#there's also something to be said about how fake the cgi blood looks and how liberally used the slow mo is

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

Okay okay, you all might've noticed I'm hyperfixating on 2010 Spartacus again. Here are some scattered thoughts on it, and also a desperate attempt to get my followers to watch it.

This show was so ahead of its time, guys. If this show came out today, the fandom would be insane I'm telling you. A Starz original series about slaves starting an uprising that's literally all about mostly naked men fighting and killing each other in the most brutal, bloody, hyper-masculine ways, but then also fucking each other and no one bats an eye because it's Rome? And also the main gay couple are the only characters that live at the end??? And go start a goat farm?? It's like an uno reverse bury your gays. It's a bury your straights. Bury your everyone but the gays.

Alright a decent amount of gays die as well, but not the mains!!

The fandom would be in the trenches. There would be Barca/Auctus vs Barca/Pietros ship wars. We'd be rioting over the Ashur reboot right now because it's not the nagron on their goat farm show we all wanted. I'm telling you this shit would rival Our Flag Means Death in its cultural impact.

I mean, it's also a pretty poignant show with great themes on freedom and humanity as well, but that's a whole other post.

[submalevolentgrace]

i've been thinking a lot about gunpla lately, hell i am so gunplilled all i can think about is gunpla, but like it's good to have a hobby right? whenever i say that i just keep remembering "i think it's great you have a hobby" which is a line this guy says to his girlfriend about her getting involved in the women's lib movement aka 2nd wave feminism, it's from this like 60's british crime drama about a gay gangster, i think it might be based on a real guy and his autobiography? it's such a brutal belittling of her involvement that she sleeps with the female student he's having an affair with, and the main character is played by that guy, he's not the one that says the hobby line to his girlfriend btw that's a side character and the main character is gay as i said, he's played by that guy, you know, he's been in a bunch of stuff, he was the power hungry bad guy in shazam and also the power hoarding bad guy in john carpenter of mars, which i only know because i literally just watched it tonight with my girlfriend, because she got a new ereader recently right and it has access to all these public domain books for free, so she was reading princess of mars and i was like oh i have heard of that, did you know they made a bad movie from it, so we watched it and yeah it was pretty bad, bad acting bad cgi bad like structural editing, so my gf was then telling me all about how the movie butchered the book, which by the way she wasn't even super hot keen on, but she did point out that it has a cohesive theme about war and turning away from violence and how important it is that it's on mars, mars the god of war, theme of war etc, and the movie butchered it so bad and also it wasn't even called john carter of mars, just john carter, because the marketing team, apparently, decided nobody would see it if it had mars in the title because hollywood is just insanely dumb and it didn't matter because nobody saw it anyway, and apparently there were 2 sequels planned and got cancelled when it bombed and last year the director talked about those sequel plans, which i guess got it into search term lists or something because, and this is so fucked up about our modern culture and it makes my blood boil, if you lookup "john carter trailer" on youtube there's a fuckton of videos titled "john carter 2 teaser trailer" with the same thumbnail that are just, complete lies, there is no sequel or trailer, they just exist to literally bait your clicks and hopefully get ad revenue, because nothing matters anymore, you know i read a thing a while ago about someone struggling with centrelink's bullshit to get unemployment payments, and their job services people kept telling them they needed to be a productive member of society, but their last job had literally been doing mail merge setups for spam email for some shady startup that was almost certainly a scam, and they were just exhausted by like, the system punishing them for quitting that job when it was literally anti-productive, literally making society worse, and that's all those fake trailer videos are, that's all most of the internet is now, but we're still here, still struggling, so much struggling, i am always struggling,

did you know when i spoke to my gp like probably 7 years ago now about getting a referral for adhd assessment, she literally said to my face, this woman with a medical degree, "i don't know why you'd think you need that, you have no problem sitting still in the waiting room", and i was speechless, but i composed myself and begged her to write the referral anyway, and she did except it wasn't for adhd, it was for [redacted] that everyone told me i had but everyone was scared of even touching, and i knew any psych that saw that would rush right past even looking at adhd and nobody was helping with [redacted], so when i saw my copy of the referral cc'd in an email back to me i called her up and was like hey this isn't what i need, i need adhd referral, and she legit said "but dealing with [redacted] is much more important, it could cause you serious bodily damage and even cost you your life if we don't address it" which was the most real and honest thing a doctor had said, so ofc i was like yes fuck it might! that's what i've been saying! so are you finally going to start looking into treatment?? and she said "no, treatment is bad, you could become drug dependent" and i was like, limit my scripts then, do a monitored trial, come on. do something. there was this back and forth like, so you acknowledge it exists and need treatment? yes. and you acknowledge that without treatment it could harm or even kill me? yes. so what treatment is available? oh i can't give you treatment that's dangerous. and i just, couldn't even cope anymore. i stopped seeing that doctor at all, i didn't have a doctor to see. i called the psych i was referred to and they told me they wouldn't see me, taking on a patient with [redacted] would be too risky for their professional reputation. timelines are fuzzy to me, but i'm almost certain that in under a year from that going down i'd end up in hospital needing major surgery, except they didn't do the surgery i needed to repair the damage to my body, they overrode my right to consent and experimented on me instead doing a surgery they wanted to do and i still don't really know what their motivation were, beyond just speculating, ego and ableism, the lawyer told me, off the record, that they'd jist close ranks and use my past teenage trauma against me to defend their removal of my right to consent, as if that had anything to do with what they did….

anyway i'm really into gunpla lately, it's basically all i can think about. just ordered some new weapon packs. gonna have a four-armed assassin girl mech - yes 30 minute missions still counts as gunpla - with matching quad-wield pistols, i've gotten really into the idea of a four-armed gunslinger lately because of this game i've been playing, fun but runs like shit and crashes a lot, and it has a four armed pistol girl in it, and strangely enough there are aliens in john carter (of mars!) that are four armed too, but it's not because of that, it's because of star renegades, the green martians are just coincidence, but man, fuck those fake trailers for a nonexistant sequal of a bad movie, just a drain on society. did you know the guy that helps run the unemployed workers union had to do work for the dole at the ballarat cemetry and centrelink paid private investigators to drive by and make sure they were all doing their mandated unpaid work, is there a word for mandatory unpaid work under constant surveillence?, but he also still had job services appointments to go to which were scheduled during workhours and if he didn't attend he'd have his payments cancelled, but he wasn't allowed time off from his mandatory unpaid work to goto them or he'd be marked noncompliant with work for the dole and have his payments cancelled? homelessness is illegal. that's how you make a productive member of society. how much money do you think centrelink pays the private dicks that spy on the unemployed mandatory unpaid workers? more than unemployment benefits i'm guessing. i know i'm lucky not to be in that system anymore, to be in the disability system instead. lucky. out of the unemployment system because my disability cost me a hand. recently got told that i'm not on the ndis as an amputee, i'm on there for [redacted]. don't know how true that is. i don't even think i have [redacted], they never ran scans, they didn't do tests, it's supposed to be a diagnosis of exclusion, but they didn't bother to exclude anything else first. lucky. there's something deeply wrong with my body and i'll probably never find out what, because last time i tried, i ended up hospitalised under constant guard with no right to consent, no right to withdraw my consent for the experemental shit they did to me, the awful things they put me through to try and make their ego project work. totk got 2nd spot on a youtuber's goty list this week, that's nice. people are scared of [redacted], that's why i don't say it. can you believe people used to be scared of people with cancer, like it was contagious? i remember princess di hugging aids patients, barely. if i don't have a chaperone people in public pull their children away from me, as if my amputation is contagious. they don't even know about [redacted] and they're scared of me, unless i have a friend. i think my nub responds to barometric pressure changes kinda like arthritis, it hurts more when there are sudden shifts in weather. i don't actually know what it's like to have a hand crushed by a frigid hydraulic press, but my brain is assuring me that's what's been happening constantly for three days now. i've been thinking a lot about gunpla lately. i also got a rocket launcher for my beloved dilanza sol, and the kit also comes with a scale mobile worker, which i'm stoked about because ibo kits are hard to come by, and i really enjoyed ibo. it had some problems definitely worth dissecting, but also way more homoerotic tension and overt text than wfm did, even if all you want is yuri i still reckon kudellia and atra have more chemistry than suletta and miorine, fight me. i wonder if that'd get me death threats like my totk post did? also mikazuki is thematically linked forever in my head with-- no i don't want you consolenscences. the reason i refuse to post selfies is that my third worst nightmare is going in to he bakery or fish and chip shop one day and the respective old ladies that work there recognise my tattoos and go "submalevolentgrace???" and know all this

my top two worst nightmares btw are medical torture and child rape.

i've been thinking a lot about gunpla lately.

it's nice to have a hobby.

[lgbtqforeverything]

shadow and bone: season 2 episode 8

- again: mal/alina/nikolai

- wylan you are literally carrying light bombs with you rn.

- oh my god this is so tense just kill him already

- THERE IS 55 MINUTES LEFT WHAT THE FUCK

- inej/zoya team up this is content for me

- i’m sure alina’s coat is really cool but i’m only thinking of cas supernatural rn

- hey can zoya just kill him please

- stab him girl

- i’m really sorry about your sword neyar :(

- babe. babe don’t.

- well shit. also nina definitely knows

- oh mal knows something is up

- twins/nikolai friendship my beloved

- kaz is seething with jealousy rn. bitch.

- jesper/inej friendship my beloved

- this means that nikolai knows who zoya is. hell yes.

- MY TAMADIA CRUMBS!!!

- kaz you fucking sap

- jesper you drama kid i love you

- i am not liking this change from ruin and rising so far

- oh that is a good line

- where! are! david! and! genya!

- matthias this is a bad idea.

- i love adrick so fucking much.

- if they killed david then fuck the renewal i am never watching this on platform again

- SO THEY BROUGHT DAVID’S DEATH FROM KOS BUT NOT ZOYALAI. FUCK NETFLIX

- zoya of the garden. zoya of the lost city. zoya kneeling in the snow.

- she is not ruined. she is ruination.

