH Ring Detail Halter Crop Top in Black: £5.15, Size M

I have only recently become a member of the itty bitty titty committee but even back when I shot this lookbook this halter actually fit! When it came to tops that necessitate going braless, I always had issues with finding pieces I didn’t feel were going to cause an unintentional free the nipple moment, but the fact that you can tie this top up at the neck and back yourself allows you to work out a fit that’s supportive for you. 

9. Puffie Lightning Print Straight-Cut Pants: £13.76, Size M

I’d wanted a pair of trousers like these for ages before I saw them on YesStyle but the ones I’d come across in the past were a bit extra for my hometown and typically cost more than they seemed to be worth. This pair lack the bulk that the original styles I came across had, which helps give them a more casual, laid back feel, though they are just as vibrant and substantial BUT there isn’t much give in them. They have the slightly baggy look I was going for however they aren’t elasticated on the waist so I recommend having a look at the guide that’s available next to the drop down box where you select the size you want.

 10. Alfie Mesh Long-Sleeve Top in Pink: £7.71, One Size

No, the Jennifer’s Body top isn’t from YesStyle, I’m sorry to disappoint. Go to RedBubble for that one! The considerably less exciting mesh top underneath however, is, and in spite of its relative mundanity (you can’t top Megan Fox as a man-eating demon) it does the job as a versatile staple piece. It’s one size but it does have a lot of stretch in it so would probably go up to about size 14 (not to say that’s great).

11. Barrash Harness Bag: £17.10, One Size

The harness vest is one of my favourite trends to come out of k-fashion and I wanted SO badly to pull this piece off (especially because it was one of the most expensive pieces I purchased from the site) but it was far too big for me even when I adjusted it and TBH...I don’t even know if it’s just the sizing? I kinda felt like a paranoid tourist with their bag on back to front and yeah...I don’t think that’s the desired effect. Here’s an example of how cool they CAN look from Seoul fashion week, and with that another example of why NYFW should lose its place in the “big 4″ to make room for SFW:

And just Blackpink just setting the standard for the utility wear trend in general:

12. Mikiko Short-Sleeved Blouse in White: £8.79, One Size

I appreciate that the website notes that the “one size” here runs small, however it does also say that a “base layer” is needed for under the shirt which I didn’t find was necessary at all. The fabric is quite thick and it genuinely looks like the kind of shirt you’d find tucked away in a vintage shop, cute af and will go with anything.

13. Closette Sleeveless V-Neck Vest in Black: £11.87, One Size

Again, I was really impressed with the quality of this jumper; it definitely looks like something you’d pick up in a uniform shop (though this one is probably cheaper because those shops are daylight fucking ROBBERY) but I can never get enough of that grungy school girl look. Blame St.Trinians. 

14. Niji Smile Pleated Plaid Skirt with Insert Shorts in Green: £9.12, Size M

This skirt might be my absolute favourite of the items I ordered on the sole basis that it comes with shorts built in underneath, like, WHY DON’T ALL MINI SKIRTS HAVE THIS!? Plus the shape and the bounce it has to it makes me feel ultra-feminine and effortlessly cute which I love. It didn’t even turn up crumpled! Which you’ve really got to admire considering half the clothes in my local H&M look like they’ve never got within 10 metres of an iron in their short lifespan. 

15. LINSI Elbow-Sleeve Print T-Shirt: £10.92, One Size

If I had to pick one more favourite piece, it would be this graphic top that I wore underneath a pink chiffon Ebay dress. It looks and fits exactly like the photos on the website and I have to restrain myself wasting a wear of it just lounging around the house because it’s also ridiculously comfy.

16. LINSI Plaid Straight-Cut Pants in Orange: Size M

These trousers are currently out of stock, however I will say that of everything I’ve ordered they’re probably the least comfy and on that basis I’m not sure if I’d buy them again. They look great and I will push myself to wear them for that reason but they’re the kind of itchy fabric that I rush to take off and swap for some pyjamas the moment I get into the house. That being said, I don’t know if this is an issue everyone will have because I am someone that is overly sensitive to fabrics so you might not even notice it, plus-stretchy waistband! Which is a plus for sure.

I was also very impressed by the accessories I ordered, which once again completely surpassed my quality expectations. Pretty much everything pictured here was under £5 apart from the shoulder bag which was closer to 10, and when you consider that the price of these is inflated at the moment because of the resurgence of the Y2K trend, this is still ridiculously cheap.

