#plot twist: they absolutely do not. devastating news.

[monty-glasses-roxy]

I feel like I don't talk much about how Roxy's still a asshole in my stuff. So. Um.

Yeah Roxy's still an asshole lmao

[slytherinshua]

TROUBLEMAKING

genre. fluff. warnings. ryo and his endless pranks. pairing. ryo x fem!reader. wc. 684. request. requested by @blue-jisungs, here. a/n. ryo being a little shit 24/7 was actually such a plot twist (by tws) for me when watching more nct wish content lmao but he's so cute for it he drives the older members crazy 😭😭

“Where’d the light pink go? I swear I had it next to the eraser…” 

Ryo had to fight back a mischievous grin at your confusion. The pink coloured pencil was tucked safely in his back pocket, but you didn’t need to know that. He had felt a bit bored today, and the desire to pull a small prank on you had developed in almost an instant.

Sure, drawing with you was relaxing and all. Ryo loved to see what you would create. He always got giggly when you decided to draw him. You were quite good at drawing, often leaving your boyfriend in admiration, falling even more in love with you just from the sight of your doodles. But he was in the mood for a little chaos. Peacefully drawing with his girlfriend seemed insipid.

“Maybe it’s still in the case?” Ryo suggested innocently, humming along to the music you had put on. He was awfully good at looking like an angel who could absolutely do nothing wrong, but in reality, he fit the description of a little troublemaking demon. You didn’t think anything of it, picking up a slightly darker shade of pink for now.

“I’m going to go use the bathroom real quick.” You told your boyfriend after another 10 minutes. He nodded at you, his brain scheming something new as he watched you drop your sketchbook on the floor and walk out of the room. Without a second wasted, he grabbed the paper and a red coloured pencil. 

By the time you were walking back into the room, you could immediately feel that something was off. One glance at your drawing made your head snap over to your boyfriend’s figure, innocently erasing some pencil marks on his paper. 

“What happened to my drawing, Ryo?”  

The boy shrugged, blinking up at you with wide eyes. You caught the slight smirk he was holding back, though. Picking up the drawing, now adorned with red devil horns and a ferocious dragon in the corner terrorising your peaceful countryside landscape, you glared at your boyfriend. Ryo couldn’t help but giggle a bit at your look, knowing that he couldn’t deny his involvement.

“I just made it a bit more interesting!” Ryo declared.

You stared at him then back at the paper. The drawing had been going so well. The trees and flowers you had added were some of the best you had ever done, and your perspective on the little farmhouse had finally looked accurate. You usually struggled the most with perspective and angles, and you were devastated at seeing the messy red pencil marks all over your perfect drawing. A frown started to form on your face and your lip jutted out in a pout.

“It was one of my best drawings…” You sunk to the floor, shoulders sagging in defeat. You wouldn’t cry over it, but the disappointment and frustration you felt was overwhelming. Ryo held almost all of your admiration, but times like these made you wonder why he was doing this to you.

“I’m sorry- I should’ve asked before ruining it.” Ryo said softly, scooting closer to you on the floor. “Do you want to ruin mine in return?”

You looked up at Ryo’s drawing that he offered you, a small smile slowly replacing your pout. He had drawn a portrait of you. It wasn’t the best ever, but it was adorable. He had added a bunch of hearts around you and text on your shirt that said ‘best girlfriend in the world’. 

“No, I’m not mean like you.” You teased, now showing him a bright smile. 

Ryo pouted, “I won’t do it again. I promise!” 

Your eyes narrowed at him, “You would without even thinking twice.”

He grinned, “Guilty.” 

Though you had already forgiven him for ruining your drawing, that didn’t stop you from reminding him about it throughout the day in order to get free kisses. He knew exactly what you were doing— using his guilt for your own benefit— but he obliged in your want for kisses without complaining. Kissing you was always a win in his book.

↳ nct wish taglist (bolded could not be tagged): @kangtaehyunzzz,, @eternalgyu,, @lexeees,, @nyukyujs,, @planetkiimchi,,

@haecien,, @talkingsaxy,, @thesunsfullmoon,, @talking-saxy

[mikuni14]

Century of Love - Ep 1

I don't even know how to describe this episode, I can't find any nice and proper words to describe it, I'm a horny mess:

To Sir, With Love vibe 👌

Daou absolutely nailed the annoying, grumpy grandpa vibe, still living in the "old days", down to the style and clothes 🔟

I was always very attracted to Offroad and I always considered him very pretty, but now he has reached a new level, he has become a very seductive mix of a confident twink and a grown man 🔥 I can see that he has been working out, which gives a devastating final effect *grabby hands*. They're going to kill me, gods

their first meeting is 🔟 in ✨style, ✨aesthetics, ✨effects

Vee is great and the perfect opposite to San, which makes him, and me, even more interested. Of course, I may be wrong and it may change, but now I see a confident young gay man who knows who he is, knows what he wants and who likes a guy and he doesn't want to waste time and hits on him straight away. I love how he flirts and makes San all flustered 👌

the series doesn't fuck around and goes stright to the point, it immediately shows their mutual fascination, we also had the first making out scene. I'm super happy to see, that DaouOffroad are still delivering, they haven't lost anything since Love in Translation, my kings 💖

side characters are fun

there's a lot going on, the story is funny, interesting, there's fantasy, a grumpy/sunshine relationship, what's not to love!

well-known locations, this is the Love in Translation store if I'm not mistaken, and Vee's apartment has probably appeared in like 99% of BL series lol

something tells me that Vee is actually not Vad, which would be a great plot twist. And it would be incredibly funny, poor grandpa San lol

His back is so squeezeable *grabby hands* (also, do you see Daou's hands????? The caressing????????? *teary eyes* I missed them so much!)

I LOVED IT.

[cbrownjc]

I love the way you write about writing, so I have a writing question.

How do you think the inclusion of Armand in the interview itself will affect the narrative? In the book, part of the devastation was that neither Louis nor the reader saw the betrayal coming, since Armand is all mysterious and shit (until you realize he's basically an Unseelie faerie). Having Armand's side of things be relatively open, even if he's still hiding a lot, could take away some of the impact of that reveal that he was behind "the thing." It's not an absolutely necessary reveal, but Louis being the POV character who gives us facts as they come means that if they're open about Armand's plotting from the start, the audience can get frustrated with Louis for not seeing it coming. But there will be at least some clarity provided by Armand, if he's willing to talk about his Children of Darkness days in such a way where he looks positively feral (/pos) in the promo pics.

How do you think they can pull this off?

Hi! Sorry for the short delay in replying but, as I said, I wanted to think about this for a bit before I answered.

Warning -- Spoilers for the books and possibly Season 2 below:

So, of course, the key here will be how they structure when the reveal of not only "the thing" (and I'm assuming you mean the Claudia thing) happens. But also the reveal of Armand's backstory, especially the Children of Darkness stuff.

I can only speak for myself, but the way I think/suspect they will do it is to have the first few episodes play out exactly like the book does, with the majority of it being from Louis' POV; adding in Claudia's POV (via her diaries), and with the added bonus of Armand's POV sprinkled in as well, mostly being when he's interacting with Louis -- and with Claudia when she's with Louis. No indication there is anything amiss with the way he's acting toward either of them. (Claudia's diaries, of course, are missing more pages during this time.)

If done this way, then you'd only see of Armand what mostly Armand wants Daniel (and via Daniel, the audience) to see and perceive of him, mainly through his and Louis' POVs.

And all we, the audience, see of Lestat during this time is via Louis' hallucinations of him for the first few episodes.

Then, when Louis and Armand start telling the tale of Claudia's fate, play it so that THAT is the first time real!Lestat shows up, at the trial. However, there'll be something very off in what Louis and Armand (mostly Armand) are telling Daniel about this moment.

