#prisoner replies

[lurkingshan]

A Brief History of Queer Representation in Modern Kdrama

Earlier this week, totally unrelated to Heesu in Class 2, @twig-tea and I were making a list of kdramas with proper queer representation, because Twig loves to track queer things and I love to make highly specific lists. In light of all the discussion around Heesu and its appeal to a mainstream kdrama audience, we thought it would be helpful to share as context for what Heesu’s creators set out to do, how it compares to Love in the Big City and its goals, and why both shows are so significant for those who are not as familiar with this media landscape. We wrote the below together (strap in, folks, it's a long one).

As always, let us be clear what we are talking about with this list. We’re only looking at modern mainstream kdrama, so this list is not inclusive of Korean queer cinema or QL dramas, both of which have a rich history of their own. And when we say queer representation, we mean canonically queer characters that are acknowledged as such in the text of the show, if not by saying the words, at least by openly acknowledging same sex attraction. If there’s anything we know about queer people on the internet, it’s that our community can read gay subtext into anything, but that’s not what we’re doing here. For this list we are only interested in depictions of LGBTQ+ people that are clear and spelled out for anyone watching a show.  In addition, for the purposes of this list we are talking about intentional inclusion of queer characters with a proper role in the story, not nominal nods to queer people existing (like every Hong Seok Cheon cameo in a drama), comedic gender bending without real reckoning with sexuality (ala The King’s Affection), use of queer people as the butt of a joke (glaring at you Vincenzo), queerness in psychosexual dreams to titillate and generate buzz (hiiiii Friendly Rivalry), or subtextual gay tension between two same sex actors who happen to have chemistry (waves hello to The Devil Judge). The point of this exercise is to chart the evolution of significant queer representation in kdrama—both good and bad—not to document every gay character that ever appeared for two seconds on screen. That said, while Shan has watched several hundred kdramas and Twig has tried to watch everything gay on the planet, it’s possible we missed something that should be here, so let us know if you think we did (though please do mind the criteria and don’t send us an impassioned essay about why Beyond Evil should count). 

With that, let’s begin our walk through of the last two decades of queer characters in kdrama. 

Coffee Prince (2007) 

Among the most famous dramas on this list, Coffee Prince kicked off queer rep in modern kdrama with a classic gender bender in which Go Eun Chan, a girl, pretends to be a boy for Reasons. But what made it stand out is that her love interest falls for her while he still thinks she’s a man and has a whole sexual identity crisis and bisexual coming out process. Choi Han Gyul (and Gong Yoo), you will always be famous! This show was sincerely groundbreaking, not only for depicting a male romance lead struggling with his sexuality, but also including lots of gender fuckery for the female lead. It’s still one of the most significant queer kdramas ever made.

Life is Beautiful (2010) 

This show is notable for how high it set the bar and how nothing has reached it since. Yang Tae Sub is our central character in this 63-hour ensemble family drama, and his arcs struggling with the closet, falling in love, coming out, commitment, and marriage (yes: marriage! In 2010!), are surprisingly realistic and touching without being too cliche. Kyung Soo and Tae Sub start as a casual hookup, and they have to recalibrate as their feelings change (and yes, they kiss on screen and the show is clear that they have sex throughout the series). They fight, they make up, and as their relationship deepens they have other problems in their lives they support one another through—their gayness is not the only or even the most interesting thing about them. It’s also notable that both of these actors (Song Chang Eui and Lee Sang Woo) were established kdrama stars before taking these roles. 

Secret Garden (2010)

This het romance features a side character (played by our beloved Lee Jong Suk) who is a young musical prodigy pursued for his talents by the second lead, a senior musician. Over the course of the story we learn that he’s gay and harboring feelings for his would-be mentor. His plot is minor, but he ends the story happy and successful in his career, if not in a relationship. It’s small scale representation in the grand scheme of things, but one of only a handful of decent depictions of a gay person in kdrama at that point.

