#not me rewatching the last two episodes several times

[lyselkatz]

Misplaced Love▪︎No Regret

錯愛▪︎無悔

Black dahlia: Betrayal and doom.

Orange lily: Passionate desire and hatred.

Lín Jìzî 林季子 and Lín BênChuan 林本川's relationship from Netflix Taiwan's Nowhere Man 罪夢者 is haunting me despite the small part it takes in the drama. Hsû KuangHàn 許光漢 and Péng CianYoù 彭千祐 are stellar in it!

...☕?/commission

[sskk-manifesto]

Atsushi's back in the game!!! ۶( ˆ o ˆ )

[melefim]

Dead Boy Detectives- Moves, Incidents, and Cases Masterlist

Do you like lists? So do I! For my last Dead Boy Detectives Rewatch, I copied down every Move, Incident, and Case mentioned or seen onscreen in the show!

All are listed below, with the episode number in parentheses after each one.

(Two cases, Niko Sasaki and the Devlin House, appear in more than one category. For each listing, the number shows the first time it appeared in that category, which is not necessarily the same episode the case itself appeared in)

Full lists after the cut- As always, enjoy and please let me know if I missed anything!

Moves:

The Old Bait & Matchbook Gambit (1)

The Old Die & Go Seek Maneuver (3)

The Old Run For Our Lives Maneuver (3)

The Old Poke & Prod (6)

The Crystal Method (rejected names: The Esther Bester, Crystal Shroom Persuasion) (6)

The Old Shill & Dash Play (7)

Incidents:

The Infamous Puppy Debacle of ’94 (1)

The Great Chewing Gum Debacle of ’06 (2)

The Great Fenwick Pixie Escape of ’07 (5)

Past cases:

The Case of the Shrieking Doll (1)

The Case of the Drowned Diver (4)

The Case of the Ghastly Greenhouse (6)

Port Townsend potential case board:

Evil Seagull/ Severed Foot (3)

Astral Plane Crash (3)

Phantom Migraine (3)

Bedeviled Teacher (3)

Shrieking Secretary (3)

Disembodied Dog (3)

Haunted Painting (3)

Possessed Fireman (3)

Case of the Devlin House (3)

Phantom Yodeler (6)

Undead Milkman (6)

Doppelganger Gang (6)

Sentient Pants (6)

Restless Piano Syndrome (6)

Sticky Cricket Wicket (6)

Gargoyle in Garage (6)

Active cases:

Drowning victim who can’t move on without his boat (6)

Banker needs his lucky coin (6)

Cases solved during the show:

Museum Haunting (1)

Crystal Palace (1-8)

Becky Aspen (1)

Dandelion Sprites/Niko Sasaki (2)

Haunted Painting (told client how to break curse himself) (3)

Devlin House (3)

Lighthouse Leapers (4)

Two Dead Dragons (5)

Creeping Forest (6)

Cards on the office case board:

Museum Haunting (1)

Niko Sasaki (8)

The Devlin House (8)

Run Ragged Dogs (8)

That Thing We Couldn’t [rest of card out of frame] (8)

Sundevil Slip (8)

Solved cases mentioned by The Principal:

The Devlins (8)

The Vernons (8)

Moy Fitzgibbons (8)

The Jollity Twins (8)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And if you like lists of things like I do, you can check out my other Dead Boy Detective ones here!

When Charles’ shirt color changes

George Rextrew’s Edwin comic inspo board

Soundtrack timestamps

Swearing Stats Masterlist

First pass at finding where the songs in the score are used- full post with timestamps in progress.

[vroomvroomcircuit]

Drive all Night

(A/N): This is inspired by the song "Call your mom" by Noah Kahan.

Summary: Max is worried about the sudden shift in his best friends behavior. But he is willing to drive all night to get to the root of the problem.

Pairing: Max Verstappen x fem!reader (little childhood friends to lovers on the side with angst/hurt to comfort)

Warnings: Association to Max's shitty childhood, reader has depression/a depressive episode, implicit mentions of suicide, listen to the song and you get the vibe

Wordcount: 2.4k

🏎Masterlist🏎 ________________________

Max Verstappen is not a big worrier. Actually, he is no worrier at all.

When there is something to worry about, he just changes it. If he can’t change it, it’s out of his area of responsibility, so he doesn’t have to worry about it.

Thinking like that helped him focus through great challenges. But his mindset wasn’t the only motivator. Through all his highest highs and lowest lows, his best friend has been right next to him, either cheering him on or being the shoulder to cry on he just needed.

(Y/N) and him befriended each other in kindergarten, having felt this unexplainable pull to each other. Ever since playing with Legos together for the first time they had been inseparable if they could help it.

Of course, as they got older and Max’s career in karting took off and (Y/N) had to focus more on school, they started to shift to calling and texting more than relying on in person talking. But that didn’t stop them staying best friends. One might even argue that through their 24/7 updates to each other, they grew even closer.

Meeting in person in their adulthood had become increasingly easier. Sometime (Y/N) travels with Max to several races back to back, being blessed with a remote working job.

The young man starts to suspect something isn’t going smoothly during one of their daily face time calls with her being in her dark bedroom and him in a hotel room halfway across the world. “But enough of how annoying these marketing things are. What did you do today? Except for work of course.” Max just finished another yapping season about the last challenge the social media teams had him participate in.

(Y/N) just shrugs her shoulders while focusing on a loose thread in her shirt. “Nothing much. I reread pride and prejudice.” Max halts a bit in his rummaging through his suitcase, being on the look out for his charger. “I thought you had plans for lunch with a friend? And didn’t you read through that book last week already? You do know that no matter how often you read it, the ending will stay the same.” He jokes a bit.

While still not shifting her gaze towards the phone screen, (Y/N) answers in mumbles. “I canceled on her. I really felt icky today, but we will try to set up another meet up some time next week or so.”

At first Max doesn’t think of it as much. Everyone feels not like socializing every one in a while. But then something else changes. The frequency of their calls and texts.

“...here we can do- Max? Are you even listening to me?” Max gets caught off guard by that question. GP was going over some points with him before starting FP2. “Oh, uhm, sorry GP. Gimme three seconds, I just want to reply to (Y/N). It seems like she didn’t have a great day and I just want to make sure she’ll be alright until I’m out of the car.”

This makes his race engineer raise his eyebrows. “Oh, what happened?” “I don’t know. But she is rewatching one of her comfort shows for the third time in two weeks.” He blinks at the Dutchman. “And in what way is that concerning?”

Okay, voicing his worrisome thoughts out loud like that makes Max realize that the signs are not too obvious for outsiders. But he is talking about his best friend. The person that always makes sure that he won’t go without his needed amount of sleep. The same person he had been having phone calls that resulted in four out of the last seven nights with him getting not more than 5 hours of sleep, if that at all.

For an outsider it doesn’t seem bad for (Y/N) to reread the same books and rewatch the same shows over and over again. Or having her best friend, the person she became emotionally most dependent on, talk with her through her nights.

But for Max, it raises red flags. It hits his alarm bells, ringing out loud that something is majorly wrong. He can’t put his finger on it, not just yet. He is still looking for a way to get her to tell him what is bothering her.

There is a certain uneasiness to Max during that entire race weekend. He is just itching to seat his ass on a plane on his way back to his (Y/N), a friend that he might harbor more than just platonic feelings for. A person that had his back all the time.

To the person he loves the most, that is also struggling the most right now.

He wants to be able to pay her back for all the times she stuck through his darkest times.

But something in him is scared that he isn’t able to get to her in time. “Didn’t you want to go out with a colleague of yours for drinks last night?” Max asks into the phone while speed walking through the airport. Ever since leaving his hotel room on this fine Monday morning, he has been on a phone call with (Y/N).

A sigh greets his ears. “I wanted to, but I didn’t feel like dressing up or sharing a space with a bunch of strangers. I just ordered some food in and watched your race.”

There is another red flag. (Y/N) maybe was never a big socializer to begin with, but she liked going out every now and then. But for a couple of weeks now the only thing Max gets to hear about plans is that she canceled them.

