#tbh this is one of the shows that would have actually benefited from being released all in one go

[chocolatepot]

I'm sort of fascinated by my own response to s2, because I started out underwhelmed but decided not to focus on it. And I framed this to myself as a kind of delusion - I wanted to find it good so badly that I was tricking myself into not being bothered by this, that, and the other thing. It helped me keep my hopes up, even when I felt disappointed by stuff in each episode.

And now, with the full season out there and rewatched multiple times, fics based on new stuff read, and, most importantly, many metas consumed and digested, I'm feeling so much better about it all! I'm really grateful for everyone talking it through and helping me to get past my "but this isn't how I wanted it to go ..." impulse.

[genericpuff]

Just to add to the speculation: Rachel was on Twitter and instagram over the last week being really excited over how she's talking to Webtoon about LO's return date and seemed to be in good spirits, but now that we have confirmation of LO ending and her and Webtoon are now being really quiet about it, I get the impression she was expecting that meeting to be a renewal discussion but instead was greeted by Webtoon asking when she was wrapping things up with no offer of another season. I think WT was considering it since none of the S3 ads mentioned it was the last season, but they must be seeing the internal numbers and with the potential of the TV show not happening and less and less book sales, they must have seen no financial or business reason of renew it. The obfuscation both her and Webtoon are doing right now implies Rachel was blindsided by this IMO.

fucking OOF BRO

That was definitely an angle I hadn't considered, obviously it's still just speculation/tinfoil but from what I've heard about how cagey WT can be about communicating with their creators, it could very well be a possibility. That said, while it would SUCK for Rachel if that was the case, I feel like it's also something she shouldn't have been pressing her luck with for so long. TBH there's a lot of evidence to support the fact that LO has been getting "special treatment" for years now and I think a lot of that was based on the good will of how well the series performed in 2019/2020. When the series started going downhill, WT would have likely been willing to give her benefit of the doubt, but now with things going the way they are where people are clearly DONE with LO and Rachel isn't making any attempts to actually get her shit together, it would make sense if WT is just finally deciding to cut their losses.

Of course that's, again, HEAVY speculation. But I've seen series that weren't controversial or regularly criticized like LO get suddenly dropped without much warning for the creator (see: Yuna & Kawachan). The fact that LO has been going on this downward spiral for so long without any intervention or attempts to improve things just goes to show how much WT was banking on this series to succeed, especially after all of the time and money and advertising they had sunk into it. Even look at the awards that LO won this year, including the Eisner, which isn't an award traditionally won twice, lending credence to the fact that WT is buying her these awards to try and save their golden goose. It's too late to save it. It's barely managing to stay alive on life support.

If anything I hope this is a harsh but necessary lesson to WT to not undercut their other creators and series just to shove all their eggs in one basket. There are so many series on the platform that could be massive hits if WT would just extend them the olive branch and give them the same royal treatment they gave LO for so many years. There's no reason all of their resources need to go into one series, it's not a pie, everyone should be able to get the opportunity to be seen within their library. Otherwise, if for some reason WT can't allocate those resources due to the sheer number of series on the site, then that should be a wake up call to lessen the amount of titles that are being churned out into the Originals catalogue every week. To be fair, the launch weeks have lessened over the past year, they're not quite as overstuffed with launch titles as they used to be, but it's still a lot compared to what it used to be back in the day.

The reality is that LO was released at a time when the site wasn't nearly as oversaturated as it is today so it was created at the right place, right time - if it was released today, it would likely be another buried series with little to no advertising. It was a product of its time and that time is very much long gone.

[primaviva]

"this is just like that artist that tried to reap the benefits of those fighting to free congo by releasing a horrible song she wanted to get streams by people who thought all the money she made would go to donations for humanitarian aid but instead she stayed silent."

Hi!! I saw this in your reblog and were you referring to the song that's like "I feel like you're abusing me"?

YES!!! there’s always something so sketchy about how she goes about it because i at first did support the song but then people began to ask questions and she showed over cropped screenshots as proof and was overall not someone i really trusted to uphold the promise of donating. that doesn’t have much to do with palestine but it was an example of how people always take advantage of others suffering because even if she donated or not you can still state in the end she benefitted more than those being abused in congo by having a spike in her indie artistry. i believe she had good intentions because she did actually make posts and raise awareness on the issue and provided links but then people came out saying she wasn’t even from congo and then the messy business with the song its just… i was not about to be a detective just to see who i should support

tbh i feel a better example is baby stormy who already has a problematic music history like the graveyard video shoot but beside that she also made a very broad song she states is about genocides and injustices happening around and put the congo, palestine, and other nations struggling which is absurd cus if you saw the music video you would know why… it honestly seemed like a cash grab to appear as an advocate and i don’t doubt she had bad intentions as well but it comes across as insensitive because it’s not really her place to make a creative statement through music such as that about issues that don’t apply to her (i mostly say this about palestine and the others she included).

but the BEST person to serve as an example that i actually no for a fact is more shitty than a dog park is that one comedian girl that was a very big advocate at the start of the palestine awareness 😭😭😭😭 i don’t know her name but she made those filters and claimed she got no money from them again and again and it came out that she was actually extremely racist and has a history of employing social justice movements to her account to get money from false advocacy. just the racism alone is contrasting to the character she presented when discussing the horrors palestinians go through for no reason BUT SHE HAD A HISTORY OF SCAMMING LIKE ???? i just donate on my own accord and sign action letters as well as other things.

[shadamyheadcanons]

Hi there! I was wondering about the IDW comics-is there a way to read them online? I've been trying to find a way to read them but it seems like you have to buy them one by one. Thanks!

Tbh, I’ve been reading them online here, but I’ll be buying them soon. I’m just not sure which format I want yet. IDW has digital copies on their website - issue #1 is $1.99, and volume 1 (the first 12 issues) is $19.99. Places like Amazon, ebay, and Barnes & Noble have them, too. The art is incredible, and I would much prefer to buy physical copies so I could see it on an actual page, but the prices are pretty steep, especially for those fancy hardcover volumes, and they’re frequently out of stock, so I’ve been hemming and hawing about it.

They did release a FREE issue about Tangle and Whisper, so if you’ve ever been curious about those two, check it out here! I really like them.

I’d highly recommend IDW not just to Sonic fans, but to literally anyone with eyes. It’s great for a million reasons, but I’ll focus on the art here. The covers are beautiful and action-packed, right from cover A for issue 1...

(Artists: Tracy Yardley & Tyson Hesse)

...to the latest, beautiful renaissance-inspired cover B for issue 59:

(Artist: Natalie Haines)

She made an actual painting for this, and she’s damn proud of it. As she should be. Just look at it!

More pretty IDW art and accompanying ranting under the cut.

I adore the introductions they give to the characters. Here’s Amy being a cute badass in issue 2. She’s earned it!!!

(Artist: Adam Bryce Thomas)

Side note: I like how they introduce characters in the order they were created, so Tails was issue 1, and issue 2 featured Amy. Knuckles didn’t show up until issue 3! This series gives Amy her proper place right from the get-go. It’s a nice touch.

Blaze is always cool in IDW--well, figuratively speaking. Look at her awesome introduction in issue 4!

(Artist - Evan Stanley, colorist - Matt Herms)

IDW’s artists do a great job portraying dynamic motion and physical impacts. There’s another really cool use of her powers later on, but I don’t want to spoil it! 👀

It’s not just the characters. The backgrounds and scenery are great, too. This is Angel Island from issue 9. Love the foreshortening in the back:

(Artist - Tracy Yardley, colorist - Matt Herms)

And the art being as good as it is fuels how strong the characters are. When was the last time the games properly showcased Amy and Cream’s friendship? IDW does it right, and issue 22’s art reinforces that:

(Artist: Priscilla Tramontano)

The context makes it significantly more heartwarming, too, but it’s another spoiler.

Apart from Amy, the one character who I think benefits most from this is Silver. This is his cutest, dorkiest, most endearing iteration yet, and I am here for it! Top two images are from issue 8, and the gardening segments below them are from IDW’s 2019 annual. It has some cute Silver/Blaze moments, and it doesn’t have any real spoilers for the main series. You can read it independently. It’s $3.99 on IDW’s website.

(Issue 8 artist - Evan Stanley, colorist - Matt Herms) (Annual 2019 artists - Jonathan Gray, Jack Lawrence, Jennifer Hernandez, and Diana Skelly)

I can’t help but smile whenever I see him. He’s cute in other iterations, too, but I always picture IDW when I write Silver.

Oh, and one last thing: after Amy and Silver’s cute meeting in Sonic 06, I headcanoned that she has a tendency to mother him. It fits well into the Shadamy-Descendent-Silver theory (y’know, that concept that was “sarcastically” suggested by Ian Flynn, Mr. IDW himself?), and I incorporated it into Shellshock. It was only after I’d gotten into the habit of writing them that way that I read further in IDW and ran into instances like these (spoilers removed):

(Issue 14 artist - Tracy Yardley, colorist - Leonardo Ito) (Issue 25 artist - Adam Bryce Thomas, colorist - Matt Herms)

And she is always the one to do this. No one else mothers him like this. Headcanon confirmed! Three points for the descendant theory!

[procrastinova]

art summary 2022 vs art summary 2023

individual 2023 artworks below (plus some thoughts on them because why not. Said thoughts will include me critiquing some of the pieces, especially the ones from earlier in the year.)

also here's a link to all the artworks from my 2022 one if anyone wants to see them

JANUARY - Art piece i did right before For the Future aired of Luz and the rest of the hexsquad having a much-needed group hug. I didn't really look at any references for this one (apart from for the character's designs) so the poses look really awkward and stiff tbh 😭. That being said, I'm still glad I gave it a shot, and it looks a lot better than the one I did before Thanks to Them's release, since I was more used to drawing the characters.

I'm not going to go too much into some of the... questionable... anatomy choices I made, since they aren't exclusive to this artwork in particular, nor is this the worst example of them (*cough cough* my old King's Tide screenshot redraw).

Overall I think this is an okay art piece. Definitely could have been improved by actually using references for the pose though.

FEBRUARY - This one is actually another redraw of a REALLY old piece I drew in 2021. With my finger. Not a good combination to say the least. This one is miles better especially in terms of anatomy, facial expressions and composition.

That's not to say that it's without it's flaws. I do think that lining up Betty and Amber's poses better would have improved the overall look of the piece. Another thing that I did end up changing a little while after I drew this was removing the shine from the black parts of the mirror to make it look like it was actually cracked, which I didn't do in the original version (that one's on my scratch account if you want to see it). It's a subtle difference, but I think it makes the piece look a lot better.