The prices are definitely a concern of mine because unfortunately, when products are this cheap there’s usually somebody being exploited down the line. Since I made this order in May, I’ve had a small slip up with a Motel Rocks order, but other than that have cut out fast fashion completely. I want to be as ethical a consumer as I can, and that’s something I considered before making this post; that being said, YesStyle, actually a Hong-Kong based company in spite of it being touted as the destination for k-fashion, was recognised as a "Caring Company" between 2014 and 2019 (I don’t think this has been updated for 2020 yet given the circumstances) by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service. From what I can find online, this award is given to Hong Kong companies that demonstrate good corporate citizenship and responsibility. Whilst this seems like reassuring information, like I said, I find it hard to believe that the production of clothes selling for these kinds of prices isn’t outsourced to low wage workers at some stage of the process. It’s a hard to know where to stand, because obviously the fast fashion industry DOES create jobs that people rely on to sustain themselves but at what point does the treatment of workers in developing countries negate the opportunities the industry provides here in the UK? “There is no ethical consumption under capitalism” and all that but shouldn’t we try to make a change where we can? I agree with the statement though at times it can come across like a deflection of individual responsibility. Plus there’s the environmental side of the debate-having to fly the garments over from the point of manufacture obviously takes a massive amount of fuel which it goes without saying is hugely detrimental to our planet. The sizing is also an issue; the average clothes size here in the UK is a 12, I believe, and yet a size medium seems to come up as about an 8. Asian sizes do tend to come up smaller in general but at the same time, if that’s the case, as an international retailer shouldn’t YesStyle at least address that somewhere on the site?

I don’t want to end on a negative note because compared to sites like Zaful, SheIn, and even UK based retailers such as Pretty Little Thing and Boohoo, YesStyle appears to be one of the better ones. The quality of their garments is incredible for the prices and I admire the transparency of having reviews for every product be so readily accessible. It’s also great to see that they have a section specifically addressing their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, AND  offer refunds to their customers for import fees. God, I don’t know why this isn’t something that more websites do? I will never forget being slapped with a £100+ invoice for a Dolls Kill (bleurgh) order I made once back in the more impulsive shopping days and all the Karen-y emails I sent back and forth. Import fees are understandable but international retailers should definitely make it clearer how these are calculated and give more of an indication of just how steep these fees might be if you’re making a large order. It almost seems disingenuous not to do so especially when said retailers most likely know that customers wouldn’t make these orders if they had an idea of what it would cost just to get access to the goods they’ve already paid for.

I won’t ramble on for much longer because there is so much important shit going on in the world right now and I don’t want to take up time that could be spent reading more valuable posts-with the shooting of Jacob Blake earlier this week, and the death of Chadwick Boseman earlier today (I can’t imagine the amount of mental and physical strength it takes to film all the movies he did back to back whilst dealing with colon cancer), the most important thing to do is listen to how black individuals are feeling and what they are thinking right now. I will keep an eye on my dashboard and retweet what I can. Thanks for reading. Even if you’re just here for the photos, I appreciate it! And I don’t know if I’ve said it before but please know that my messages are always open to anyone struggling, especially with everything that’s going on at the moment. I don’t claim to be a professional but I can always listen. Lots of love<3

Lauren x

[beware-monstercat-phantom]

The Monstercat Google+ Group

Another thing mentioned in 2ndKeeper’s reflection is the unofficial Monstercat Google+ Group that disliked her.

This is the text of the letter that was sent to her (https://docs.google.com/document/d/17mIWo0g5DwBcix8oza8FoZBakxDuICACL7z1pXUtu9U/edit):

First and foremost, I would like to say that you are a very, VERY shitty moderator. Not that that’s the entire premise of this.

Threatening bans left and right at every fucking HINT at breaking a rule, you’ve even managed to get onto my “which member of the mcat subreddit would be more of a nightmare to have let into this community?” poll in the Monstercat Google+ community.

Delta Heavy - I Need You  ←(that’s a link!) 

I believe it was you whom said, “Please do not post information about this release, since it has been leaked. Doing so again will result in a ban.” after I mentioned I Need You. However, Delta Heavy announced this in their AMA, noting: “Yes we are, but we can't really say much more than that ;)”, and then previewed it in a mix THE VERY NEXT DAY AFTER YOU SENT ME THAT MESSAGE.

Oliver Queen/SMLE, Stephen

You seem to be very confident that Oliver was incorrect about the SMLE release. However, after extensive research of literally yesterday, I’d say he was right. After all, 2 Me was released yesterday. It took him three tries until you accepted that he was right, somehow. It’s the same story with the Stephen release. The cover art was a leak, the songs were not. Stephen tweeted that he was releasing music that day, and everyone knew, or assumed, he was talking about the Monstercat release, since he had announced it last month. How did you not know that?

Threatening bans, left and right

Going back to my other account known as /u/soupandchili, you and the other mods acted on my “””wrongdoings””” in the sub quite a lot. And I commented on a post entitled “Declan James on Monstercat?”. Going by your standards, it wasn’t accurate, seeing as there was no explicit saying of “on Monstercat”, and you should get a ban warning. See what I’m getting at now?