Listening to her just cutting contact with the outside world like that, it doesn’t only worry him. It’s not even scary. It terrifies him.

The two of them continue talking the whole plane ride until (Y/N) falls asleep. Even then Max doesn’t hang up. He still lets the call continue, not wanting her to wake up and feel alone. She doesn’t deserve to feel alone.

No one does. But especially not her.

When he was in karting, some kids gave him grief for winning most of the time. It was difficult for little Max to understand. So do people not want him to win?

It became more confusing to him since some people around him wanted him to win desperately. It hurt him, not understanding the difference of who wanted his best and who wanted to see him fail.

He felt isolated from his peers, especially those who should understand under what pressure he was, because they must feel the same. Right?

During these days, where he rather stopped driving in circles in a very fast manner and just continued playing football, (Y/N) was his only footing. She talked him out of ending his career in motorsport. She painted a picture of his future in the prettiest colors with her words. She gave him something to look forward during these trying times.

And when it got harder before it got easier, she held his hand and reminded him that she will always stay by his side.

Now it’s Max’s turn to show her that he will always stay by her side.

He opens the door to her apartment slowly, trying to make the least noise possible.

Every room is shrouded in what must feel to her like a never ending darkness. The blinds are drawn in front of every window, hindering the tiniest bit of sunlight to filter through. Even to Max it feels like the despair that is in the air will never stop. It is all consuming.

He tiptoes towards her bedroom. There she lays, illuminated by the low light of his phone screen. Curled up tight under a bunch of blankets and between a mountain of pillows and stuffed animals.

The MV lion, the first one that has ever been produced, the original prototype before giving the go for mass production, is held tightly and close to her chest. It pulls on his heartstrings, seeing the comfort it must have brought her while he was absent.

Max kneels down at the head of the bed, gently shaking her awake. “Schatje, come on. Wake up. We got a day of new adventures just in front of us outside the door.”

It’s something they started to say in elementary school. They once read a book in class with the premise that every day is the start to a new adventure. You just have to welcome it in. Back then, when inviting something unknown in your life was considered exciting, not scary or life changing.

“The adventures can wait a day longer.” She mumbles and turns around, trying to shake his hand on her shoulder off. But Max is having none of it.

“The darkness is fooling you. Every light that has been turned off can be turned on.” He gets up and opens the blinds. Sunlight floods the room, and even at the messiest state the young man has seen his best friend, she still is the most beautiful woman on earth to him

(Y/N) lets out a noise of unpleasantness. “Please Max, I can’t deal with it today.”  “No, you will. We are going to deal with it, whatever this it is, together.” He marches over to her dresser and produces a clean set of clothes out of thin air. That is what it looks like to her in this mess at least.

“You are going to shower. After that we will take a drive with no destination.” His words are final and in a tone that makes the young woman drag her limbs and body out of the bed and trudge towards the bathroom, even when the unwillingness is evident by her groaning.

Hearing the shower is Max’s cue to sit down and take a deep breath. He doesn’t know what he expected, but seeing the light of life missing in (Y/N)’s eyes isn’t on that list. It feels like a punch to his gut, witnessing her wither away without knowing from what.

It doesn’t take long and they both sit in the car. A drive without destination is exactly what it says. Just Max driving with (Y/N) sitting in the passenger seat. Usually they used these trips to catch up, to talk about everything and nothing. To voice big philosophical thoughts and dumb brain farts. They started this tradition, that usually includes some sort of fast food, when Max got his drivers license.

But sitting in complete silence for five minutes straight. That is something new.

“You know,” Max breaks it after another seven minutes. “Not talking about it won’t make the problem go away. It also doesn’t hinder it in its existence. Instead it will just get heavier and heavier until you break under the weight.” His dry tone isn’t something she anticipated.

(Y/N) looks out the window, seeing the colorful sunset for the first time in weeks. It’s easy to forget the beauty of the world when your inside thoughts feel like a graveyard. “I don’t want to worry you.”

That admission nearly has the Dutchman emergency breaking in the middle of a street through the fields. “So you play cat and mouse with your feelings because you don’t want to worry me?” (Y/N) nods.

Max lets out a laugh. “So what exactly makes you think that me witnessing you just becoming a shell of who you once were won’t worry me?”

She shrugs. (Y/N) didn’t expect him to catch that something feels wrong in her.

“Schatje. I will always worry about you, You are too important to me to not worry about you. Seeing you wither away in yourself, it made me scared going out on these tracks, sitting down in the car, and wondering if you still breathe while I’m driving another mile. Not knowing what you feel, that worries me more than the truth. Because then we can work on getting you better together. But when you don’t let me in, I can’t help and feel like by just standing and witnessing without intervening that I’m at fault for anything that happens to you. It hurts more seeing you hurting than knowing what you hurt from.”

She turns towards Max, mustering his side profile. She hasn’t thought about how her actions are perceived by her surroundings. (Y/N) just fell into that hole of darkness unexpectedly. While sitting at the bottom of that somber pit, she thought that trying to reach out for help would mean another person gets pulled into it.

If there was one person she doesn’t want sitting next to her in that dark hole, then it is Max. She harbors too much love and affection for him to want him to suffer the same fate as her. So not talking about her darkest thoughts seemed like the best way of keeping him far away from the hole.

But it just drew him in closer.

(Y/N) finally sees what he saw the whole time.

“You know, it’s hard to explain what happened. It takes time to really understand what goes on in me right now.” Max puts a reassuring hand on her leg. “We have all night to talk about it. Help me help you. Let us find a strategy to get you better. May it be medication, meditation, punching me or falling in love with someone. I need you to find a reason to stay with me, physically and mentally.”

She puts a hand over hers and looks Max in the eye for the first time since he arrived. “I already fell in love.”

He doesn’t need to hear more.

Max keeps his promise. He drives through the night, holding (Y/N) to the best of his ability while she cries, curses and explains.

By that not everything is picture perfect again. But it’s the first step. The first one to a future they both want to share with each other. For now and ever, that is enough motivation for (Y/N) to keep going, to continue turning every light on that was off.

[rukminis]

I have a theory about Lady Tilley Arnold in the show and how it might be an indication that the next season is Benedict's (please gods, let it be Benedict's), here we go

SPOILERS for Bridgerton season 3 and An Offer From a Gentleman under the cut!

Right, so I was pretty mad when they introduced yet another love interest so flippantly for Benedict, but I rewatched the portions with Lady Tilley and there are two things that go unexplained.

1. She mentions that she had a husband, and had had several seasons to mourn him already

2. She was arguing with a solicitor when Benedict called on her, and never properly explained why

I'm hoping Part 2 will give us more insight, but here's what I make of this, and the book comes into play now.

What if Lady Tilley is a shoe-in for Araminta?

The circumstances do seem similar: Araminta also married Sophie's father, the Earl, shortly before he died. Tilley didn't mention having children at all, so either she hid the fact that she had daughters from Benedict, or she doesn't have children in the show at all.

And funnily enough, not having step-siblings would really add to Sophie's story, because Tilley might certainly be bitter about the fact that she didn't get to produce a rightful heir to her husband's estate and the only remaining person with an actual blood relation to the Earl is Sophie. It would also serve as such a great plot point for why Araminta/Tilley might torture Sophie in the show.

On to the second point, Tilley was arguing with a solicitor. When Benedict asked, she just explained it away saying he was overcharging her, but what if it was more?

What if, like the books, the late Earl left everything to his ward Sophie and Araminta/Tilley was trying to get the solicitor to hide or edit out that portion in her favour? Araminta did conceal and lie about the will to Sophie in the books, so it isn't too much of a stretch to have that in the show too.

If we assume Tilley married her husband in her early 20s, he died in her mid 20s, and she's now in her early 30s, it still gives us a huge time span for her to raise (read: enslave) Sophie for more than half a decade.

ALSO, in a promo reel where Bridgerton cast members were associating this season with emojis, Luke Newton said 'drama masks'. Yes it could be about Penelope's mask as Whistledown coming off, but Benedict and Sophie's storyline is centered around the masquerade ball, which also involves masks.