Again, I think this is an okay piece overall. Looks like the mona lisa compared to the 2021 version, but honestly I think anything would.

MARCH - Yet another Owl House artwork (bet u guys cant guess what my favourite tv show is). This one I created for a zine which I was working on for my multimedia class (this artwork in particular was supposed to be an advertisement for the finale). You can kinda tell I still wasn't that confident in drawing King, since his pose is pretty stiff (I don't think I ever really got used to drawing him tbh).

I do think this piece would have benefited from some more shading and lighting that wasn't the singular multiply layer I placed over the characters then erased some parts of. (There is some other shading but there's no other lighting).

Most of the other issues I have with this pieces are just issues I have with my old art in general so I'll leave it there.

APRIL - This is the last Owl House artwork I promise. I made this one for Zeez Vov Gee 2's watching and dreaming art contest. I actually do still quite like this one, which might partly be to do with the fact that I really like all of the character's timeskip designs, but whatever.

Some of the proportions on the hands are a bit weird, and I REALLY wish I put the shading on the lineart as well, considering how light of a colour it is.

One thing I do really like which I didn't notice while I was drawing it, is the pose Luz and Amity are in forms a sort of heart shape, which is really adorable akdjfhskhdf ;w;

Anyway, overall a pretty good piece, might remake it later. Who knows 👀

MAY - as you may immediately be able to tell, I did not make that much art in May (I might've had a few tests on at the time. Or I was just lazy). This one is actually OC art for once (wow shocking never seen before).

It's kinda just a doodle/a more doodley art piece, but it's pretty alright. I actually really like the pose that Robyn (the OC in the drawing) is in. This is also kinda the first time I drew their design, so yeah. The background isn't great, but I can't really expect that much from a doodle -v-

overall, pretty decent doodle. (for anyone wondering if I'll ever post more about Robyn... maybe? I'm mainly using their story for writing practice, but I think I posted something from it on here)

JUNE - June was literally the polar opposite of May. I'm not kidding, there were like 3 artworks that I was debating putting for June (this one, some deltarune fanart and a TOH screenshot redraw). I eventually went with this one because HOLY CRAP am I proud of that background.

This one was really heavily influenced by cartoon backgrounds (in particular ones from Gravity Falls and Hilda), and while I do think there are a few things that could be improved (like some of the trees), this was the first time in a while that i'd tried drawing a background that wasn't grass and a couple of trees (and i think the first time ever that i'd done something this complex).

I think another reason that this one turned out so good is that it was a birthday card for a friend. And if there is anything that I am constantly trying to do better at every time I redraw it, it's birthday cards (probably bc they're for my friends, love you guys sm /p).

anyways, overall a really good piece, 11/10 background.

JULY - behold... the first artwork I posted on Tumblr! I drew this shortly after seeing Across the Spiderverse in cinemas (which I have to say was one of the greatest experiences of my life).

I wanted to mess around with lineless art a bit on this one, as well as sort of try to give it a watercolour feel like earth-65. And I gotta say, I think it turned out pretty good. Though I did spend a good 15 minutes looking for references because ATSV wasn't out digitally yet ;w;

overall, I like this piece, I tried something new and I made fanart for the greatest movie of all time (in my opinion)

AUGUST - I don't think I drew nearly enough Omori fanart when I was super into the game, so I'm making up for it now. I wanted to redraw one of my favourite photos from the photo album for this one.

I probably could have put a bit more detail into the background for this one, but I really like the warm lighting, and the dappled light effect that I used for the characters. The lineart is also a bit sketchy, but I was (and sort of still am) in the process of figuring out how I actually want my lineart to look.

overall, I really like this one, nice colours, nice lighting, has the omori characters being happy in it :]

SEPTEMBER - like in May, I didn't get as much Art Stuff TM done, so it's just a doodle of some of my OCS (except this time it's Copper, Lapis and Peg, who I have posted about before).

I kinda just wanted to draw something cozy, so I didn't put too much effort into the background and stuff. One thing I will say, is that I wish I drew them looking a bit older, since they are all 16-17 lol.

overall, this one's ok. Could be better, but it's just a doodle.

OCTOBER - ohohohohoho we are SO back. Yet another birthday card. I love the perspective and poses on this one (because, you guessed it, I used references for them). Everything about this artwork was really fun to draw (especially the characters).

Overall, really good artwork, 11/10

NOVEMBER - redraw of an artwork from 2021 part 2: electric boogaloo. I remember being so proud of the original artwork, so I wanted to make this one an artwork I was proud of too (which was a success).

One of the main things I wanted to do for this one was to actually draw a background, instead of getting one off google. The one I drew was simple, but I think it really works, because I wanted the focus to be on the character, not the background. I also added some slight perspective to the drawing to make it look a bit more interesting.

Overall, amazing, especially compared to the original

DECEMBER - and finally... December's artwork! Aka my banner. I wanted to do something kinda simple for this, because I'm probably going to redraw it or make a new one later. I really like the contrast between the colours in the foreground (which is supposed to be inside a train, but it's kinda hard to tell), and the background.

Also something I've started doing for a few artworks is making a duplicate of the artwork, blurring it slightly and lowering the opacity, which makes it look a lot more visually interesting :0

overall, love this one, good artwork to end the year off with :] (i'll prolly still draw more stuff tho)

(fun fact - I was going to put the redraw I did of the 'get in loser we're going shopping' scene with the characters from TMC for December because it's the highest quality meme i've ever made but it looked weird next to the other ones bc it was in black and white 😭)

[gayhoediaz]

☕️ + the impact of streaming services on how we consume media (binging over longform storytelling wtc)

this is late i’m so sorry i meant to get to these earlier, but hey - let’s do this again. send me more ☕️!

this is such an interesting question, and i think that it absolutely depends. i do think that as a society, we are becoming more and more impatient, and we want things quickly, and the more technology develops, the greedier we become. (this is a little bit of a sidenote, but tiktok, for example scares me so much, even outside of the content. just the format. it’s a dopamine slot machine. the few times i have downloaded that app, i lose hours and hours on it and it’s genuinely terrifying. i’m not even having a good time, i just can’t stop scrolling.)

if you had asked me a couple of years ago, i think i would have had a completely different answer - but as of right now, i can’t think of any real benefits of the way in which streaming services serve us their television shows all at once. is there a dopamine rush when you have a whole new season of your favorite show (although i don’t know if i have ever loved a show that was released in that manner tbh) to watch all at once? absolutely!

but in the long run - i do absolutely agree that when we go back to long form television, it makes us impatient and unable to wait for stories to develop, and we see that in a lot of the critique that shows like 9-1-1 get when an episode isn’t received well. i don’t think you can judge an episode in and of itself as harshly as people tend to. you can judge it a little bit, of course - but you can’t say that a season or a storyline is trash when you’re nowhere near the end. it’s ungrateful and impatient, and i think that does stem from this dopamine rush that we’re used to these days.

not only are we used to being able to watch several episodes all at once - but if we’re even more impatient, we can always go to google or twitter or tumblr and look for spoilers. does this character die? does this relationship work out? who is the killer? when an entire season is released at once, we don’t have to wait. we have it all at our fingertips, and it makes us greedy.

outside of that, i think that it also makes our lives a little bit brighter in the longrun to have something to look forwards to every week. (for a period of time.) this is hardly an original thought, but what a treat to be excited for mondays or tuesdays or thursdays! rather than locking yourself in your room one weekend out of the year and swallowing it all down in one go. there’s no wondering, no theorizing, etc.

the reality is also that not everyone is going to have the time to watch it all at once, or maybe they won’t have time until a month after it comes out. (although to be fair - and i don’t know if this is a common experience - but i actually tend to procrastinate watching shows that are dropped in this way, even if i like them. it just feels like it’s so much at once.) and i think it’s incredibly unfair to the audience, to the creators, to the actors, etc, to judge a show’s performance based off of how many people watch it in the first week or two. this is also why we see so many great shows cancelled so quickly. i mean - most long-running shows did not have a great first season. but they were given a second anyway, and over time, the shows grow into what they were always meant to be. these originals don’t get that chance.

also in general, it’s a very special experience to watch long form television as it’s airing. especially if you engage in fandom. it’s an experience that you just don’t get if you were to binge the same show after it’s ended - and that’s what these instant drops really are. you just binge it immediately and you don’t savor it, you don’t theorize, you don’t think or wonder or question - and in my experience that’s the best part of watching television.

send me a ☕️ + a topic for an opinion

[3vocatio]

peeped here out of curiosity (i know u have good takes and rb good/interesting takes + filtered words don’t work when viewing blogs and i’ve filtered every single om tag ever) and uknow what? while there’s aspects of the (supposedly) satan-focused i greatly enjoyed (mostly as writing inspo and just the enjoyment of the moment itself more than its part in the overall narrative tbh) i was endlessly frustrated by the fact that diavolo got the true highlight. i couldn’t place why the hell it made me so annoyed but you’re right—the real main character of the story was diavolo and it annoys the hell out of me that satan was painted as more of the bad guy. despite having the most screen time, satan felt like he was simply a means to an end, with the end being some way to show/remind the audience all of diavolo’s princely qualities that often get sidelines in favor of his usual behavior in events.

like. i greatly enjoyed seeing satan lose his shit to the point of terrifying crowds of demons. i liked seeing him lock himself away after to try and process everything by himself. the bits of vulnerability when mc finally manages to speak to him? love. (not that much of it is actually new info but i do enjoy that it’s there)

but the rest of everything else has me pulling at my hair. especially the ending… i wanted mc to ask for something that would be primarily to satan’s benefit after all the bullshit that happened. (and also satan thanking diavolo for giving mc his stars felt… idk. it felt like it encapsulated how a lot of the story key part felt; reminding us that diavolo’s the actual ‘hero’ here and not satan.)

ahdksjakdja so yknow. just some thoughts i wanted to send you. i didnt wanna log into my om blog even though i probably should for thoughts like this >.>;; once again a majority of my real fun came from rewriting everything, which i guess is something since almost all of the non-bday om content for the last several months hasn’t even gotten me inspired enough to bother rewriting anything.