- OH MY FUCKING GOD. THE BEE??!!?!?!?

- again: thrupule.

- this sucks. this sucks ass actually.

- ya know when i first opened netflix today this show was the banner and the bio said it was like a cw show and this whole break up thing is giving real cw vibes. and fuck them for it.

- they’re really pulling the blade line like that? fuck them

- captain ghafa of the wraith

- i’m getting huge tangled vibes rn

- SHES SAYING THE FUCKING LINE OH MY GOD

- i was looking at amita’s ass as she walked away what happened

- TAMADIA *insert burning elmo meme*

- THIS IS FUCKING GAY. ITS GAY.

- this is such a group and i am living for it

- breaking up the twins and nikolai. i’m going to throw up.

- alright i’m just gunna say it. mal looks weird in the coat.

- oh my god look at nadia. i’m so fucking gay yall.

- LOOK AT INEJ.

- hell yes his tits are back this is great

- i am going to scream. keep him away from those bad cgi wolves.

- well. that sets that up nicely.

- is that a color??? on kaz???? and new cane! much better for stabbing eyes out

- oh please call him lev

- bitch can you just shut the fuck up he’s great

- ok so i can see how they could do kos from this

- also god damn. tits.

- nikolai looks hot and alina looks fake

- no wouldn’t bc in a perfect world you would have zoya >:(

- oh he said the line!!! nice

- that’s all we fucking get??? killing maiming tearing

- oh those colors are not complimenting zoya

- #girlbosses

- ok jesper and wylan are definitely worried about something

- THAT IS SUCH AN UGLY CROWN IM SCREAMING

- also that scepter looks fake as fuck

- so many blood capsules being popped

- oh alina. alina alina alina.

[lemon-boy-stan]

end scene - finn wolfhard x reader

The reader is filming a deleted scene which sparks trauma. Warnings: SUPER ANGSTY LIKE SERIOUSLY, crying finn, mentions of death, mentions of sex (at the end), abuse, mentions of alcohol and swearing. And also long paragraphs. Lower case.

finn was the only person who knew about your trauma and cared - your mother had a boyfriend and moved on.

the car crash was your burden and catalyst to your inconsistent episodes which was why, every time you rehearsed the scene with him, finn made sure you were okay and that you knew he didn't mean it.

millie was good at being dead. she'd lay there, under the rubble, not moving a limb - she looked so lifeless like that that you were positive a passer-by would rush over to help her.

except there were no passer-bys, just you, your boyfriend, cast and crew and the CGI.

but yet it still looked so real - and it reminded you of her that much - of the car, the crash, the rubble, debris, anger that left your father's mouth afterwards, the deafening silence of your mother who stood and watched in the hospital...

mentally, you forced yourself to shake it off. the memory had obviously tuned the other cast members out.

"it wasn't her fault!" noah screeched - finn appeared to be approaching you, a look of mad and sadness in his eyes (which did not seem to be for you but hurt you anyway) kindling dangerously.

"we can still save her," he turned back from you to her "dead" body, "we can still save her! nancy! nancy. do you know cpr? does anyone know cpr? steve? johnathan? even you, billy?"

"even you?!" sadie shrieked. darce shot her a look and shook his head as if billy was telling her to pick her battles.

"anyone?" finn talked over her. "please. someone help me! she can't die here. she won't die here! i won't let it!" his words and voice were exactly the same as every other time you rehearsed it alone.

you continued to stare at the nothingness that wavered around him as natalia and everyone else remained quiet.

finn darted to you with the corner of his eye before recovering again, "we can still save her!" the rest of the cast waited.

'we can't', mouthed charlie, you'd forgotten your line by a beat. SHIT. finn frowned - something was fishy.

"we can't," you said softly, quickly. finn exhaled invisibly and silently. "f - mike. mike, el said - she told me - she said she was sorry and she said she - "

he cut you off just like every other time, "what good," he began, breathing through his nose, "is an apology," silence, the rest of the cast who were watching liked it, "if she's dead?! please! someone help me!"

no one helped him.

"come on," he begged the world, "come on. el. el. wake up. wake up. wake up!" he shook millie's body as if shaking a dead person would wake them up, kind of like how your father shook your sister in the hospital bed even though the nurse said that shaking her would make things worse.

"el," he choked back, "no. el. el." the fake tears hurt you more than they normally would have.

finn was your boyfriend and you could normally tell the difference between his fake and real emotions and for some reason you couldn't today.

after finn finished crying, he stroked her lifeless hair just like every other time and just like the time your father stroked your sister's before he turned to you.

"YOU were supposed to save HER," he spat the words viciously like every other time, eyes flicking over you with assurance. "but SHE saved YOU! she wasn't supposed to save YOU! you were supposed to die, you were supposed to die! the mindflayer was supposed to get YOU but it got HER! you're not even sorry! none of you are sorry! because if you were sorry, YOU would be DEAD and SHE would be ALIVE!"

you couldn't tell at the time but the words hurt him, too.

"it doesn't work like that!" noah screeched. "she was here first, anyways! she's my sister! eleven understood that so why can't you, mike?!"

"i told you to come up with another plan," he hissed at you, ignoring noah, "but you didn't! you let her die! you let her die, belle! you're a bitch and you let her die!" he yelled over noah.

"i'm sorry," you whispered, to which gaten and the rest of the cast wore a look of amazement - you hated improvising.

finn frowned slightly before going along.

"you're not. fucking. sorry. do you know why?" he waited.

"mike," natalia cut in.

"BECAUSE YOU WOULD BE DEAD! YOU STUPID BITCH, YOU WOULD BE DEAD! BUT YOU KILLED HER!"

"no, she didn't! don't call her that!"

that was the first - and last - time finn had ever called you that or yelled at you. you froze.

"i'm sorry," your lip shook - you didn't have a line just then but the crew liked it. "i'm sorry, i'm sorry,"

"it's your fault she's dead, y/n! you stupid bitch! you killed her! you killed your sister! do you know why you killed her? because you're a mistake! and a murderer! you fucking killed her, you stupid bitch! you can't do anything right, can you, you fucking brat? i saw you yelling at her! 'hurry up, izzy, i'm going to be late!' i told you not to go, didn't i? i told you she can't fucking drive in the fucking rain because she's bipolar and fucking crazy! but you're a brat, y/n, and it's going to be the end of you and everyone around you and even that finn boy, i don't give a fuck how much fucking money he has because you're going to blow him up too like the bomb you are! i don't give a shit how many fucking fans you have, do you hear me? because you. blew. her. UP!"

the nurses stared.

one turned to your mother in her stupid ninties pink dress and pearl necklace as if to say, 'aren't you going to do anything?' but she didn't, she pretended as if everything was fine.

"i'm sorry," you bit back the tears. "i'm sorry,"

"you aren't sorry! because she's dead! you aren't sorry! you're just a bomb!"

you bit your cheek harshly - no one else besides finn noticed.

"i'm sorry," your voice shook, "i'm sorry i killed her i'm sorry i'm sorry please don't - please i'm sorry,"

the crew started giving you looks - knock it off, it was starting to get weird and they didn't want the audience to hate your character.

but you couldn't help it. you didn't want him to hit you and you didn't want the people in the hospital to stare.

but you weren't in the hospital, you were on set, and he wasn't with you, it was finn, but same difference.

because maybe if you said sorry more maybe finn wouldn't unlove you like he did, maybe finn wouldn't hit you like he did.

"i'm sorry it's my fault i'm sorry i'm sorry,"

finn's breath hitched and his adam's apple moved before something washed over him - recognition.

you see, the endless trails of apologies had happened once at his house at night.

"wait!"

gaten threw his arms up at the outburst and the rest of the cast looked dissappointed. this scene was such a good trope for the love triangle between mike el and belle.

"wait - just - just cut. please. she's not acting, i swear this has happened before and i can help her please," he was begging now and the crew sighed and grumbled - everyone was human.

"alright, that's a wrap, we'll film again in a half," they began to leave.

"i'm sorry finn i'm sorry i kill - "

"baby, stop," he put his hands on your shoulders but you just shook your head and kept saying the words anyways, "baby! you don't have to apologise for anything, baby, you didn't kill anyone,"

"but i did kill her, finn!" you sobbed, "i killed her. "i killed my sister because i'm a stupid bitch and a brat who made her sister drive her to her friend's house in the rain," you bit your cheek until there was blood,

"i'm a mistake, finn, i'm sorry i'm a fucking bitch, and i'm sorry i killed them. just please, please don't unlove me, please, everyone who's loved me's unloved me, please i swear i'll do litera - "

"baby, what?" he looked like a puppy who'd just been told off, "why would i unlove you?"

"because i can't do anything right," you shook your head, "and you have to unlove me even though i don't want you to, finn, because i'm a mistake and i'm a fucking bomb, and a bitch. but please, please, i'm sorry, i can't - i can't lose someone else - "

"you're never going to lose me, baby," he whispered. he was shaking, "and you're not a bomb. oh, fuck, the last thing you are is a bomb, y/n. this isn't bullshit. i love you too much to give you bullshit. if he told you that, let me tell you this: you. are. not. a. bomb, baby. you're mine, the farthest thing you are is a bomb, you're a band aid, and a lifeline. you're never going to lose me, i promise i promise."

"but finn," you said, "don't you get it? i'm not a band aid or a lifeline, i'm a bomb. i will blow you up if you don't leave me before you can even though i don't want you to leave me because you're the only person- "

"and i'll keep being the only person," he talked over you and it frustrated you to even more tears, "i don't care if you blow me up. heck, you blew me away the first time. besides, so what if you're a murderer (which you aren't baby it was a fucking accident and he needs to get that through his fucking skull)? i hate myself for bringing up the stupid movie you love y/n but i don't give two shits what he says you've done because a) i know he's a drunk bastard and b) i will always love you baby more than rose loves leo baby i'll always come back to you, always, i'm going to marry you when my parents let me get married and i'm going to always come back to you even if you yell at me to get out because you're my fucking bomb, do you hear me? you're mine and you're a bomb. so what? you're a good bomb."