Reply 1997 (2012) 

This wildly popular drama (at the time, it was one of the highest rated cable dramas in history) that spawned two follow-up iterations features a gay character, Joon Hee, who is in love with his long time best friend, Yoon Jae, and confides his feelings to their other best friend, Shi Won. Of course, this show is ultimately Yoon Jae and Shi Won’s love story, so Joon Hee does not get his happy romance ending, but his friends and the show treat him with kindness and compassion, and his character was well received by audiences. 

Reply 1994 (2013)

Similar to its predecessor, this drama featured a side character with a gay subplot, but this time it was more about questioning his identity. Bingguere is a character whose arc is all about his confusion and indecision, and that extended to his sexuality when he struggled to understand his attraction to the male lead. Ultimately, he moves past those feelings and we learn his partner in the future is a woman, and the drama doesn’t really clarify where his sexuality landed. It’s kind of weak in terms of explicit queer rep, but showing a man grappling with his sexuality in a very popular family drama still feels significant.

Seonam Girls High School Investigations (2014) 

While most of their content is limited to two episodes of this 14-episode high school drama, Eun Bin and Soo Yeon have, to our knowledge, the first lesbian kiss on Korean television, which earns them a place on this list. They are an established couple struggling with how their relationship is a risk for them (because it can be and is used against them). Their relationship doesn’t survive to the end of the series, but they are treated with compassion and their humanity is underscored by the narrative. They also spark an important conversation among the main characters about whether they should be helped because they’re gay, which was a little better intentioned than it was executed, but the show had the spirit. 

Perseverance Goo Hae Ra (2015)

In a show about aspiring musicians forming a group to take a second shot at stardom, Jang Goon (portrayed by solo idol Park Kwang Seon) is one of the core group members with a heartwarming arc about acceptance. His story is about his father coming to terms with him being an idol and being gay. He has a one-sided confession scene that is decently done, and the scene where his father accepts him knowing the truth (after having been outed against his will) is genuinely moving. It was also touching to see the girl who originally crushed on him support him once she found out about his sexuality. 

Hogu’s Love (2015) 

This drama was considered progressive for its time, as its core plot is about Hogu, a man who decides to support his first love when he finds out she is pregnant with someone else’s child. In addition to that, side character Kang Chul has an arc where he experiences attraction to Hogu and tries to sort out his feelings, considering whether he identifies as gay before ultimately deciding he does not. It’s not the best rep we’ve ever seen, but it was part of an interesting attempt by a drama to explore complicated social and identity issues.

The Lover (2015)

Lee Jun Jae and Takuya (played by Lee Jae Joon who was also in the gay film Night Flight (2014) and Takuya of jpop group CROSS GENE) are roommates in this series about four couples in an apartment building. Their story starts as a comedy, in which Jun Jae and Takuya end up in ship moments that are played off by the narrative as jokes and misunderstandings, but then they catch feelings for real. We see one of the characters struggle with his queer awakening and there is a happy ending. Using the actors’ real names was a choice, and led to some seriously disruptive RPF shipping; but it was refreshing to have an active idol not only play gay but in a romance with a happy ending. 

Prison Playbook (2017)

Another ensemble show with a queer side character; Loony, one of the main character Je Hyuk’s cell mates, is notable for his queerness not being used as a joke and not being the core of the character’s arc. Instead, this character struggles with addiction and how that affects his relationship, which is only incidentally gay. His story is moving and well developed, especially considering the size of this cast, but it doesn’t get a ton of screen time.

Romance is a Bonus Book (2019)

The queer rep in this drama is minor but overall positive, as we learn that the male lead Eun Ho’s ex-girlfriend, who he is still friendly with, ended their relationship because she fell in love with a woman. The show presents her as a lovely person who helps the female lead several times and is happy in her lesbian relationship, and we even get to see her with her partner briefly. A small win for sapphic representation in a very popular Netflix drama.

Moment at Eighteen (2019)

Jung Oh Je (RIP Moonbin) is a side character friend of the main lead. His sexuality becomes part of the plot when he is confessed to by a friend of the female lead, and he admits that he has a crush on the second male lead (Ma Hwi Young). While the characters in the show are mixed in their response, it’s clear the story is on the side of treating Oh Je with compassion. 