And that is when Daniel pounces and calls them out on trying to BS him again. (Bonus points if it's a memory from during the Devil's Minion Era that helps to give Daniel a clue that they are BS'ing him.)

And it's after this that the show starts showing the flashbacks, not only to Armand's Children of Darkness days but specifically his interactions with Lestat during then.

It's at this point where it is also revealed that Lestat made it to Paris from New Orleans before Louis and Claudia did (which is what happened in the book) and that Armand has kept him locked up in a dungeon the whole time, manipulating him to testify at the trial and all that.

And, of course, then we get the real flashback of the trial and Armand's orchestration of "the thing" (including the major reveal of the head thing he did to her).

If you structure and set things up this way, not only do you keep the reveal that Armand was behind "the thing" the whole time up until it happens, but you reveal the context as to why Armand is the way he is when you do so at the same time.

I could be wrong, but I think the show might very well structure things this way in Season 2. Doing the story this way not only explains Armand's line at the end of Season 1 ("When you hear it you'll be ashamed of yourself, ashamed of what you say to him now!") but also what we know about the show revisiting things from Season 1 again.

Doing things this way has you do all the revisiting/truth/twist revealing during the last 3-4 episodes or so of the season, after what amounts to a misdirect during the first 3-4 episodes of it.

Because I don't think Armand, at the moment Season 2 starts, will have any desire to tell the full truth to Daniel about all of these things at the start. I think he is very much in the mode of protecting Louis (in his eyes) from the truth of what happened in any way he can still think of. So he'll obfuscate as much as he can after Daniel broke through the narrative Rolin Jones said Louis came up with and told himself via what Armand has told him.

I said before I think Armand knows very well what Louis would/will attempt to do -- i.e. what he does toward the end of the book Merrick -- if he remembers everything and how it actually happened, particularly wrt Claudia. Which is why these false narratives exist in Louis' head the first place. And now, with the confirmation after TCA24 that Louis wants to remember the truth, (and wants Daniel to help him do it), I think that is what it's going to take for Armand to finally stop obfuscating things (along with Daniel calling him out as well IMO).

After that is when I think Claudia's missing/cut out diary pages will finally be produced, and we'll get the things that were only glossed over before from them (mainly her feeling for Louis matching up with what they were revealed to be in Merrick). Along with this being when Armand's full Children of Darkness backstory is revealed, as well as the full reveal that he was behind "the thing" concurrent with that.

So yeah, I think a misdirect right up until the trial wrt the narrative, and then a full revisit of the narrative -- with Armand's cult background fully revealed then -- is how you can structure things without giving away Armand being behind "the thing."

That isn't to say that we wouldn't/won't see anything about Armand's Children of Darkness days before that but, if we do, I think it would be presented way more sympathetically at first -- leaving out things like what Armand and the cult did to Nicki, which is what made Lestat come in there and bust Armand's cult up in the first place. If it goes like this, then Nicki actually being there would be revealed later, during a revisiting of that moment during the second half of the season.

I think this would be the way to pull it all off and could be easily done so in the eight episodes we have for Season 2.

[vrabbiit]

kinda silly dramatic plot idea bc i am obsessed w glam fred and glam bon’s tragic yaoi storyline + also fitting a reader insert concept around it

glam fred x reader (?) story where the technician reader is pining for freddy in a seemingly unrequited way, but one day stumbles upon what’s left of glam bon in the area around bonnie bowl. knowing how devastated freddy was by his disappearance and the relationship the two had, the reader resolves to put aside their pining and help reunite the two by fixing up bonnie.

they agonise over whether to tell freddy, but decide not to bc they’re scared of getting his hopes up then not managing to succeed in fixing bonnie. over the next few months they make progress, but also grow closer to freddy, who begins to show that he might feel the same way about them (and in their mind maybe moving on from bon). things happen between freddy and the reader that absolutely put them in a relationship and the reader continues to stress out over the fact they’re essentially resurrecting their new bf’s ex.

they finally succeed, managing to power up bonnie and reunite the two, and are totally ready for freddy to choose bonnie over them bc come on the HISTORY is there nvm why would he choose them, and kind of haul ass out of there as soon as they can, before anything other than the first reaction happens. they want to be happy - they did a good thing, a selfless thing, so why does part of them wish they hadn’t? why do they feel so awful about feeling awful?

plot twist: while they were working on fixing bon they didn’t realise that they’d managed to restore his consciousness so he was aware for a LOT of that time, and as such has heard them talking. the reader vented a lot to what they thought was themself about their growing anxieties with their mission to fix him to reunite him with freddy but also their own feelings and eventual relationship, and had no idea bon could hear them the whole time.

[littencloud9]

Hello again....Do you mind if I ask your top 5 (or top 10) favorite moments from any media that you love (books, anime/manga, tv series, movies, games, etc)? Thanks if you want to answer. Sorry if I ask too much....

hihi!! oooh i'll see if i can narrow it down skdjfjhj. this isn't in any particular order i adore them all <3

moriarty the patriot - this scene i can't even begin to explain it. it was so well written and emotional. i think it captured the message of yuumori incredibly well. you did bad, you were wrong, now work to be better. a brand new start. you don't have to forgive yourself, you just have to to move on, and i'll do it with you. absolutely lovely scene :( <3

bungou stray dogs - ranpo's invitation to yosano fucking CINEMATIC okay. i cried. the way it was set up, with ranpo kneeling to yosano's level and promising her a place to stay. the lighting of this scene giving it such a hopeful look. the emotional impact. they are my favourite duo in bsd and their dynamic is sooo precious to me and i just. one of my fav scenes in bsd EVER!!!

haikyuu - tsukishima's block THIS WAS JUST PHENOMANAL KSFHJ. the POWER. the SCREAM. the perfect moment for his character arc, the 'it' moment. oh my god. i only very recently got into haikyuu and this scene lives in my head rent free

vanitas no carte - s2 finale fight THEY WERE INSANE FOR THIS. this entire fight had me on the edge of my seat. if it's one thing vnc is an expert in it's setting a scene. the rain the lighting the FEAR through the screen. this shit was RAW. when vanoé got into the 'ill kill you thatll shut you up' position i literally screamed. vanitas' turmoil vs noé's devastation oh my godddd. domi unlocking her powers. jeanne's entire role. there was so much happening and GOD it was amazing i loved it

jujutsu kaisen - so start by saving me sigh. LIFE GETS BETTER DONT GET INTO JUJUTSU KAISEN. this panel lives in my head rent free and i think if i ever see it animated i'd burst into tears. megumi saying this to yuuji means so much to their characters okayyy two people who have always been saving each other, megumi who watched yuuji die in front of him, IT MEANS SO MUCH. i would ramble more but alas i dont wanna turn this into an essay

link click - cheng xiaoshi and qiao ling vs xiao ma BANGERRRR SCENE they mean the absolute world to me and i love that they were clearly protecting each other throughout the whole fight. i love the insane team up. qiao ling grabbing xiao ma's leg so cxs could punch him. this damn stand thing she used. the fluidity of the scene etc etc. just an amazing fight sequence overall i feel

moriarty the patriot - james bonde's reveal INSANE PLOT TWIST. bonde is my favourite yuumori character and i just. this was so funny. fym he chose bonde because of the bonds he made with the lord of crime gang IT'S SO CUTE 😭 i have nothing to say i just adore bonde and this is thus one of my fav scenes ever

moriarty the patriot - the moriarty brothers reunite CRIED FR. i just. the EMOTIONS. the way they did everything for each other and had to separate for three years and how both albert and louis thought william was dead and how none of them really ever forgave themselves but they forgive each other, so thats all that matters, isn't it? and how soothing this hug was, like finally finding your home again, and how THEY ARE FAMILY ough im so ill. i adore this moment

bungou stray dogs - you are but a child this scene hurt me then healed me. i actually cried so hard. their dynamic is so important to meee and they're both learning to care and love for the first time and they found comfort in each other and ranpo is just a CHILD and fukuzawa helps him see that it's okay and and. sniffles. bring them back asagiri this is a threat

vanitas no carte - i've decided to stay by your side, vanitas this is just because i'm in love with noé and i think vanitas realised things about himself here too/j. but on a serious note i think this was one of the greatest turning points in their relationship. i like the vibe of them on the tower and the sun rise coming up when they swear to stay together. cinematic asf

[justarandombrit]

Well. Here you go, I guess. (To avoid the massive amount of preamble skip to "The return of lines from Spies Are Forever...")