Eloise's midnight deadline for Penelope to reveal herself (in the part 2 teaser) also seems significant to me because it's a converging point for the drama. And Sophie escaped the masquerade ball at midnight in the book.

I'm thinking that, at some point during the last two episodes, Violet hosts her masquerade ball. Benedict meets Sophie like the books, even leaves Tilley alone to dance with this mystery woman. And when midnight approaches, Penelope reveals herself as Whistledown.

There will, naturally, be pandemonium. Benedict might even have to rush to Colin and Pen's rescue, he's a Bridgerton after all. And in this chaos, Sophie leaves. That very night, Tilley realises that Sophie went to the ball. Not only is she angry that her little servant flouted her orders, she is mad because Sophie stole her man's attention away. And she casts Sophie out (we may actually see this whole POV in the next season though, so hmph).

But I think this season will end with Benedict coming out of the masquerade utterly smitten, and vowing to find the woman in the mask who has won over his heart. And that's how his season will begin.

Unless they decide to break my heart and pursue Francesca's story.

Ah well. Let's see haha.

[astralhope]

This is a little project that I worked on in the last weeks, and I finally finished it.

The Japanese dub is my favorite, but the Italian one was the one that made me discover Zexal, and I used to watch the show in Italian until the third arc.

I watched the episodes from the first two arcs in this dub many times and I'm still very attached to most of the characters' Italian voices.

This dub is very dear and nostalgic to me, so I wanted to share some Astral's clips from it on my blog.

But I didn't want to put a bunch of Italian clips here without any kind of subtitles, so I decided to do the subtitles myself. But what should have been just a few clips became all Astral's scenes in the first two episodes, and it took me more time than I anticipated.

Just a few things before you watch the video:

- I tried to do this translation more literally possible (so I apologize if some lines sound weird), but with some phrases and expressions I had to translate them in a not literal way to keep their meaning.

- The edit of the video is a little rough because I favored the audio over the video and I tried not to cut the lines too much. And since I only used Astral's clips, some transactions between scenes are not very smooth, I apologize about that.

- I hope that the subtitles are easy to read, I never did something like this and I did my best to make them readable and not too fast.

- I rewatched it several times to check it, but it's very possible that there's still some errors or/and weird phrasing, so I apologize in advance for any errors.

After all those premises, here is the finished work:

Astral's clips from episodes 1 and 2 of Zexal in Italian dub (with English subs):

(I'm sorry for the bad quality, but not only the original videos were in a low quality, but I also had to lower it even more to upload it)

[ltwharfy]

"The Amazing Rudy" and the Evolution of Rudy and Louise's Friendship (Long Post)

Rewatching "The Amazing Rudy" last night made me feel like I finally want to write a little (using the term loosely) analysis about why I love the final act of that story so much. (I thought about doing this during Roudise Week but was too busy with fics.) I think the ending of that story is so wonderful not just because it is sweet in itself but because it reflects one of the things that I love about Rudy and Louise's friendship- that it has grown and evolved over the course of the show.

A lot of stories begin with characters who are always friends, the origins of the friendships are unexplored or pretty simple ("they grew up next door to each other" etc.). Or you get stories where the characters go through one adventure together and are suddenly BFFs. Rudy and Louise's friendship isn't like either of those.

It seems pretty clear that the events of "Carpe Museum" are the first time they've interacted much- but they don't immediately become besties after it. In Rudy's next two speaking appearances ("The Unnatural" and "Bob and Deliver") he doesn't interact with Louise at all. And when the Belchers enter the juice caboose in "The Kids Rob A Train", Rudy introduces them to Beanbag by saying he knows them from school- not that they are his friends. And there are some moments in that episode that I think are really important for their friendship- in particular, the moment when Rudy tries to get Louise to give him the bag full of candy through the train window and she's convinced he'll take it and ditch her, and the moment at the end with Rudy's fake severe allergic reaction- and Louise's panicked response.

But I'm not interested in going through every moment in their friendship. (I mean, I am. Absolutely. But not in this particular post.) What I think is really interesting about Act 3 of "The Amazing Rudy" is looking at in relation to the two episodes where conflict between Louise and Rudy plays a big role- "House of 1,000 Bounces" and "Bridge Over Troubled Rudy". Looking at those episodes, you can see Louise learning how to better read and respond to her friend's emotions.

In "House of 1,000 Bounces", Louise leads the rest of the party guests in stealing the bounce house from Dahlia. Rudy mentions twice that he'd be happy just to do the spoon puppets, but nobody listens to him. And then he blows up at them in Ranger Jail. (And, I think it is interesting to note that he is not just mad at Louise, but at all his friends- "I didn't want to steal that bounce house, but none of you would listen!") Louise tries to make things right by organizing the play with office supplies- and Rudy thanks her for that. But she never apologizes to him for not listening to him earlier- and it seems like maybe she never even noticed he was unhappy until he blew up at her.

At the beginning of "Bridge Over Troubled Rudy", Rudy communicates pretty clearly to Louise that he's feeling stressed because he isn't going to be able to return to his dad's for two weeks; Louise acknowledges that, but then gets caught up in her excitement over the Blaster Bridge, leading to Rudy getting upset, her calling him a weenie, and him asking her to leave. It's pretty clear that Louise recognizes right off the bat that she screwed up- she's taken aback when he asks her to leave, and then there's the whole bit while walking back with Tina and Gene where she decides she can fix things (not that she can yet acknowledge that things need fixing) by moving the bridge. At the end of the episode when they are blowing up the bridge, Louise finally says the thing that she couldn't say earlier in the episode or in "House of 1,000 Bounces": "Yeah, well, I'm sorry I kept pushing you when you were stressed out. And I'm sorry I called you a weenie...And I'm sorry, I didn't just say sorry right away. I'm not great at that, maybe. And I'm glad we're friends." Admitting that she is not great at apologizing right away- or generally acknowledging others' feelings and when she's hurt them- is a big step for Louise.

I know some fans are kind of tired of "Louise learns a lesson" stories, of which "Bridge Over Troubled Rudy" is certainly one, but I don't mind them, if they are actually entertaining and if the lesson stays learned. After all, if a show is going to be on the air for over a decade, why not let the characters have some growth and development?

Act 3 of "The Amazing Rudy" shows that Louise did learn a lesson from "House of 1,000 Bounces" and "Bridge Over Troubled Rudy". In "The Amazing Rudy", without Rudy saying anything specific directly to her, Louise alone among the Belchers realizes just how stressed out Rudy is and why. There is some really great, subtle writing, voice acting, and especially animation, that shows that Louise understands that something is troubling Rudy more than he is willing to admit. After he slips up and talks about the food he ordered, you can hear her suspicion and concern when she asks: "What you ordered?" Then, in Act 3, when Bob is getting ready to drive Rudy back to the restaurant, you can see that Louise is paying attention to Rudy, keeping her eyes on him the whole time, while not saying anything until she proposes her idea about walking back to the restaurant with him. She is the only one of the Belchers to recognize what is truly bothering Rudy- which he may not even have been able to articulate himself: that he feels lonely.

Bob and Linda are clearly (and reasonably) looking at Rudy's situation from a concerned parent's perspective: everything will be okay if Rudy is back with his parents who are worried about him. in Act 3, Tina seems to be very much sitting at the adults' table (metaphorically)- worrying about Vicki's pants and if Bob has his keys. Gene's focus is primarily on getting back to his baked potato lasagna. None of this is to understate how kind the other Belchers are to Rudy in the episode- but at that moment, none of them are as focused on him as Louise is.

In "The Amazing Rudy" neither Rudy, nor any other character, says that he feels lonely or isolated- but its clear from the episode that that is one of his real sources of sadness in that story. He is a kid surrounded by adults who are kind of focused on their own stuff- the scene where they are waiting for their table is the best visual illustration of this but their are others- for example, the multiple conversations where he is in the backseat and his dad is in the front. And then when his parents and their partners are literally on the same level as him- when they are all sitting down for dinner, he feels that he has to be center of attention to make the situation less awkward. He has to perform as The Amazing Rudy (or Rudy the Illusionary Visionary).