Conclusion: You’re a shitty moderator that has no business policing the sub, nitpicking every user’s posts.

Plus, you couldn’t appreciate my “subcat x 2ndKeeper OTP” joke from a while back? jfc.

You can also see that the writer talked about it on other Monstercat related subreddits - https://www.reddit.com/r/teekaytank/comments/7ypo32/im_here_to_talk_about_why_2ndkeeper_is_proved_to/

While they were discussing it in their Google+ group, they realized that they need to remember that a “bad” moderator does not equate to a bad person. One person said that “this constant amount of hate over the past few days has crossed the line”.

Many fans of Monstercat have started up offshoot discord servers or other social media groups, and they may voice their dislike of other people in that community in them. Since they’re not part of an official community, Monstercat moderators have decided to be hands off about this. It is a huge loophole to have people in their “family” slinging mud at each other as long as they are smart enough to do it in a dm or a different discord. These people only met each other through their community anyway and they also spend a lot of time talking about their community.

It’s really disturbing to have them promise “family” to young people aged 9 - 12 from other communities like Roblox and try to limit their responsibility over their official communities. If they want to target children, I hope that they can have the ethics to try and keep them away from this kind of behaviour.

[legobiwan]

 Cestus Deception review: Part 2 (now with less wine):

Finished up Cestus Deception while taking a much-needed drive around town (by myself, not getting out except to take some pictures of mountains in a remote area, in a car no one else ever gets into because...well, one I am terrible about keeping a neat car and two I tend to hoard strange, partially disassembled instruments in my backseat along with exercise clothing, power tools, and books. #socialdistancing please do it, my friends).

Kenobi’s plan! Was to...visit an opium den, collude with a criminal, and then fake a Sith acolyte attack on a bunch of commerce families with Kit Fisto playing the role of evil!being? All in the name of getting the ruler of the planet to sign an accord with the Republic to stop manufacturing Jedi-killing droids? But, it was all a fake? Kenobi! Your deviousness is showing. 

I CAN’T, YOU GUYS. Who came up with this name for Kit? How did they not both start laughing hysterically? Kit “Nemonus” Fisto roleplaying as a lightwhip-wielding Sith battling Obi-wan Kenobi. This was your plan, Kenobi? Honestly.

And then Ventress gets some footage of Kenobi’s machinations and he is totally exposed in front everyone at the signing of the accord and ordered offworld. I mean, 100% caught in his own bullshit.

And then he doubles-down, I don’t know, I kinda dig this intense version of Obi-wan. He’s very...I hate to say it (lie, I *love* to say it) Dooku-ish in this novel. ...eeeehhhhh, *shrugs aggressively a la Larry David* can’t complain?

Okay, so Obes and his barrister friend are ordered offworld. Not even two minutes out of the atmosphere, Obi-wan is basically like, yeah, no, I’m going back down and peaces out on an escape pod while ordering a clone to take law-friend back to Coruscant.

And then Ventress attacks the ship. Xutoo, the clone...well, it doesn’t end well.

Surprisingly, Doolb Snoil (who I keep wanting to call Sny Snootles which I know is incorrect) survives this encounter and escapes on his own via pod to the surface. I was 100% expecting him to bite it because all of Obi-wan’s friends tend to bite it in tragic manner...

HAHAHAHAHHA NEVERMIND THEY NEEDED TO WAIT FOR ANOTHER ONE OF OBI-WAN’S FRIENDS TO DIE IN HIS ARMS WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY, STAR WARS, WHYYYYYYYYYYY??????

Okay, so I feel like the audiobook was abridged because I would have remembered this exchange. I think. Or I was distracted. Not unprecedented. Anyway, this is the kind of philosophical debate about free will in this universe I love and it does raise some very interesting ethical questions about the Jedi practice of taking children at that age. (Granted, no one was ever a prisoner of the Jedi Order, but it is far more difficult to escape an institution when you have been brought up in it. But then again, perhaps that child would have had a far worse life on their home planet. Or not. And it’s rare we see any insight into that decision, beyond Dooku in Dark Rendezvous, and of course, Rael, to a certain extent and Anakin. (If you know of others in Legends or Canon, let me know because I find it to be a fascinating question with no good answer.))

Meanwhile, Obes and Kit’s little Onderon-esque insurrection is drawing the attention of the local authorities. 

Why, yes, I agree, Dura. Brilliant, ferocious, tactically diverse, respectful, knows the Alderaanian Reel, *ahem*

Can we briefly talk about the spider-friend army attacking the Jedi Killer droids and defeating them because the droids, like recent Apple products, had a shitty battery life? Gotta get that portable battery/USB for your genocidal droids, Dooku. That was some Class-A Star Wars bullshit. 