/end yet another rant abt om content shdjssjs

hello...pretend i responded to this first /j

to validate what you mentioned, i also only enjoyed snippets of that event (though as we know, it's been like this for most obey me events for a long time); diavolo aside, witnessing satan compose himself with such sincerity and generousity felt like a blessing tbh. he knows his limits, he knows what upsets him and he should be listened to, even if he gets emotional about it. so what! most of us become emotional when defending something we hold close to our hearts, and satan was no different.

i've said this in the other ask you sent, but you came back right on time as the new lore-focused obm game has been announced! satan was one of their focal points that they mentioned, as well as lore surrounding the (pre & post) celestial realm, solomon, and the attic. it's gotten the entire fandom riled up including myself, and everything looks promising so far :)

i was wondering why the spacing between events in-game have been getting longer and longer, and i'm glad to know it's because they're putting importance on quality over quantity. they began making baby steps in the previous "single character-focused" events, but i'd like to mention that i am very satisfied with the release of simeon's new birthday event, especially when you compare it to the first one for symbolism reasons.

i won't go in-depth about it now unless someone asks me to share my thoughts, but it was the right amount of promising writing i needed to give me hope. for you specifically, satan didn't delve into any cat shenanegains and when he confronted lucifer & brought up a good point, he was acknowleged and listened to. everyone did such a good job...aaaa <3

[sanstropfremir]

I remembered an ask you got talking about how exo got really successful so quickly they didn't really get a chance to branch out and develop artistically, so I wanted to ask you about your thoughts on the members as solo artists since they all have atleast a solo album out (you might as well include exo sc since they got to put their own ideas in everything) and all of them were allowed to have a say in things creatively from lyrics,concept and packaging if they wanted too, especially since all their music except for the ballad singers is so different from each other

also wanna know if you were completely surprised with a member like a performance or a concept was something you'd never imagine them doing

omg did i???? i don't even remember my own asks anymore at this point sldkfsdlkfjl. i don't even know if i agree with my own statements there in the first place since exo has done a pretty wide variety of concepts over their lifetime as a group. ....WAIT i think this is about the kai v taemin ask re: image, where i said that kai hasn't been a solo artist for as long so there hasn't been the same type of exploration of image the way taemin has done. i think that is a fair point to extrapolate across to the rest of the exos, since none of them (except for yixing, he's a bit closer to taemin) have been soloists for very long, comparatively, and they all started as adults. personally i think it's a lot more apparent with their solo endeavours that they're confident in their artistic personas and personal tastes, and that comes across in the ones who have multiple releases. yixing is the one with that's shown the most variation, because he's been a soloist the longest, but i do still think that his stuff has some pretty obvious artistic fingerprints and consistency on it. he's matured a lot and in a very specific direction now, but you can see the genesis of a lot of his style early on.

as far as my personal opinions of all of their work goes, i do like that sm chose to debut them solo later in life. i'm sure it was an annoyance to the members themselves, but i think there's a benefit to being older and having a clearer sense of artistic identity and a long time to sit on ideas. it's hard to churn out solo work at the speed to match kpop turnovers and sitting on something so it can be exactly how you want it is good, actually. i like that kai's debut was really delayed bc it meant that there was a LOT of work put into it, and it shows. and i like that he took a full year for the first cb too. it was really clear to me that suho sat with grey suit for probably the entire time he was in the military, bc he came out rip-roaring with an incredibly well put together cb. the exos that have put out more solo work pretty clearly want to and care about what they're putting out, which i think is exactly how it should be. i don't listen to all of them equally, but the ones that get the most plays for me right now are baekhyun, suho, and xiumin. and then sc, probably.

i think my most dramatic surprise was by hurdle, actually. in hindsight it makes a lot of sense with where he's arrived after coming out of the military, but i wasn't expecting something so stylized from him, since he was tending towards the sort of artsy ballad type. tbh suho's discog is very artistically consistent and i can trace the things he's interested in visually, which i didn't even realize until i went back and watched the let's love mv and the dinner station. his stuff tends towards a more melancholy tone so that's why hurdle surprised me so much, because it's much more upbeat, but i think it stylistically matches with grey suit in a weird way (it's probably the colour matching). maybe next would be peaches? but that was mostly because i didn't like ANY of the songs on the album, which i'm still kinda disappointed about bc i really liked almost everything off mmmh. i wasn't that surprised by any of the visuals. sc is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, chen's ballads are pretty typical also. i wasn't that surprised by kyungsoo's solo even though a lot of people were, because i was already kind of expecting him to do a ballad solo so rose wasn't that far off (and kind of preferable, personally). xiumin's was exactly what i wanted from him and i have zero complaints. uh who am i forgetting................oh baekhyun. nothing surprising about his discog, although i WAS surprised by how good bambi was. like he did not have to do that kind dance performance and nor was i expecting him to, but damn. honestly i'm still surprised every time i watch the mv.

[amratsu]

after reading @ryo-maybe 's recs, compiling my own rider recommendations/breakdowns, in chronological order of release, with the general approach of 'here's what you may enjoy' and 'here's what people love/remember it for'. den-o onwards to zi-o cause I need to rewatch the older ones tbh. I've watched all of these myself once, and (barring ghost) with @stuffman-main and @icedfairy so you can poke them for opinions too probably.

>den-o the first 'comedy' rider that really leaned into its mascots, so much so that said mascots are kind of still around to this day like 15 years later. this tends to give the wrong impression though, because den-o still takes a surprisingly deep and melancholic look at its themes of existential dread and being remembered. it's a generally fun time that'll also pull at your heartstrings at surprising times, and takeru satoh (of current ruroken live action fame) really does portray the growth of the protagonist from a complete non-person into a still-nervous-but-will-throw-down hero nicely.

>kiva oh I absolutely agree with the general consensus of crazy aesthetic (fucking STAINED GLASS VAMPIRES?) but whack-ass writing, but as my first rider I have a big soft spot for it. it was also the first rider I watched together with stuffman-main and iced-fairy as an introduction to deeper weeb enjoyment. make no mistake, kiva is deep in the late 2000s sauce of plot via lack of communication, but at the same time it's still kind of charming how earnest it is about it? it's just 100% vampire melodrama inside a kamen rider. and also the time period gimmick is, in retrospect, one of the weirdest and most ambitious plot threads toei's ever tried. I can't even straight say I recommend kiva, but if you can stick around after they only really get better. (fun fact with kiva: the default suit was so fucking heavy BECAUSE IT HAD ACTUAL METAL CAUSE THEY WANTED NATURAL CHAIN JINGLING that they had to introduce the super mode like a dozen episodes early or else the suit actor was literally going to be crushed)

>decade anniversary series. meme origin point.

>w I think if any series really leans into its subgenre the most, it's a toss-up between W and Exaid, but W is way more universally loved. it's a tight noir experience, the duos done so well that it'd fuck with rider writing for multiple series to come (for better or worse). the way it plays with its supporting cast really makes the city feel alive in a way that makes it as easy to love Fuuto as much as shotaro does. the rider tropes themselves are also handled very well, with little arbitrary power ups or alt forms, and an absolutely unheard of total of two riders, period, until you go into side materials. and the writing very much benefits from its ability to focus on them to the exclusion of anyone else. extremely easy recommendation, and its 2 episode format also makes it very easy to watch in short sessions.

>ooo where W lives and dies by its two-episoders, OOOs uses it to support the developing relationship between protag and 'mascot' while also pursuing a much more ambitious overarching metaplot. the nonlinear nature of the belt/suit 'upgrades' leads to an pretty exciting shuffle of transformation trinkets between the protagonist and villains; you never quite know who has what, and in that sense it's almost closer to a rider royale with how the characters jockey for the macguffins. eiji's also a generally very refreshing protagonist who will still do Dumb things, but not Stupid things, and that's a fine line to walk/write I appreciate a lot.

>fourze anything I could say ryo(?)'s already said. it's just fun. it's very different from a lot of other riders though in that you won't see the same emotional ups and downs in the plot you would elsewhere. gentaro's just immune to that shit.

>wizard oof. I'm going to be bold here and say I find haruto, the protag, fine. lots of people say he's boring and one note, which I disagree with; he shows a fair amount of subtle growth as a person over the course of the series. nito, the side rider, is also great. aesthetics are also great fun. but wizard is absolutely STRANGLED by its one note supporting cast, a peanut gallery full of drag-you-to-the-lake-bed cement that's just impossible to care about. if you can deal with the generic kid's show level of eyeroll carry-on cast, you'll probably have an okay time here.

>gaim gaim gaim gaim. oh gaim. I love you so much. and this is contingent on spoilers, but, I think urobuchi plots honestly fine if there's a happy ending. and there is, because SPOILERS that facilitate post-series xovers. like of all the ways we've seen urobuchi wank about the cruelty of the system, the futility of struggling against it, and the tragedy of life, gaim's protagonists arguably end up doing a lot more to win despite it. and also I find the thought of urobuchi simmering in his dark little corner because toei forced him to write a happy ending really, REALLY funny. can't recommend unless you're in the mood for urobuchi though.

>drive honestly? drive is one of the most inoffensive riders. nothing really wrong about it. it leans into its subgenre a lot in the vein of W, so if you're in the mood for a cop show with androids and robots it'll do you good. the protag is also a tall drink of water. definitely a fine starting point.

>ghost oh god. no. by this point in the time line, the 'cool rider=sucky show' meme is really in full force. there's really not a lot I can write on ghost that hasn't been said by other people, but in short it's just very one note with very shallow characters, and a lot of shoehorned merchandising that messes with what little coherence there is (the super form is a seperate belt all on its own, never used by anything else. why???).

>exaid again, ryo(?) has me covered here. worth pointing out though, ex-aid is a perfect otome game cast: clumsy good boy with some spice to him, tragic serious elite genius, jokey lovable trickster, abrasive jerk with heart of gold. so that's fun.

>build build's AMBITIOUS. the conspiracy/amnesia plot goes deep, and it almost forsakes a monster of the week and all the tropes attached to that entirely. whether it lands the plot is up to debate but at the very least the characters are all very well realized and live. they all struggle with 'who am I' in their personal ways, and the way they clash up against each other (ESPECIALLY the villains) is exciting.

>zi-o another anniversary series.

[hoochy-coo]

I mean I think TTPD is getting the criticism it is because it came after midnights. A lot of good will carries over from the previous era. Midnights benefited from being the first new release from Taylor since her critically acclaimed folklore and evermore but TTDP is closely coming off a low in midnights. TTDP might be better than midnights but it’s also not good. It just shows midnights isn’t a one off and that there has been a decline in quality in her work

Yeah for sure, Taylor was beyond reproach when Midnights came out. She’s rushed them both out and it shows in the music. She should have taken the time to edit and rewrite and draft and source different people to work with that could add to the body of work. It’s the same sonic landscape with Jack and Aaron, and I’m sure that works for them because I mean why would they turn down the chance to work with the biggest pop star in the world that’s never going to flop??