Spies Are Forever is a 2016 spy-parody musical set in 1960s America. It's by the Tin Can Bros and is all professionally recorded on YouTube for free, so I recommend watching it before reading this, as I will be talking about the penultimate in-character song from this musical, which, despite being a parody, is very much also a serious spy story, with a lot of twists and turns.

It is probably my favourite musical of all time, so I'll give you an hour or so to watch it.

…

Back? Has your brain chemistry been fundamentally changed? Yeah, that happens.

Anyway, just in case you decided that you didn't care about spoilers, I'll give you a quick overview of the plot you need for this essay.

Agent Curt Mega has been retired from spying for four years, since his partner (Owen Carvour)’s death due to a mistake Curt made. He decides to get back into the field to fight the enigmatic Deadliest Man Alive and ridiculous Baron Von Nazi, and stop the construction of the “Nazi Super Castle”. Along the way, he works with Cynthia Houston, head of the American Secret Service, Barb Larvernor, scientist, Tatiana Slohzo, Russian spy and the Informant, informant.

Despite being a comedy first and foremost, a lot of the musical hinges on the villain’s plot, and that is important in this overview.

We are led to believe that Von Nazi is the “brains” behind the operation, so to speak (despite him having none himself), up until a confrontation where, after killing the prince of The New Democratic Republics of Old Socialist Prussian Sloviskia and convincing the country's government to sign off on the plans for the Super Castle, the DMA literally and figuratively stabs Von Nazi in the back.

This, like many of the DMA's actions throughout the show, seems completely unmotivated. The main characters question this, and, in a suspenseful, absolutely devastating moment that I cannot do justice through the medium of writing, the DMA is revealed to be Owen.

I could write pages and pages about this moment, about the foreshadowing leading up to it, about Curt's reaction, Tatiana's reaction, Joe Walker and (actor) Curt Mega’s acting, how it's Joey Richter (Owen’s actor) who says the line “Personal history does have its benefits, Mega”, that line itself! This scene keeps me up at night, but this essay isn't about that.

This essay is about the song directly following this scene.

As Owen predicts in his speech, Curt goes after him instead of the information warehouses created by Owen’s agency, Chimera. This song serves as a villain song for Owen, no longer disguised as the Deadliest Man Alive, and also a duet for Owen and Curt.

Although up until now I have been explaining the plot in order, a good chunk of this analysis requires the context of retrospect. So, again I implore you to watch it. It's only 8 minutes long and would really make my job easier. Act Two, Part Six.

https://youtu.be/yMBi9hp2QVQ?si=IUz42a_1DTMi4eNS

So. Curt and Owen were lovers. Even though that moment (along with Curt shooting Owen) had been spoiled for me before watching, I still gasped at that scene. Anyway, with the added context of what sort of “partners” they were, we can now move into the analysis.

I'm no music theorist, as evidenced by most of this essay being about the depth of the lyrics, not the music, but, as YouTube user ConsiderableColors pointed out in their video-essay “Motifs Of Remembrance In Spies Are Forever”, One Step Ahead does not have a single use of the common leitmotifs throughout the rest of the show, symbolising how Curt has moved on from mourning and feeling guilt over Owen, and accepted what he has to do.

(Sidenote; that video is incredibly good, and I'll be linking it at the end along with another SAF video-essay I love)

The return of lines from Spies Are Forever (song), specifically, “Who do you trust, who do you betray?”, really highlights TalkFine’s amazing lyric writing, recontextualising lines from the opening song, which clearly parodies the famously nonsensical Bond songs, because, as we all know:

Foreshadowing is a dramatic device in which an important plot point is mentioned earlier in the story to return later in a more significant way...

I hope somebody got that reference.

Anyway, one important aspect in the structure of One Step Ahead is, for the most part, Owen always sings his lines before Curt, reflecting how he is, a, literally ahead of Curt, as he is being chased throughout most of the song, and, b, was figuratively ahead of Curt for most of the show, knowing and predicting his every move.

Owen sings “One step ahead, that's how it's always been”, to make out that Curt is incompetent, as we see him do multiple times in the previous scene. Of course, at this point, the audience should realise that this is untrue, but it makes complete sense why Owen, the man who almost died because of a mistake Curt made, should think this.

In the next verse, Owen continues with the much softer, although arguably more hurtful to Curt, “One step ahead, I'm sorry my old friend / But I'm still here / After all those years when you thought I was dead / I was one step ahead”

When listening to the song for the first time, “old friend” may sound like a bittersweet term of endearment, but with the context of the true nature of Owen and Curt’s relationship, this can be read more as an insult, as Owen disregarding their relationship, and pretending nothing ever happened between them.

Curt, still reprising lines from Spies Are Forever, next sings “It's time to save the world again”, making no mention of beating Owen or “overthrow(ing) (...) an evil power” like the ensemble sings at the start of the song, because at this point, Curt still has hope for Owen. He still believes he can get Owen to leave Chimera and he can get the Owen he knew in the opening song back.

Owen quickly shoots down this idea with “Typical Curt / And pretend to be a hero again”, which both takes a shot at Curt’s saviour complex, but also all of the duo’s previous beliefs, which we know Owen now believes were not really the right thing to do. Thus, this line could also be read as Owen showing his disdain for both A.S.S and MI6, and, by proxy, who he used to be, and who Curt still is.

Curt retaliates, now giving up on reprising SAF and instead following the tune Owen sang, with “Typical jerk!”, showing that he's now somewhat accepted that he won't be able to easily get Owen back, and has fully joined in on the fight. (Also I don't know how to include this but, after this line in the live version of the song Joey (Owen) says “Ooh, sick burn” in the most sarcastic way you've ever heard and it's amazing)

He then asks “What happened to the man I knew?”, implying that he's realised that Owen is no longer “The man [he] knew”

Owen gives a snarky response in, “It's a little late for an interview”, further showing his hatred of the man he used to be, and refusing to defend himself and his beliefs, despite going on to do exactly that after this song.

“Feelin’ a lot of déjà vu again” This line is sung one inch away from each other’s faces… I'm just saying, they knew what they were doing.

We can see that all of the quipping in the previous lines got to Curt, as he sounds much angrier than at the start when he sings “It's time for you to feel the heat”

Of course, Owen retorts with the much calmer “Revenge is going to taste so sweet”, once again reminding Curt, and us, the viewers, of his motivation throughout this song. In this song, Owen doesn't attempt to hide or downplay how much his trauma from Curt leaving him to die, or his desire to get revenge influenced his actions, unlike later, in The Staircase Scene, where he seems to genuinely believe he is acting for the good of spies, and humanity as a whole.

In fact, pretty much the only time revenge seems to play a factor in his choices when he's monologuing in The Staircase Scene, is when he says “I'm going to single-handedly dismantle everything you've ever believed in”. This, along with how his voice breaks when he says that line, tells us that he may be being more honest about his true motivation during this song, and lying, to an extent, about it afterwards.