Speaking of the JK droids, Obi-wan battles one himself later, and two things about this encounter: 

JFC, of course he did.

Did...did Obi-wan just...punch a droid to death? I mean...well, that is to say...not very civilized, is it, Kenobi?

Sorry, but the love story between Jangotat (Nate) and Sheeka Tal was...less than inspiring. Maybe it was the narration or the editing (as I am realizing going through the pdf that they cut some stuff for the audio version), but I was not so into it. Then again, romance isn’t really my thing in general. But Obi-wan Kenobi being a living Jedi pregnancy test...(okay, okay so I’m sure all Jedi were able to sense little life Forces forming themselves in people’s reproductive systems, but the fact that Star Wars feels compelled to come back to this idea of Obi-wan pointing out secret pregnancies is pretty hilarious, in my mind. Obi-wan Kenobi, Jedi Master and aspiring OBGYN. Good lords.)

I love the confrontation between Ventress, Obi-wan and Kit. Kit is such a third wheel here, his only reason for being is to make vaguely threatening comments towards Ventress and for her to ignore them so she can continue to villain-monologue at Kenobi. Also, Dooku wanted Obi-wan alive? WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED.

Okay, but Obi-wan and Ventress have the most EXTRA duel ever. They have a lightsaber battle...underwater? And then somehow rip each other’s rebreathers out at some point, which, let’s be honest, kiiiinda feels like a euphemism and then Ventress just gets frustrated with Obi-wan’s lack of coronavirus, meaning he can hold his breath underwater a really long time and peaces out in an angry cloud of random underwater smoke. Hilarious. THIS LINEAGE, I SWEAR, DOOKU IS THE INSTIGATOR OF SO. MUCH. DRAMA.

Can we appreciate that Obi-wan’s “backup plan” is to buy a half-million credit radiation suit form a opium addict gangster and sabotage a commercial production plant singlehandedly? And he shows up with credits! The Council must have loved that request. Half a million credits. The audacity of this man.

All this to sabotage a plan, that apparently, was a total smokescreen. It turns out that no, the CIS wasn’t trying to mass-produce Jedi killing droids, but pretending to in order to lure the Republic and engage them in combat where they would be framed for mass civilian casualties. That is some 4D chess, right there. Well played, both Dooku and Sidious. Well fucking played. 

Okay, I think (think) audiobook cut the part where Obi-wan:

 a) negotiated for spider clemency from Dura, who is so smitten by Kenobi she’s totally going to go with it even though Obi-wan is totally representing large, poisonous spiders this is FANTASTIC. (side note, I love spiders) Obi-wan Kenobi, Friend to Large Animals is probably the truest thing I have ever posted on this hellsite, so now we add gigantic spiders to the list. Have I mentioned I love this man? And who else but the student of Qui-gon fucking Jinn would be like this? Of course. Of. Course.

b) where he admitted to at one point being in love (what?!?) and 

c) where he was the sole preoccupation of Ventress’s thoughts as she left Ord Cestus, just...what???? Amazing. Truly amazing.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Obi-wan characterization, it was nice to see Kit in action (and Kit, by the way, didn’t totally approve of Obi-wan’s methods but went along with it), the Jangotet/Nate storyline was okay. Some of the machinations of the overall plot were a little muddled (which was probably due, in part, to the audiobook cuts) even if I did like how they tried to deal with the free will aspect of being a clone (even if it was not totally deftly handled). 7/10 would have been 7.5 but the audiobook cut some things that were important to me. (Or I zoned out and didn’t catch them :D

[caligobeltrao]

I for one would love 2 hear ur thoughts on the hannibal novel 👀👀 - bloodybrahms ☺

ahhh thank you BB!! <3 I’m gonna throw it under a cut bc I know people aren’t gonna want my ramblings clogging up their dash lol. 

Edit after I’ve written it: Holy shit this turned into a monster but tbf I did say I was going to rant. I think I miss writing college essays...

Also, I would like to note bc I’m about to bitch, I do still love Hannibal and Clarice and all of the franchise. Hell, I even love book Hannibal because I’m garbage and want to be special. So yeah. It’s a fond bitching. 

Okay where to fuckin begin man... This novel was a fucking Shit Show, my dudes. It was like baby’s first fanfiction. 

Let’s just jump in, shall we? 

So by now, having read both Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, I know Harris injects of lot of sexual shit into his novels, fine whatever, but the amount of pedophilia is insane. Like, Red Dragon with the grandmother threatening to cut his dick off by holding it in between scissors????? And then we have Mason Verger, worst human on the planet. Like jfc I’ll go into him specifically more later but just. Men. Why does it always have to be sexual. 