"please don't unlove me,"

"baby i'll never unlove you ever ever,"

"promise?"

"yes baby i promise y/n i promise just please tell me you're okay and tell me when you're not okay because it kills me baby it kills me so much,"

"okay finn," you mumbled; you didn't want him to cry anymore, "i promise. i'm sorry for ruining the scene," you looked down at your hands.

"hey," he said firmly, lifting your chin up so you were forced to look at him, "scenes can be re-filmed but i'm going to ask them to film a different one okay? but for now please just tell me you're okay baby,"

"i'm okay finn," you sighed. "sorry you had to put up with that and sorry i made you feel shit,"

"you know you make me feel lots of things n/n," he whispered, "and shit is one of them. and i wouldn't have anyone else make me feel anything else, 'cause i love you. even if you blow me up i love you okay? even if you crash me i'll still love you from hell 'cause we all know that's where i'm going..."

"are you talking about the other night?" you looked up, "because the feeling was totally mutual finn we both wanted it you know that don't be a dick,"

"there she is. also, yeah, that night and that time noah walked in on us jesus," he smiled and hugged your neck, "okay, okay, i love you though y/n. god you have no idea how much i love you..."

"i think i do," you replied softly and he smiled into you.

So this is super long but oh god guys I'm still in love with it ahh...

MASTERLIST - requests are ALWAYS open (depending on what fandom it is!)

[elvencantation]

gyadl liveblog ep19

(previous ep)

-oh shit i forgot this episode is where tianying is gonna marry her brother 🤮

-every time tianci is onscreen i have the overwhelming urge to break his nose. and then his fingers

-hey at least the dad looks like he feels vaguely guilty after she told them she’d said her final goodbye to dumbass xxc

-oh man i’ve almost forgotten what’s happening in the plot. hong lan ran away so she wouldn’t have to marry xxc and now she’s with poor lfs

-LUO FUSHENG I MISSED YOU!!!

-ah, gremlin didi knows when it’s time to make a strategic retreat 😂

-hong lan ur so dramatic. i mean i wouldn’t want to have an arranged marriage either but damn

-she doesn’t deserve u to defend her ur too sweet lfs

-HES TOO GOOD FOR ALL OF THEM!!!!! (except maybe tianying)

-and now hong lan is gonna be mad at him too. despite all he’s doing for her 😒

-or maybe not. but she will eventually no doubt

-such a yummy dinner! perfect timing, my own dinner is about to arrive

-HONG LAN STOP MAKING LUO FUSHENG CRY FFS

-outsider?!!?

-EVERYONE IS MAKING MY BOY SAD AND I DONT LIKE IT AT ALL

-STOP BEING SO GODDAMN SELF SACRIFICING

-WHY U GOTTA BRING UP TIANYING

-THIS IS WHY U GOTTA ASK THE OTHER PERSON BEFORE U DECIDE TO BUILD YOUR LIFE AROUND A DECISION YOUVE MADE FOR THEM

-WHY IS EVERYONE IN THIS SHOW UNHAPPY

-GREMLIN DIDI NOW IS NOT THE TIME. YOU CLEARLY DONT KNOW THE WHOLE SITUATION OTHERWISE YOU WOULDNT SAY THAT 

-also everyone is being mean to ur ge right now can u be the only person who’s there for him without being mad at him? apparently not 

-i know i should feel bad for xxc but i do not. at this point i’ve said that so many times... and i will say it again i’m sure 😂

-time for the incest marriage!! joy!

-her hair is so prettyyy

-love some fancy braids

-wait there’s a note? for who?? is she running away??!!!! pls run my dear pleeeease

-oh no lfs why did u come why do u torture urself like this

-there’s trouble??? lfs to the rescue??

-oh no somethings wrong with the dad... oH nO wHaT a TrAGeDy....

-wait xxc? with a gun?? OH MY GOD you FUCKING IDIOT

-she doesn’t want to go with u and UR STILL TAKING HER?? she’s made her choice. stupid choice it is but still

-oh my GOD he’s gone crazy. i mean, should’ve seen it coming. he’s always been like this but this is... uh... something else

-first you assume xxc told him his hairbrained plan and now ur refusing his help. ur so fuckin stupid tianci

-WOULD YOU STOP AND LISTEN TO THE WOMAN YOU SUPPOSEDLY LOVE XXC??!!!

-holy FUCK SHE WAS GONNA WHAT?? i didn’t even have time to think what she was knotting the sheets for

-love some good cgi motorcycle scenes

-wait no- don’t tell them about the note

-i don’t get how tianci can still think that lfs is in cahoots with xxc. like no srsly- are you so jealous that it’s killed your only two brain cells?

-luo fusheng constantly gets yelled and misunderstood at but he still helps everyone 😭

-YOU FUCKING TELL TIANCI!! YOU TELL HIM!!!!!!! HES NO DIFFERENT FROM THE MAN HE SO HATES

-just LOVE that her father is gonna use his deathbed guilt to chain her to the troupe and her asshole brother

-oh my GOD all we need right now is a yelling xxc 😒 at this point i hate him just as much as tianci

-ur a FUCKIN DOCTOR my dude. what the FUCK is wrong with you. when i said earlier he’d gone crazy i wasnt entirely serious, but now i am

-as much as i don’t want tianying to have had to watch her dad die, i’m also like- HE COUGHED UP BLOOD AND DIED XXC TAKE THAT

-but of COURSE why would that EVER make him stop yellring and being selfish! no, a dead body is faking it, that’s gotta be it 😒

-she should’ve broken his nose, not just slapped him. but hey, it’s progress!!

-wow ur such a pathetic piece of shit xxc

[365days365movies]

January 13, 2021: House of Flying Daggers (2004)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was HUGE. I don’t just mean on this blog, I mean in the United States in 2000 and 2001. If you were alive and aware of movies that year, then you remember people talking about this movie. It was, and is to this day, the highest grossing foreign-language film in the United States. So what does that mean?

It means that Ang Lee wouldn’t be the only wuxia film director to cross the pond. Two years later, a little movie called Hero would be released internationally. That wuxia would eventually become the #3 highest-grossing foreign language movie in the USA. It’]s director was an old hat wuxia director in China, Zhang Yimou.

Yimou’s success on China never translated in the USA, until Hero in 2002. After that, he would release more films in the USA, one of the most recent being...oh. OH. OH NO, The Great Wall starring Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, and Willem Dafoe?!? THAT’S A ZHANG YIMOU MOVIE?

...I mean, Ang Lee made the 2003 Hulk, so I guess nobody’s perfect. Anyway, House of Flying Daggers.

Zhang Ziyi’s back! This is another critically acclaimed movie, but wasn’t nearly as popular in the USA. It was nominated for one Academy Award, for Best Cinematography, but it lost to The Aviator. I’ll talk about that one in the future the way of the future the way of the future the way of the future.

But OK, enough introduction, IT’S WUXIA TIME WOOO SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap

The House of Flying Daggers is a Robin Hood organization, stealing from the wealthy and giving to the disenfranchised in a particularly poor area and time period in China. Their biggest enemies, as you’d expect from a Robin Hood group, are the police, who are conspiring to take down their leader within ten days, whomever they may be.

One of these policeman is Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro), who goes to the Peony Pavilion, an “entertainment house” full of beautiful women. See, the leader’s daughter is rumored to be working there as a new showgirl.

This is the blind dancer Mei (Zhang Ziyi), who’s questioned awkwardly by the VERY drunk Jin. She dances and sings for him, as requested. Good time to mention something that I didn’t mention yesterday: Zhang Ziyi has no martial arts background prior to her film career. Instead, her background is in dance! She learned fight choreography in that film the same way she learned dance choreography. So, it’s neat to see her return to her roots.

It’s less neat to see Jin straight-up sexually assault her and get arrested by the cops. So, y’know, ups and downs there. To prevent from getting arrested herself, Mei accepts the offer to play a game called “Echo.” This is prompted by another police officer, Leo (Andy Lau). He, uh...throws beans at a circle of drums, and she responds by hitting the drums with her sleeves. Yeah. Sounds dumb, right? Well, check out how it looks.

This is a very different movie, as compared to CTHD. And yeah, I’m only 15 minutes in, but the choreography is far more artistically flourished. Yeah. I said that as compared to CTHD. Only time will tell, but this full dance sequence is definitely interesting to watch.

Anyway, as you can see above, it ends once Mei grabs the captain’s sword with her sleeve ribbons, and challenges him to a duel. She also TOTALLY blows her cover as a sympathizer to the House of Flying Daggers, and the two fight.

This fight does NOT go well for her, and she’s arrested. Also, it would seem that the drunken display by Jin was actually just a ruse, meant to get her to play the game and reveal herself. Seems...complicated, but it got result, I guess? Anyway, they threaten her with torture (like you do), unless she gives them information of the new leader of the House of Fly...HoFD. There. If CTHD gets an acronym, so does this.

Suddenly, though, a ninja appears and sets Mei free, fighting off the guards. Said ninja reveals himself as...Jin? They refamiliarize themselves.

Very refamiliar.

Anyway, the soldiers are indeed approaching, and Mei and Jin go on the run. The policemen chase them down on horses, and Mei takes down three horses and the guys riding them...with a scabbard. By herself. Badass.

That’s followed by her taking on four armed men at once, although this round doesn’t go nearly as well.

Luckily for her, however, Jin arrives in the nick of time to save her. We get this VERY cool POV arrow shot:

And the two leave. HOWEVER, the policeman ALL get up at the end, which means...Jin’s lying about all of this, huh? It’s a ruse to find to location of the HoFD, using Mei as an unwitting guide. Oof. Liar revealed plot set-up, huh? If that’s the case...I’ll get into that more later.

Jin leaves a message for his fellows, while Mei bathes and puts on men’s clothes provided by Jin, as a disguise. 

It’s at this point that Jin decides to go FULL creep again, and GODDAMN is it not working for me. It is...UNCOMFORTABLE, knowing what we know about Jin. And yet, despite that information...