What Rudy really needs throughout the story is a friend- and Louise recognizes this without him having to say it. And she not only recognizes the cause of his pain- she comes up with a way to address it, by going back to the restaurant with him.

From "House of 1,000 Bounces" to "The Amazing Rudy", Louise goes from ignoring-and perhaps not even noticing- that Rudy is upset because she took over his birthday party with her bounce house scheme to recognizing and coming up with a plan to address a pain Rudy is feeling that he does not (perhaps cannot) even articulate. And, to me, this doesn't seem unrealistic or out of the blue. Rather, it seems like a logical growth of their friendship, building on "Bridge Over Troubled Rudy", as well as other episodes, with plots or subplots about their friendship that I haven't really talked about ("The Hawkening"; "Bob Actually", among others) and other non-Rudy-focused episodes that show how Louise is developing to be a more emotionally aware person ("Flu-ouise", "Thelma and Louise Except Thelma is Linda", "Prank You For Being A Friend". etc.).

Rudy and Louise's friendship is not the focus of "Bob's Burgers". Not even close. I did the math once, and I think Rudy's in just over 10% of the show's episodes. But I still think that, with Rudy and Louise, the show has done one of the best jobs of developing a friendship on television- from classmates who didn't really know each other, to friends who are still learning about each other and figuring out how to communicate, to friends who can pickup on each other's nonverbal cues and know just the right thing to do.

And I love that.

(P.S.: Someday, I will be able to think about this episode without tearing up. That day is not today.)

[curio-queries]

I’m loving your production breakdown posts, they are so interesting and insightful.

I think you mentioned it maybe in the first ep breakdown but it was about expenses. I just thought it was interesting in ep4 when JK mentioned at the chicken place, paying in cash, and he solely has this conversation with Tae, not Jimin. Would there be an arrangement do you think? Or was that scene cut and he’d have asked Jimin too? I’ve noticed in comparison to Bv where they were usually only allowed a certain amount of money between them, with one usually being in control, or a sum for a task, in AYS, Jimin and JK have been whipping out their cards, be it their own or a company card, in Big Dicks store, in Walmart etc.

I just found it interesting

Hi anon,

The finance bits are interesting in the most boring corporate sense if that makes any sense. 😅 Trust me on this. Let's dive in:

In my opinion, it really boils down to two concerns: taxes and sponsorships. Taxes to insure the company receives every possible benefit for every dollar they spend. Sponsorships because some brands can have fussy rules about how individuals interact with their product and especially any competitor's products while they have an active agreement.

Obviously I have no actual insight onto how the finances and budget were managed for any of these specific shows and I know absolutely nothing of the intricacies of taxes in South Korea but in the US, there are many regulations when it comes to how companies can claim expenditures for tax breaks.

Every company that has had me travel for work has gone to a lot of trouble to insure that I was aware of exactly all of the requirements on my part regarding expenditures. I'm 100% sure all of the BTS members are aware of their requirements as well so I don't particularly think there's any motive other than as a cute convo for the moment between JK and V. Imo, the only reason it made it to the final cut was JKs endearing tone in his response.

Let's go through some examples though:

Receipts: in both AYS and Bon Voyage, we see the members be very specific in getting Receipts. JM and JK talk about it as they're leaving Walmart. In BV, it's all of the shenanigans with the money pouch they acquired in Malta and continued using in New Zealand. This is usually documentation required for any operation that's going to be claimed as a business expense for tax purposes.

Personal Spending: off the top of my head I can think of several clear instances where we know that the members are using their own money for purchases we see them make on the shows. In Run BTS ep.70 in Toronto, JK pays for the member's clothing purchases himself. In BV4, JM pays for the member's clothing himself a couple of times (remember the drama of his lost wallet? 😅)

Budget as Content: BV 1 & 2 mostly only include finances as part of the game-ification of the show. The members had to earn money as an allowance for the activities and determine the best ways to spend it. (I do vaguely remember some members wanting to negotiate for more when buying souvenirs? Was that just in the extra scenes? It's been so long, I've been holding off on rewatching until I'm done with my Run series).

Thankfully, the success of BTS has basically nixed the budget games. I think the last time we saw something like this were the Run episodes of a hotel staycation? But the prices were ficticious and not necessarily about real-world spending but rather determining the secret number to not exceed. (If I'm misremembering and there are more recent examples, please share!) Imo, it would just be too tone-deaf to continue portraying the members in that context. I know we all joke about them being broke millionaires, but there's a reason why celebrity game shows always make it clear that the money involved is for charity.

Anyway, back to AYS, the interesting bit to me is wondering about the inclusion of Taehyung from a budget standpoint. How was that reconciled? None of us can possibly know the answer, but it's interesting to think about. Some costs wouldn't have changed at all with one extra participant, like the house rental, or booking the climbing gym or yacht tour. But there were a few extra concessions, getting the extra mattress likely was more a logistics headache on short notice rather than an impact to the budget. And most Korean meals are served family-style so there honestly isn't a huge difference cost-wise. Except maybe the omakase. That I can imagine was noticeably more expensive with an added individual.

But really, the most expensive item per person would likely have been travel. Did someone say Tae was already in Jeju prior to filming? If he wasn't, did the show cover his flights like they would have JK, JM, and the crew? Or is the budget on these shows big enough that it was just another drop in a bucket? Also, the intent likely was for JK to zip around on the motorbike and JM to be on the scooter. I'm curious if they weren't logistically able to get another such vehicle with the short notice or if the budget/sponsorship constraint didn't allow for a third one the day. Or it could be that the scooter exists because of the 3 member count and production thought one of them could be JKs backpack. That bike has the space for it. But perhaps the difficulty to get coverage and/or converse wasn't appealing. Or maybe there just wasn't a third radio-enabled helmet prepared?

I know the various shippers are using this in their arguments. I'd like to firmly state that I am not building a case for either side here. Go do that on your own and leave me out of it. Lol.

There are so many questions and it's interesting to theorize how the finances could have impacted the development of the show. Maybe we'll get some more insight with the remaining episodes and bonus footage but I doubt it. Finances don't usually make for engaging content.

Thanks again for the ask! It's one of the points I want to discuss when I start doing my BV and ITS posts but who knows when that will be!

[grace-williams-xo]

I have but three things to say to the anti Penelope crowd. (Neither of which directly defend many of her worst offences as Whistledown).

ONE: Some people have pointed this out but I think it’s really important we remember that she is 17 s1, 18 s2 and 19 s3. She is high school age. Girl did not have a fully developed brain by any stretch. Is that an excuse and free license to be a dick? No, of course not, but I think y’all should remember some of the stupid and regrettable things you did in high school. Now again, think of the way society operated at the time and then imagine, just for a moment, what if teenage you had an anonymous and unfiltered Twitter/Insta account that was keenly followed by everyone in your town/city/community—most people you’ll interact with in your life. You would do DUMB SHIT. It’s not just ‘she’s young’ it’s ’she’s young with an unrestricted megaphone to everyone she’s ever met’.

TWO: The Whistledown moment that sticks with me, as perfectly capturing who Whistledown is and what she does, is not anything read by Julie Andrews but what Eloise talks about in the very first episode. She talks about how LW is discussing a countess who, despite looking like her season last year was good, lives in depressing solitude miles away from the earl she married. This stays with me for a few reasons. First, it shows that—right from the start—she has access and information and connections that we do not and will not understand. How does a 17 year old know the living situation of a married woman in the countryside? Maybe she overhead servants gossiping, we really have no idea. Second, it shows her equality in reporting. Like any news outlet, she reports what people want to read, but this passage sets up a precedent and example that she doesn’t just report on people from her block in Mayfair. I always watch shows and movies with the knowledge that what I’m seeing is never the characters entire day or life. Similarly, we never hear an entire LW issue—only what is plot relevant to the Bridgerton’s and that episode. I think this was shown well again in the opening of s3 when she comments on several of the other debutants.