They both proceed to call each other platonic, and slightly condescending nicknames (e.g. pal, buddy), both to try and undermine each other, and also possibly because they're still rightfully cautious to admit that they were anything more than that, in a society that demonised and criminalised homosexuality, especially for government workers, like secret agents.

Afterwards, Curt tries to retroactively justify Owen’s betrayal to himself, as we see in “You played me from the start”. He tries to convince himself that the betrayal was inevitable, and that Owen had been lying since they met, unable to accept that Owen really had changed because of Curt’s own actions.

“Well look at you / Without a clue” Owen quickly refutes this, unwilling to let Curt believe he is completely innocent, by reinforcing that he really did love Curt once.

Instead of doubling down, Curt goes with what Owen said, attempting to appeal to his emotion with “You know you broke my heart”.

“Don't deny I was the better spy” This line breaks me. Genuinely, I've spent hours thinking about this line. Think about the implications. PROMISE ME YOU'LL THINK ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS.

See, the reason I love this line so much is that Owen is right. Objectively speaking, Owen is the better spy. And not in the way that Cynthia thinks, and not in the way he implies throughout the show. Curt is not incompetent by any means, but he is reckless. Owen is not.

The only reason Owen even survived at the start of the musical was because he took the proper safety precautions to limit the blast of the (completely unneeded) bomb Curt set the timer purposefully too short for. It makes complete sense why Owen would think he's better at spying, however I don't believe that he does. Maybe to an extent. But not fully.

“Don't deny” shows he really wants validation via this statement. He wants Curt to admit that he's better. That what happened was Curt’s fault. Maybe Owen does believe he's the better spy, maybe he doesn't, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that Curt believes he is.

(I had a lot more to say about that line than I thought…)

Instead of succumbing to Owen’s demand, Curt retorts, “I liked you better when you were dead”, which seems harsh, but utterly understandable. Owen’s betrayal hurt Curt so deeply, so intensely, that he preferred the years spent in mourning for his lover, quitting his job and drinking so much he hallucinated Owen’s ghost, because at least that Owen was the one he knew. The Owen that died a hero, rather than the one who lived long enough to become the monster.

Please forgive that cliché, but it seemed applicable.

After this, Owen reiterates “One step ahead / It's how it's always been”, but this time, Curt responds directly to Owen, with, “Can't let you win”. He's now outright saying that he and Owen are on opposite sides, rather than speaking vaguely about “saving the world”.

Owen, while still angry, again seems to be more interested in reminding Curt of his mistake and making him suffer emotionally. The “I'm still here” has an unspoken “Even though you weren't”.

Then, after Curt’s line, he goes back to the superiority idea, “And I'm better than you again”.

Interestingly, Curt doesn't attempt to appeal to Owen’s emotions again, or even insult him, instead just responding, “This is the end”. Either, at this point he has fully given up on reasoning with Owen, or, the earlier “You know you broke my heart” was a mistake, an accidental show of vulnerability Curt didn't mean.

My personal interpretation was that the line was a last-ditch effort from Curt, a sort of hail Mary to try and get Owen to see sense by alluding to their relationship. We see him do this later on in The Staircase Scene, by outright stating it, and it almost works. Almost.

Owen's line, “No one's innocent” shows a lot about his character. Even though he's trying to shift blame onto Curt, he still acknowledges wrong-doing. After all, he can't pin the over 1,000 people he killed as the Deadliest Man Alive on Curt, that was all him.

“My friend, you lost your mind” Here, Curt does the exact opposite of what he was doing before. Instead of making it out that Owen never loved him in the first place, e.g. “You played me from the start”, he disregards the reasons Owen joined Chimera, blaming it on Owen “going insane” or “losing his mind”.

As we've now come to expect, Owen immediately shuts this down, determined to make Curt feel the full gravity of what Owen sees as his original betrayal. When he says, “And you've been blind”, Owen is talking about how, in his opinion, Curt is blind to all the pain he caused, which we know is actually untrue, and we also know that Owen knows this, see “I spent as much time hating you as you did”. This, like so much in this song, is a way to guilt trip Curt, despite being an obvious lie.

This line could also be interpreted as Curt being blind to Chimera, and being so enamoured by spying and taking down governments that he is forgetting to notice (what Owen thinks is) the bigger picture.

“Now we're at the end” is pretty self-explanatory. This is the climax of the show, the point all of this has been leading up to.

The line “This is what you made me do” is sung by both Curt and Owen and has different connotations for each. Owen is once again referring to Curt abandoning him in the warehouse, causing him to join Chimera. Curt is talking about the fight itself, as he's tried to reason with Owen, but, after all of this, he's now at the end of his tether.

In the lines

“We're done”

“We're through!”

Owen sings first, symbolising how he moved on faster (well, visually, but I stick by the “Owen still had feelings for Curt until his real death” headcanon - I mean, he could've shot Curt at basically any point throughout The Staircase Scene, he chose not to). But Curt shouts louder, showing his anger about how Owen has acted after “coming back from the dead”. Also, this is their official breakup. Just think about that for a second.

These lines could also link back to the fact that this is the climax of the show, the writers are sort of telling you “This is it guys, we’re almost finished”.

The finality of the moment is emphasised by “I've nothing left to say to you”. They've both made their cases, neither was convinced, but they've said all that was needed.

After this, there's a direct homage to The Sound of Music,

“So long

Farewell

Auf Wiedersehen

Adieu

Goodbye”

…only in a minor key, taking the music from a romance and altering it slightly, depicting Curt and Owen’s own relationship. Furthermore, this is the goodbye hinted to in both Spies Are Forever and The Coldest Goodbye. This is the coldest goodbye. Why did I reread that in Eleanor Shellstrop’s voice

In conclusion, One Step Ahead is a song about truth, betrayal, tragedy and love. Curtwen is one of my top ten ships (and just character dynamics in general) of all time, and I hope this essay did them justice. Hopefully I didn't repeat myself too much? I love this song, show and characters so much that I got incredibly overexcited for massive parts of this.

I hope you at least got something out of reading this, and so one last toast. To honour-

Links:

ConsiderableColors’ essay: https://youtu.be/cS05pAQAFaY?si=16BHM3eU-gEUkxXE

Spies Are Forever: Decoded:

https://youtu.be/OYAbmbKoaqc?si=9EpZ1wYr_SMBPCP0

Ooh! New one!

How Spies Are Forever Defies Cliché With Parody

https://youtu.be/QhIwDhZKPvM?si=h6IFpKoFCHR0T-iK

(I can't believe this is also about Argylle lmaoooo)

[sunflowercider]

im losing it im losing it the ""solution"" to the restoration of destiny is quite literally the cruelest thing you could do to lloyd and javier

"[...] you or Javier Asrahan must die or vanish from this world.]

fuck you for putting this line directly after we hear how lloyd wants them to grow old together. BK Moon didnt think shanking me was enough, he needed to twist the knife

First off, basic knowledge. Lloyd and Javier love the fiefdom. They love it. Lloyd couches his love in his pragmatism and his desire for a relaxing life, but this man now sincerely cares for his fiefdom so much. Javier, from before we even met him, we knew he loved the fiefdom, first as the place his lord was from, and then as his new home. This is not in question for either of them.

Second, macro level - either of these boys "leaving" the fiefdom, either by death or "vanishing", would be a complete loss to the fiefdom. Javier clearly notes this a few times about Lloyd, and how his knowledge is the key to the fiefdoms flourishing success. Lloyd I dont think has ever even considered Javier not being around for the fiefdom, but he HAS been likened to a weapon of mass destruction, and losing someone that would be absolutely devastating to the fiefdoms strength. Thus, on a purely practical level that boys like to pretend they work on, the loss of either person is incalculable.