It’s working for Mei. Yeah, they make out. Mei does say that it’s too soon, and that she doesn’t quite trust him that much yet...but they definitely made out there for a hot sec. It was...yup.

We get a reminder the Jin’s kind of an emotionally manipulative asshole as he meets with Leo, who warns her not to “fall for her.” So. It IS one of these stories, huh? We’ll see how it goes, but...yeah, not digging the love story so far.

And yet, as I say that, there goes Jin, falling in love with her. Soldiers consistently follow them wherever they go. Looks like the plan is backfiring, as soldiers who aren’t one of Jim’s cohorts believe that he’s a member of the HoFD, having broke Mei out of jail and all. So they attack them in earnest, even injuring Jin somewhat.

And that’s when Mei brings out the dagger. The Flying Dagger. THE HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGER.

I tell ya...that’s cool. Might be a CGI house of flying dagger (LOT of CGI in this movie, by the way, and none of it is technically...good), but I love it. The two fight off the soldiers in the field using the house of flying daggers and arrows, but reinforcements arrive. The two fight them in a sequence that’s more dance than ight. And it’s pretty cool. But they’re soon outnumbered.

Until...some wooden dowels come out of NOWHERE, impaling them in the neck and taking them down. Having survived, the two rest in the field, pondering where the dowels came from. And, of course, making out.

Although, this time, Mei starts it, and Jin refuses. He leaves, at her urging, and meets with Leo. Turns out the General sent the soldiers in the field, and is sending more to kill Mei AND Jin. And, as a note, Jin just KILLED some of those guys, as did Mei. Arrow boys from earlier lived, since it was a set-up for Mei. But, no, Jin actually has to kill the soldiers coming up.

That’s when he realizes that the General doesn’t care about him, at ALL, and he’s willing to shed the blood of his men and of Jin to get his goals met. And Jin...quits. Jin STRAIGHT UP quits, and returns to Mei. They get into a spat, and Mei leaves. And she goes to...

A bamboo forest. Thank you, China, for loving bamboo so much in these movies, because this sequence is gorgeous. I tell you, these movies do real well with the bamboo green color. Gorgeous.

The soldiers ambush Mei there, but Jin’s caught up, and he helps fight them off. Some awesome bamboo tricks (and sounds, by the way, real neat sounds here), more object-throwing (including a lot of using the bamboo stalks as weapons, which is SUPER FUCKIN’ COOL), and some gorgeous cinematography though the forest. Real talk, this scene made the movie for me. So far, anyway. We even get a BADASS bamboo spike trap! And it’s here that our pair is caught.

AND THEN

IT’S THE HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS FUCK YEAH

Looks like the madam of the entertainer’s house actually is the head of the HoFD, once again upholding the tradition of badass women of wuxia that we’ve seen in LITERALLY ALL THREE of these movies.

The leader asks if Jin likes Mei, and would consider marrying her. It’s far too soon for Jin, and he’s formally captured by the HoFD. They knew about his and Leo’s plan, and drag a captured Leo in as well. AND, AND...MEI’S NOT BLIND, or the daughter of the leader!!! Yeah! She’s been faking the whole movie! HA! Liar revealed indeed!

Didn’t see that one coming! Mei’s just a normal anti-governmentrevolutionary, and Jin’s now just a prisoner alongside Leo. But another twist, as this isn’t the actual leader of the HoFD. Leo reveals this; and how does he know that? LEO...IS A GODDAMN MOLE IN THE GOVERNMENT!!! WHAT????? YES! Leo’s a member of the HoFD, and he was planted three years ago to spy on the cops! And...AND...HE’S MEI’S FIANCEE!! WHAT IN THE SHIT?!?

OH I AM FULLY INVESTED. What the hell else is gonna happen? How about a game of Echo?

Yeah, that scene from earlier? No wonder it was a dance! It was the reunion between two lovers, long since parted! Holy shit, THIS is a romance I can fully get behind! But...can Mei? Because she certainly isn’t feeling it as much as Leo is...

Yup. Looks like she fell in love with Jin after all. Uh oh. BIG UH OH. And there goes my support of their romance, as Leo tries to rape Mei. Nia, the leader, ain’t having it, and throws a dagger into Jin’s back. He goes back to spy on the cops, but not before shaming Mei. Oof. I take it back. 

And now, Mei’s been told to kill Jin. I’m sure that’s gonna happen.

YUP

Well, after they have Field Sex (probably better than CTHD’s Cave Sex, let’s be honest), they decide to go their separate ways, becoming fated lovers on two separate sides. But Mei has second thoughts, and goes back.

Somebody else comes back, too.

YIKES, LEO! Yeah, he kills her right there in the field, blaming her for making him kill her! YIKES, LEO!!! I take it back, you’re a DICK.

Jin ALSO comes back for Mei, and finds Leo instead. A pissed-off Leo reveals himself to Jin, and the two engage in a sword battle for Mei. And then...autumn turns to winter.

As the army encroaches on the HoFD in the bamboo forest, two former friends shed blood amongst the snow. Their fight...their fight is brutal. The choreography may not be the fanciest...but it is insanely and viciously emotional. Blood and snow, man. Blood and snow.

Also, hey, guess who’s alive after all! Mei gets up, despite the DAGGER IN HER CHEST STILL. She asks Leo to let Jin go, or she’ll USE THE DAGGER IN HER CHEST TO KILL HIM. METAL. Obviously, that’ll actually kill her, So Jin asks her not to do it. But it doesn’t matter in the end.

Mei throws her dagger to intercept Leo’s. And Leo...never throws his dagger..

Leo leaves. Mei dies. Jin cries and sings their song.

A rare beauty in the North. She’s the finest lady on earth. A glance from her, the whole city goes down. A second glance leaves the nation in ruins. There exists no city or nation that has been more cherished than a beauty like this. A rare beauty in the North. She’s the finest lady on earth. A glance from her, the whole city goes down. A second glance leaves the nation in ruins. There exists no city or nation that has been more cherished than a beauty like this.

And we never see what happens to the...House of Flying Daggers.

WHOOF. Epilogue soon.

[gronjon44]

My thoughts on WONDER WOMAN:1984

⚠️⚠️⚠️SPOILERS⚠️⚠️⚠️

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I wanna like this movie, and there are parts of this film that I genuinely do like.

There are some funny moments and I like some if not most of the themes.

And I want to be as critical and non political as possible with this analysis as possible.

But, speaking not as a Center Republican and as an average movie goer,

The political refferences in this just ruin the film for me, on top of other issues.

Max Lord is too blatant a Trump reference, the big business persona aside; I read an article by NBC News (I'll link it at the end) says the director used Trump as "one inspiration for the character".

Yeah no, that wasnt one reference that was all reference I looked up Max Lord in the comics and frankly it looks like Trump was the only reference the director used.

The article goes into detail about how the director steps around Trumps more controversial policies and essentially whitewashed Trump with Lords character which, i can see what they mean when they say that.

I won't get into all the details, as I don't agree with everything in the article but you can read for it yourself at the end.

Now getting past the Trump refferences and whatnot I'd like to say that most parts of this movie are actually really enjoyable.

Diana Prince/Gal Gadot are a joy to watch as always, Barbra was a joy to watch as a villain, Steve Trevor was fun to see and ⚠️⚠️⚠️SPOILER⚠️⚠️⚠️the invisible jet was a fun twist that I was genuinely surprised to see.

But some complaints I have involve the ending, a few in-between bits, and some minor details that just stuck with me.

So again, ⚠️⚠️⚠️SPOILER⚠️⚠️⚠️ for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

The ending was very mcguffined and frankly, kinda cheap.

I get that, yes, the point of the end was to show Max Lord what he was doing was truly wrong and to have him undo the wishes that followed his bad decisions, I get that.

But for there to be no real consequences for what he did? And that he gets to run free and return to his son without being reprimanded for what he did (outside of a few minor ass beatings) It feels cheap and unsatisfying, at least in my opinion.

Something that the article brought up (that I disagree with frankly) is that film ⚠️⚠️SPOILERS⚠️⚠️ treats Barbras choice to become more like Diana as a bad thing then a good thing, saying that Wonder Woman is meant to show Woman that they can be like her, and that some woman do want to be like her. They go one to say that (quote) "Instead of congratulating Barbara, the movie presents her as a warning. Gaining power and beauty makes her cruel and violent and selfish — a villain, not a hero. It's like the film has included its own cranky superhero-film hater to tell fans they're doing it wrong." (end quote)

Now, heavy spoiler talk incoming so be warned.

The stone acts like the monkeys paw, where in when you wish for something, you get it but at the cost of losing something (i.e if I wish for a million dollars, but when I get the million dollars I lose my house and prized possessions)

Now, if someone is inspired by Wonder Woman and wants to be like her, then great! Be like her! If you can strive to be like Wonder Woman then hey be like her.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to be like those you admire. But here's the thing that I think this article misses. Barbra didn't strive on her own to be like Diana, she wished it. She didn't earn anything that was given to her.

She was a good person before yes, and there was nothing wrong with wanting to be like Diana. But the problem that this article misses is that she was given these gifts and opportunity, she didn't earn them.

She never had any of these things before, and being given these things so suddenly may have gone to her head; so much so that she was quickly consumed by her new gifts that she lost touch with her old self.

And let's think about that a moment. The stone takes as quickly as it gives. What did the stone take from Barbra? Well I think its meant to be pretty clear that, in return for becoming "strong, sexy, cool, and special," she had something taken away from her.

When she had nothing she was a kind person, yes she was ignored but she wasn't lashing out about it, she was her own personal. When she was given her wish she slowly became consumed by it, focused not on others or her work, but on herself and her own greed. She wanted to be admired and to be seen, and there's nothing wromg with that.

But she did not earn her beauty, strength, or popularity. She was handed them on a silver tray at the cost of losing touch with herself. She was consumed by a lie she wanted to believe.

This film has a heavy theme about accepting truths and seeing past veiled lies; Diana used a shortcut to get ahead in the contest as a child, Max Lord used the stone to lie to himself about how shitty a person/father he was, Barbra used it to lie to herself and make her something she wasn't, hell Diana lied to herself twice thinking she could keep Steve Trevor and stop Max Lord together, even while her powers were being taken away.