I’m actually undecided if TTPD is going to age well or poorly in comparison to the rest of her discography. I think it might age well for with the hardcore stans because it’s so autobiographical and it’s a full circle moment in many ways tbh

[thekaijudude]

Do you think it would be better if all the recap special episodes going forward were moved completely from the episode catalog list and instead moved exclusively to Tsuburaya Imagination, considering that they currently have the GUTS-Select talk show with Urulu and that one GUTS-Select minor supporting member?

I think the purpose of recap episodes are really to refresh younger audiences that are watching in Japan which would be unlikely for them to have access to the Tsuburaya Imaginations website (since its paid subscription). And iirc, the website mainly shows behind-the-scenes stuff, documentaries, talk shows as u mentioned (Not really aimed towards younger audiences), and also early viewing of the yearly movies rn

Cause the series is actually being broadcasted over there weekly too

And I suppose it still serves some form of marketing for people to rewatch older episodes as well

So overall, if TsuPro still includes recap episodes, I suppose they have conducted whatever financial and content analysis and concluded that having recap episodes do actually help their situation

Cause I believe the more episodes they are airing on television, the more they have to pay? So there has to be some form of cost benefit analysis done prior. Unless the broadcast stations they've signed contracts with has a minimum airing period of say 6 months and recap episodes are there purely to fit the minimum criteria

But of course, the situation rn is still very fluid with so many things being introduced with Tsuburaya Imaginations, Ultraman Connection, UFF being ported to mobile, series being made for older fans etc. Also considering the novelty of such the aforementioned endeavors, I think they're still in the midst of figuring out how much of what belongs where at this point

Tbh I doubt we'd see any major changes in the main series (series length, inclusion of recap episodes, scheduling etc) for the rest of the New Gen Era which iirc, lasts until 2028 tentatively, which would coincidentally line up with the last release year (also tentative) of the third Shinverse installment (last of the first wave [hopefully?] based on the ShinU promo materials)

So ye, as mind boggling to us it may seem, I don't think TsuPro really has the recap episodes included just for the heck of it. There's surely some corporate/financial reason they're doing so. While Tsuburaya Imaginations on the other hand is serving a different market segment entirely.

[useless-englandfacts]

Hey! Love your blog and completely agree with everything you're posting about Jamie Oliver, but so tired of seeing people equate Marcus Rashford - who has campaigned tirelessly for a cause near & dear to his heart - in the same category as Jack Monroe - who seems to think constantly tweeting triggering content with no warnings is good activism, and is often displaying a thinly veiled disdain for the very people they are supposed to be helping.

Hopefully I'll be proven wrong when the Vines Boots Index finally releases. We were originally promised that would be finished in like Feb/March though and haven't heard anything since, so I'm not holding out much hope.

I understand she's said herself in the past that she comes from a middle class background and her message was that poverty can affect literally anyone, but I'm sorry I see blatant snobbery peeking out sometimes, in the way she talks about the foster kids she grew up with, or the way she describes working class people sometimes - like in this article https://www.theguardian.com/society/patrick-butler-cuts-blog/2013/jun/06/food-poverty-jack-monroe-it-could-happen-to-anyone

"You have no idea whether the young woman with a black baby and a lanky blond nine year old on her arm is a foster carer or a 'slut' " - Jack Monroe in the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/18/jack-monroe-starve-benefits-england

This was their rebuttal to "whispers and stares" when taking her parents' foster kids out. So if hypothetically those kids were that young woman's then that's a bad thing ?! The article is well intentioned and i agree with its message but slips like this and implying that people in poverty aren't "normal people" in the first article which show how she truly thinks about us tbh.

I'll never forgive Jack for publicly bashing Corbyn several times in 2017-19, a man who would have put in place so many of the policies that Jack claimed to support. They were even planning to run as MP against labour in 2017 in Southend until they stepped down due to receiving an anonymous letter threatening them https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/food-blogger-jack-monroe-announces-10317018

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/11/jack-monroe-abandons-bid-to-become-an-mp

Only once Corbyn had been replaced and had no chance of being Prime Minister did Jack change their tune.

I also wish the people recommending her website would give some of Jack's recipes a try first, they're mostly terrible, and make the infuriating decision to 'cost' by the amounts used, as if anyone is going to be able to find 4 pence worth of black pepper somewhere

Despite the good I can agree they've done with raising funds for the trussel trust, both times she's done a major fundraiser for them have also helped raise her own profile - the time she gave books they weren't donated directly by her to food banks, members of the public had to pay for 2 copies and one would be a "donation" which coincidentally helped inflate her books' sales figures. Her recent fundraiser involved purchasing t shirts with her name printed on them next to the slogans to again raise her profile - and we have no way of knowing that all of the profits are being donated as promised.

Just because someone shares our politics doesn't necessarily mean they're automatically a great person. Some will definitely co opt our movement for their own personal gain.

As someone who's been on Tumblr a long time I remember Zubat and the Leelah Project, I remember people on Twitter finally clueing up to Rachel Swindon, hell I even remember the HIV Hamilton mermaid fanfiction girl being outed. I honestly think Jack Monroe is someone in the same vein.

Sorry this is so long but I've seen Jack being paraded around Tumblr lately as if she's actually doing anything to help, people even giving them credit for being involved in Marcus' campaigning, and that's just not true. I feel like I'm challenging the Emperor's New clothes here.

Maybe I'm just overly mistrustful, but I'm just seeing a lot of red flags and I would recommend people donate directly to Trussell Trust rather than send the money to this person.

Having said all the above I do agree with the content of most of Jack's articles and tweets (even if I think they're in it mostly for the money) and I hope they absolutely destroy Lee Anderson in court.

(Jack uses they/she pronouns and I've included a mix of both in this post, sorry if its confusingly worded anywhere )

hi! thank you so much for sending this! there are some really great points worth pulling out of this. i always think it's good to treat any public figure with a healthy dose of scepticism. going to put this under a cut because it's long!

i'll preface this by saying that i don't follow jack monroe on twitter, nor to i keep a really close eye on everything they do - they're just someone who will pop up on my feed every now and then as a recommended tweet/because my mututals have liked one of her tweets, or i'll see them in the news/some panel show every once in a while. i also currently work for the trussell trust.

firstly yes, after reading those articles i totally agree with you that the classism is LEAPING out of this one. "I had a £27 grand a year job. I've not been brought up on benefits and a tracksuit watching Jeremy Kyle. I'm a middle class, well educated young woman who fell a bit by the way side. You think it doesn't happen to normal people, and you think we are all scumbags, eating burgers and watching day time TV. It can happen to anyone."

i understand that their point here is to dispel commonly-held perceptions about working/lower-class people, but even if someone was eating burgers and watching daytime TV, doesn't mean they're any less deserving of food lol. that whole article was clearly designed to appeal to the middle and upper classes (i.e. guardian readers), rather than building any sort of sympathy and solidarity for the working class, you're right.

though, perhaps in fairness i should say that those articles are from 2013 so... very very early on in the public side of her career, and she was only 25 years old so i don't think it's totally fair to expect every single thing that they said to tick every single "100% perfect and virtuous morality" box we have if that makes sense? i don't know how much conscious unlearning has taken place since then though, so i'm willing to be corrected here again.

her standing in the general election gives me huge jess phillips vibes - that whole empty "speaking truth to power" thing... though it is her right to stand if she wants to like i'm not going to pretend that the labour party is perfect, or that jeremy corbyn was perfect because (though i agreed with him on many many many things and i voted for him) he wasn't.

a minor point but i am poor and i use jack monroe's recipes and i don't have an issue with them lmao i think that's just a subjective thing that depends on what sort of cook you are tbh so i'm going to leave that

also agree with your point about her self promo - for example i really wasn't a fan of the t shirts (?) they recently sold to raise money for us at the trussell trust but also like... it did still raise the money, and if a silly t shirt is what it takes to tempt the public into donating money for foodbanks then that's something i'm sort of willing to overlook? like not to be machiavelli on main but sometimes the ends do actually justify the means.like.

more generally i think far too often on tumblr/twitter/the internet in general, people throw out the baby with the bathwater and are obsessed with seeing things in black and white. like. we are not immanuel kant and we are capable of viewing people with compassion and nuance and it doesn't have to be a "this person is EVIL you should totally ignore every single thing that they do" or a "this person is a SAINT you should totally agree with every single thing they do".

and like you said: on the whole you agree with most of their tweets/articles, so i don't think it's worth completely disparaging her. that being said, yes i also don't think it's worth completely venerating her either. you just have to trust that people aren't unintelligent and can make informed decisions of their own.

i know you said that we shouldn't compare them but one day marcus rashford (who is only 24!) will probably say something or do something ~problematic at some point in the future, but in my mind - and within reason - i don't think that automatically unpicks or undermines every single good thing a person has done.

i think a lot of this is a case of someone getting a national platform they weren't expecting, and then not being able to handle it well. like she doesn't deal well with any sort of backlash, and their actions perhaps aren't thought-through because she's literally just some person who wasn't trained or prepared for this. maybe they should hire some sort of PR team now though, if they haven't already...

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

1. I don’t think it’s the fact the “gifting ceremony with one bad option” is a common trope (which tbh it really isn’t even in old fairytales? But w/e) it’s the fact it’s so obvious Rachel is just lifting ideas from her Disney+ account to pad the story out even more than even attempt to think up something creative or god forbid let Persephone have any sort of flaws to her. The whole comic is mind-numbingly unoriginal and insultingly watered down with the sleeping beauty ripoff as more proof of that

2. why is there more instances of rachel trying to use mythology sources to "confirm" hades has kids and persephone was the hottest goddess ever over being remotely accurate on the actual hymn or mythology of hades, persephone, demeter, etc. she even purposely cut off the hymn quote in the first episode to focus on hades giving her gifts and not mentioning persephone was scared/crying and wanted to go back to her mother. shes aware she's wrong but wants to pretend she's a good faith adaptation.

3. I don’t even think HxP retellings realize they’re doing this but the way they look at the myth and go “hmm, how do I fix this? Oh yes, I make Persephone change who she is and and adjust her whole world to be with Hades!” Is unintentionally saying they read this myth of her being kidnapped & forced into marriage and thought it was HER fault she wasn’t thrilled to be Hades’ wife and that SHE needs to change for it to work. It’s lowkey victim blaming her for not loving Hades after he hurt her.

4. Everyone talks about how regressed of a character Persephone is because RS insists on always walking back even a step of character development, but can we talk about how stagnant Hades is? He has not changed in literal years at this point. He’s still the same violent, entitled asshole he was at the start. He has learned nothing and yet we’re supposed to praise how much he’s “grown”? The only way he’s grown is RS once again not using a design sheet and making him 8 feet tall, not developing him.