THREE: On Marina. It is not Penelope’s fault that Marina attempted an abortion and nearly died. We are not responsible for other people’s reactions. At no point did she wish or encourage harm on Marina, she just wanted to stop a loveless marriage. I hear you saying it’s not her responsibility to stop it, but teenage girls have big emotions that they deal with badly—and many have an overwhelming and misguided sense of justice. Marina was in a fucking awful situation but Penelope did not cause it, and it was at several points exacerbated by Portia the actual adult. I’ve just started a rewatch of s1 and my anger at Portia (and Varley bc wtf there are some really unnecessary comments) about the way she treats Marina from the day she arrives is raging. Portia was bullying Marina at every opportunity because she was jealous Marina was more desirable than her own daughters.

I am very aware that intent does not diminish impact, you can hurt people accidentally, but I do firmly believe that Penelope a literal child and did not act out of malice.

All that being said, I don’t think the relaxed and forgiving reaction at the end of s3 from the queen and the ton was in character or proportionate at all but also we didn’t really get to see much of their reactions so will be interesting to see how s4 plays out.

TLDR; Penelope was a literal child in s1, and nothing can ever convince me that she didn’t write about lots of other people in the ton beside the Bridgerton’s. That’s just not relevant to a show called Bridgerton. Most of Marina’s problems are on Portia, not Penelope.

[silverfoxstole]

Bears, bears, bears! Bears everywhere! And Doctor Who bears at that, made specially for and presented by me to Paul McGann, Sophie Aldred and Sylvester McCoy at Portsmouth Comic Con.

As most of you probably know, I document my bear-making activities on here and I made an Eighth Doctor bear a couple of years ago, followed by a Seventh Doctor last summer. Ace was a new one, and because of that I ended up making two, the first as a prototype that I kept for myself, working out the details of the costume, particularly the jacket, and the second for Sophie.

Back in February when I decided to make Anne Bearleyn I found that my usual type of fur was unavailable so I had to go looking for another, ending up with something that while it looked lovely was fairly hellish to sew as it shed everywhere. It was all I had when it came to making the first Ace bear, however, and so I went with that. Afterwards, having got covered in fluff again, I tried to find something similar to the fur I’d used for most of my previous bears, but when it arrived and I started putting one together decided that when compared to the bear I’d just made it looked cheap and nasty, which was definitely not what I wanted for this particular project. Consequently that fabric went on a one way trip to the bin and I ordered more of the other stuff, resulting in what I’ve termed a ‘furpocalypse’ when I decided to cut and sew three more bears in one day:

I had to vacuum both the room and myself four times, and clean out the sewing machine twice! That fluff gets everywhere, even up your nose! It was worth it in the end, though, as the result looks so nice. As the pile is quite thick I had to glue on the noses and use felt for eyebrows as thread just vanishes, but I think that actually looks better and allows for more expression.

I made a second set of Ace clothes while I was waiting for the fur to arrive; the first jacket had been a bit too small and I’d only had satin to use for the lining which disintegrates as it’s sewn, not something I wanted to give someone as a gift. It was a painstaking job to replicate the badges and decoration on the jacket with felt and embroidery thread, but I was pleased with how it turned out:

The costume is based on one from Remembrance of the Daleks, the skirt and t-shirt made from jersey and the decorations on the latter also of felt. She has a plait, rucksack and baseball bat, as well as a nitro 9 canister in her hand/paw (which I actually swapped out for a better one on Friday but didn’t take any pictures of it). The nitro is attached with velcro and can be exchanged for the bat. My only tiny niggle is that I made the jacket lining the wrong colour, only realising it should be orange when I started rewatching Sophie’s episodes last week, but that’s just my perfectionist side at work and her new owner didn’t mind.

“Aaaaaace!” You can see my original Seventh Doctor bear here; I changed a few things working on the new one, this time using blue eyes and making the jacket in cream rather than brown, mainly as a contrast with the darker fur but also so he would match season 25 Ace. I decided to use red paisley for scarf, tie, hatband and handkerchief, adding a red trim to the last two. The jumper once again took a couple of hours’ work, and as this was a present for Sylvester this time I did embroider question marks and chevrons all the way round!

For the umbrella I cut out several long triangles and stitched them together in imitation of a real brolly, using a bit of a skewer covered in felt for the pole (that’s not the word but I can’t think what to call the middle of a umbrella for the life of me!), to which I attached some jewellery wire pinched from my sister (shh!) twisted into the shape of a question mark. That was then covered in yet more felt. I’ve made a lot of things from felt lately!

And voila: one finished Seventh Doc bear:

I do hope Sylvester spots that he even has spoons in his pocket. 😁

Last but not least, we have Eighth Doctor bear, which I actually started first but I didn’t have enough fabric for his coat so he had to sit and wait while I worked on the others. My original is here; he’s gone through a few costume tweaks as I’ve tried to improve on things and this time I mainly used scraps left over from my own cosplay and made them up in the same way: shirt, scarf, waistcoat, belt and gailters are all the same as mine, and the coat is identical material but from a different source.

His shirt and waistcoat both fasten with buttons, and I made the watch chain and belt buckle from embroidery thread. It took several attempts to get the boots and gaiters right, and I went from having quite a large piece of faux leather to something about a quarter of the size, most of it ending up in the bin! Unlike my Eight bear he has a sonic screwdriver, made from - yes, you guessed it! - felt. Fortunately the TVM sonic is quite a simple design, unlike the other one I made which can be swapped with this one to go with the Dark Eyes outfit I ran up on an impulse because I had scraps left from my own jacket and put in the bag with him; hopefully Paul will find it as that DE sonic took me two attempts to get (somewhat) right!

I changed the shape of the lapels on this new coat so that they were more like the real one, and I also took some pics of him in his Dark Eyes gear:

I confess that he was the one I found it hardest to give up. Look at him:

And he matches me!

I had to keep telling myself that I couldn’t keep him, I’d made him for Paul, but it wasn’t easy!

Finally, a few pics of them together:

I was so, so pleased with the way these turned out. Along with Bush (about whom I’ll post separately), these are the best bears I’ve made so far, and I’m glad that Paul, Sophie and Sylvester were just as happy with them!

[avaantares]

Guardian Bonus Bingo: Answer

Okay, I'm going to have to cheat a little on this. I do have an absolutely IDEAL scene for the @guardianbingo "Answer" fill, one that contains the exchange

"Does that answer your question, [name redacted]?"

"If I say no, will you repeat the answer?"

...but I realized I can't post it as a fill because it's the penultimate scene in the (very long) story I'm (hopefully) about to start posting, and as such it would be a spoiler. And since there are a few dozen chapters ahead of it -- most of which I still need to finish editing, and definitely won't have ready before the end of the amnesty period -- I can't just post the rest of the story early to fill the prompt. >.<

So since that can't go live just yet, and I doubt that two lines of dialogue out of context constitutes a bingo fill, I'm going to tackle a question that probably has no definitive answer (see what I did there?). It's one that has mystified me every time I've rewatched this series, and which (conveniently) I was prompted to ask again while pulling gifs from episode 3 for my last bingo fill. The question is:

"Why Do We Even HAVE That Library?"

(If you read that in Izma's voice, you get it.)

The SID has a library. We see it several times throughout the series. But we aren't sure why it has a library, because Zhu Hong straight up states that it's not functional:

...And looking at the books, it's clear that the SID library really is the collection of all time. What's the theme? By what criteria are books selected for inclusion? How are the books catalogued? Why are half of them upside-down on the shelves? Why are there a dozen duplicate copies of several titles? WHO KNOWS?

(Well, probably Sang Zan, eventually. But he's not here yet.)

To probe this mystery, I decided to zoom in and see what I could make of the books. And lo and behold, some of the books have legible titles!

Bottom shelf, left to right:

BLOOD RITE Dominique (not sure if that's an author or a subtitle)

CLASSICAL NOVEL (very original title, that)

Arletta (the Comic Sans nightmare that appears all over the place in various cover colors)

(indecipherable; I think it's both in Chinese and upside-down on the shelf, but it's out of focus)

the statue of liberty (style preserved)

LUXURY HOTELS

Read It Yourself With (last word cut off)

CENTURY

BLOODY HARVEST: The Killing of Falun Gong for Their Organs (I am actually surprised by this one; I had assumed this book was banned by the CCP, but there are multiple copies here)

CENTURY (upside-down this time!)