Now thirdly... thirdly is the fucking juicy personal level. These two are besties. Theyve been through a lot of shit together, from insurmountable debt and obviously terrifying battles. These two, originally isolated from other people due to harsh circumstances, found a home in the Frontera fiefdom, and then each other. They are not the type of guys who can open up easily; i think Javier has 1 other friend and its Julian, another Frontera, and Lloyd literally just admitted to us that Javier is his one friend. It took them -checks notes- 220 chapters to admit they were friends at all.

So i think it's fair to say that these two are the type to be cautious with their hearts... and then cling like a bear trap to anyone who can break in. Hell, thats literally the plot of The Knight of Blood and Iron - Javier never lets go of his connection to his lord, even long after his death, and when important people ask for his loyalty instead. Now toss in the recent chapter where Javier swears that Lloyd is his true master in his heart. And then, of course, Lloyds desire to give Javier peace he didnt get in TKoBaI and have him by his side until they grow old together.

Now. Stir all that together, and present the solution that one of them must stop existing for their home continue to exist

[elrielbaby]

Hello, friends!

I haven’t made a proper post of my own in some time, mainly just reposting. The toxicity of the ship war (and honestly, just the fandom in general) is not conducive to good mental health, and with there being no hint of any news I just found it draining. The thing is, we are all here because we love these books, and for many of us books in general. So before I get back to posting my own elriel related content, I wanted to share with you some books I’ve absolutely adored this year. Please feel free to reblog this and add your own!

Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff 🩸

This is the second book in the Empire of the Vampire series (first book of the same name) and it is a strong contender for my book of the year. Not for the faint of heart, this series is bloody, brutal and emotionally devastating - but my GOD what a world, what characters. They are flawed and full bodied, the world is desolate and grim, with such little hope but it is a corker!

All This Twisted Glory by Tahereh Mafi 💔

Okay so this is the 3rd book in the This Woven Kingdom series. The first book in this series I felt very luke warm about, but I liked it enough to continue. The second book in this series is when I began to get really excited, I started to fall in love. The third book? Get out of here, I’m obsessed. If you like stories that include Jinn, inspired by Persian mythology and absolutely jam packed with all the yearning, pining and painful brooding you could possibly ever imagine - this is the book for you. Small caveat, that not an awful lot happens in this book to move the story forward, but the MMC is so down bad that I loved it regardless.

A Fragile Enchantment by Alison Saft 🪡

This one really took my by surprise. This is set in a regency era setting with a sprinkling of magic (and I do mean a light dusting) with a Lady Whistledown style sub plot that really did have me guessing. Our main character, Niamh, has the magical ability to imbue clothing with feeling - and has been hired by the Royal Family to make clothes for the Princes upcoming nuptials. Except there’s a chemistry to Niamh and the broody, irritable Prince Kit that is undeniable. Couple that with a growing unrest of the Macklish that threatens the Royal Fam, it all leads to a very delicious story. I didn’t expect to love this but it truly worked it’s way in to my heart.

Emily Wildes Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett 🧚

This is the second book in the Emily Wilde series but as with the first book I absolutely adored this. It is whimsical, mildly cosy. Emily goes through one of the best character arcs I’ve ever read, and Wendell may be the best blonde haired fictional man to ever exist. If you love proper Faerie stories, you will love this.

Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare ⚔️

This was an absolutely impeccable start to what I think is going to be an epic fantasy series. Forbidden romance, political intrigue, an interesting magic system and world to boot. I cannot wait for the next book!

The Crimson Moth (aka Heartless Hunter) by Kristen Ciccarelli 🦋

I absolutely devoured this. Witch and witch hunter. Courting for the sake of trying to discover the others secrets, angst, brooding, betrayal. I’m loathe to say anymore lest I give away more than I should. But this is for sure one of my favourite books of the year. I read it so fast, I think about this daily. Please please please, give it a go - you won’t regret it!

The Road of Bones/Kingdom of Claw by Demi Winters 🪓

The Road of Bones was a 5⭐️ read I absolutely loved it, but it’s sequel KoC has made its way into the 6⭐️ category for me. Viking inspired fantasy, with impeccable world building, the romance in this is also chefs bloody kiss. I can’t recommend it enough. Silla isn’t a typical girl boss (I love a girl boss don’t get me wrong) and she got me through the missing Elain Archeron hours.

The Aurelian Cycle (Fireborne, Flamefall & Furysong) by Rosaria Munda 🐉

I loved this so much because it started from a different place than most fantasy stories. In this, we start 10 years post Revolution of a regime that was ruled by the Dragon Lords, who over taxed the poor and meted out brutal punishments to people who’s only crime was being poor and hungry. Our main characters met in an orphanage in the wake of the revolution, but they could not have come from more different backgrounds- and yet they love each other anyway. The political intrigue and emotional complexities of this story was superb. 10/10

The Ember Quarter (An ember in the ashes, a torch against the night, a reaper at the gates and a sky beyond the storm) By Sabaa Tahir 💀

I’m so incredibly late to the party but I’m glad I arrived nonetheless. What an epic tale, what a fantasy story. You truly set off at a running pace with this one - it feels like there’s very little stopping time. Every word and page of this story is used to its full effect. I’m in awe of this authors story telling prowess. It broke my heart, but by god how I loved it.

[memberment]

Good evening

Guys I just got home from work and proofread everything I needed to including this next Dandelion chapter and I'm trying so hard not to just fucking SOB over it.

I hate it here I want out LMFAOOOOOOO THIS IS SO SAD WHY DID I WRITE THIS FR

10:59 update......

I'm thinking about an absolutely diabolical twist for the Trin series(it doesn't actually change the story in any way, if anything it actually makes it make so much more sense). Like, I've been ruminating on it since last night but idk if it's gonna throw people off. But at the same time like part twos and threes never do as good anyways so do I really even care?? Like, I'm just out here telling stories in fanfic font bc I would rather throw myself in the street than make OCs and not share my fun little stories.

I think I may commit to it.

I don't wanna say it on here though bc it's one of those plot twists you get will not forget even though part three is like FOREVER out.

The more I think about it the more I wanna do it. Someone tell me I should do it.

Oh my god I am shutting up and finishing reading Dandelion, y'all will hear my virtual screams in approximately one and a half business hours.

(11:43) I'm actually fucking sobbing and I didn't even start the last few chapters. Like, I'm actually crying over this. It's not funny.

(12:00) Never by mag lo coming on while I'm finishing up reading this is not funny. I'm devastated. I hope you all hate me after this oh my god I feel like I just ruined my own life. WHY IS IT SO MUCH WORSE AFTER BEING DONE WITH THIS FIC FOR ALMOST TWO MONTHS. Jesus Christ. Yeah. No more angst from me for a long while. I'm banned.

(12:20) Me skimming through tags on fics debating if I want to pick up something new. Everything being totally normal. Suh happy. Trying not to stew in my own misery. And then I see such a vile tag my stomach twists and now I'm just like okay I'll go fuck myself I guess I'll go write or do my homework. I'm sorry, I adore ao3 and I'm never gonna be a hater, BUT SOME PEOPLE ARE WILD. LIKE I AM TALKING SO BAD I'M ACTUALLY CONSIDERING DOING MY HOMEWORK OVER THAT. LIKE I ACTUALLY JUST WIPED THE TEARS OFF MY FACE AND GOT OVER HOW SAD I WAS BECAUSE OF HOW GENUINELY SHOCKED I WAS. Like wow oh wow.

Anyways. Updates here if there's gonna be any. Also Dandelions up if anyones reading this LMAO

It's 1:40 in the morning and the beginning of Morning Glory is making me fucking unwell. I was not joking when I made that joke about like ten dreaded weeks of angst, Jesus Christ.