5. saw a LO stan try to defend the age gap as "that's just how the culture was!" as if that makes it better. yeah maybe in ancient times but LO is supposed to be modern with modern values, so why would it go off a culture it's not apart of? Even then it acts as if people didn't disagree with stuff like that even back then? Ancient societies also had slavery, should we be ok with that and ignore the abolitionists back then too? Then again RS thinks Hades is "smart" for his eternal slavery so :/

6. baby persephone has an adult face but adult persephone has a baby face. someone make it make sense please.

7. Not only was RS trying to use the Niobe myth as "proof" Zeus wasn't being "fair" to Persephone (even though her actions were far worse)/demonize Apollo/trying to be an excuse to Persephone's actions, it's a complete misread of the actual myth. The whole point of the Niobe story was Apollo and Artemis realizing what they did was wrong and doing what they could to atone for their actions, but go figure RS would butcher another myth to push her illogical story along for Persephone's benefit.

8. Apparently there’s some app drama with WT India so I wanted to see if it also showed up on the American end … and the ENTIRE ad video for the app and promo images are just of “read LO!!!l and that’s it. Like can’t they even pretend to promote their other series? Why keep releasing new comics each week when they only going to focus on the same comic? tho even the ad material only focused on the stuff from 2018 once again, so more proof they don’t want new customers to see what it’s become 🙄

9. not Rachel's publisher seeing how everyone dunked on how bad the vol 2 cover was that they had to bring in a designer to do it for her 💀 also is it just me or is the logo theyre going with it now kinda ugly?? it sure doesnt fit the actual story at least

10. aint no way she made a BABY arch her back out like she makes her adult women do???? no im not claiming she's a ped0 for it but ma'am that's just WEIRD. baby persephone is a walking hate crime.

[xmint-conditionx]

art on exhibit | myg + jhs feat. knj

pairing: sugardaddy!hoseok x fem!reader, ceo!yoongi x fem!reader, brat!reader, sub!reader, dom!hoseok, dom!yoongi w/c: 5k but i feel like it should be so much longer for some reason smh summary: you and your sugar daddy, hoseok, are big fans of exhibitionism, but this is the craziest you’ve ever taken it. most of his prestigious party guests are jumping to get to get their hands on you. will you be able to handle it? tags/cw: 18+ please, smut, exhibitionism, voyeurism, remote controlled vibrator, almost reaching limits, spanking, marking, biting, ball gag, degradation (slut), praise, punishment, crying, light oral (f recieving), public humiliation, rope play, shibari, suspension, almost like being pimped out but u like it?, open relationship, hoseok is sort of protective tho, overstimulation, subspace, the orgasm nearly kills you, this one is real nasty, namjoon is just a guest appearance tbh but maybe later he doesn't have to be???

a/n: this thing has given me so much trouble by not appearing in tags. it didn't the first time i posted it on the old blog, and it hasn't been showing up this time either, so please feel free to give this one some extra love. also, honestly, i was sitting on this idea for a long! time! before i actually wrote it out. if i was spaced out in my last class of the day, i was probably thinking about this. i am almost proud and almost ashamed to share this with you all, lmao cause it's honestly a huge fantasy of mine. i’ve been really wanting to do a sugardaddy!hoseok thing for a while, and if you guys like this, then i think i can add more to the story. alright, y’all stay nasty. enjoy!

The ropes dig into the skin of your thighs ever so gently, and you close your eyes to listen to the din of the party that surrounds you. Guests only arrived 30 minutes ago, and you’re already dripping wet. This isn’t the first time you and Hoseok have done exhibitionism, but this is the farthest it’s ever been taken. Men and women in their best black tie attire surround you, glasses of his most expensive champagne in their hands. Not all of them are looking at you; some are too bashful to acknowledge your existence. Some only sneak glances when they think nobody else is looking. Few have come up and examined your entire naked frame, suspended from Hoseok’s ceiling in the middle of his entertainment space.

They’re examining you as if you were a piece of fine art; just another pretty and peculiar object that Hoseok has collected. You’re placed among some of his other art pieces - some Pollocks, some Dalis, some Picassos, and one O’Keefe - and somehow, you feel like you fit. That’s what Hoseok had said anyway. That since you were one of the most beautiful things he’s ever seen in his life, he wanted to feature you as the work of art you are. He chose to display you in his favorite way.

Red shibari rope surrounds each of your legs like a cage before confining your hands behind your back. The rope trails over your torso and is twisted and knotted around your exposed breasts, but not tightly. Just enough to accentuate your natural shape. Your legs are tied so that they remain apart, one held higher than the other to leave you fully exposed. Your stomach is facing the floor, but not entirely; Hoseok has tied you so that you’re almost lounging comfortably there, suspended in midair. The lines of rope flow with the form of your body, and even though all of your weight is pressed down onto them, the ropes are the soft and luxurious kind - no doubt expensive - that make you feel as though you could be floating instead.

Just then, your attention is jolted to your cunt, where his favorite black remote control vibrator has just been triggered. You clench around it, and your moan is muffled by the ball gag that is secured over your lips. When you open your eyes, he is standing solidly in front of you.

His black button up shirt and jacket combination is draped over his shoulders beautifully, and his shiny brown hair is parted in the middle. He looks incredible. Radiant. Sinful.

“You looked bored,” he says with a little smirk as he continues to let the vibrator run inside of you, “and we can’t have that… Perhaps I should turn it up.”

He twists a small knob on the remote and the vibrations steadily rise in frequency until they’re as high as they can go. A semblance of a scream escapes your lips behind the gag. You begin rocketing toward climax, but Hoseok knows you and your body too well. Just as you begin to feel the tingles spread over your body, he shuts it off, and your muscles immediately go lax from being tensed up and ready to come.

He laughs softly as you pant, and then takes a quick look around the room.

“You seem to have gathered some attention. That’s my good girl.”

Without another word, he pockets the remote, and you watch how his ringed fingers delicately pick up a flute of champagne from one of the server’s tray tables. Then he simply walks away. His immaculately shiny black shoes gently thud on the marble floor as he makes his way through the crowd, to presumably some other obscenely rich friend of his.

You feel a small amount of saliva about to peak over your bottom lip. You’ve been good about swallowing everything but it seems your denied orgasm has made you forgetful. Moments later, a small thread of your own spit runs out of your mouth and onto the floor. You know that you have been dripping from the other end too, and you wonder if any of the guests have just seen you drool on yourself.

As if to answer, Hoseok comes back from behind you and grabs you by the jaw. His face lights up when he confirms that you have made a mess of yourself. He turns to one of his guests and speaks.

“See, Namjoon?” he says, tilting your head up toward his guest so that he can see, “She’s incredible.”

You meet eyes with the guest, and put on your best innocent look. You love how a blush starts to creep up into his cheeks, and how his pillowy lips part slightly. Even though you’re bound from head to toe and easily the poorest person here, you feel like you’re the most powerful person in the room. The guest clears his throat and turns his attention back to Hoseok.

“How much was your price?” he asks.

Hoseok looks down at you, and a smirk begins to form on his plush lips.

“1,000 US Dollars. Per second,” he says, “Which charity will it be, then?”

You’d been the one to come up with the idea for the proceeds from the charity fundraiser to be benefitted by getting to control the vibrator. Hoseok loved it.

“Your education charity,” he says, “and I’ll take 30 seconds.”

Hoseok nods, “Do you want to go ahead and write the check now or do you want me to keep a tab running and let you know at the end of the evening?”

The tall man considers this, and looks back at you for a moment before answering, “keep it open, will you?”

“Alright, Mr. Kim. All yours,” Hoseok says as he fishes out the device from his suit pocket before turning to you, “Be good, you hear me? Don’t come until you have been given permission by either Mr. Kim or myself. Understood?”

You nod frantically as you watch the remote being transferred from Hoseok’s hands to Namjoon’s. The earlier flustered man turned more confident once he held the little black fob in his palm - quite a large palm now that you look at it closely. It would look so nice trailing up your thigh, you think. You look up at Namjoon and convey a pleading look, one that silently asks for mercy.

He does not give it.

With a small grin, he turns on the vibrator, and you scream (or try to) at the suddenness of the sensation. He spends his entire 30 seconds with the device in your pussy at full speed, and you can’t hold back your groaning. You clench around the bullet, and when his time is up, you feel beads of sweat starting to form on your brow from the exertion. You’re left a panting mess in front of him, Hoseok, and every other guest that has turned to watch you squirm.

Namjoon’s satisfied smile and nod encourages others in the room to have a turn. Before long, you see a few more guests make their way over to where you are hanging. This time it is a group of women.

“Hye-jin!” Namjoon exclaims, before he hugs the woman and offers a short to the three others that come over with her. She’s dressed in the most beautiful black form fitting dress you’ve ever seen. Her hourglass figure sways captivatingly in the gown, and you’re momentarily mesmerized by her figure. You look up at her and she’s smirking down at you; you were too distracted at the way the large jewels on her necklace fell over her collarbones to realize that they were already discussing you.

“I should have known it would be you to break the ice,” she says playfully to Namjoon, who just presses his lips together in resignation as he puts his hand to the back of his neck.

“How’s the comeback?” he asks casually, as if there isn’t a fully naked and exposed woman suspended in front of him. His ability to be so casual while you’re at the edge of your sanity shoots a ping of arousal through your body. You shiver slightly, and you catch Hoseok looking at you out of the corner of his eyes. He’d never admit it, but he cares about you a lot. You can tell he’s checking to make sure you aren’t getting ready to start snapping your fingers- the safe action you’d both agreed on to release you from the ropes and send you into his master suite. Even when he had walked over to find Namjoon, you know even then he wasn’t out of sight or earshot from you.

He had a clean and plush robe stowed away in the closet nearby, and was always ready to release you should you want to be. You’d worked together before the event to set up a space in his suite to go should you need to retire for the evening, and you caught him setting a hoodie of his on the side of the bed where you typically sleep. You’d always playfully taken them, either to flirt or to wear it (and only it) to encourage a round two. But he had never deliberately set one of them aside for your use. He knows you won’t be using it to flirt or to rouse him into more sex, so his little efforts to bring you as much comfort as possible had set alight something in your heart.

He really did take pride in taking good care of you. As a good sugar daddy should.

You’re yanked back to reality when the vibrator starts up again. You clench around it and feel a gush of wetness surge out at the sensation of it going at full blast. Just when you become used to the speed and lower your whining, you open your eyes to see the woman holding the remote this time, grinning down at you with full lips. She meets your gaze and turns it up all the way, which makes you tense up every last one of your muscles. The woman next to her with long, light hair and a wicked gaze, whispers something to her while eyeing you up and down. It then occurs to you that you weren’t paying attention and don’t know how much time she purchased.