THE CATCHER IN THE (presumably RYE)

Next shelf:

The People's Lawyer

Unicist Organizational Cybernetics

JUSTICE OF THE PEACE (volume numbers obscured by Zhu Hong's hand; it's the book she's taking down)

Something with an approximation of the American flag and a bunch of languages on the spine

untitled

untitled

BLOOD RITE Dominique (same book as lower shelf)

OUYE Sofa + Furniture (this one's repeated all over the shelves, along with CENTURY and Arletta)

Basics of Modern Economic Management (translated title)

Corporate Finance (translated title)

the 10Ks of Personal Branding

GLOWIENKA

GLOWIENKA (but upside-down)

In addition to many duplicates of these books on other shelves, other titles visible on the wide angle pans include:

Anne of Green Gables (good to know this classic also exists on Haixing)

The American Journal of Medicine (we already suspected America existed on Haixing, given the flag stool in ZYL's apartment)

Imperial Crown

Charles Darwin: The Descent of Man (parallel evolution on Haixing? *rimshot*)

The Hotel Book

None of these titles seem particularly relevant to the SID's function -- except, perhaps, for the Justice of the Peace regulations, which Zhu Hong was actually looking for -- which makes me think there must either be a secret code of some kind, or the SID once raided an IKEA OUYE and took all their prop display books into evidence, and then someone at the SID later saw all the books and assumed it was a reference library.

A lot of the titles in this scene aren't really clear, but when I have time to pull up later episodes that have scenes dealing with the library specifically (Zhao Xinci visiting, et al.), it might be fun to grab some frames, enhance with the magic of Photoshop, and put them on my 4K display to see if I can find other interesting titles.

Also, I don't have time to go looking just now, but I'd bet the books in the library are duplicates of the ones in Shen Wei's apartment, which I seem to remember being pretty random. They recycled so much of the set dressing, I can't imagine there would be more than one collection of weird shelf-fill.

Zhao Yunlan's tastes, on the other hand, are a bit narrower. The most prominently-displayed book in his apartment is just titled Furniture.

[sqewed0722]

Will I ever get over this drama? I just started rewatching from the first episode on Viki, with comments enabled. But I think it’s good to rewatch coz the first time, I was still overwhelmed by all the information even as I was keeping up with reading the subtitles. I also didn’t have any comments from other viewers on the other platform, which could sometimes help in understanding the context of a scene or dialogue better (especially since I’m not Chinese). Now, I’m more relaxed and able to take in the subtler parts, especially in the dialogues. I have the luxury of not paying attention visually all the time.

One good example of my having failed to catch the nuances during my initial watch is the part when Shen Li in her phoenix form asked Xingzhi (as the mortal Xingyun) what he was going to do in the market. I don’t know any Mandarin and the other platform I first watched this in didn’t give any side notes on such languange nuances so I had no idea of the double meaning behind the words Xingyun used in his reply.

Apparently, the words he used to say that he sells ginseng sounds almost the same phonetically as the words used to mean he was going to sell himself (i.e. prostituting himself). Hence, Phoenix Shen Li’s shock and initial disgust towards him. It made that scene doubly hilarious to me upon second viewing.

I’m also more appreciative now of Shen Li and Xingzhi’s initial interactions in their phoenix and mortal forms, respectively. I’m better able to understand now why Shen Li fell hard for him and how she grew on Xingzhi till she became very dear to him. His beloved, in fact.

As a phoenix in the mortal world, Shen Li was perceived as a chicken, albeit a weird looking one, an ordinary creature with little to recommend it in those days except as food for the people. She was one of the weakest creatures and her life very expendable. What a stark contrast from her life in the Demon Realm, where she is styled Lord of the Azure Sky, wielder of the powerful Red Plume Spear. She is a great general of their army, a princess for all intents and purposes. Here in the mortal world, she’s forced to rely on a sickly and impoverished mortal man for sustenance and protection.

As for Xingzhi, the disparity of his mortal life from his old life is even greater. He is poor and sickly Xingyun, living alone in a house quite far from the center of population. He’s forced to live on meager fare, whatever selling ginseng can bring him. And most of his small earnings go to his medicines. His body is frail so that it seems as if he can die anytime.

Yet in his true form, he is the last of the Ancient Gods in the Sky Above Heaven. He’s the most powerful being in the universe, and the lives of all three realms are in his hands.

As for why Xingzhi chose to live as a mortal in such state, it’s probably because he felt it would give him a more varied and intense experience of humanity and its challenges.

So here were these two beings, reduced to such circumstances, finding themselves living together and depending on each other. They got to know one another without the burdens and trappings of their positions, and it allowed their relationship to grow into something more authentic. In a way, one can say that this brief period where everything started between them was what allowed them to love each other just as themselves, as simply Shen Li and Xingzhi. Not as Lord Of The Azure Sky and The Divine Lord of the Sky Above Heaven and the Three Realms.

This initial arc goes on for several episodes before Shen Li finally returns to the Demon Realm and they meet again, this time with Xingzhi in all his understated glory as Divine Lord Xingzhi, and she as the Lord Of The Azure Sky. I think it was the perfect foundation for the relationship that they developed later on. It was a love so strong that it literally shook all the Three Realms and eventually led to the destruction of the Sky Above Heaven, ending the age of the ancient gods.

Some of the fans complain that the development of some arcs took a chunk out of the series, that some arcs were dragging and they saw little sense in it. For me, those viewers are probably the types who got used to the instant gratification that’s usually seen in Western dramas or those who don’t have the patience to finish reading a book. They always want to skip to the good parts and then they keep pestering other viewers with questions on why this happened or why that is so.

Anyway, whatever else these foolish viewers may say, TLOS will remain one the best CDramas ever. Almost all its characters, especially the ones who portray key roles, were well rounded and developed. And the execution of the story was top-notch, from the first time Xingzhi’s eyes fell on this weird chicken, until the end, when he and Shen Li return to the mortal world to live their life together happily and peacefully in that house where their love first blossomed.

[whumpy-vibes]

D-Day (2015) Whump List

Where to watch: Viki Rakuten

Genre: Drama, Medical, Romance

Whumpee: Lee Hae Sung

Note: This is my very first whump list! I discovered the whump community about a year ago and I decided to finally make a list. I love this kdrama and have rewatched it multiple times but have never heard anyone talk about it on here. Which is pretty sad, since it is so whump-heavy. Plus the romance isn't very prominent and the drama mainly focuses on the disaster aspect. This list may not be perfect and I may have over-described some things so if you guys have any advice on how I can make my lists better, feel free to let me know! And I would just like to thank @simply-whump and @love-me-a-lotta-whump as you two inspired me to make this list in the first place.

Episode 1: exhausted from performing surgery for a long time, building partially collapsed on him, covered in ash, caught in explosion.

Episode 2: exhausted, falls asleep on bench of firetruck, argument with brother, emotional, flashback to aftermath of car accident (severely injured, loved ones worried for him, mourning father’s death), breathing and sweating heavily from preforming CPR X2, blood splatters in face, exhausted, falls asleep against patients bed X3 (I swear this man can fall asleep anywhere), getting hit (jokingly), in earthquake.

Episode 3: knocked out, in shock, covered in ash, right next to an explosion X2, worried for loved one, hit in the arm with metal pole, gets stitches without anesthesia and pretends it doesn’t hurt, sucks out baby juice out of baby to save it, carries mother on back, watches people go into collapsing building without being able to save them.

Episode 4: Covered in more ash, in shock, tries to save people but fails, in denial, mentally unstable, PTSD symptoms, flashback to building colapse and hand reaching out, mental breakdown/emotional outburst, crying, begs on knees for hospital to take patients in, flashback to the car accident that killed his father and put his mother in a coma.