And there's another example of having what you hold close taken at the cost of what you want. Diana's powers at the cost of having Steve Trevor back in her life; Diana wanted nothing more then to have Steve Trevor back in her life and to be with him, but he was dead.

Until the stone heard her internal thoughts/wish and made it come true, but at the cost of her powers. But Diana didn't care. Diana knew Steve was someone else and she knew her powers were being taken away to have him back in her life, she knew this was all a lie (the stone was even created by a God of Lies)

All in all the accepting truth theme is fine I like it, but I think it gets overshadowed by all the politics and wonky CGI.

And on to that side of my thoughts.

You can really see the CGI in this film. Some parts aren't that bad but others are just... really noticeable.

Like, there's a scene where Diana is running down a street and she's speeding up down the road. You can see the CGI in her legs and how they try to make her run faster then she is.

You know how Chris Evans has that unique running style that can't be easily recreated? Yeah they try to have Diana run like that and you can see the CGI they used to make it.

And there are other little moments that you can't help but notice (a body flies too fake here or a hand grabs at the ground too smoothly there) little moments.

I know CGI is useful for some scenes and I have nothing about extra CGI in a film. But this felt like those scenes in Horror Movies where you can really see the CGI blood and just how cartoonish it really looks.

Also just, jumping on after this, can we talk about the acting?

Gadot, Pine, Wig, and Pascal all perform amazingly in this film (while I don't like his character I will commend Pascal for putting in a solid performance as Max Lord) But when you focus on some of the side characters and their acting its just really cringy.

The initial jewelry heist scene starts off fine I liked it, but when the guy drops his gun it all just gets so cheesey and corny.

Now, I like cheesey and corny acting I do. But honestly this film felt like it was trying way to hard to be in the 80s.

Stranger Things does this well with its 80s setting (the background, the characters, small moments throughout the series)

Wonder Woman 1984 tries to act like the original Wonder Woman from the 80s, and it doesn't hit that mark.

Now, I didn't grow up with the 80s Wonder Woman, but my dad did. He knew the references and he could tell what they were trying to do. But even he thought it was a little too much (he said that she fought the villain the exact same way and the acting of multiple characters reminded him of that cheesey 80s acting)

In short, most the acting was fine, but alot of it was... also not fine.

This next bit will be my last complaint and then I'll be done (its minor but its does bug me)

Why did they even make the wishing stone?

Now, I'll admit I'm no expert on DC comics, let me be the first to say that. But this stone is a magical artifact that can grant wishes at the cost of taking something valuable to you (like a monkeys paw) They even refference the Monkeys Paw on several occasions in this film, basically acting like the stone is the paw itself.

Now just, here me out for a minute.

The stone acts like the monkeys paw-

It has the same rules as the monkeys paw-

They even reffer to it like the monkeys paw-

Why not just use the monkeys paw?

Legitimately they treat this thing more like the actual Monkeys Paw rather then a mystical genie rock that it actually is. Yes they try to make the rock interesting (it destroyed the Mayans, it brought down multiple Roman Emperors etc) but I just can't get past how useless it all is.

You could replace the stone with a real monkeys paw, give it the exact same origins, and even still have Max Lord bond to the monkeys paw-

And it would still work.

There is no thematic purpose for the stone to be a stone when you can just use the paw. When Max bonds to the paw make his own hand turn into the monkeys paw, and now it has more thematic purpose for why he needs to actually touch people.

Just, its so small a thing that it technically doesn't matter but at the same time I really think that it does.

Thats the last of my complaining/ranting. Like I said I want to be as neutral and genuinely critical of this film.

I wanna like it but I just... there's alot issues that I think should've been addressed before this film was released. I have nothing against referencing current politics or making something pro-this or anti-that, but if your gonna do it at least write it in a cohesive way.

If I had to rank this with the other DC films in the last Decade (I haven't seen Birds of Prey yet and I don't remember much of Man of Steel so bear with me)

Wonder Woman 2017

Shazam

Wonder Woman 1984

Aquaman

Suicide Squad

Justice League

Batman V. Superman

It isn't the greatest film but its still better then DC's worst, so I'll give them that. I rate it a 6/10

[last-of-the-jaded]

After having willingly given the last month of my life over to MDZS and it’s Live Action counterpart I wanted to compile a list of my favorite aspects of both (including spoilers). Both the original Chinese Novel and it’s stunning 2019 Summer Release counterpart are breathtaking in different manners, but if you are looking for a quick recommendation, I do recommend going for the drama first as it will simplify the further consumption of content if you decide you want to partake in more.

What I love about THE UNTAMED:

The symbolism of the cliff at Nightless City, and how that entire scene marks a clear shift in Wuxian’s mental state as well as the overarching story. Similarly, how in the end it is Wuxian who throws himself off that precipice to sure death. This detail provides a direct comparison between his mental state at this moments and Cheng’s after his core was squashed, while also touching on an unique level of disparity and regret that is unrealized in the novel at this point (considering how this isn’t how Wuxian dies in the written version)

Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo. I’ve made posts about this already so I’ll spare you another essay (Here and Here)

Jiang Cheng’s entire character arc. Seeing him fully fleshed out, utilized, and properly human within the drama made it hard for me to swallow how shallow he often felt on paper, especially in the early chapters. I get that this is partially due to the youth sequences in the book being written completely from Wuxian’s POV, but for me there is something incredibly human and genuine just lacking from the version of Cheng on paper that stood out so gorgeously for me in terms of his drama counterpart. Wang Zhou Cheng did an amazing job bringing out his raw emotion and anger on screen, lines were delivered in a manner that truly solidified this characters growth and vulnerability to me. For such a new actor within his field he did a brilliant job, and is the reason I have so many damn emotions concerning Jiang Cheng’s character arc. (I have a million analysis pieces typed up on my blog if that interests you)

The sequential order for the flashbacks was incredibly easy to consume. It helped to keep events and motivations clear. I understand why the book was able to skip around in a more winding mysterious manner, but from a drama standpoint I massively appreciated being able to consume the events leading up to Wuxian’s demise in consecutive order. The first few episodes were initially extremely confusing to me as a new watcher, and it’s only when the flashbacks hit that the plot-line solidified as well.

The female leads! Yanli, Qing, and Mianmian having larger roles and development was absolutely a plus. Everyone had the same intentions and feel as they did in the original, just more fully fleshed out since they were given time to interact within the world. As a bonus note seeing Madam Yu and hearing her bullshit on screen, said out-loud in the bitchy tone her actress gave her, made her 10X worse and from an antagonist perspective I massively appreciate that they were able to make me despise her so damn much.

Everyone important to the past storyline being involved in the Gusulan Study Sessions under Lan Qiren. This was a simple and effective manner of introducing everyone and having characters feel involved and interactive from the get-go. I was honestly a little disappointed that not everyone was included when I went on to read the novel.

Ning and Wuxian’s interactions early on. Their dynamic in the show was given life, and felt genuine in how it shifted over the course of Wuxian’s trails and misfortune. I love how they included Ning in the early on portions of the series, especially the Caiyi Town waterborn abyss debacle where Wuxian saved his life. It just added more layers to an already intriguing dynamic that plays a massive role overall.

The wolf torture scene. This added a whole new layer to Wuxian’s fear of dogs, while still completing its job of giving Ning and Wuxian a reason to interact and grow. Not to mention the example of Wen Sect Torture Tactics really added to the inhumanity of the sect while sparking our main character’s growth and self-sacrificing nature.

The symbolism behind Yanli’s and Cheng’s dreams. These dream sequences give a glimpse into the heads of two complex character’s and honestly added so much background motivation to their storylines. I loved these details and how much analysis us all as viewers can put into them.

The rain scene. Wuxian telling Wangji he would prefer to die by his hands. The first tears watchers see from an incredibly strong and willful young man who has always appeared stoic. (I cannot express to you enough how sad I was that this scene didn’t take place in the novel)

Wuxian’s mask. I understand logistically why they had to do this from a filming perspective (I mean if you have someone as good looking and Xiao Zhan, damnit you are going to let him look like him as much as you can) but I honestly really enjoyed the smaller details they included to make it work plot-wise. I also appreciate how it was designed as a prop considering it actually altered Wuxian’s features in a manner that made him harder to recognize due to its bulky and carved nature.

The secret underground cave in Cloud Recess under the bathing pool. The whole meeting between Wangxian and the female sect leader. I enjoyed this detail and how they expanded upon it when it came to the burning of their sect home and the survival of their people.

Wangxian’s relationship. Their subtle, trusting, gentle way of showing love. On an additional note I appreciate how it never once felt like I needed to discuss consent with the characters (coughNOVELcough) because everything between them was healthy and playful.

The soundtrack, costuming, and bts. I understand that this was a low budget production (compared to the majority of traditional dramas) and honestly I appreciate what we were given taking that into account. They stayed true to the essence and message of the story. I love the manner in which the costumes became a part of the characters and everyone had a clear style. The soundtrack flowed amazingly well with the scene and tone shifts (this is disregarding how fake their instrument playing looked because I’m still not over how off the finger movements appeared at points). The behind the scenes content on its own could win an award - it made completing the show a million times more satisfying because I do believe that the people working on set had fun (somehow even while filming during the hottest time of the year)

The name of the drama. When you reach that moment when you understand why it is called such - it’s a tale of the rise and fall of Wuxian.

The ending scene. I know it’s not the ‘stereotypical happy ending’ fans wanted, but it perfectly fit the tone and message of the piece as a whole. I love the ending. It felt right.

What I love about MDZS (NOVEL):

The Yi City Arc. It’s worth reading for this part alone. Motivations, logic, and everything just hit so much harder. I do appreciate what the drama gave us, but like, once you’ve tasted this version it’s really hard to go back.

Empathy. In general seeing Wuxian use empathy within the novel just works so much smoother. His little anecdotes and analysis while in stasis reliving ghost’s lives gives it a realism that it’s lacking on camera.