Like that time Clarice wasn’t wearing a bra and she wanted to prove to Paul Krendler she wasn’t wearing a wire so she flashed him her tits?? Unnecessary, Harris. Bullshit on all counts. 

Next, poor Ardelia Mapp. So he clearly wrote out her accent in Silence, which frankly reads racist since to me it seemed like he did it every time a character of color was met but he didn’t for Clarice’s Southern accent except for this book when she was talking to Ardelia. Now, that’d be a cool way to show how close they are, sure, but it just... She didn’t show up enough to warrant that reaction from me, plus all the other casually racist shit he throws in. 

Ardelia’s literally there as the wise Black best friend to help Clarice along. She doesn’t feel like her own character, she’s only there in conjunction with her, or doing something for her. She was the fucking valedictorian for Christ fucking sake, she also works at the Bureau but if her department was mentioned it was only once in passing. She was not a full character which fucking blows because she could’ve been so cool. 

And real quick before I forget, I hate how she’s treated in the end. I do like she gets a reference and that brainwashed Clarice sent her an emerald ring and a note saying she was okay, but Ardelia was abandoned by her best friend (that she had lived with) with not even a phone call and they will never see each other again and I think Ardelia knows it. It sucks and I’m heartbroken for this woman. 

I’m gonna touch a little bit on the racism too. Now I’m white and not the most qualified to talk about this shit, but I do wanna mention it because it makes me mad. There’s just so many unnecessary slurs, any POC is more of a background helper character to Clarice than anything or a foil. 

For example, Evelda Drumgo. She starts us off. Badass Black woman who runs a drug cartel. She chooses to shoot at Clarice and risk her baby’s life, and we have Clarice wash the baby off and save his life. Then Evelda’s mother is written as irrational when she slaps Clarice for visiting the baby in the hospital; I get Clarice’s impulse, but that woman just lost her daughter because Clarice killed her. I would’ve slapped Clarice too, even if it was a totally justifiable shot. 

The baby himself is used as a foil throughout other parts, most notably to me when Clarice goes to visit Mason the first time. There are two Black boys from a foster home playing in a room with a camera so Mason can watch them, and it shakes Clarice up a lil bit because of the baby, but it says she’s getting more used to it.

Now this is half and half well written and shoddy to me. It’d be a cool moment, if the whole incident wasn’t nearly completely forgotten for the rest of the book shortly afterword. It could show growth, if Clarice had any growth to show. 

And then the Romani people who are literally just used and thrown away. Sickening. Also very broadly used the stereotypes we hear which Sucks; the three we meet in any sort of depth are pickpockets, one was already in jail and Pazzi used his leverage as a police officer to get her to do what he wanted and threatened to have her baby taken away from her permanently, like it was just bad. And then the man got killed. Pazzi let him bleed out. Asshole. 

The slurs. I could take out all of them and pretty much have the same damn thing. Like I get showing negative aspects of characters and just because a character’s racist doesn’t mean the author is, but with the characters already being as shitty as they are, fully didn’t need it to make them worse. Entirely unnecessary. Racism or the character being racist has no impact on the plot is the major thing, I think. And you can replace that with anything along those lines, like sexist, homophobic, transphobic. It didn’t impact the plot, they can still be shitty, you just don’t need to use them. 

This also goes in reference to Margot being a lesbian. And the transphobia holy shit, it was disgusting. Harris had Clarice think something so cruel and unnecessary it’s like my guy why was that even remotely something we needed to hear. We didn’t. I wanted to stop reading because that’s not my Clarice, first and foremost, and second, this is supposed to be the character we LIKE. And now I don’t like ANYBODY in this damn book. 

And he treats Margot like shit too, and Barney. 

Their friendship was beautiful and great and finally for once something nice was happening in Margot’s life and I was happy reading it, and then FOR SOME REASON Margot goes to shower in the same room as Barney after a workout, which makes no sense, and then Barney tries to force a kiss on her (and he was hard, Harris made that very clear) and she had been sexually assaulted by Mason her brother and ruin the whole damn thing and none of it would have changed any other piece of the novel if you removed it!!!!!!!!! Entirely unnecessary!!!!!! And Barney had the gall to say well I couldn’t help myself like none of that was realistic in the slightest, she never would have went in the same room to shower with him. 

Something you need to do is basically get some suspension of disbelief from your reader and maintain and stretch that as you go, right? Well mine was gone at that moment.

Also side note Margot is basically just there to show how shitty Mason is for the umpteenth time. Her whole thing is lesbian sexual assault victim.

Also heavily implied she was a lesbian because of the sexual assault. And we rarely see Judy, her girlfriend, so. Bad. Bad all around. 