Episode 5 drinks canned coffee instead of eating food, stressed, hands shaking, sweating, hands shaking

Episode 6 motorcycle jumps over broken bridge and crashes, metal punctures chest, doesn’t take care of injury, uses tissues and tap to fix ingury, hears voices of dead patients, flashback to people dying again, hit on the head with wood, in physical fight, crying, faints, carried into hospital on stretcher, others worried for him, receives medical care

Episode 7 people worried for him, carried into hospital/emergency room on stretcher, unconscious, stitches, hit by a door opening, trips and falls, flashback to after car crash, crying, flash back to people dying, sleep deprived, exhausted, cold symptoms, insomnia, flashbacks about earthquake,

Episode 8 insomnia, hurts arm in middle of surgery during mini earthquake/aftershock, exhausted

Episode 9 exhausted from performing CPR a long time, falls asleep against patient bed, falls in mud

Episode 10 PTSD symptoms, hands shaking, breathing heavily, voice shaking/stuttering

Episode 11: PTSD symptoms, flashback, heavy breathing, hands shaking, stumbling/can’t walk straight, trouble breathing, people concerned for him, hallucinating, blood splatters in face, crying, getting hit and blamed for patient death

Episode 12: blaming himself for patient dying, crying, depressed, crying

Episode 13: Punched, lip bleeding, falls asleep in chair, hands shaking, breathing heavily, PTSD symptoms, punches wall, bloody knuckles, others worried for him

Episode 14: Blood splatters over face, exhausted

Episode 15: concerned for mother

Episode 16: running fever, hooked up to iv

Episode 17: none

Episode 18: preforms entire surgery with fever, faints and falls, high fever, faints again, in hospital bed, given sedative to sleep, rips iv out, finds out about brothers death, in denial, crying, mourning

Episode 19: crying

Episode 20: gets pushed and falls, watches brother’s last moments, crying

[glorious-sunset]

Reflections on Ep. 4 of LBFAD on rewatch

Arbiter Hall: In Xiao Lanhua’s (XLH) dream, DongFang QingCang (DFQC) is kneeling and begging for mercy from Changheng (CH) :D What a vivid imagination she has! When she enacts the Battle of Two Tribes for her plant spirit friends later this episode she also claims that DFQC was “beaten black and blue, kneeling and begging for mercy!” Hearing this was bad enough for the real DFQC. How lucky that he can’t see her dreams! :D

In her dream, CH blames her for not reporting the presence of a criminal at Arbiter Hall and is about to execute her as well. She wakes up trembling with so much fear that even DFQC wakes up trembling and gasping for breath! She could easily send a message from Arbiter Hall reporting him but despite her great fear, would never consider this an option after he saved her life in Haishi. She now considers that both CH and DFQC have saved her life and is loyal to them both. (Actually, Siming made up the story about CH persuading her to keep XLH. Siming is fully aware of XLH’s real identity and would never have considered disposing of her). XLH does gently encourage DFQC a few times to turn himself in, but does this for his own interest – she fears that if he is caught, he will be executed, but if he turns himself in, he will only need to complete his sentence then he can live freely. She has already forgiven him for strangling her during their first encounter, reasoning that his imprisonment made him aggressive. He came for her and saved her from a definite demise after that, didn’t he? If not for him, she wouldn’t even be here right now.

Arbiter Hall, Day 2: At 5am the next morning, DFQC enters her room to demand that she repair the destiny leaf, now. He regards her sleeping form and face for a few moments. Her plump cheeks are rather cute. He pokes one of them to wake her, but when she complains, squeezes them both, protesting “I don’t have time to waste with you! Now you…” but he is forced to teleport into the greenhouse before he can finish his sentence. “What black magic has Xiao Hua Yao cast on me now?!” D:

He is forced to spend the next several hours counting 8,452 flowers, although he pretends to Shangque (SQ) that he chose to do this to improve his vitality as a warlord :D Any lesser being would be reduced to tears at this dizzying torture. SQ, go get the Xilan scroll! Hurry!

They examine the Xilan scroll. Disaster!! He has to obey her every command, and there is yet no clue on how to escape this nightmare.

At 9am, XLH wakes to find him bitterly proclaiming that there are 8,452 flowers in her greenhouse. After controlling him like a fool, she has the audacity to laugh at him and call him naïve for following her casual suggestion!! But when he explains that every word she says is very important to him, she is very touched. In fact, he is very attentive to every word she says. Both their stomachs are now rumbling (DFQC’s last meal was 30,000 years ago!) so she invites him to stay for breakfast.

DFQC is in the process of truthfully (and proudly) answering her question about his identity, but soon receives several hints that she might not be willing to repair the destiny leaf for him if she knew who he really was. He does not directly lie, but lets her believe that he is DongFang Qiang after she sneezes and mishears his name. “Don’t you know about the Battle of Two Tribes?” (Excuse me, he was the feature of that battle!) “Da Qiang! DongFang QingCang caused a lot of trouble for the whole of Shuiyuntian!”

XLH has now upgraded her nickname for him from the insulting “little celestial criminal” to “Big Qiang” (Da Qiang), the transition from little to big reflecting the growth of her regard for him. She affectionately calls him Da Qiang from now on. His nickname for her, “Xiao Hua Yao”, little flower demon, is his appraising way of calling her a wicked little flower, or a flower with thorns.

XLH feels bad for his misfortune in sharing the surname of the infamous deceased DongFang QingCang, so hastens to cheer him up. She tells him he is lucky to have had parents, that he is a much better person than DongFang QingCang, and looks much more handsome than him! It’s no news to viewers that he is surpassingly attractive, but he scoffs at the idea that she is comparing him to himself :D Oh dear! He didn’t realise that she was actually comparing him to a green goblin with lice and bad breath :D And she made a valid point that he hasn’t bathed in thousands of years :(

When XLH gently suggests that he turn himself in, he stares hungrily at her while describing how DFQC likes to eat fair and chubby fairies with soft skin and tender flesh (he is referring to how he finds her plump cheeks and creamy skin appealing). He has thus reciprocally expressed his attraction to her in a very twisted way as he is not even consciously aware of it yet :D

DFQC has now gone from “I have no time to waste with you” to completely forgetting his mission! What other lies have Shuiyuntian been spreading about him?! He finds several books around Arbiter Hall and wastes no time in perusing them. He stays close to XLH and rarely lets her out of his sight. Inspired by their breakfast conversation, she also reads, about the Battle of Two Tribes and other historical battles. They chat and she learns that his parents have passed and he has no family in Shuiyuntian (hence why she later refers to him as a homeless dog! :D ). His company has XLH in exceptionally high spirits all day. Although he is grouchy, he is quite respectful and very attentive. She feels comfortable around him and leans into him while showing him how to make festival pastries.

DFQC does not trust anyone, but as XLH’s feelings are projected onto him through the one-heart curse, he discovers that she reads like an open book, completely guileless and innocent. He now feels he can somewhat trust her. Her insulting descriptions of DongFang QingCang continuously make his blood boil! But when he glares at her in anger and she flinches in shock, he regrets his actions and cannot blame her for the indoctrination she received from Shiyuntian.

DFQC asks XLH about her torn portrait of CH. She gasps, suddenly realising that for the first time she can remember, she hadn’t thought about CH even once that day (despite her dream about him last night!). She excuses herself and runs off, feeling she has betrayed CH somehow by enjoying the company of another man.

DFQC complains to SQ that he wasted the whole day with Xiao Hua Yao (you decided to do that DFQC! :D ), that repairing the destiny leaf is again postponed, that he needs the heart-hiding hairpin to protect himself from XLH’s charms, oh, and draw me a bath SQ, I am very upset at being described as an unhygienic troll. DFQC fills his bath with enticing fragrances so he can smell appealing. Ha, see if that damned little flower demon can compare him to a green-skinned goblin now!

Meanwhile, XLH speaks to Cloud Whale, whose soothing calls are frequently heard even at remote Arbiter Hall (they are heard four or more times during this episode). She has never seen Cloud Whale but has read about him and likes to imagine that he can hear her when she speaks to him. Since her master left hundreds of years ago, this unseen whale has been the only one she can talk to at night when loneliness hits her especially hard. She tells him, “although Da Qiang always loses his temper, isn’t that bright and refers to himself as benzuo, I think he is not that bad. He probably did not make a big mistake.” She smiles happily at the thought that he can now live freely.