Be Melodramatic (2019) 

This is an ensemble show centered on a group of friends who move in together to support a grieving young woman, Lee Eun Jung, and one of the housemates is her younger brother Lee Hyo Bong, a gay musician with a long-term partner. He is a side character and his most significant plot is about supporting his sister, with his sexuality and relationship part of his characterization rather than an active story thread. It’s a positive depiction and the way his sexuality is presented as just part of who he is felt significant at the time. 

Love with Flaws (2019) 

Joo Won Suk (RIP Cha in Ha) is one of the FL’s older brothers, and while not the focus of the drama he gets his own fully developed arc, including the mentorship of queer side character Choi Ho Dol. The queer rep in this show covers suicidality, the loneliness of the closet, bullying, solidarity, and fear of parental shame. That makes it sound depressing, but it’s a hopeful story about the character moving out of depression and into self-acceptance, has one of the best scenes depicting gay acceptance from a father in any show, and both Won Suk and Ho Dol have a happy ending (including for their romance). 

Itaewon Class (2020)

The first drama on this list to feature a transgender character, Itaewon Class is about a group of social misfits trying to launch a restaurant on a trendy street in Itaewon. Ma Hyun Yi, a transgender woman saving money for her gender affirming surgery, is among the gang. Her story is not a big focus for the drama, but she gets a nice arc about coming into herself and gaining recognition for her talents as a chef, and the other characters always respect her identity. It’s pretty solid representation for a side character.

Sweet Munchies (2020)

This drama tries to tackle the problems of homophobia and appropriating queerness but misses the mark on both. The queer character in this show, Kang Tae Wan, is here to function as a driving force and conscience for the main male lead and female lead; he’s essentially the second lead but never had a chance (though he didn’t know it, since the main lead is pretending to be gay for clout). Tae Wan is a good character, but the narrative doesn’t care much about him or about queer people in general, it’s focused on how heterosexuals experience queerness. Not exactly amazing queer representation, whatever its intentions.

Run On (2020) 

This drama features both a gay character and an asexual character, both of whom are written respectfully and get proper coming out scenes. There is also some messiness around one of the main characters appropriating queer identity as a way to avoid the pressures of her patriarchy, and the drama knows she’s wrong for that. This was one of the first instances of a kdrama acknowledging queer people as a regular part of the world around us and not singular oddities, and it was nice to see multiple facets of queer representation in one show.

Mr. Queen (2020)

This gender bender retains its place on the list because the main character (a man who awakens in the body of a Queen during the Joseon dynasty) openly struggles with his gender dysphoria as well as what it means that he’s attracted to a man, and these struggles are present for the bulk of the show. The character also has sex with both men and women while in that body. It’s one of the better representations of gender swap and feels queer, even when the relationship on screen has the guise of heterosexuality. 

Mine (2021)

In this drama about ambitious women married to powerful men who struggle to break free from their constraints, one of the main characters reunites with her first love—another woman. The drama follows Jung Seo Hyun as she struggles to acquire the power she needs to live as she wants, and she ultimately achieves her goal, reuniting with her lover at the story’s end. It’s the first kdrama with a lesbian character in a major role who gets her happy romance ending. 

Move to Heaven (2021)

Despite only being featured in episode 5, this was a good story that garnered a lot of attention in a popular Netflix drama, so for cultural impact reasons alone it belongs on this list. We start the episode with Jung Soo Hyun’s death, but this is a show about finding closure after death, so for once this death doesn’t feel like bury your gays. This is a compassionate tragedy in which we see how fear held Soo Hyun back from his relationship with Ian Park while he was alive, but his belongings at death indicate he was getting ready to face his fear and move to the US to marry Ian after all. Through the main characters of the show, Ian gets the closure of knowing Soo Hyun loved him. 

Nevertheless (2021) 

Yoon Sol and Seo Ji Wan have a typical plot for side characters (they’re in the female lead’s friend group) with a friends-to-lovers arc that depicts the fear and frustration when both friends are closeted and uncertain about risking the friendship but reach the point where they can’t pretend anymore. Since they’re both women, this felt pretty radical. They got a good romantic arc and a happy ending, if not a lot of screen time.