Circling back around to Clarice and how disappointing she is in the books as compared to the movies. Well, Clarice is also a poorly written character. She’s 1000x better in the movie. Hell, she’s even better in this book than she was in Silence, but that’s not fucking hard. 

Pretty much all the characters are so flat they don’t even classify as two dimensional. 

Like sure, maybe we wanna say Clarice didn’t really solve much in the first book and was just handed everything because she was a trainee and that’s what Hannibal wanted. 

Like if you remember the John Mulaney sketch of Delta Airlines where he’s just going “Okay!” and running to the next place he’s told, that’s Clarice. 

Okay so why does she get goaded into all this shit now? She should know better. She should know how to handle herself better. Like she messes up basic fucking shit like clearing a room before untying Hannibal, which was stupid, she seems oblivious to some of the politics at work even though she’s been in the FBI for like 7 years now, she would at least have more fucking contacts than Brigham who died in the beginning and Jack Crawford who died at the end by rolling over in his bed to his dead wife’s side and Ardelia who would be near the same level as Clarice I guess but I still don’t know her damn department???? Like you fucking network. 

Plus after her final fall from grace with the FBI, we meet or are told of random side characters that go no where and do nothing just to say “hey look at my special little girl, everyone likes her and looks up to her!!” Why? Because she caught Buffalo Bill 7 years ago and then never got a promotion or even worked with the BAU? Again, it does not make sense. People may pity her? But a random girl in the lab wouldn’t be fangirling. Starling herself said her career had gone nowhere because of the politics and not sleeping with Paul. You need to show me why she’s likable in her actions not others words. 

We spend more time away from her than with her anyways but Jesus. 

AND HER IN THE ENDING. She was fucking BRAINWASHED????? Bull FUCKING SHIT. He completely ruined anything he even remotely might’ve had in this cluster fuck of a novel. 

Case in point, difference from the movie, Hannibal spends weeks (possibly? it’s left purposefully vague and I’m guessing that’s because Harris didn’t know the ins and outs and wanted his novel done) meticulously brainwashing Clarice, he had stolen her father’s bones and she’s so far gone at that point she doesn’t care, and the whole scene where Paul is getting his brain eaten? Yeah, she happily indulges and when he insults her, she asks Hannibal for more. Fuck you, Thomas Harris. 

And Hannibal’s a Gary Stu, fucking fight me. 

In the movie he either is or he’s tap dancing on that line, don’t get me wrong, but in the novels it’s insufferable because it doesn’t seem earned. The pigs didn���t attack him because they didn’t smell fear on him. No. He’s easily able to drug and brainwash Clarice and take her as his lover. No. Go away. He’s so smart and one step ahead and can manipulate anyone and everyone into doing what he wants and blah blah blah shut up! A character being perfect isn’t interesting even if he’s evil!! We all know he’s never truly in danger because of how Harris writes him and that’s boring!! 

And I personally have a pet peeve where the villain is described as a monster or unstoppable. That’s boring and I no longer care about your story. I know 9 times out of 10 your main character is going to find a bullshit way around the impossible and kill it. Or it’s just like a default personality and nothing else is added to it. And that’s Hannibal. 

I’m on Hannibal Rising now and, spoiler alert, he’s very bland as a character. (Also Harris switched some details in the novel which kinda annoys me like get your own canon right my man but whatever.) The plot itself is pretty fun? I guess? Like there’s action and stuff and I’m enjoying that. But it’s the same set up where Harris’s Gary Stu always wins, like he was 13 in the book when he killed the butcher. Let. Your. Characters. Lose. 

Also even more racist shit but what did I expect really. 

Anyways, I have no idea who I’m supposed to root for in the novel because all the characters are just kinda shitty. It really just boils down to Harris not showing any redeeming qualities or actions from any of his characters. I liked Margot for a while out of spite but she never really went anywhere and the way she killed Mason (btw she sodomized him with a cattle prod to get his semen bc side plot and then stuffed his Moray eel down his throat and somehow I still don’t think that’s the worst part of the novel) just. No thanks really. 

All the random little side plots were also pretty not great. How many time does Harris have to say Pazzi of the Pazzis? Like I fucking get what you’re going for, even if I hadn’t watched the movie I’d be like, “Oh this dude’s gonna get hung outta that window, dope,” the literal first time. Stop treating your readers like idiots. 

And then Margot’s side plot was that the will their father left said she needed a biological heir to inherit because he was pissed she’s gay and we needed the homophobia I guess, so Mason got everything, and she was helping him with the Hannibal shit because he’s pretty incapacitated duh, and in return he would give her his jizz so Judy could be artificially inseminated and they could have a child and get some of her inheritance. I don’t care. It was all very gross, and Mason kept saying shit like suck me off you’ve done it before, I won’t be able to feel it anyway, maybe Judy’ll suck me off you think she’d like that. It’s all gross. 