Unpacking this appraisal, he loses his temper – this is the worst thing he does from this point, but always for good reason. He is not actually evil. He’s not that bright (?!) – he’s dense about emotions and understanding what might happen if they share a bed (both not his fault), but is otherwise exceptionally intelligent (his flawless recreation of Arbiter Hall alone is a work of genius). Refers to himself as benzuo (this seat of power, or this position). This is a bitter address of himself acknowledging that he does not belong to himself, but to his responsibilities. Probably did not make a big mistake – XLH never asks him why he was imprisoned. To her, it does not matter, as it is in the past, and she is appraising him based on how he currently presents himself.

Cloud Whale is very important to XLH, thus DFQC making it possible for her to finally see him in ep. 5 is of huge significance!

Arbiter Hall, Day 3: The next day, XLH faints while trying to repair Lady Chidi’s destiny leaf, and DFQC’s genuine concern for her is written all over his face. He may have claimed twice in this episode that he would “kill that damned Xiao Hua Yao” once he breaks her curse, but these are empty words. It’s nice that DFQC relies on SQ’s Chinese medicine skills, it makes them a great team and humanises him. Sweat beads on SQ’s forehead as he predicts that it may take three, five or a hundred years to fully cure XLH (DFQC, being the overachiever that he is, fully cures her in a week though! :D )

Arbiter Hall, Day 4: XLH sleeps through to the next morning and finds it strange that Da Qiang didn’t come to wake her (he is off collecting ten times the amount of dew he needs to :D ). She gets more and more worried as she is unable to find him. While she searches, CH arrives with the Immortal Pill he has poured his heart and soul into, and we see him smile happily! His smile is so sweet and rare, but his brother is always on standby to wipe it off his face anytime he dares feel even a glimmer of happiness. He is summoned to Yunzhong Water Pavillion without even a glimpse of his secret crush.

Here is a link to my episode 5 review (contains spoilers). All of my LBFAD articles and episode reviews can be viewed with the tag #lbfad reflections (hyperlinked) and the table of contents to these is here.

[spngeorg]

Episode 156 - 8.07 A Little Slice of Kevin

I typed the tagline for the title card for this one several weeks ago, before I came to a hard decision. Quoting the Animals song from the beginning of the episode, We gotta get out of this place, if it's the last thing we ever do... it kinda feels on the nose now. Since everyone can probably already guess what I mostly have to say about this one, I'm gonna use this space for a personal status update.

I've got an incredibly busy couple of months coming up, and have been seriously stressing about finding the time to write and record episodes through like... the end of summer. I've also been stressing over continuing to use spotify as my podcast host. It was bad enough before, but now to post there I have to agree to their "ai features" being applied to my little podcast, and I just... can't with that.

So for now, this will be the last episode I'm recording for a while. That doesn't mean this project as a whole is going away though! I already have the next episode "in the can," completely written up for AO3. And written more "properly" and completely than the notes I've been posting there to this point.

Considering my schedule, though, updates might be more or less frequent, and won't stick to the weekly posting schedule I've maintained for years now. What I will do is write up my complete notes, and then just post them when they're done. Some weeks, you might get two, other weeks none at all, depending on how stressful my life is being. But recording and editing the audio essentially doubles the amount of time these episodes take for me to do, so hopefully I can still mostly stick to getting out 3-4 a month still. We shall see!

Thank you to everyone who has been listening along (and reading along now!). I'm just finding it hilarious I started the podcast because I wanted to do a thorough meta rewatch without having to type everything out again, and here I am just deciding it's easier to just type everything out again...

LINKS!

The Superwiki page

My tag

My very long post of why i think Cas could’ve gone through the Purgatory portal with Dean

A brief post about destiel in early season 8 (and a much longer one…) (oh wait look here’s more) (look there a LOT in my tag for this one…)

Sometimes my old posts hurt me for multiple reasons (i miss you alex)

The beginning of Naomi’s influence on Cas

The Male Gaze shot (and a second post about it)

Homework for next week: Watch Duck Amuck

Complete notes for this episode on AO3.

Listen now on Spotify, or wherever you enjoy podcasts!

[unofficial-book-of-quotes-tm]

The first thing I want to say about series 6 is, it’s incredibly underrated in my opinion. I get why it’s not one of the great ones, but it’s far from bad and it has so much awesome banter and studio stuff in addition to giving us two pivotal moments in the show’s history (the kiss and Alex sitting on a cake bare-arsed), but we’ll get to that. When I watched series 6 for the first time, the only contestant I knew was Russell Howard, so let’s begin with him, shall we? I don’t have much to say on Russell other than I enjoyed his overall performance and his forte seemed to be tasks where he could show off his physical prowess, which — and I have no qualms admitting that — he’s a decent sportsman and watching him do keepy-ups will stay on my mind for a while.

Also, I always think it’s funny when one of Greg’s mates is on ‘cos they have absolutely zero respect for the Taskmaster whereas everyone else seems a little apprehensive at first usually. I feel similarly about Asim Chaudhry; He was fun to watch, though what he lacks in physical abilities and competence he makes more than up for in charm and cheek. Just like Russell, he had his moments and I think he managed to make Alex (the assistant) jealous once or twice. I mean, look at Alex’s face when Greg invites Asim to sit on his lap. I think this moment also highlights how Greg’s and Alex’s on-screen relationship changed in series 6, though more on that in a bit. Now, Liza Tarbuck. One might assume that I should be prepared for women like Liza Tarbuck and Sally Phillips at this point who are utter nutcases (affectionately) and absolutely not above doing the most insane shit imaginable. I mean, I’m not, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy them. What I remember about Liza’s attempts (and maybe I’m misremembering / misinterpreting) is that she didn’t appear to be ‘needing’ to win, instead she seemed more interested in having a good time and being creative. And who can forget:

Tim Vine is an entirely different beast and I’m not sure how I feel about him, though with every rewatch of series 6 I grow fonder of him (I’m calling that the Paul Chowdhry Effect). The thing is, I appreciate Tim going for the pun, ‘cos I’m a sucker for bad puns. But contrary to Liza, Tim gave me the impression he wanted to win and on occasion it felt like he was trying a bit too hard. Nevertheless, his big announcement and the hook disaster still crack me up only by thinking about them and the solo task he was made to do with putting together an outfit was perfect for him. I don’t really know what to make of Alice Levine, and it seems to become a habit that I’ll save contestants who baffle me for last in this sort of review. I think she’s incredibly charming and sweet, and she had a strong pet name game going on with Alex, which was quite adorable. I actually assumed she was given the solo task and had to come up with different pet names for Alex whenever she began a task, but nope. On the other hand, I kept asking myself whether Alice wanted to do Taskmaster or if she was told to do it, because in my opinion, she appears to half-ass a lot of tasks and does minimal effort, but I don’t know. Now, before I get to Greg and Alex, I just like to mention that I think the tasks in this series were actually quite strong and there are several of which I’d like to have a go myself (e.g. the bedtime story, find the link, parachute for the wooden spoon, the egg live task of episode 7, and many more). On my mainblog I made a post a couple of months ago about the shift in Greg’s and Alex’s on-screen dynamic between series 5, champion of champions 1 and series 6, ‘cos what the fuck was that? It went from something pretty one-sided (as in Alex being the besotted one) to them going for a full on snog.

I’m not complaining, just pointing out that they went from 0 to 100 pretty fast in that series — and it was only the sixth series! Speaking from series 17, I think we’re due another kiss, guys (yes, I’m absolutely shamelessly shipping the Taskmaster and the assistant). Overall I really enjoy this series, it’s got so many great and iconic moments that it baffles me how people don’t like it. I’m not here to invalidate anyone’s opinion, believe me, I have a great one coming up soon-ish, and with that, I’ll see you all in series 7! Thank you so much for sticking around!