Under the Queen’s Umbrella (2022)

In this sageuk, the fourth prince is living a double life, hiding away makeup and women’s clothing that they wear in secret. The character is depicted as trans, but given the setting, explicit language and modern terminology (including altered pronouns) are not used in this side plot. When the prince’s mother finds out, she supports her child to have an artist paint a portrait of their true self, and ultimately, the prince leaves the royal family to go live a more authentic life in isolation in a bittersweet resolution. 

A Time Called You (2023)

The queer rep in this drama comes in the form of a brief backstory montage for two gay characters, one of whom (Yeon Jun) is in a coma. We learn that he ended up in this state after getting into a car accident while in the process of confessing to the guy he mutually liked (Tae Ha), who was killed in the accident. From there, Yeon Jun’s body is taken over by a heterosexual character (it’s a whole time loop thing). This entry is mostly notable for featuring a high profile cameo from Rowoon playing Tae Ha, and unfortunately, for being a fairly textbook example of the bury your gays trope. In 2023!

Wedding Impossible (2024) 

This disaster of a drama purported to finally feature a gay character in a prominent role that drove the narrative—in a story about Do Han pretending to marry his longtime friend to avoid being forced to marry another woman—but Do Han ended up a minor side character in his own story when the show chose to focus nearly all its attention on his brother’s het romance. Worse, the other characters treated him terribly and the story blamed every problem on his sexuality. This show was straight up homophobic and it was a significant regression for queer depictions in mainstream Korean media. 

Bitter Sweet Hell (2024)

image credit @respectthepetty

Choi Doi Hyun (played by Park Jae Chan of Semantic Error) is the closeted son of the main character, struggling with how hiding his secret affects his school life and his relationship with his family. His story ends happily with Jun Ho in the US, which felt like a win after the above history with kdrama, but because his secret being his queerness is hidden for most of the story, we don’t get to see it inform the narrative much except in retrospect. 

Squid Game 2 (2024)

The most recent entry on our list features Park Sung Hoon as Hyeon Ju, a transgender woman who enters the life or death game at the center of this drama to earn money to move to Thailand and get gender affirming surgery. While her inclusion wasn't entirely groundbreaking, Hyeon Ju was a well-developed character with a sympathetic backstory who quickly became a fan favorite, notable given Squid Game's popularity and broad international audience. 

Bringing Better Queer Stories to Mainstream Drama Audiences

With all that context established, we have been contemplating how queer creators in Korea can reach a wider audience with their stories and ensure queer representation in kdrama is both more common and more authentic. We look to Love in the Big City and Heesu in Class 2 as a start, as we would argue that both shows exist in the gray space between mainstream kdrama and kbl. They both leverage kdrama style and structure to tell queer stories that include, but are not limited to, gay romances. They both had unusual distribution and battled to even get released and in front of an audience, with LITBC rushing its episodes out amidst public protests and Heesu sitting on the shelf for two years before being quietly released on a streaming platform. And they both had goals to reach an audience beyond the usual BL viewers, albeit with wildly different tones and themes in their stories. The BL audience is too niche to effect the social change that queer creators are seeking, and the limited runtime, genre tropes, and laser-focus on romance means it is harder to make wider social and cultural points in a BL story (it doesn’t hit the same when gay characters are treated as human in a story that takes place in the no homophobia BL bubble). And as we’ve seen from this walk through the past, there are real limits to queer representation that is not created by queer people or informed by their lived experiences.

As you can see from reviewing this list, these two shows were the first kdramas in well over a decade (after the only other example, Life Is Beautiful) to center on a gay main character whose journey drove the story, and they were doing this in the context of a media landscape that rarely elevates queer people beyond minor side plots, still regularly fumbles on respectful representation, and in which representation seems to be getting worse. Love in the Big City set out to show a young queer man’s life in all its glorious messiness. Go Young was not an easy character, and the show did not hold back on his flaws or shy away from either the joy or the struggle he found in his sexuality. Heesu is about a younger character and so his struggles are centered around coming of age and first love, but it similarly depicts a beautifully flawed young gay man coming to terms with himself and asks the audience to empathize with and care about him as his loved ones in the story do. Where LITBC uses a unique storytelling structure to draw in the viewer and highlight what makes Young’s life feel different, Heesu roots itself in familiar drama beats and queer-coded side plots in the hopes that the audience will see and be comforted by the familiar in Heesu’s world. 