(2:12) This is my second time posting this exact part. Like I know I've posted this exact part. But I seriously love Christophe and all of his dialogue with my whole heart.

(4:31) I do not recall making Dova this tragic and I'm literally about to sob over him. LIKE WHY???? WHY DID I DO THAT??? WHY ARE HIS LITTLE SUBTLE BITS OF STORYLINE SO ACTUALLY PAINFUL AS THE STORY GOES ON????? (I am allergic to happiness I am my own canon event at this point)

(4:48) THE ABSOLUTE DEVASTATION THAT COMES WITH WANTING MORE STORY BUT IT SIMPLY NOT EXISTING BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO WRITE IT IS DEVASTATING.

(5:02) Welp. I'm ruined and am now compelled by god to start working on Morning Glory again. We're at 73k rn. And only two chapters that aren't the prologue are under 4k. That's fucking terrifying. Like I have 17 minus the prologue rn. WE ARE LITERALLY THREE CHAPTERS AWAY FROM THE FOURTH OF JULY. THERE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ANOTHER 16/17 OF SUMMER ALONE. AND THERE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE AT LEAST ANOTHER 14 AFTER THAT. LIKE THE 14 ARE THE PLANNED SPECIFIC EVENT CHAPTERS. BRUH. WHY DID I DO THIS????

regret.

regret is all I feel.

but I will push through.

(7:38) before I go to bed I will just say I am at 75.3k. I had no idea how I would even get close to 4k on a birthday chapter where the group effectively decided to just stay home and hang out. But now there is like 1.5k of them playing muffin time. It's wild. I love it. GOOD NIGHT.

[bookishfeylin]

Do you have any good Feylin fic recs? I wish there was one post book 1, where they have to COME TOGETHER AS A COUPLE to stop Rhysand, who's the new Big Bad of the series.

OH HO HO I AM SO GLAD YOU ASKED *cracks knuckles*

First I would like to direct you to my Feylin fic tag mainly consisting of oneshots and ficlets and prompts written on tumblr with some stuff from the OLD pre-ACOMAF fandom. There's fluff, there's smut someone finally wrote a Feylin Calanmai fic!!! It was written on Ao3 but also posted on here so I have it tagged under there as well there's a little bit of everything from up to 8 years ago so go crazy in there.

Now for Ao3. Anything Feylin written by @foxcort and by @goforth-ladymidnight, (though you need to be on Ao3 to view their fics, I think they also have them posted here on tumblr too).

There's ACOTAR Chapter 23.5 by BlissionaryPosition (as far as I know she’s not on tumblr? But at any rate it’s just a oneshot of Feylin smut)

Home by Montana only has 2 chapters and given it was last updated 8 years ago I doubt it’ll ever be finished but the premise laid out here for what happens immediately after Amarantha definitely gets the wheels turning.

And lastly and most strongly recommended, A Court of Blades and Brushes by zenithofstories, which seems to fit the bill for the type of story you’re looking for. It’s apparently an ACOMAF AU in which Feyre and Tamlin do get married, but they manage to heal together instead of their relationship devolving. There’s 6 chapters so far and it was just updated like 2 weeks ago and I am absolutely HOOKED, and I cannot recommend it enough.

There’s also my own Feylin fics on Ao3 as well— Feylin oneshots (loosely connected oneshots most of which are in the same timeline though there is an mini story arc in some of the oneshots about Feyre and Tamlin trying to get out of the bargain with Rhysand and the uh. Revelations™️ that follow); The Power of Truth (in which Feyre, after ACOMAF, returns to Spring and basically realizes she was brainwashed by Rhysand and tries to uncover what devastating truth her family is hiding from her. And I am BAD at foreshadowing because everyone already knows the big plot twist LMAO); and Contemplation (where Feyre dies in ACOSF, is transported back to her body at the end of ACOTAR when she was resurrected as High Fae, and decides to change her fate and NOT DIE IN CHILDBIRTH by openly communicating and seeking out allies prior to leaving for Velaris. Angsty Feylin who aren’t endgame per se but I’m including it here because uh. Let’s just say spoilers :)))).

Obviously we don’t have nearly as many fics as the Feysand stans do, but this is what I HAVE been able to collect, so happy reading! I hope this was helpful :)

[tweedledumandtweedlebum]

Could be reaching but…

Didn’t one of the articles quote from an inside source that Max was leaving indefinitely? Indefinitely meaning for an unspecified amount of time. Could be slightly Linda Henryesque where he will be coming back but they just don’t know when yet. I’d they did axe him because of his mh, behaviour, whatever (I really don’t like to speculate) they could be giving him time to ‘sort himself out’ before returning?

I haven't got the foggiest idea, darling. I don't like to speculate either, but I just can't help it after all that's happened. I, too, would like to believe that this is a twisted way to give Max an extended leave, but I very much doubt it for two main reasons:

1 - the way EE handled the news was disgusting, what with them blaming it all on Max and his behaviour OFF SET (when other actors are still employed after much worse offences). If the break were consensual and the plan was for him to return at some point, I'm quite sure the PR team would have come up with a less hurtful explanation (I know, it was The Sun, but I'm convinced they were fed by somebody inside EE with CC's permission). So... no, I reckon this isn't them being nice to Max giving him time to sort himself out. He isn't coming back (*cries like a baby*).

2 - Ben and Callum have had an incredibile growth both individually and as a couple. They are in a good place right now, meaning soap producers and writers simply don't know what to do with them plot-wise. The depiction of the rest of their life together I have described in a previous post can't happen in a soap IMHO, because - let's be honest - we're not talking about Dickens here, those writers don't have the skills or the time to write them in a way that is wholesome, true to character AND interesting for the general audience. It's always about the drama - violence, dirty secrets, cheating, crime, fighting, teenage pregnancies, conspiracies... the unhealthier the better. The only unhealthy thing in Ballum's life at the moment is Jay with PR. Callum and Ben are learning how to deal with their issues instead of reacting impulsively and their connection is the strongest it's ever been. See? Nothing juicy to narrate here...

You know, after the rape, it was clear they were planning a "reset" for Ben, and I was thrilled to see where it was going. I was silly enough to think it would be something entertaining and educational to watch at the same time. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved bad boy Ben Mitchell, he is a splendid specimen of Byronic hero. I was just curious to find out how they would shape a reformed, healing troubled soul. Max would have rocked that as usual. How naive of me!

So, in my head, the meeting went like this. The bosses discussed the future of Ben with Max, informing him that Ballum would take seveal steps back, with either him or possibly Callum cheating, or Ben going back to being an unreliable dad to Lexi, or resorting to crime again, or some other nonsense utterly inconsistent with their recent development. Max protested just like John Krasinski did when "The Office" producers wanted Jim to cheat on Pam (which he would never do) because Max cares about Ballum. And the rest is history.

I am ROMANTICISING this, obviously. We'll never know what actually happened. But you'll see a devastating, hastily written exit story soon enough.

I won't be there.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Doctor Who, but Chronologically: 36

It's such a treat to get sensible two-parters, look

And we're back! The cliffhanger is resolved by the Doctor sternly telling the gas mask zombies to go to their room because he's very cross, and they meekly do. This is actually a very clever way to get out of it, I think. It's nice when Moffat manages a genuinely clever twist.

Also, it means right before the opening credits roll, the Doctor breaks the tension by saying "I'm glad that worked, those would have been terrible last words." Eighteen years ago, in a student house in Rhoath, we shat ourselves we laughed so hard. Still a great line.