As the seconds tick by, they feel like hours. With the device at full speed, you feel yourself closing in on a climax, and so you squeeze your eyes shut and brace yourself for the orgasm that is about to rip through your body…

She turns it down to the lowest setting and watches as you groan at the second denial crushes you. More saliva drips down your chin as she switches it off, leaving you with only the beads of sweat that cling to your skin.

“Thank you, Hoseok. Worth every penny,” Hye-jin says, handing the remote back to him.

Hoseok beams his thousand-watt smile at her, and congratulates her on both the success of Maria, her solo album, and then thanks her for her donation.

She thanks him in return, and both women walk back into the crowd. Namjoon has also gone, which just leaves you with Hoseok again. His eyes meet yours for a moment, and you see a fire in them that you’ve never seen before. You’re dangling about waist height, and you can’t help but to look down from his face to try to see if you can make out a bulge. You don’t get time to really look, because as soon as you break eye contact, he moves to your back and smacks your ass cheek hard. A loud thwack echoes throughout the large space, over the din of the partygoers. You inhale sharply at the sting, and let your breath back out in a long groan, drawing the attention of more guests. You knew that the champagne would loosen inhibitions eventually.

You hear the footsteps of a couple other guests walking toward you from behind where Hoseok stands. You crane your head to try to see over your shoulder, but they stand just out of your peripheral vision. They’re talking in low voices, and you can’t make out what they’re saying. You wish you could swing yourself around and look at them, but knowing that the only thing they can see of you is your dripping cunt, you’re not so mad.

You feel a hand on your thigh, a touch you’re familiar with. You know it’s Hoseok’s hand, as he gently trails up your inner thigh, purposefully teasing you. An involuntary shiver runs through your body and you can’t help but to whimper slightly. You hear a man’s chuckle, and then he’s speaking, again too low for you to hear.

Hoseok uses his grip on your inner thigh to spin you around so that you’re facing the group of men. Namjoon has come back, this time with what appears to be a friend in tow.

“Baby girl,” Hoseok’s voice says gently, and you look up to meet his gaze, “Yoongi here has just asked if he may touch you.” Your eyes widen at the thought, remembering how just Hoseok’s hand trailing up your thigh had your toes curling. You look up at the new guest, and see only a cold and stone-like expression. His eyes seem to bore right through you, and directly into your cunt. You’re momentarily mesmerized under his heavy stare, before you slowly nod your head.

“Yoongi here has just generously donated one million dollars to one of my charities, so do you know what that means?” he asks you, not expecting an answer, “How long is one thousand seconds?”

“Sixteen minutes and 40 seconds,” Yoongi says, not breaking eye contact from you, “If I’m correct.”

If your mouth could drop, it would. Namjoon, looking up from his phone, just nods nonchalantly.

Hoseok asks the man what he has asked everyone else: if they would like to keep a running tab or if they would like to write a check now. Yoongi reaches into his back pocket and pulls out what you assume to be his checkbook. With rings glittering in the lighting of the room, his hand swiftly fills it out. He rips it out and extends it to Hoseok.

“I won’t be needing more time.”

His cool confidence in saying this small phrase makes your stomach drop.

Hoseok grips your chin and tilts your head up. “Remember, baby girl, don’t come until you’re told to. You want to be on your best behavior for Mr. Min. Trust me.”

He speaks sternly and then releases your jaw, trailing his hand back to stroke your messy hair, before settling on your two hands secured behind your back and giving them a light squeeze. A silent reminder of your out, should you need it.

This Yoongi must be… a force to be reckoned with.

“Your time starts now,” Hoseok says, tapping his phone screen. You squeeze shut your eyes and brace yourself for the abrupt shock of the vibrations, but seconds pass, and they don’t come. You gingerly open your eyes and look up at the man standing above you, toying with the remote. He regards it with vague interest, and then he flicks up his eyes to look at you. Your heart stops for a moment, as he begins to rake his onyx eyes over your body. He purses his lips slightly and begins walking around you, all too slowly.

Even though he has disappeared from your view, you can feel his eyes on you. Your anxiousness grows as he remains out of your sight longer, and this is no doubt intentional. It seems as if he picked up your unease earlier when he first approached.

This guy is good.

You’re so on edge, that the light vibrations that begin in your cunt still surprise you. He turned the vibrator on to its lowest setting, but these low and slow vibrations still make you have a sharp intake of breath. He finally arrives back to your front and seems pleased at your reaction. He squats down so that his face is level with yours.

“What a good girl you are,” he muses, lips parted, tongue playing with the inside of his cheek, “I hope Hoseok here treats you well. You seem… pent up.”

At those last two words, he revs up the vibrations slightly, causing you to let out a small moan. He stands and puts the remote in his pocket. You watch as he gently rolls up his sleeves to the elbow, his forearm flexing as he fixes them. Your hungry stare betrays you.

“Is she always like this?” he asks Hoseok, almost laughing at you. “God, she’s desperate.” He looks at you. “Does Hobi not fuck you enough, little girl?”

Your eyes widen at the implications, and you furiously shake your head no, trying to convey as much as you can with your eyes alone. He just chuckles.

“Loyal,” he says, “I like that.” He looks back up at Hoseok. “Is your agreement exclusive, or is there room in her life for a second... benefactor?” You look up at your sugar daddy, eyes wide with what he might say. He’s just standing there, arms folded over his chest, as if he were discussing the weather or the stock market.

“I’m afraid she’s all booked up for the foreseeable future, unfortunately,” he says cooly but firmly, a little bit of edge to his voice.

“Pity,” Yoongi says, taking a step toward you, “I could think of a million good ways to take up her time.”

“You’ve got 14 minutes left,” is all Hoseok says in response, a definite sharpness to his tone. You’ve only heard this type of voice from him when you’re being particularly bratty. You rarely hear him this stern.

The vibrations quicken slightly, and you can tell from your frequent use that the device is at about its medium speed.

Yoongi takes his hand and reaches out to your back, and with a featherlight touch, begins to trace next to where the ropes lie. He keeps working down your back, and gently trails down your bare ass cheek and ghosts against your pussy. You can feel the heat from his hand, impossibly close to touching you. You hold your head back and try to look at him as you whine out a plea.

“Eyes straight ahead, little girl,” he says, and you comply reluctantly, flopping your head forward dramatically as you sigh. His hand grabs hold of your thigh, and squeezes it so hard you’re sure you’ll find a bruise there in the morning. “And lose the attitude.”

You whimper as he releases your thigh, and goes back to delicately running his fingertips up to your core. He stops just short of your cunt, and you desperately want him to just touch you. You flex your back and buck your hips in order to push yourself onto where you know his hand is. Your clit makes contact with his hand, and as soon as you feel it connect, you feel it missing. Not even a moment later, a sharp sting spreads across your ass, and you clench around the vibe.

“What a greedy little slut you are. Do you always misbehave this much?”

You turn your head back to look at him, and as you meet his eyes, you can see he begins to fume.

“Namjoon, keep her head straight. Someone's not listening.”

You turn your head back around and Namjoon is quickly grabbing your jaw firmly in his hand. Your eyes meet his, and his earlier show of no mercy seems to still be intact. You feel Yoongi’s hand soothe the soreness he just created, only to once again reel back and give the same spot another firm smack, just as hard as the first one.

You cry into the ball gag and the shockwave from his hit sends you slightly swinging forward into Namjoon’s belt. Even though the vibrator is only at medium speed, you feel yourself beginning to get close to a climax. Your moans get longer and higher, and your body tenses to prepare for it. You hear Yoongi behind you.

“Don’t.”

You know exactly what he means. You focus on your breathing and furrow your brow in an attempt to stave off your orgasm. It’s working, but barely. He turns up the vibrations and you cry out again, your head shaking as much as Namjoon’s firm grip will allow.

“Don’t.”

You distance yourself from the situation, distracting yourself with thinking about schoolwork. The essay you’re currently writing. How the rough draft needs to be done by tomorrow night. You need three more in-text citations to make --

His hand is against your clit, and he’s rubbing at an agonizingly slow pace, with just enough pressure for you to want more. You inhale sharply and work harder to distract yourself.

You have two of the quotes picked out, but you need to finalize the third one to really hammer in your point. Maybe you can spend tomorrow morning reading --

His lips graze over the ass cheek he tortured earlier, your smarting skin responding sharply to the gentle contact. He gives you a soft kiss, and then you feel a sharp pain as he sinks his teeth into your already ruined ass.

Your eyes fly open and you make desperate eye contact with Namjoon, trying to show him that you can’t last much longer. Thankfully, this Namjoon is a perceptive man, and he looks from you to Yoongi.

“She can’t take much more, Yoongi.”

“Good,” he says, breath grazing over where he just bit as he speaks. “Come, slut.”

For the first time tonight, your orgasm peaks and rips out of you. Your whole body trembles with the sensation, and you feel his pressure on your clit increase to see you through. The orgasm is hard, and long, and it leaves you with tears streaming down your cheeks, mascara running wildly. You’re coming down slowly, and you feel his hand pull away. Before you realize it, he is standing in front of you again. Namjoon releases you, and your head hangs lifelessly as you pant.

Yoongi stands directly in front of you again, and you find yourself staring at his expensive shoes. You’re completely spent. Post orgasm bliss spreads throughout your muscles, and then, a slight discomfort. You realize what it is: the vibrator is still going.

You squirm lazily and whine at the sensation, it being too much. Yoongi squats down and gently lifts up your head by the chin. Your exhausted eyes meet his, and he clicks his tongue.

“Aw, are you all sensitive now?” he asks gently, in an almost patronizing tone. You don’t care. You nod sleepily.

“Is the vibrator too much, little girl?” You nod once more, eyes fluttering shut.

“Then use your safeword gesture,” he says, almost as if it’s a dare. "Go on. Snap."

If he’s not done with you, then you’re not done. You open your eyes and look directly at him as if to say “challenged accepted.”

Without moving his eyes from yours, he cranks up the vibrations until you’re whimpering again.

“Six more minutes,” you hear Hoseok say from beside you.

“Plenty of time,” Yoongi replies without skipping a beat. “I think we can get three more in. One every two minutes? Surely a slut like you will have no problem with that, since you wanted to come so badly earlier.”

You groan at the ache in your cunt, and at the slight displeasure the vibrator is causing. Yoongi stands again and walks back behind you, and this time you know better than to move your head to look.

Soon the vibrations begin to feel pleasurable again, and you’re having a hard time keeping your moans quiet.

“Atta girl,” you hear Yoongi say from behind you, “Your next one’s already coming isn’t it? You greedy little thing. You’re going to ruin Hoseok’s nice floors with your slick. And in front of all these people?”