Both of these stories, in their own way, speak to a mainstream audience and ask for queer existence and queer humanity to be acknowledged. And this does not make them problematic as queer works, because they accomplish their goals of speaking to a wider audience while still being true to queer experiences. Given how scant decent queer representation has been in kdramas over the last twenty years (consider the size of the list above against the fact that there are well over 1500 modern kdramas, and so few of the above listed characters are mains or even significant sides in these dramas), more shows like LITBC and Heesu are needed to bridge this gap. We sincerely hope they find the support they need to get made.

[pixellangel]

you cant just say "naven is the damsel in distress of prison of plastic" and not expect me to doodle him in a little princess dress JELLO

[homiu-l]

have a nice day everyone

[hedwig221b]

i’m sorry i’m SORRY BUT i HAVE TO SHARE THIS PAIN!! i just heard that people who work in american prisons need to tone down the way they dress and behave to not make the inmates HORNY and sometimes prisons don’t hire attractive people to work there!!!! IMAGINE STILES SHOWING UP TO TEACH A LITERATURE CLASS and DEREK IS AN INMATE and the prison is run by the argents or something and they hate stiles so they don’t think he is that attractive but DEREK DOES AND ALSO STILES IS DEREKS MATE AND DEREK WAS ON HIS WAY TO HIM WHEN HE WAS ARRESTED OR SOMETHING AND STILES SHOWS UP AND DDINT get the “DONT BE HOT” DEBRIEF SO HES BOUNCING AROUND THE ROOM IN SNUG SHIRTS AND OVERSIZED SWEATERS AND BED HEAD READING LOVE POEMS BC HE THINKS THE INMATES NEED A LITTLE LOVE IN THEIR LIVES OFMG

I have no idea whether this is true or not, lmao, but here's the idea, everyone! Although, criminal Derek is always a delight to think about!

[softneomiro]

God I love crying my heart out to a good kdrama

[yanderefarm]

yandere prisoner x final boy reader

cw; gore, suggestive, implied violence towards reader, violence, knives, prison

here is his story.... name still undecided but!!! its him.

the forest branches are long and winding, like hands reaching out to grab and their twigs like claws scratching at your skin as you run through them. you hear the sound of manic laughter coming from too close behind you, the sound echoing like thunder pounding in your ears. your legs are going to give out soon. closer. you see a flash of green. closer. your foot hits a tree root and your body crashes through the stinging branches leaving a thousand scratches on your skin. you try to tuck into yourself as you hit the concrete but it's too much, everything hurts and you can't bring your legs to move anymore. closer. you see those grey eyes filled with vitriol. flash of red. flash of blue. red. blue. red. blue. a ringing like a siren is getting closer, louder. the weight of his body sinks onto your chest. that long slimy tongue drags up against your cheek.

your eyes shoot open and you're miles away from that cabin again. your cat has made itself comfortable on your chest and is licking your nose trying to wake you up while your alarm clock rings through the room. you feel bad as you shove your cat off your chest but you just can't breathe. finally able to take a deep breath you sit up. its not unusual for you to have nightmares about that night but ever since his release was announced it's been more and more frequent, a constant reminder of what you have to do. and today is the day of release.

outside of the prison is dozens of news reporters, people trying to get your opinion on this by shoving microphones in your face. you're unfortunately used to it and you just push them out of your face. the only thing that matters is that you get him today. the heavy metal gates open for you, they allow you into the belly of the beast again. you can't help but shake as you're led into the prison by guards who know what horror awaits you.