Anyway, fuck, this is SUCH a good episode. The plot is actually relatively brief (it turns out that ambulance Jack crashed here was full of medical nanogenes, and the first thing they found was a now-dead child still in a gas mask. But they'd never seen a human before, so they 'healed' him to a zombie creature. Now they're trying to heal all humans. The reason they're asking for their mam is because it's Nancy! Not his sister after all.) But, the episode contains multiple repeated creepy scenes to fill in for the lack of plot, and they're all bangers and all undercut with just the right amount of humour to be a foil. Love the Doctor replacing Jack's gun with a banana. Love the line "Rose, I'm trying to resonate concrete." Love Rose discovering that the future of the human race is to fuck its way across the stars and that Jack has probably fucked a space squid. All great

It's just a shame about all the cringeworthy sex and romance talk disguised as a dancing metaphor. That made me wince two decades ago and time has not made it better. Even editing doesn't give Moffat the ability to write anything romantic that doesn't feel like unsettling wet noodles. Sometimes, being synaesthetic is a curse.

Ultimately Nancy tells the Bluetooth zombie that she's his Mam and the nanogenes realise her DNA is the correct one. This means there's an absolutely delightful bit where Christopher Eccleston throws his whole pussy into yelling "Just this once, Rose, everybody lives!" and the day is utterly saved. It's true, that is rare. I am still haunted by Horror of Fang Rock. What an awful story. Never forget poor Vince.

This means Richard Wilson lives!

"Uh, all your patients will in fact be fully healed," the Doctor says. "Just quietly take credit and send them along."

"Doctor!" says a random woman. "My leg's grown back! When I came to hospital I only had one!"

"Well, there is a war on," says Richard Wilson, with devastating comedic delivery. "Is it possible you miscounted?"

And then Rose and the Doctor rescue Jack before his ship blows up, and then the episode ends EXACTLY ONE SECOND after Jack enters the TARDIS, yes that's right, there is NO MORE OF THE EPISODE. They most certainly did not ruin this incredible story with one of the most nauseating and awful scenes in televisual history that still gives me bone-creaking second-hand embarrassment. Nope. It ends when Jack walks in. He says "It's bigger on the inside" and we all just... move on. We're done. The end. Tidy.

Anyway!!! Only one new plot thread, I think - Jack reveals at one point that he used to be a Time Agent, but they stole two years of his memories. Exciting!!! That has also happened to the Doctor. I wonder if it's related?

“She” (an unknown person) is returning (perhaps River returned as Missy. Maybe Me? Maybe Clara???!)

There is something on Donna’s back

An entire planet, Pyrovilia, just… disappeared, somehow. (Maybe because the TARDIS is exploding??? Saturnine was also lost, and that WAS because of the TARDIS exploding. The lion man’s planet was also lost but he was a bit of a knob about it if I’m honest.)

Amy is maybe dead (she’s not)

The Doctor has been cubed (he’s out, but how?)

River is possibly blown up  (unless she’s Missy. NEW INFO: she is definitely not blown up)

The TARDIS has blown up  (It’s fine now. Except it’s sort of melting now because it’s corrupted, but it’s fine again)

The universe appears to have ended  (the universe is back again)

The Doctor has employed(?) Nardole

(And Nardole was “reassembled???” Nardole had glass nipples and invisible hair?? WHAT THE FUCK IS HE)

There’s a vault in the TARDIS and it contains Missy but we don’t know why (sometimes she knocks for the bants)

There’s an immortal Viking girl now. Her name is Me and she’s now looking after the people the Doctor abandons

Why was Rory entirely unconcerned by the entire world suddenly going silent when that is Not Normal and should have been, at the very least, extremely disconcerting?

What did the Doctor do to Queen Lizzie One?

Why is Amy seeing a one-eyed woman in a vanishing window? (She’s with the Silents, but we don’t know why Amy saw her)

Why is Amy’s pregancy inconclusive? (Maybe because the baby had Time Lord DNA?)

Who is Sarah-Jane Smith?

How is the Doctor Bill’s teacher and why/where does he have an office?

What is going on with the Cyber War and the Cyberium???

What happened with the Other Cyber War?

What happened with the Third War that deleted the void?

Why does Rose seem particularly important?

What order do these Doctors go in? (Eccleston, Tennant, uncertain, Smith, Capaldi, Whittaker)

Which companion just… forgot the Doctor, and how?

Yaz and Vinder are about to die as Mori/Mwri/Muuri

There is a Lupari shield around Earth.

What’s a Time War?

What’s the Rift?

What’s Bad Wolf?

In which war did the Doctor become a war criminal, and how?

Who is the Master?

Why has Amy forgotten Rory?

Is Rory plastic or not?

Why is the Doctor sulking on a cloud?

How exactly does the Doctor have a cloud?

What exactly happened with Strax to, uh, tame him?

Which friend killed Strax?

Which friend brought Strax back?

Where did this lesbian lizard and human couple come from?

What happened with Clara as Souffle Girl and the Daleks?

How does Clara actually join?

Why so many Claras?

Why is Missy apparently in robo-heaven?

Why is probably!Missy pushing Clara and the Doctor together?

What is Trensilor and what happened there?

Who is Handles?

The Doctor is about to be dissolved by a beautiful geode man

The universe is being crushed by the Flux

Will the Doctor open the fobwatch?

Sontarans are invading Earth again

Who is Kate?

Who is Osgood? Another name of Clara’s again?

The fuck is the deal with the Grand Serpent

Does Martha get to go to an ice cream planet with 12-fingered massage aliens?

How did the Doctor forget Clara?

Who is Bill’s puddle girlfriend Heather?

How did Nardole die?

When does Bill get Cyberman-ed and die?

When does the Doctor shrink and enter a Dalek called Rusty?

Whittaker is falling to her death rn

Was that ring relevant?

Does anyone know the Doctor’s name?

When did Yaz talk to Dan about fancying the Doctor?

When did Dan talk to the Doctor about fancying Yaz?

What’s happening with the bees?

What happened with Donna’s ex and a giant spider?

What war wiped out the Daleks, and is it one of the ones already mentioned?

What did the Doctor mean when he said “The (Daleks) always live, while I lose everything?”

If Dalek Caan is the last Dalek left why are there more now?

How did the rest of the Time Lords die?

How and why did Amy melt?

What’s the question that will make silence fall?

Why do the Silents… want silence to fall?

How and why are Silents at war with the Doctor when he… hasn’t even heard of them?

How does Hitler get out of the cupboard?

What’s the significance of fish fingers and custard?

Why does the Doctor feel guilt about Rose, Martha and Donna?

What happened with the space whale?

When does Rory defend Amy for 2000 years?

How does the Doctor survive River

How does he erase himself from history

Did Captain Jack lose his memories to the same people as the Doctor? What did he lose?

[tlbodine]

Hi! I came across your 70s horror movie rec post a few days ago and I used it as a watchlist. I was wondering if you could recommend more horror films? I've been needing something to watch while I do my assignments and I like a lot of the films you recommended xD

Oh man do I ever. *rubs palms*

First off, you can see ALL of my film reviews if you browse my #horror movies tag: https://tlbodine.tumblr.com/tagged/horror%20movies

You haven't specified what types of movies you enjoy, so I'll just try grouping some recommendations into some general content areas. If you've got a particular area of interest or decade you're into, let me know and I'll think up another list.

Fun Popcorn Horror

Movies that are fun to watch, plenty spoopy but accessible:

Nope: Family drama, spoopy invasion story, rollicking adventure, extended metaphor about creativity, amazing sound design, stunning graphics. Good all around.

Bodies, Bodies, Bodies: A locked door mystery with a twist. I found this movie hilarious, but ymmv. I think it's kind of the Scream of Gen-Z.

Scare Me: Low-budget mumblecore about two authors trying to one-up each other with scary stories told in a cabin during a storm. Absolute must-watch for writers imo.

Extraordinary Tales: Edgar Allan Poe stories, beautifully animated and narrated by a variety of talent. Just a super fun, enjoyable watch.