Second Siege of the Burial Mounds. The way the novel sets up this part and actually makes it feel scary with hoard mentality makes it work so much better. It feels like there is a weight to this moment. The waves of corpses are terrifying, and the exhaustion of fighting for hours gives it a level of humanity that makes what Wuxian and Wangji selflessly do stand out even more. Not to mention, the leftovers of the Wen Sect fucked me up. I bawled. This is another detail that I would legitimately read the entire novel over for just to experience.

Wuxian being fucking terrifying at points. Playing with demonic energy and losing control is supposed to be scary. In the novel it honestly felt that way. Seeing him slowly get worse was heartbreaking. Watching how people’s opinions on him skewed, and how he dealt with looks, pressure, and weight on his shoulders, took this arc to a whole new level. The way demons and ghosts flocked to and around him in public added a level of horror that was unsettling and necessary.

Wuxian actually losing control. In the drama they added another flute player to sort of work around Wuxian having to accept the result of his failure. In the novel, there is no such thing -  and I love it. It’s another dowsing to the pain and suffering Wuxian has to accept and learn to overcome.  It makes him coming back a decade later - to live and achieve and get revenge - feel different.

Action scenes and gore. If something is called “The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation” you expect some blood, and damn do I appreciate that the author made stuff have impact. I wish the drama had a bigger budget so they could have done the wounds and cgi more justice.

Wangji rescuing Wuxian after the first raid on yiling, and choosing to suffer together, hated by the world, rather than lose the love of his life. I love the use of the cliff in the drama, especially the imagery of Wangji trying to hold Wei Ying up before ultimately falling, but the route the author took in the novel is so much fucking worse. Like I cannot even imagine the pain Wangji went through.

Lan Xichen opening Wuxian’s oblivious eyes. Best brother ever. This entire scene, leading up to the final battle, is like downing a shot and waiting for it to hit. It deserves a standing ovation.

The details in the Xuanyu of Slaughter cave sequence. Every little tell that Wangji gave - he really did fall in love young.

Mingjue’s corpse. The separated limbs, angry spirit, holding bags, and everything made sense because of description.

Wangji explaining how he got the brand mark over his heart. All of his scars. Fuck. There’s inferring, and then there is having it described to you from the person directly and feeling as your own heart dies.

Lan Zhan’s insane arm strength. This is a detail that deserves recognition.

Wuxian’s inner analysis of Nei Huaisang at the end. This was fully formed and actually had some payoff.

The clear comparisons between Mengyao’s fate and what happened to Wuxian himself. Once again you can infer in the drama, but having it clearly implied in the book hits different because when someone becomes a public pariah it’s easier to go with the public outcry than try and defend them. “Nobody knew with more clarity than Wei WuXian that nobody would care and nobody would believe”

Ning protecting Jin Ling and Jiang Cheng in a manner directly parallel to how he killed the people they cared for.

Jin Ling’s realization about being unable to hate anyone in the end. You feel for this kid. You want to see him grow up well.

The beginning set up chapter. Hearing what happened in the past vaguely through spreading rumors and small talk without seeing it for yourself adds a level of intrigue. It has greater mystery than just seeing the scene play-out and cutting away.

Everything making sense in general with no plot holes. It’s one of those things where in television no matter how well you do, you can’t possibly include all the needed details. With the drama you have to infer a lot, and sometimes you will get it wrong. In the novel it really is just much easier to make sense of. This also included the pacing as well. Timeskips make sense.

Kissing. Smut. Damn, it’s so nice to have actual payoff for the slow burn.

[noona-clock]

Making It 🧛‍♂️🎥🎃

Congrats on your milestone my love... you deserve all the support in the world! Could I please request something with Daehyun as a vampire or fluff set around Halloween! Thank you in advance and for all you share with us 💖💖💖

Thank you so much for requesting, @prettywordsyouleft​. I am happy to write anything for you!

Genre: Idol!AU/Fluff

Pairing: Daehyun x You (Female!Reader)

Warnings: None

Words: 2,324

You tried to control your breathing as you ran through the woods, not wanting to risk being heard more than you already were. You were currently barefoot, so you were making enough noise as you stepped on the pine straw and twigs and leaves on the ground beneath you -- any more noise and you wouldn’t be safe for long.

A glance over your shoulder, the moonlight shining down on your face, and you discovered it actually didn’t matter how much noise you were making: he was right behind you, his red eyes gleaming through the darkness and staring at you hungrily.

Your brow furrowed deeply, and you had to tamp down a scream of horror as your heart jumped up into your throat.

Just as you saw him take a step toward you, you turned back around to run. There was no way you could escape him now that he had his sights set on you, but you could try to delay it as long as you possibly could.

But then, before you could even lift one foot off the ground --

“CUT!”

You almost instantly deflated, and the music stopped as your makeup artist scurried over to do touch-ups.

Music video shoots were usually exhausting, but this one was turning out to be particularly long and grueling. You had no one to blame but yourself, of course, since you were releasing a single just before Halloween and had wanted to pair it with a holiday-appropriate video. What better theme than dark forests and vampires?

Speaking of, the actor you’d chosen to play the vampire himself was heading over to you, his smile shy but also quite beaming -- fake fangs included.

“Hi,” he greeted with a soft chuckle, lifting a hand to wave at you as he approached.

“Hi,” you replied with a smile of your own as your makeup artist pressed a powder puff to your forehead. “You’re doing a fantastic job.”

The actor was actually a fellow musical artist, Daehyun. He had quite the prolific career in a six-member group, and you’d been a fan since before you, yourself, had broken out into the music scene two years ago. He had always been your favorite member with his powerful vocals and charming eyes, so when you finally made enough of a name for yourself to start casting actual celebrities in your music videos, you’d requested Daehyun.

And now here he was, standing right in front of you in full vampire attire.

“Oh, thank you,” he replied, nodding at you. “So are you. I honestly thought you were really scared of me just now.”

“You make a pretty convincing vampire,” you said with a soft giggle.

“I think it’s the fangs,” Daehyun murmured, lifting a hand and touching one of the sharp tips protruding from his mouth.

“Yes, definitely,” you grinned. “The fangs and the red contacts. And the cape. And the grayish pallor.”

A smirk tugged at Daehyun’s lips, and your heart repeated its action from just a few minutes ago: it jumped up into your throat.

“Yeah, that would just about do it,” he said.

The director interrupted you then, seemingly appearing out of nowhere (though you figured you just hadn’t noticed him because you’d been too distracted by the handsome vampire conversing with you). “We’ve just got one more shot, and then we’re moving onto the next scene.”

You nodded, and you didn’t have a chance to ask for any more details because the director continued on.

“We’re going to do the part where he catches you,” he explained. “Now, remember, we’re going for a more gothic and romantic feel rather than a horror movie feel, so it won’t be like an abduction sort of scene. It’s almost like you want to be caught.”

Looking at Daehyun listening to the director so earnestly, those plush lips set in a serious line, you knew you wouldn’t have to do much acting in the next twenty or so minutes.

You definitely wanted him to catch you.

“Got it,” you murmured, tipping your chin in a slight nod as the director whirled around and went back to his spot behind the camera.

Before Daehyun turned and assumed his previous place, he whispered a ‘Good luck’ and gave you a thumbs up.

Oh, god, could he be any cuter?

You had to take a deep breath to get back into your ‘I’m being chased by a vampire and I’m scared but also intrigued’ mindset. Your eyes were closed when the director called for playback on your new single, and when he yelled ‘Action!’ your brow furrowed gently as you got back into character.

Your lips began to move, mouthing the lyrics to your song, and you watched with terrified curiosity as Daehyun the vampire smirked wildly at you. Tearing your gaze away from him, you turned and began to run, eventually finding a tree to hide behind.

While you attempted to fit your entire body behind the sturdy trunk, you allowed one hand to slip out into the open as your chest heaved to try and catch your breath.

Of course, as was your plan, your visible hand was an open invitation for Daehyun, and within several seconds, you felt his fingers gently grasping your wrist. The director had reminded you that you almost wanted to get caught, so after the last word in the verse finished, you tugged one corner of your mouth into a smile.

“And cut!”

You let out a breath, and Daehyun let go of your hand before he appeared around the side of the tree. His smile was so wide and beaming that the breath you’d just let out ended on quite the shaky note.

“All right, scene change,” the director announced as the rest of the crew scurried to follow their orders.

“That was really good,” Daehyun praised, and you couldn’t stop yourself from smiling like somewhat of an idiot. Coming from him, someone who’d acted in countless music videos, it was one of the highest compliments you could receive.

“Thank you,” you replied with a shy nod. 

“We’re moving on to the bedroom scene,” the director said then, effectively stopping your heart.

“Excuse me?” you coughed.

“He’s caught you, now he’s going to turn you.”

...Ah. Right. A bedroom scene for a vampire really just meant biting the victim’s neck and sucking her blood. You felt silly that you’d been so startled by the director’s words, but one look at Daehyun told you he had been in exactly the same boat.

The expression on his face right now was, in a word, classic.

About half an hour later, you found yourself standing in the middle of a Victorian-style bedroom, tilting your head as the special effects makeup artist dabbed blood onto your skin with a q-tip. She had just placed two puncture wounds right over your vein, and you and Daehyun were preparing to shoot the scene where he drinks your blood and turns you into a vampire.

...You weren’t going to lie, you were incredibly excited.

“Let’s take our places,” the director said, and the makeup artist quickly poked you a few more times before she dashed off behind the camera.

You shot Daehyun a look, one which clearly said you were more than ready and that he was going to do a great job. The two of you had just filmed the scene where he’d actually bitten you, so now all he had to do was finish the job.

As your song began to play again, you waited for the director to yell out ‘Action!’ before again mouthing along with the lyrics.

Your heart jumped in your chest when you felt Daehyun step right behind you, when his hands gently landed on your upper arms. And when you felt his mouth on your neck? 

Oh, boy.

You knew this was all acting, but...

You couldn’t deny how good it felt.