Just like that, you’re reminded that you have an audience. Quite a large one. You open your eyes to see just about every guest’s gaze glued to your straining form. The heat bubbles in your abdomen as your next climax rushes toward you.

“You may come again,” is all Yoongi says as you’re thrown off the edge again. As soon as you begin to recover from this one, he ups the vibrator to full speed. You scream into the ball gag at the overstimulation, and cry out as tears spill out of your eyes. It’s entirely too much, but you love it. Before you realize it, another orgasm rips through your body, almost as if it were a continuation of the last one.

He doesn’t miss this though, and spreads your ass cheeks apart so he can get a better view. At this point, you’re not sure if you can do another one. You feel as though you might pass out if you come again. But the overstimulation is so overwhelming that you can only think of reaching one more high. You tense your entire body and try to get another one, but your muscles are so spent that you can’t stay tense for long. After a few more tries, you just sigh and hang limply, your limbs heavy and tired. You hang on the edge of climax, being able to see the other side, but not being able to go there.

Mascara tears stain your cheeks from exertion, and you are well and truly spent. You give up.

But you don’t snap your fingers.

Yoongi fastens his lips over your aching clit, and sucks. Just like that, you feel your orgasm building again so you clench, desperately trying to claim it; this time, you reach it.

It tears through you like a slow strike of lightning. You feel yourself shaking as it takes its time fracturing within you. It grows white hot in your belly, and it’s as if every cell in your body has been burned alive. All of the energy you have left is spent thrashing in the ecstasy of your orgasm, and for a few seconds, you know nothing else but the pleasure.

You find yourself deep in subspace, practically dead to the world. You don’t even have the energy to open your eyes. You barely register Hoseok as he begins untying the ropes around your hands, getting assistance from both Namjoon and Yoongi. You feel his hands as he releases your ball gag and caresses your face as he asks if you’re okay. You give the tiniest nod, and he wraps your limp form tightly in his arms as the two men finish unwrapping your legs. He swoops down and sweeps your legs up to carry you bridal style away from the party.

The next thing you know is the soft and cool silk of his sheets enveloping you as he lays you down. You exist there for a time, every nerve ending in your body tingling as you drift off.

You wake some time later to hear quiet chatting. You inhale and breathe in the musky scent of Hoseok’s favorite cologne. You find yourself curled around the hoodie he left for you. As you slowly open your eyes, you can just make out the time on the nightstand clock. It’s almost 3 AM; the fundraiser had to have ended over four hours ago. You breathe slowly and close your eyes again so you can focus on the voices in the room.

You hear Hoseok straight away; his tone is forever instantly familiar to you. The way his normal speaking rhythm is a little sloppy with alcohol. In reply is a voice you more recently became acquainted with. The voice who you last heard giving you permission to come. It’s a little bit more rough now, a Daegu accent slipping out in his intoxication. The third one takes you by surprise. A low and calm voice. Lower than you’d ever suspected possible, from hearing him speak this evening. Even still, Namjoon’s even tone is a rumble you can make out.

You sit up slowly, not wanting the blood to rush to your head. You were sleeping hard. Your dry mouth guarantees that. At your movement, the three men stop their talking and look over at you. Hoseok is the first to set down his glass and walk over to you. His black tie is gone and so is his jacket. His collar is wide open, showing off his tanned chest behind the many unfastened buttons. He gets on his knees next to the bed and reaches for your hands. Once he finds them, his brow is creased with worry, as he brings your hands up to his lips.

“Are you alright, baby girl?” he asks into your hands. You still have the weight of sleep over you, so you don’t respond right away.

“She had her gesture, Hoseok. She could have used it,” you hear Yoongi say, and you look in his direction. He sits with his legs spread, glass of whiskey hanging off of his fingers. Your eyes meet, and even though he’s trying to seem impertinent and uncaring, there’s a tinge of worry and guilt in his eyes. You glance to Namjoon and see that his worry is more plainly stated.

Hoseok caresses your cheek and turns you back to facing him. His eyes plead for an answer. So you give it.

“Yes,” you say, voice raspy, “I’m alright. I feel great, actually.” Hoseok visibly relaxes and you hear Yoongi across the room mutter an “I told you so” to Namjoon.

“He didn’t push you too hard?” Hoseok asks.

“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” you reply smugly, meeting Yoongi’s eyes, “But he did well and truly wear me out... Clearly."

You chuckle as Hoseok covers your hands in a million tiny kisses.

“Perhaps I do need to step my game up,” he teases, “I’ve never seen you so fucked out.”

“Nothing a good nap can’t fix,” you tease back. He smiles up at you, and you once again get lost in his brightness and warmth. “Mind if I join you all for a drink?”

“Of course not, baby girl,” Hoseok says, “I’ll go get your robe--”

“Don’t bother,” you say, wiggling into his hoodie and pulling the hood up and over your hair, “but you can go get me a glass.”

[1d-discourseoftheday]

💙 Tues 5 Jan ‘21 💚

Is today's biggest story really a pair of socks I mean WHY NOT am I right, that may as well happen! With impeccable timing, as the fandom and the world went bananas about Ho-livia WildStyle (a drag queen name for the ages right there), the first of the limited edition TPWK socks that people ordered basically on blind faith (you fully couldn't tell what they were going to look like at all on the website, and now we know why lmao) have arrived with a bang: they seemed to come with either blue or pink hearts, but in fact it turns out you get one of two color combos, either pink and white or, uh: BLUE AND GREEN HEARTS. I'm not one to carry on about like jeans and a green shirt or what have you but this is a CHOICE, and if the antis don't have performative burnings of their evil larrie merch honestly WHAT is the POINT; the resale market of the limited edition socks is already booming though so there's always that option, if either side can bear to conduct business across the divide. My question is, did they really time it to play out this precisely on purpose? Unlikely tbh, but if that's a thing they're capable of I have some THOUGHTS about the way other Harry merch takes like 4 months to arrive...

Larrie socks aside however, the real discourse continues to be about you-know-what, with the players out there fanning the flames wildly. There's too much nonsense to bother with it all (the quoted sources in the articles directly contradicting each other's stories also makes it difficult) so let's just... *spins wheel*....okay I landed on 'tabloids say Harry's wedding speech talked about his girlfriend Olivia' here goes. Sjksdfjks WHY would you be talking about your girlfriend of three weeks in a speech for your close friends' wedding, OMG, how uncomfortable and inappropriate is that?? Imagine if any of this were real, that Harry ('I'd take my time and make sure a thing was serious before telling people about it', end quote, I mean that's ALSO a stunt quote (oh the layers) but just pointing out that it's contradictory) starts dating his co-worker who just got out of a huge relationship and is also a famous person with presumably an interest in privacy, and immediately the two of you get to work setting up a big reveal to happen right away (even in a weird fantasy world where any of this is real the possibility that JEFF AZOFF'S WEDDING had the paps present for any other reason than to do EXACTLY what they were told is flat impossible- what pap or celeb outlet can afford to be on Jeff's bad list?!) and then he casually writes her into his speech (a guy who's so anxious and shy about public speaking and what to say that he begs people to write speeches for him and practices endlessly) uh huh, sure Jan. There are so many things about this that are ludicrous, but more to the point, none of the things they're saying hold up to scrutiny any better than this. There just isn't any point in taking them that seriously though; Harry is a closeted artist and, just like the many queer artists that came before him who he repeatedly reminds us are his icons, he both lets us know all day every day in a million ways that he's queer, and also plays the industry game and winkingly gives the press their Straight Guy Harry fodder. You don't have to like it, or indeed anything at all in this world, but people do need to accept that whether they like it or not is neither the point nor anyone (including Harry)'s responsibility to respond to or do anything about.

Like I said I can't cover every detail but! I always have a little space for the absurd: today, our best entrant is the possibility that the whole wedding we saw was a sham– fans ask, was this public spectacle Jeff and Glenne's actual wedding? Listen if anyone would be up for it it would be this crew, and if they did stage it I'm sure they had a good laugh! Suspicion has been cast on Glenne's dress (allegedly an untailored 2018 off the rack number), the small guest list (wouldn't they just wait and have a huge event?), and the fact that they invited paps there at all. It would make the no explanation robe pics EVEN FUNNIER though if you imagine that was for our benefit but left totally unadressed (undressed). ANYWAY Don't Worry Darling filming is back in business and Harry was papped some more today, out for a casual not at all pap walk hike with a work associate and multiple items of his own merch (including an unreleased hoodie design.) On the topic of DWD, sometimes a different perspective can be interesting-- for example considering whether Harry is the point of all this at all? Or is he but a bit player in the real DWD publicity drama, an elaborate and very public dramatic reconciliation between Olivia and her ex husband? Either way, he's neither a clueless dupe, a helpless pawn, or anyone's 'boy toy', so please: can we rein in the hand wringing and pointless Olivia bashing a bit?

Let's talk about something else shall we? For example! Liam's setlist, just released for the upcoming LP Show Act 4. Look at that song selection! Fireproof! Strong!! Through The Dark!! More exciting 1D faves! Plus Slow and Home With You off his EP, NICE, singles and more, it looks awesome. The Hugo Man fragrance relaunch is less exciting, featuring the dopiest possible articles full of chat about his skin care routine (oh shucks I'm just  manly man, I don't have one at all... *names two products and refers to 'multiple moisturizers'*), trademark accidental candor (“I’m quite tired!”), and of course trying to describe a fragrance, always an entertaining gymnastics (“every time I spray it, it kind of takes me back to being on that rooftop in Berlin”), but also there are manly new pics of Lia.

A new song Niall co-wrote is coming out! The JC Stewart song, Break My Heart, will be out this Fri! Charlie Lightening posted pics from a year ago on the Walls music video set, featuring an intent Louis in the sun (and fashion voter underrated excellent Looks), and Louis commented on Dave Allen's post (“top man!”)-- the famous boxer is offering to help friends through lockdown by facetiming 3or 4 people a day for home workouts, damn, and also aww. That shitty Doncaster secondary school turned out some really sweet dudes, against all odds tbh. With Los Angeles experiencing some of the worst COVID surges we've seen since the beginning of the pandemic, Grammys organizers have elected to postpone the (already limited) ceremony. Originally scheduled for Jan 31 it is now TBA, tentatively for March. Harry's stalker, who menaced him in and near his London home in 2019, is being charged with violating his restraining order by attempting to contact Harry via social media, Global Fund for Women thanked Harry for donating, and HLDaily and other accounts were suspended for posting pap pics, always a risk, but one trick potato Jeff is on the job; HSD is back up and running, cause they can't have a proper stunt season without their most faithful mouthpieces. Niall continues to vote for himself on twitter threads about what to listen to in the New Year.