And I guess this is a good a time as any to finally start on Mason. So a great rule of writing to make everything work better and give your story more depth is to give everyone both positive and negative traits right, even and especially the bad guys? Like, rules can always be broken if you’re a good enough writer, but I believe I have established that Harris isn’t quite there yet, to put it nicer than I have. 

Mason is one bad trait after another. It’s like when Harris was bored of constantly writing about plain ole pedophilia, he threw a dart at a board of horrible things and landed on topics such as: pedophilia but make it incest, extreme sadism, sadism but against children now, and good old fashioned racism! Fucking Cordell was supposed to collect the children’s tears after Mason would make them cry and put them in martinis for him. Realism went out the goddamn door real fast with this novel y’all. Like a fucking Scooby Doo villain over here. 

And he loves talking about being a sadistic pedophile, he will literally not shut up about it to Clarice when she first gets there telling her about his trip to Africa and this portable guillotine he has and just. I get it was probably like trying to make her uncomfortable on purpose because he’s a Freak, but it went way too far if only because it was annoying, not even uncomfortable for me as a reader. I was bored real quick. Get to the shit I actually wanna know. 

And it sucks because of the weird, over-the-top way of how he died, I got zero satisfaction from his death. I couldn’t even be like, “Well at least Margot got her revenge,” because that’s not how she originally wanted to kill him!!! She wanted someone else to extract his semen for the insemination but couldn’t find anybody to do it for her, and then Hannibal, whilst tied up, said use a cattle prod and you won’t have to touch him and when you kill him you can blame it on me, and I’m pretty sure even if she hit his prostate right every time and he COULD cum from that alone in addition to how his body is Fucked Up now, it would’ve been a lengthy, gross, and re-traumatizing experience for her because all she wanted to do was avoid seeing and touching her brother’s private parts again, which I think is a totally fair and rational desire. 

So I have to live with the fact that she was desperate enough to not lose the house and business because of her homophobic father to go through her childhood trauma again. There’s no place in this book that has a somewhat positive conclusion. 

Even the very last bit where Barney has a girlfriend and a ton of cash from Margot, all he wants to do is see every Vermeer in the world right? Well, because Hannibal and Clarice are in Buenos Aires where one of them is on display, Barney gets spooked and has him and his girlfriend leave before he can see it and it ends that bit with he never got to see it ever so he didn’t even complete his dream!!! 

Also for good measure, Harris throws in that Hannibal and Clarice enjoy having sex regularly. For no reason. Just letting us know. 

I know this seemed like just a bitch fest, because it was, but I kinda sorta enjoyed it? It kept my attention at the very least. It’s really disappointing because like I said, I love the movies, all of them, and have since I was little. To see the original not stand up to that image in my mind is a little heartbreaking. Especially Clarice. She was a strong female role model to me, but turns out she’s... just kinda there. And her ending is that of her no longer being herself and getting that agency taken away from her. 

There is a reference to her waking up from a sleep, if she is asleep (that’s kind of how he worded it), that kinda let us draw our conclusions on whether she was just brainwashed into being good for him or if she was willingly going along with this and was in love with him I guess and it felt like a slap in the face. She turned from a hardworking, modest country girl working her way up to the FBI into a female Hannibal. Which on the surface sounds kinda cool because we love luxe serial killers, but that’s not what she wanted or who she was set up to be. And to insinuate that she would even remotely consider choosing that path for herself is at its best an insult to her and at its worst a complete erasure of her background, what little character Harris did set up. It also completely erases my own connections to her, as a girl from a small town myself who has bigger dreams than this and also... a good, strong set of morals. He just tossed that out the window. 

Obviously if you’re on this blog, you like slasher x reader shit, and this is a novel with a slasher x a person, right? So why am I so mad about it? Because the whole point of this blog and reader insert fanfiction in general is that you are taken as you are and loved wholly as yourself and that you are worthy of that love (in a fictional setting, not really loving people who are like this, which I think we understand but I want to clarify). She was not taken as she was. He is not in love with her, she is not in love with him. She was transformed into what he wanted out of her. He couldn’t get her to be Mischa, his first plan, so he made her like himself. And the fact that he was so easily able to do it makes me upset, and even more so is that it’s not written like it’s weird or wrong. It’s written like they’re in love and this is a good thing. 

He may have been going for the classic “everyone is capable of doing bad things” stuff we see a lot, but we got that from Margot already. And Barney, for stealing Lecter’s stuff and selling it. And Paul, and the entire FBI for turning on Clarice, and the kidnappers, and Pazzi, and random shitty side characters. And none of it was particularly well written or made some sort of strong statement. It just was. And that’s not a good enough basis for a novel. 