You closed your eyes, still mouthing along to the song as you felt the fake blood dripping down your skin and over your shoulder. Your head tilted back just a little, allowing him better access, and Daehyun’s hands tightened on your arms. His chest pressed up against your back, and you instinctively leaned into him, bringing one hand up and resting it on the back of his head.

After a few more moments of Daehyun sucking your blood, the director called out to you to open your eyes and stare into the camera. You were a vampire now, and you had to let the audience know.

With just a bit of regret, you lifted your head, though you still kept your hand on the back of Daehyun’s neck. And on the director’s cue, your eyelids flew open and you stared straight into the camera lens. For an added punch, you lifted one corner of your lips into a very satisfied smirk.

“Perfect! Cut! We’ll add the red eyes in later with CGI, and I think that’s a wrap, my friends!” the director called out, smiling proudly. 

You let out a soft exhale as you felt Daehyun step away from you, and the entire set broke out into soft applause to celebrate the end of the shoot.

As you’d done on the sets of your other videos, you made your way to each and every person on the soundstage, thanking them profusely for their hard work and dedication. Even though you and Daehyun were the stars of the video, it wouldn’t have been even remotely possible without the crew behind the scenes.

Once you’d made your way around the entire set, your manager set a warm, fuzzy jacket around your shoulders and ushered you out to your trailer to get changed and ready to leave.

It wasn’t until your makeup artist had removed all the blood from your neck when you realized you had left the set without one word to your co-star. Your eyebrows raised, and you were just about to turn around in your chair and say something to your manager when there was a knock on your trailer door.

“Come in!” your manager answered before you had the chance.

Your eyes were glued to the mirror in front of you, watching the reflection of the door to see who was paying you a visit. Embarrassingly, your heart was racing at the thought of it being Daehyun.

And, almost as if you’d conjured him just by thinking it, there he was, standing in the doorway of your trailer with his own clothes and no makeup on.

Looking like an absolute ten out of ten.

“Hi,” he greeted with a shy chuckle, his lips pulled into a friendly smile. “Sorry to bother you.”

“Oh no, it’s no bother at all,” you replied immediately straightening in your chair. Your makeup artist was still taking the blood off, so you couldn’t turn around to face him just yet. He seemed to understand because he walked over to you and leaned against the vanity.

“I, uh -- I just wanted to thank you,” he said, his expression genuine and earnest as he gazed down at you. “I had a lot of fun. I’ve never done anything like this, and I’m honored you chose me as your co-star.”

You felt your smile curving to match his, and your heart skipped a couple of beats as you looked right back at him. “You’re welcome,” you replied softly. “I’m really glad you could fit it into your schedule.”

The two of you chatted for a minute or two about the video, both expressing your excitement to see the final outcome and your gratitude for the great work of the director.

Just as your conversation about the video came to a natural stopping point, your makeup artist stepped away from your chair and headed into the small bathroom in your trailer. You figured Daehyun would say his goodbyes and leave... but you were more than happy to be proven wrong.

“Listen, I --” he began, shifting a bit uncomfortably as he avoided your gaze for the first time since he’d entered your trailer. “I was wondering... One of my group members is having a Halloween party tomorrow, and I know it’s short notice, but would you --”

“I would love to,” you replied, not doing anything to hide your excitement.

The expression on Daehyun’s face quickly transformed to match your tone of voice, his eyes widening and his smile growing. “Really?”

“Yes, absolutely,” you nodded. “I can just borrow my outfit from the video for my costume.”

“Oh, that’s perfect. I was thinking I would do the same thing and just go as a vampire. And you could --” He gestured to his neck, indicating you should put on some fake puncture wounds and blood like what your makeup artist had just taken off.

Oh. So, he was suggesting the two of you go as a vampire and his victim? Like... a couple’s costume?

Interesting.

“Yeah, yeah, definitely,” you said, trying to hide a sly grin. “But, I mean, that kind of forces us to stay together all night at the party, so...”

Daehyun shrugged, and you could’ve sworn you saw a smirk hidden somewhere in his smile. “Yeah, that was kind of the point.”

Your eyebrows shot halfway up your forehead, and it took everything in you not to laugh with delight.

“So... what time will you pick me up?”

You had been working so hard in your music career for two years now, meeting as many new people as you could and trying to get your face and name out there in the world. And now, after finally “making it,” you had indulged yourself in casting exactly who you’d always wanted to play your romantic interest. Even though he had actually been a vampire in the video, and the two of you hadn’t shared an actual kiss...

Well, I’d say things were turning out quite splendidly anyway.

[the-desolated-quill]

Quill’s Swill - The Worst Of 2019

Congratulations! You’ve made it through another year! You’ve faced many obstacles and overcome many adversaries to arrive here, at the dawn of a new decade. So as we prepare to leave the 2010s and make our way into the 2020s, lets take a look back at the challenges and hardships of 2019. And by challenges and hardships, I of course mean shitty fiction and media.

Yes, it’s time for yet another edition of Quill’s Swill, where we mark the absolute worst stories that the industry had to offer over the past year and proceed to tear them to shreds. Think of it as like voiding your bowels before the New Year.

As always remember that this is my personal, subjective opinion. If you happen to like any of the things on this list, that’s fine. More power to you. Go make your own list. Also bear in mind I haven’t seen everything 2019 has to offer due to various other commitments. So as much as I really, really want to, I can’t put Avengers Endgame on here. I know what happens. It sounds fucking terrible, but I haven’t seen the film, so it wouldn’t be fair of me to put it on the list, even though it would most definitely deserve it.

...

Seriously, read the synopsis of Endgame on Wikipedia some time. It’s like fanfic written by a nine year old. It’s truly shocking. And now it’s the highest grossing movie of all time? Give me strength.

All In A Row

Don’t you just hate it when you’re expected to parent your autistic child? Like actually show love and care and consideration to your offspring. Look at him, expecting you to treat him like a human being. Selfish bastard! If only there was a play that explored the horrors of having to be a decent person to your own flesh and blood and how objectively awful it is. If you’re one of those people, then the play All In A Row will be right up your street.

Premiering on the 14th February at Southwark Playhouse in London, All In A Row was a total shitshow to say the least. The playwright, Alex Oates, claimed to have ten years of experience working with autistic children, which you wouldn’t have believed if you saw the play as the autistic child at the centre of the play, Lawrence, seemed more like a wild animal than a person. In fact two of the main characters compare him to a dog. And if you thought this wasn’t dehumanising enough, Lawrence isn’t even a child. He’s a puppet. Yes, it’s as bad as it sounds.

All In A Row seems to place all of the blame for the family’s predicament on the autistic child, who’s presented as barely functional, bordering on bestial. There’s no effort to really make an emotional connection with Lawrence (how can you? He’s a puppet!) as the play instead focuses on how this kid has effectively ruined this family’s life because of his autism and aggressive behaviour. Speaking as someone on the autism spectrum, I can say quite confidently that this play is fucking despicable. Badly written, badly conceived, insulting and downright mean spirited. I wouldn’t want Oates looking after my autistic children, that’s for damn sure.

Anthem

EA is back and this time they’re dragging the critical darling that is BioWare down with them.

Anthem was a desperate attempt to jump aboard the ‘live service’ bandwagon, trying to replicate the success of other video games like Overwatch, Destiny and Warframe. They failed spectacularly. The game itself had more bugs than A Bug’s Life, loot drops were often stingy and unrewarding, loading times were farcically long, and the story and worldbuilding was fucking pitiful. Oh yeah, and if you played it on PS4, there was a good chance it could permanently damage it. Thankfully I have a uni friend with an Xbox One and they allowed me to play the game on that. It was a crushing disappointment, especially coming fresh off the heels of Mass Effect Andromeda, which didn’t exactly set the world on fire back in 2017.

It didn’t help that EA’s reputation was in tatters thanks to the lootbox controversy of Star Wars Battlefront II and having to try and win back the trust of fans, but worse still reports began to service of what went on behind the scenes at BioWare during the game’s development. Apparently the game’s story and mechanics kept changing every other day as the creative directors and writers didn’t have the faintest idea what kind of game they wanted to make, and the developers were often forced to work obscenely long work hours in abusive crunch periods to get the game finished for launch. It got so bad that, according to an article on Kotaku, some members of the team had to leave for weeks or even months at a time to recover from ‘stress casualties.’ 

To think this was the same company that gave us Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Knights Of The Old Republic. Thank God that Obsidian Entertainment is there to pick up the slack on the RPG front because I think it’s safe to assume that BioWare won’t be around for much longer at this rate.

The Lion King (2019 remake)

Here we go. Yet another live action remake of a Disney classic. Excpet it’s not live action, is it? Well... it’s live action in the sense that Dinosaur was live action (remember that film? Don’t worry if you don’t. No one does). Real locations but CGI characters. Millions of dollars spent on cutting edge tech to create photo realistic animals... and the film ends up duller than a bowl of porridge that really likes trainspotting.

It’s not just the fact that The Lion King remake is yet another soulless cash grab from the House of Mouse, it’s also the fact that it’s done really badly that upsets me. The Lion King works as an animated film. Bright colourful images, over the top song and dance sequences and vibrant character designs. As a ‘live action’ film, it just looks awkward and stilted. None of the animals are very expressive, leaving it up to the poor voice actors to carry the film, and to cap it all off the CGI isn’t even all that convincing in my opinion. At no point did I look at Simba and go ‘oh yeah, he looks like a real lion.’ It’s so obviously fake. In fact it reminds me of those early 00s movies like Cats & Dogs or Stuart Little where you see the jaws of the talking animals moving up and down like some messed up ventriloquist act or something. And here’s me thinking cinema has evolved past this.