[supercorp-hosie]

Josie and Lizzie personality, dynamics and popularity in reality

I've kind of done this before, like in my thoughts for 315. Now, I've made some additions to them, so I think why not start a new post? There are some points that remained the same with my thoughts for 315 and I've integrated some points from my rating of the writing of Legacies characters too.

Starting from Alaric being an absent father since the twins were 11. Caroline wasn’t there either. What’s left for Lizzie? Josie.

Josie had to handle herself and Lizzie alone. Sure Alaric might not always be absent, but the intensity of Lizzie’s perspective begs to differ. Josie had to understand Bipolar at a very young age; be there when Lizzie had her outburst; constantly checks on Lizzie to take her meds; digest the emotion impacts after the outburst; understand how Lizzie functions when she was down. None of that are easy. No one asks about how Josie feels. How she pent out? What does she need? Josie might feel the need to be not needing things and always be good so that she can get the love and attention from Alaric (in s1, Josie felt the need to lose the game to get on Alaric good side). As results, she just started to suppress her voice and her needs, because Lizzie needed them the most. Over time or years of suppressing in front of her dearest family, she most likely felt unneeded by her parents, and forgettable to her parents (the girl so quiet that her parents forget about her, the girl that Penelope won’t fight for anymore). She needed to feel needed, so she just let Lizzie take all of her, from whom she felt needed the most. It started a vicious cycle for the twins, shaped their dynamics and how Josie is in present days. Unfortunately, her problems were never solved, they accumulated, leaving the good and dark side from Josie being so separated and unbalanced, as no one has helped her to sort them out. The inner turmoil is always there, leading to the extreme polarity of Josie’s good and bad side.When she’s doing bad, she would be especially aggressive than she needed to be because that’s an instinct to compensate the lack of action before. After long suppression, once being released, the instinct would be stronger than usual and more uncontrollable. Under the influence of dark magic, Dark Josie felt like another personality taking over the whole Josie and protect their interests that true Josie are neglecting. Kind of like dissociative identity disorder but not really it? Fear the dog that doesn't bark.

From Lizzie perspective, we can see how she perceived Josie when they were little. Like Lizzie being princess but Josie being her android, personal valet? It just showed that after what Josie had endured and done, Lizzie thought of herself being princess but didn’t think Josie as her equal? Like Josie was programmed to bow to Lizzie. That’s the twins dynamic showing, partly Josie's mistake, but Josie deserved more than that, even when she’s derogatory to herself, Lizzie should uphold that for her. What really warms me from the Android situation, is that from how Josie is the combination of two Androids, showing that Lizzie actually looked up to Josie. For Lizzie, Josie can really take care of her so well that Lizzie can count Josie as her personal valet. Derogatory, yes, but that place is also very important to prince and princess. Remember that Lizzie can’t cook but Josie is like expert in cooking or baking? The knowledge for Android part means that in Lizzie’s mind, Josie actually is like the person who knows everything. Usually that figure should be our parents, but for Lizzie, Josie knows the answer to all. The fact that the special sword was in Josie’s thigh the whole time, just show the trust that Lizzie had in Josie. The security of her needs that Lizzie got from Josie and the validation Josie got from Lizzie, it’s kind of how the codependency between them works. Lizzie voices, Josie listens; Lizzie wants, Josie gives.

About Lizzie mental illness, after my research, I think that Lizzie situation is more like borderline personality disorder rather than bipolar. Lizzie has this low self-esteem issue, she sees herself lowly sometimes. Evidently, she always thinks that she had to better herself more, even in 310 where she misjudged Finch, she forgot the fact that she had improved a lot along the seasons and just go straight to a retreat, because she thinks she’s still a very bad person. A second before she saw herself like holy almighty, the next second she saw herself so bad that she was like the person in season one (and even in season one she wasn’t that bad). However, we can also see Lizzie thinks very highly of herself sometimes, or uses a narcissistic attitude to cover up her insecurities regarding her self-image, they just doesn't match with people's view of it. The most alarming one must be the whole thing about her funeral. It's clear that she hasn’t had a stable self-image of herself, which is more of a personality disorder rather than Bipolar, a mood disorder. About Lizzie’s mood swings, they are too sudden, abrupt, it triggers by events and the outcome of the trigger is quite immediate. As for Bipolar, the mood swing is more of a consistent cycle, not abrupt. Yes, events might trigger something, but they take time to set in. Patients will be overly energetic during maniac while feeling overly fatigue during the depression state. They can’t actually control their mood, it’s a mood disorder.

Tbh, the twins really have their personality issues to deal with. I totally agree with other about them being each other's foil. Like Lizzie being the one in between, while Josie being the one in extreme. Turning out that under the mean girl cover, Lizzie has such big heart; while Josie being the model sister on the extremely good side, turning out that she can be extremely dark. For real, they had like six personalities as a whole. The polarity in Josie; the polarity of Lizzie's self-image; plus the twins themselves being the foil and mirage to each other. They both have serious mental problems, Lizzie's apparent, Josie's invisible.

How does these reflect on their relationship? People would choose to get along with someone like Josie, they benefit from her habit of caring, listening, giving, and she doesn’t seem to have serious problem. As for Lizzie, people mostly like to be heard and to not be covered by another voice, they would want enough reciprocation, a habit which Lizzie is not that familiar. Not to mention, having a mental condition being well-known is not the best trait for strangers to start a new friendship or relationship. Moreover, when people observe their dynamic, they jump to conclusion rather quickly, that Lizzie is always taking things from Josie; she doesn’t care for Josie, etc. It doesn’t help Lizzie much as Josie tends to hide under that too, as being quiet is kind of a routine for her. She wants the spotlight but habitual instincts make her tend to hide from the spotlight. Therefore, as for popularity,Josie is definitely at the top, adored dearly by her peers, thus won an election herself wasn’t even running; while Lizzie, you know. Between a dog that always barks and one that doesn't bark, which will you choose? (not derogatory) However, if someone attack Lizzie, Josie will still protect her, like she did tell Penelope to leave Lizzie alone.

To shed light on Josie’s jealousy, it rooted from the abandonment issues of the twins. It is a consequence of them being Alaric’s second choice and the absence of Caroline. For Lizzie, the issue remains with only Hope, Alaric’s betrayal for Hope in her fanfics; in 314, people prioritising Hope over her is very triggering; even in 316, the heavenly state she’s in because Ethan asked her out after the whole "Hope is perfect" speech, indicate that how she can’t believe someone would choose her over Hope. As she never thinks that she can hold a competition against Hope and win. Lizzie’s abandonment issue is minimal because of the presence of Josie, it provides the security in Lizzie’s life, as she is the first choice for Josie.

The abandonment issue is worse for Josie. Even if Josie is Lizzie blind spot, this part of Lizzie is not usually make known of. Josie would feel that she is second choice to everyone, including Lizzie. Like the personal valet that has no needs? Lizzie is just 11, but 11 is an important age in shaping people’s security in a relationship. Josie couldn’t have got much security from all her important relationship, hence the abandonment issues. She always feels helpless in them, afraid to voice her needs, desperately needed recognition from her parents which is probably very few. She needs control but she didn’t know the way to get it, so she got none. The insecurities heighten when it comes to her love life, making her easily provoked if she saw something she didn’t like. Results from the habitual quietness, her way of defending herself and gaining control is to lower her competition, like hurting the girl hitting on Landon, being hostile to Hope. She hated Penelope for abandoning her, she remained control mostly, when provoked, Josie’s abandonment issues and the insecurities in being the second choice were triggered so badly that she set her on fire. The time she did what she need to do, she overdid it, because her dark side needs to compensate what hadn't been done to protect oneself and tend to the needs – to balance out the imbalance. As she loses more control over the issue while desperately wants to suppress the need of control, the polarity in her keeps worsening and the dark side of her keeps surfacing.

This is why Josie is written to embrace and take care of herself, tend to her needs, like her never need to better herself. Lizzie is written to constantly better herself when she seems like a better person than Josie. Josie’s issues root from years of neglecting her needs, while Lizzie has years of habit of ignorance on how to care when she does care. Therefore, Josie taking care of herself = bettering herself, providing a balance in her so her mental can be stable even when provoke. If Lizzie cannot construct a good self-image, while getting positive feedback to reassure her self-image disparity, she can never overcome her personality disorder. Hence bettering herself to meet her own needs.

Their behaviours as presented are cultivated and shaped by each other under the unhealthy circumstances of their household. It is not logical to only accuse of one twin regarding their behaviours to each other without bringing the other twin and their parents into consideration.

@legacies-supremacy I still remember our twins dynamic discussion, I hope this bring my response as a whole. Btw, you kind of said that in 106, Josie tell Lizzie to go to their party without her several times and Lizzie waited for her? It's not true.

Regarding the whole situation, Josie spent all her time helping Lizzie get ready. When Lizzie is done, she said, "You’re not even dressed, I don’t want to be late on my own party." Josie said, "I’m done, I’ll catch up with you, okay?" Then Lizzie take off to the party and enter without Josie without question. After wearing the talisman, Penelope appeared. She expresses her desire to continue to make Lizzie uncomfortable or unhappy or angry. Josie wanted Penelope to ease up on Lizzie. Penelope said, "You have crawled so far down the codependence rabbit hole that you think taking care of yourself is selfish. Party starts in five. It’s a shame you spent all of that time helping Lizzie get ready." When Josie was dressed, she needed someone to help her braid, so for once she try something out of desire, she goes to Josette Laughlin. When Josette asked her whether Josie will be late to her own party, Josie said, "no one will notice". She expressed her thought that if Lizzie knew about her crush on Rafael too, the situation will look bad, so she kept silent.

During the party, Lizzie immediately enjoyed herself with MG. They had flirty moves with each other (i think). Once the soft music set in, she immediately changed partner. Penelope was the only one that notice Josie was no where to be seen (meanwhile Josie was getting buried alive). While Alaric encountered Hope to save Josie, Penelope is still the only one actively searching for Josie without request. After Hope met with MG and Penelope, the three of them started saving Josie together. Meanwhile Rafael told Lizzie the truth that he still hadn't moved on. Lizzie seemed like she was starting to melt down, and started asking for Josie. Hope, Penelope and MG saved Josie without Lizzie.

It is what it is, and I'm not blaming Lizzie. The whole getting buried alive thing just kind of enhanced Josie's feeling bad of getting what she desired. I kind of remember that she said that for once she listened to people urging her to pursue her desires and it ended up getting herself buried. Then Penelope like rewarded her with a kiss.