in the room you've met him a dozen times he sits with a small pile of belongings. his lips pull into a wide smile as soon as those grey eyes land on you. you can see his sharp canines and then his absurdly long tongue lick his lips like a hungry wolf. he thinks he's gotten his precious little bunny rabbit but you won't let yourself become another meal for this voracious predator.

you two have a short meaningless conversation before you're ready to leave with him. honestly it feels like everything is on autopilot as you guide him back out of the prison towards your car. he stops to talk to the reporters, to imply he's going to spend the night with you but your eyes glaze over to his taunts. you know he's thinking about all the letters he sent you over the years, you know he's dreaming about the torture he's going to inflict as soon as you two are alone. he won't get the chance.

he continues to make vaguely threatening perverse comments to you as you two enter the car. apparently he didn't expect his bunny rabbit to fight back. the needle sinks into his shoulder and within minutes he's passed out.

when he wakes up? he's in an all too familiar looking cabin. he's tied with the strongest chains you could find to the ground.

"do you remember this place...?" you ask when you notice him looking around.

"this isn't where we met." he says it confidently and he's not wrong.

"the one we met in was demolished. all of them were supposed to be. i managed to buy this one before they could destroy it."

"you're sooo romantic~"

you slam a familiar looking knife into the table. "do you know why this one is significant?"

"mmmm lemme guess... was someone you loved in here? or maybe you were supposed to stay in this one?"

".... you gutted my boyfriend and my best friend and you mutilated them so badly the coroner couldn't tell where one began and the other ended."

"oopsie~"

you let him get the better of you and you slap him hard across the cheek. he moans at the pain as a red and handprint starts to form.

"i remember how they felt... i remember the warmth. i remember that little roommate of yours was still alive while i fucked her guts."

he was provoking you to hit him again, the same way he provoked you in the prison. but now... you had the power. you walked away from him to grab the knife from the table.

"you liked that didn't you? you like being a disgusting monster, right?" you ran the knife down his chest and he shuddered. "then you'll like it if i show you how it feels to be used as a toy right?"

he didn't need to speak, you could see his tongue running against his lips. some of his drool even dripped down his now exposed chest. he wasn't going to enjoy this for long but you would.

[ambitionsgreaterthan]

After watching and rewatching multiple times Prison playbook, Reply 1988 and Hospital playlist. I came to a realization as to why I love this director/writers dramas so much that 3 of their dramas are in my top 20 of all time. They have a style of writing so unique and deft it's very difficult to attempt let alone replicate and it's mostly due to 3 things:

The first thing is they base all their stories on genuinely competent people, people who are extremely good at what they do, whether it's baseball, medicine, being a prison guard, playing baduk etc and there is something so satisfying about watching competent individuals excel.

The second thing is that the core of their stories is truly kind and selfless people forming the most beautiful and deepest bonds and that it comes in all forms; there's romance but it's a part of the story. We get SO many meaningful friendships and familial relationships too, fathers and daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers and sons and everything in between. And these relationships are so well built and have such a richness to them that you see these characters sacrifice and love and protect their friends and family in ways that are primarily reserved for romantic affection in other dramas and it all rings so true without feeling saccarine or over the top.

The third is how they weave comedy into their storytelling. Their shows can get incredibly emotional but there's always such a lovely balance of comedy and not just any comedy, truly hilarious stuff that's rooted in these characters personalities and their bonds.

Another thing is they always take their time to tell their stories, Prison playbook is 16 episodes and every one is 1h25 minutes at least, Reply 1988 is 20 episodes of 1h30 and hospital playlist is 24 episodes of 1h20 as well. It gives them the time to explore all the different dynamics and duos and trios and everything else and leaves you feeling like you knew these characters and loved them.

[shanklin]

Very well, I, Comfort Anon, shall still provide ideas even in my bird cage. 🪿

Okay so Soos maybe is like a father figure to Stan, but that probably comes with baggage. Because probably like the Canon Stan—Sonemployee relationship, Stan’s not going to admit he sees Mr. Ramineriz as a father figure! Lil Stan has baggage from his last one, and I think if he’s slowly unlearning his lesson of selfishness, maybe it make him guarded.