Anyways, if you made it this far holy shit you’re a saint and I love you, let’s be friends?? <3 Have a good day y’all, thank you BB for giving me permission to ramble. 

[celticheartedfangirl]

My OUAT Rewatch -- S4E18 -- Heart of Gold

Link to Rewatch Review and Ranking archive

You know, I wanted to do a dance of joy a the fact that we finally have an episode this season without a bunch of worthless CS schmoopy shit.

But then this fucking bitch had to show up and ruin that.  

Replace one garbage character with another.  I can’t win.  

There is so much retcon and bullshit in this episode I don’t even know where to start.  Let’s break it all open, shall we?

RETCON

1.  There is NO FUCKING WAY that Zelena was Marian until A&E pulled it out of their asses at some point after the whole Adultery Queen thing happened.  The fact that Zelena wouldn’t have known that Roland -- whom Marian IMMEDIATELY recognized -- was a person that existed would be enough to give that factoid away.  If you actually think that Frick and Frack had this shit planned out since the end of S3, you are stupid, gullible and wrong.  JFC, it boggles my mind that there are people who are so far up their ass they actually believed their bullshit.  Nope.  Get a damn clue, those hacks were counting on you to be stupid.  Shame that it worked for so many.

Adam’s crock of shit to try and explain this away:

https://celticheartedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/116330212237/ariyah-v-schmacky-meresger-once-upon-a

2.  Wait, so Robin glamoured himself, and that’s supposed to explain why Rumple didn’t recognize him in Lacey?  Please.  Then why did BELLE recognize him when she saw him in the EF in S3?  Splain THAT one!  You can’t.  Stupid.  

Say hello to 2015 me on this matter:

https://celticheartedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/116260499632/not-that-im-expecting-logic-from-this-show-or

BULLSHIT

1.  Have any of you ever been to New York City?  Do you know even a little bit about it?  GET REAL.  There is no way Neal’s apartment would be sitting empty THAT LONG.  There’s no way that Walsh’s little store front would either, even though that one was less time.

New York real estate is at a premium at all times.  There’s no damn way that a landlord is going to not notice AND completely ignore an empty apartment or an empty storefront.  Not happening.  

2.  This scene:

I know there is much debate about who is at fault for Regina becoming Regina -- and while Rumple did use her to his advantage -- really, she just went with it.  And it really annoys me when its implied that it was all Rumple zero Regina because NO -- it was not.  

This episode drove me nuts not just cause of the Zelena shit, but also because it was a hot mess of Rumple in character one minute, out of character another.  Like -- here -- in character:

And then the “I’ll tell the green bitch to kill Robin” shit -- OOC.  

Also, in the “sloppy editing” column -- at the top of the show we have Emma and Snowing chasing down the author.  And then there’s one more little scene where Henry and Hook join the pack.  I mean, it’s the only glimpse we get of Hook in the whole episode, so yay for that?  But still . . . . shitty editing.  You’re a professional prime time show at tail end of SEASON FOUR -- shouldn’t you be doing your damn job better than that by now?

Also not appreciated was the “You’re the biggest pain in the ass I’ve had the displeasure of writing” dig at Rumple.  Or really -- at his FANS.  I see you Eddy Kitsis and I see your Bullshit.

Points tally:

40 points to start

7 points cause its a Rumple centric ish

3 points for Papfire ish stuff

5 points for Rumple in character when he was in character

10 points deducted for no Belle 

10 points deducted for OOC Rumple when he was OOC

5 points deducted for fucking Zelena

Much as I hate to admit, I have a serious hurt/comfort kink.  Gotta give 10 bonus for the Rumple in hospital stuff based on that

Also gotta deduct the full 25 because there’s so much nonsense in this episode it would take me days to fully unpack it, and I don’t have time for that

Total points:  15

Follow #celtichearted OUAT ranking tag for more to come!

[djbead123]

I really want to quit art, editing is way easier and besides, people actually NOTICE my editing.

Spending hours on a drawing is not worth it if nobody is going to see it anyway, same with my headcanons and aus, I'm not going to share ANY of my stuff anymore. I'm getting really fucking tired of putting effort if people will just look away.

You don't even understand how shitty that feels, if you do then god, I am so fucking sorry. I just want to be noticed. God, no one will even see this post but jfc, this sucks.

Another reason I just want to make edits is because they get attention, I get feedback, I get comments, I get SUPPORT. I have recieved more on tiktok than ever and I feels great! I love reading my tiktok notifications, I gives me motivation to keep going.

Tumblr doesn't, I'm not going to spend time and hell, maybe even research of I don't know something, on headcanons just because?? Fuck this

Why do I even bother anymore?? Art is my passion but I just..whatever nobody cares