Horror That Goes Hard

Sometimes you want to watch something deeply disturbing that will haunt you for a little while and/or emotionally devastate you.

Martyrs: A French new extremism film that reinvents itself every 30 minutes or so. If you follow it around the bend of its many twists, it is a wild and compelling ride with some absolutely brutal gore.

Dread: One of my favorite psychological/torture films, about a pair of grad students who torture their classmates for science. I will never look at a steak the same again.

Funny Games: A movie that kind of hates you for watching it. But one of the most nail-bitingly intense home invasion movies I've ever seen.

Saint Maud: A hospice nurse becomes obsessed with suffering after becoming deeply religious.

Raw: A young veterinary student discovers the family secret after eating something she's not supposed to. A really great coming-of-age and story about sisters.

Weird Shit

If you enjoy weird, inexplicable, artsy stuff.

Men: A clever horror rebuttal to "not all men." Features one of the most baffling and disturbing climax sequences of the year.

Mad God: It doesn't have a plot, precisely, but this is a masterful piece of stop motion animation and is positively brimming with atmosphere.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things: A very heady cerebral film about regret and nihilism and relationships and gender.

Tetsuo the Iron Man: black-and-white Japanese body horror about a guy who's slowly turning into a machine.

Hope this is enough to get you started! Hit me up with more specific requests :) I love having an excuse to talk about horror movies lol.

[hiraethwrote]

how are you liking A Little Life? I have a copy of it that i got for christmas that one of my close friends got me as a gift, but i’m scared to read it bc i heard it’s so devastating 😭 i want to read it but i don’t want to wreck my mental state in the process!!

aaah love that you’re asking this!! and sorry if i end up rambling for too long but i kinda feel it’s necessary as it’s such a hefty book that deals with a lot, to say the least

i am loving it. i actually think it might end up on my very exclusive list of all time favourite books. going into it i had fairly high expectations as well, because i had been told it was right up my alley, and i have still to be disappointed.

yk, it’s a big book and i was scared it would be a difficult read technically speaking, like the language would be unnecessarily hard and just overall pretentious wording but it flows surprisingly well. overall, it’s sooo incredibly beautifully written and hanya yanagihara has a way with words that is seriously unmatched imo

but that’s the technical aspect which isn’t exactly what it’s known for lol

whenever i read, watch etc a new story, the characters and the relationships is definitely what matters the most to me. i’ve always valued that the most in my enjoyment, more so in books than anything else. and a little life, as much as the story, plot and writing is important, is definitely a character and relationship based book. it takes a deep dive into a great catalog of a bunch of different characters that are so incredibly fleshed out. you’ll connect with them so quickly bc they’re written so thoroughly.

so, it’s absolutely no secret that I’m an avid reader of angst. it’s basically tattooed on my forehead. i enjoy, for the lack of a better word, the pain i read about. personally, i think it might have something to do with the fact that i’m an overly emotional person who just likes to be in touch with them and express them (but that’s kinda besides the point hehe)

TRIGGER WARNING!! it does not shy away from taboo and hard topics. there’s a lot of graphic depictions of SH, SA, abuse, mental illness, p*dophilia, ED and in general just themes like these. if one is easily affected by stuff like this, i would highly suggest one look up content warnings so you’re aware of what you’re getting into.

because of the graphic contents, i’ve seen it been described as torture porn and i cannot stress enough how much i disagree! everyone is of course entitled to their own opinion, but it pains me when people just boil it down to the suffering that is told in the story. this isn’t some tiktok dark romance that glorifies topics they shouldn’t (that’s a different discussion lol).

a little life is so beautiful, in its own twisted way. it’s been a long time since, if ever, i’ve read about relationships as deep and meaningful as the ones we meet in this book, and i think i have to search for a long time until i find a book that does it to the same degree as this one. aside from the horrible things in this book, there’s so much beauty in this story — about love and friendship, and just the hardships of life. that is what i believe this book is about at its core

so i absolutely, 100% recommend it — IF you can deal with the topics it presents. i know a lot of people that stray away from it because of it, and i can totally understand it. if it’s triggering and doesn’t do your mental any good, stay away. but if you’re up for it, i say it’s worth the experience

and if you ever decide to pick it up i would love to hear what you think about it <3

[burningdarkfire]

books i read in sept 2023

[these are all short + casual reviews - feel free to ask about individual ones if u want my full thoughts or ask for my goodreads!!] 

sometimes u travel somewhere where u have a relative lot of downtime + no data and u reinvent urself as a person who reads

she who became the sun (reread) + he who drowned the world - shelley parker-chan ★★★★★ (historical fantasy)

i reread swbts before tackling hwdtw and the way that this duology is so emotionally devastating! big win for readers who are fans of characters tearing the world apart in their grief and then realizing they cannot live in their new world! and the insane gender goodstuff, of course. ough. will think about this for a while

into the riverlands - nghi vo ★★★★★ (fantasy)

excellent third entry to the series that felt more fun than the other two thus far - i love playing around with myths and legendmaking

[reread] raven quest - sharon stewart ★★★★★ (adventure)

really happy to find out that this book from my childhood absolutely holds up. tightly plotted and paced and really poignant. i love animal adventures <3

the last devil to die - richard osman ★★★★★ (mystery)

no more withholding 5*s from genre fiction!! this book made me tear up for real so even though a silly murder mystery is probably never going to change my life, we have to give credit where credit is due. the most character-focused entry of the series so far and it definitely shows!

war of the foxes - ricahrd siken ★★★★☆ (poetry)

individually less interesting but collectively more coherent than crush. it's cool to have a conversation with a bit of poetry standing in a field, and I do love a good metaphor

the paper menagerie - ken liu ★★★★☆ (sci fi short stories)

great collection to go over slowly - i suspect it might have felt a bit tedious reading it front to back in a sitting. i liked how chinese a number of the stories felt. lots of ideas to chew on!

the poisonwood bible - barbara kingsolver ★★★★☆ (historical)

i just know this book went crazy in high school english class! it has themes and motifs and characters to compare and contrast! there's so much rich ground for analysis. and also treating characters like a bizarre personality test (the avenue of entertainment i chose). fantastic book to chew on and i greatly enjoyed talking to people about it

carrie - stephen king ★★★★☆ (horror)

yeah, i get the hype! this is a book that's impossible to read divorced from how deeply it's ingrained in current popular culture, but it stands up beautifully for itself. i'd love to read more analysis of it that puts in the cultural context of the 70s

hotline - dimitri nasrallah ★★★★☆ (historical)

surprisingly kind and hopeful story, definitely lovely if you want something feel-good. i really enjoyed how the occasional french was threaded into the english, it felt very montreal to me

the monstrumologist - rick yancey ★★★★☆ (historical horror)

tremendously gory and often unsettling. i found myself surprisingly attached to the characters and all the historical affectations of the book - it's not a series that i'm itching to continue but it was a good read

hark! a vagrant - kate beaton ★★★★☆ (historical humour graphic novel)

skimmed through parts of this but it was a fun read from cover to cover. always entertaining to see the origins of some very famous internet memes and there are also some hidden gems!

dead silence - s. a. barnes ★★★☆☆ (sci fi horror)

the author writes a very good spooky ship and very mediocre everything else

the word is murder + the sentence is death + a line to kill + the twist of a knife - anthony horowitz (-★★★☆☆+) (mystery)

decent murder mystery series. the author self-insert is goofy, the random homophobia is persistent, but they're quick and easy reads that go down like junk food

all that's left in the world - erik j. brown ★★★☆☆ (post-apocalyptic romance)

genre-mash that just didn't quite work for me. the tonal shifts between "fluffy gay YA romance" and "the world has ended post-apocalyptic bleakness" were jarring and the book never felt like it cohered into anything meaningful