Because he has been hurt, Ford leaving him, His Ma and Shermie leaving (Not by choice but still), and Pa is now dead, and he probably has mixed feelings about his Grauntie and Grunkle.

He had his heart on his sleeve and learned another lesson, to not let people in. Or else they see the selfish monster, who’s nothing but a spare.

However the sweet thing about Soos is, that he doesn’t come with a strained past, he is an adult figure who wants to hang out with Stan, and thinks Stan is cool. There’s no pressure, or strings.

He just…is there. He sees past Stan’s lack of self worth and sees Stan as what he is, Stan.

He doesn’t see Ford, he doesn’t see Stan as an extra or a replacement part. He just sees a hurt kid who’s on the verge of graduating highschool, and talks with Stan. Tells Stan it’s okay, to ask him on advice on things.

“I’m great at telling people things, dude!”

Soos teaches Stan, how to fix things, since Soos at one point was a handy man, and to be a handy man, you must be very handy.

Stan manages to pick up that type of skill, surprisingly easily. Maybe it’s because he’s learned from working on the Stan-O-War.

Selfish Shellfish AU - Masterpost

Oh Comfort Anon (who is not so anon anymore), my beloved !Bringer of my new favourite thing ♡

I agree that Stan would never admit he sees Soos as a father figure not even to himself.

And Soos is also the exact opposite of what a father is, at least in Stan's experience, so he can’t be one of those.

Now I need a little self indulgent cheesy father’s day fic, in which Soos hates father’s day just as much as his own birthday. Getting Soos’ birthday erased from the calendar didn’t go so well the last time Stan tried. Maybe Stan should try something simpler for father's day and just distract Soos long enough until he forgets what day it is. That way he won't be sad anymore!

They hang out and it’s all very sweet and at the end of the day someone mentions just what an adorable Father-Son duo they make.

Stan panics, makes up a non-specific excuse and runs away.

They don't talk about it afterwards, but they will spend the next father’s day together as well. And the one after and after…

[matayejaan]

you really need to give “be melodramatic” more views it’s such a refreshing drama that i cannot stress enough we need more of these, its currently on netflix go watch it and come yap about it on social media

[manofthepipis]

sorry I keep bothering you!!!! but I need your thoughts on Tenna he's so um um so uh and mail guy and and um divorce and and uhhhhhhhhhh I love hearing you break it down theoretical-style because your brain has wonderful ideas. (i havent actually gotten to watching any playthroughs of chapter 4 yet because I needed an emotional break and from what I've heard its .... yeah...)

aaa hi!! ur not bothering me :D man i rlly do love this tv man and i have so many thoughts

man what a character to introduce, like all we had for context to him was spamton's absolutely enraged ramblings on how much he sucks, which ended up being like the worst and messiest miscommunication that could have happened to the both of them. Like in retrospect, it's so funny how tenna was introduced versus how he actually turned out. We have the most unreliable guy (a literal scam artist) giving us our only background, calling Tenna a criminal (even if said scam artist is 3x the criminal that tenna is when we actually compare the crime list), and then telling us to not trust him (this is coming from someone who doesn't tell us his actual motivations and betrays us to get Neo and eventually the soul). Like Tenna's buildup was so hilarious yet masterfully done, that when he appeared on screen in chapter 3, i was expecting the worst when in actuality, he's a sweetie with a masters degree in showmanship and abandonment issues.

I also like how similar spamton and tenna really are, how each are driven by their own motivations and aren't entirely exempt from being self-serving in their own regards. Like Tenna, despite being definitely being more grounded and more trustworthy than Spamton, still is so focused on keeping himself relevant, he resorts to extreme measures like trapping the lightners. He so desperately wants to be appreciated and cared for, and selfishly acts on this ambition by whatever means before Susie is (once again) the mvp of deltarune by empathizing with his situation. He's also held onto his influence and position for a rather long time, only losing it all at the end of ch3, as compared to spamton who's had time to deteriorate and spiral, to put it kindly. Like Tenna's story is so very close to Spamton's (from the way they lived to the way they "died"), but Tenna's case is like if Spamton had a better run with his luck and didn't crash and burn so harshly and so rapidly.

Speaking of which, like I love how messy and complicated their falling out was because it's neither of their fault, but you could see it playing out like it did a mile away when you understand both of their self-serving natures. Like Spamton gambled with the fact that spilling the beans about his secret, to get more success out of Tenna, wouldn't get it all pulled as a result. He lost that gamble, and fled the room in a panic (probably running to try and last-minute fix what was inevitably about to happen). That's not normal, but instead of trying to understand why it happened, or comfort Spamton, Tenna took the chance while he was away to get that secret for himself by picking up the phone, to find no one there, and misinterpreted it as Spamton scamming and ditching him. i absolutely love that even if it makes me so ill thinking about it :') They're so alike, and that was their biggest shared downfall.

even after, though, Tenna maintains his (albeit dwindling) influence, like he still had employees and TV world, but Spamton had it all drop to 0 immediately, his sales, his business, his friends, and more after he lost his "help". It's such a powerful contrast. It's even made worse that Spamton was made into a shell of his former self, undergoing something that made him completely unrecognizable, like if I was him, and having made that losing gamble, I wouldn't be able to live comfortably with that guilt, so pinning it all on Tenna as to divert all that hate and vitriol and blame makes sense so he can instead focus on a plan B (becomming [[Big]] or something real, now that he knows he's not real) by any means necessary. Meanwhile, Tenna is left with the obliviousness of what Spamton truly lost and, like, got the majority of the hangups in their separation. Like dude pls pls pls get overrrr him you'll be so much happier. Overall, Tenna's character is amazing at both giving us so much context to not only Tenna, but our favorite puppet man. Deltarune Chapter 3 how i love you.

This ended up with me just waxing poetic about these two lol. Their divorce was also incredibly funny and the fact that Tenna took the [pipis] in the divorce will forever send me.

[stardvstbby]

i’m going to read a frankly concerning amout of fix it fics once Arcane finishes

i NEED my Vander, Vi, Jinx, and Isha happy family

[mirensiart]

Heeey so I'm currently not checking notifs here cause I need to focus on my paper + I'm sick as a dog so my productivity is like zero rn lmao which is not good cause I need to be productive

So if u replied or sent me an ask I'm not ignoring you, I'm just forcing myself to lock in and finish this damn paper

I do come online here to scroll through my favorite cats of tumblr blogs cause like, I need to see cute cats to keep going lmao but that's it

But other than that, until friday, I'm forcing myself not to interact with social media cause I always get lost in the sauce and before I know it it's been 2 hours of procrastination and I can't afford that rn 😭

[13tinysocks]

please PLEASE draw prisoner mark OR shoulder pad mark oddly enough i havent seen anyone like draw the latter. like he has such a good outfit?? other than that i've only seen him used as a meme with that funny ass line

YOUR WISH IS AT MY COMMAND

My iPad is dying so I can’t finish rendering rn but I added him into the painting just for u bookie

[speyerboot]

Hard copy is worth the wait. This book is gorgeous 😍

🤭

[yanderefarm]

On the note of fav yan's, 7 with a Darling who just doesn't show their emotions. Like every time he hurts Darling they're just like "...okay?" despite the fact they're currently bleeding out with at least 4 broken bones.

Just food for thought

-🐕‍🦺

i love that idea....

you don't react with fear or disgust and it just drives him insane... he sends you disgusting things like severed fingers in the mail and when you come to visit he'll tell you in detail how he'll gut you and fuck your corpse.... but you never react.

he gets out and immediately attacks you. you fight back but you don't show any fear you look the same as always.

you look at his own bloodied and bruised form and he's getting angry because when you don't react it makes him feel small.... but... he looks cute.... you call him cute and he blushes and gets horny

[aizawashuichi]

the absolute fuckery of feeling guilty for not reciprocating the effort someone puts in for me, even only in conversations, but at the same time, being overwhelmed by too much social interaction or too many expectations, even imagined ones, that I just need to lurk/isolate myself for a while, which only makes me feel more stressed, guilty and overwhelmed