BBC’s The War Of The Worlds

Remember Peter Harness? That guy who wrote that Doctor Who episode about the moon being an egg? Yeah, he’s back and he’s doing an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War Of The Worlds. And guess what! It’s fucking ghastly! :D

The three part BBC mini-series was without a doubt some of the worst telly I think I’ve ever seen. It’s staggering how clueless Harness is as a writer. For starters he managed to achieve the impossible and somehow made a Martian invasion of Earth boring. I didn’t even think it was possible, but somehow he pulled it off. Then he sucks all tension out of the story by revealing the ultimate fate of the Martians at the beginning of the second episode, so now any threat or danger has been chucked out of the window because we know that the main female protagonist Amy at least would survive. And then finally he takes a massive dump over the source material by having humanity weaponise typhoid to kill the red weed rather than just having the Martians die of the common cold like in the book. Because God forbid us Brits should be presented as anything other than heroic and dignified.

So what we’re left with is a poorly realised allegory with ineffectual horror tropes full of OTT progressive posturing in a pathetic attempt to make Harness and the BBC look more liberal than they actually are. There���s no effort to really explore the themes of imperialism and colonialism outside of casual lip service, and we barely get a glimpse of the dark side of humanity. Everyone is presented as flawed, but basically awesome or, in the case of Rafe Spall’s character, utterly gormless. Our TV license fees help fund this shit, you know?!

And if you think this was bad, just wait till New Year’s Day where we’ll get to see Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss’ butcher Dracula. Can we stop giving these beloved literary icons to these hacks please?

Glass

I liked Split. It wasn’t an amazing movie, but it was entertaining with some good ideas, a great performance from James McAvoy and was a true return to form for M Night Shyamalan. That being said, I wasn’t keen on the idea of it taking place in the same universe as Unbreakable. I feared it would be a step too far and we’d end up having something like... well, something like Glass.

On paper, Glass isn’t a bad idea. The idea of superpowers being a delusion is legitimately intriguing and could have been a great post-modern deconstruction of the superhero genre. Except Shyamalan never actually does anything with it. The first act drags on and on with absolutely nothing happening, none of the characters really grow or change over the course of the film, Bruce Willis in particular is basically only here for an extended cameo as his character does pretty much nothing for the majority of the film, and then the entire film is undermined by that stupid Shyamalan twist. Turns out superhumans are real and there’s a big cover up. Oh great! So not only does it render the entire film pointless, it also undoes what made Unbreakable and Split so good. They’re no longer people capable of extraordinary feats via rational means. They’re just superhuman. They can do anything. Sigh.

Shyamalan... maybe it’s time to give up the director’s chair, yeah?

Cats

Oh come on! Don’t act surprised! Did you honestly think I wouldn’t put Cats on this list?!

Cats, without a doubt, is the worst film of the decade and, yes, the CGI is terrible. Not only are there these sub-human cat mutants running around, we also have mice and cockroaches with child faces, James Corden coughing up furballs, Taylor Swift trying to give the furries in the audience boners, Idris Elba looking disturbingly underdressed and Rebel Wilson being... well... Rebel Wilson. It’s a disaster of a film. And really, should we even be surprised? We all knew this was going to suck. And no it’s not because of the CGI. I thought the CGI in Pokemon: Detective Pikachu was creepy as well, but at least it had a decent script and good performances to back it up. No the reason why Cats sucked is because... it’s Cats. It’s always been that bad. No amount of ‘advanced fur technology’ was going to change that. It was still going to be a confused, plotless mess with one dimensional characters and bad songs.

The only consolation I had was that I didn’t waste money buying a ticket. A friend of mine snuck me into the premiere and we watched it in the projector room. The plan was to make fun of it and have a laugh, but we didn’t even do that because honestly there’s nothing to really make fun. There’s only so many times you can take the piss out of the CGI and honestly the film was just boring more than anything else. It doesn’t even have the distinction of being so bad it’s good like Sharknado or Tommy Wiseau’s The Room. It’s just bad, period.

I just hope we don’t see something similar happen to Starlight Express. Just think. Anthropomorphic, singing trains on roller skates. Shudder.

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker

Finally we have yet another cynical cash grab from Disney.

I confess I didn’t exactly go into The Rise Of Skywalker with an open mind. I was never all that keen on a sequel trilogy in the first place, and neither The Force Awakens nor The Last Jedi ever convinced me otherwise. Admittedly they weren’t bad movies. Just derivative and painfully uninspired, and I was expecting more of the same for Episode IX. What I got instead was quite possibly the worst Star Wars film since Attack Of The Clones. Yes, it’s that bad.

This film is very poorly made, filled with plot contrivances and logic holes galore. I lost count of the number of times the protagonists got into a dangerous situation because of Rey constantly wandering off like a confused toddler lost in a shopping mall. Oh and we finally find out who her parents were and it was quite a twist, but only because it was really stupid. Of course we didn’t see it coming because nobody would have guessed it would be something that moronic. I feel JJ Abrams’ stupid ‘mystery box’ philosophy is to blame for this. It’s derailed countless franchises before such as Lost and Cloverfield, and now Abrams has fucked up Star Wars because he’s obsessed with mystery for the sake of mystery and Disney are so lazy that they couldn’t be bothered to plan an actual trilogy out properly beforehand. Instead they just wing it, making it up as they go along, which led to Rian Johnson ‘subverting our expectations’ and left Abrams desperately trying to pick up the pieces. 

In fact a lot of The Rise Of Skywalker seemed designed specifically to appease people of both sides of the wide chasm The Last Jedi had created. The roles of characters of colour like Finn and Rose were significantly reduced, Poe and Finn don’t end up together because of homophobia, but we do see two women kiss in the background of one two second shot that could easily be cut out when they release the film in China, Kylo Ren gets his stupid redemption even though he hasn’t fucking earned it, Lando Calrissian shows up for no fucking reason, Rey is given ‘flaws’ relating to her parentage in order to combat those accusing her of being a Mary Sue, but they’re the boring kind of flaws that don’t have any real impact on her character, and that ghastly ship Reylo is made canon even though it makes no sodding sense in the context of this movie, let alone the whole trilogy. They even go to the trouble of baiting us with a FinnRey romance before pulling the rug out from under us. Then, just to add insult to injury, the film retroactively ends up making the entire original trilogy completely pointless. All because Disney wanted more dollars to put in their Scrooge McDuck money bin.

The Rise Of Skywalker, and indeed the entire sequel trilogy, should serve as a cautionary tale against the dangers of hype and nostalgia. The reason The Force Awakens was successful wasn’t because it was a good movie (because lets be brutally honest here, it really fucking wasn’t). It was because it gave gullible Star Wars fans warm fuzzies because it reminded them of A New Hope whilst tempting them with the vague promise that things might get more interesting later on. And when that didn’t materialise, quelle surprise, the fanbase didn’t take it very well. I would love to think that this will serve as an important lesson for the future when people go and see Disney movies, but who am I kidding? I guarantee at some point we’re going to get Episodes X, XI and XII and we’ll have to go through this sorry process all over again.

So there we have it. The worst of 2019. May they rot forever in Satan’s rectum or wherever it is stories go to die. Tomorrow we’ll take a look at the other end of the spectrum. Yes it’s the Quill Seal Of Approval Awards! The best of the best! Who shall win? The suspense is killing me! Ooooh, I can’t wait! You’ll be there tomorrow, won’t you? Of course you will. How could you not?

[regnbuegulrot]

Maleficent2 rant/review

Spoilers

There are already many who has voiced their opinions on the sequel, but I haven't really seen that much talk about the "minor" characters so here I go:

First of all I love how the film looks. The costumes, set and colours are amazing. The acting is great and it feels like they have a real passion for their characters. Now where this movie is lacking, is in the script:

It starts of good, setting up Aurora, she acts a bit like a brat when sonic takes her crown tho. 

We are introduced to Prince Philip, he proposes, and Diaval flies off and tells Maleficent in a scene that is pure fan-service, I don't mind one bit.

Maleficent and Aurora argue, but agree to meet the in-laws. Everything up to, and including the dinner scene, is great. But I wish they had given us just a bit more to set up Philip's character. Couldn't we have seen him talk to Maleficent and shown that he knows her?

There is a short exchange between him and Diaval at the end with the Goat™, it's short, but tells us a lot about the relationship between all of them. Something similar, but in the beginning, would be good when you don't already know them.

The dinner scene is great, but there are a lot of players at the table, but only two are participating in the Game.

Philip and Diaval have some funny moments, but especially Philip's line drowns in the drama. The first film had a similar problem where they didn't get the humour across. At least not for me. I like the queen's henchman, and love how she's played.

Iron cutlery is for peasants, why are we using it? - the king, hopefully.

Maleficent is rightfully pissed off and leaves for her side plot.

The king is cursed and maleficent is shot. And here are the plotholes.

Diaval is changed into a man and ends up in the Moors, not knowing or caring what happened to Maleficent. If they had shown how he ended up there, #confused, or made him know about her accident, I wouldn't have considered it a plothole, but this is out of character. It would have been better to have him stay with Aurora, then they could even have the exact same convo as they do in the Moors. Then the queen could just lock him up without Aurora knowing, to get him out of the story until he's needed again.

And why didn't Philip try to just give his father a kiss. He clearly knows it would work as the previous film said parental love=true love. So you know what, make the queen lock the king up as well. To keep him safe, and too avoid the prince looking like an idiot. Make Philip start suspecting her, and make his confrontation with her more earned. Hell maybe he could even free Diaval while he's at it.

I realise I just want these two to have more screen time.

Now as for the dark fae stuff, they look amazing, creative and diverse.

But all I could hear as they were arguing how too deal with humans, was the savages song from Pocahontas, playing in the back of my mind. Maleficent doesn't even seem to care about their arguments. She's still taking in the fact that she's not alone. Their whole storyline is cliché.

Everyone in the Moors is expected to show up at the wedding! Seriously is that all the inhabitants of the entire country? They can barely fill up half a church. Also I don't care about them. 90% are tiny, barely sentient cgi characters. What happened to all the tree giants from the first film? Are they all dead?

The gass chamber scene is way to drawn out and the organ playing wants to look psychotic and suspenful. Instead it makes a cool character stupid. Have her play the start and once she presses the red button she's out. Then have her be killed off outside.

Everyone is running to the battlefield to have their moment. Diaval is turned into a bear and when Aurora runs over to reunite with Maleficent, I was bummed I didn't get too see the fairytale imagery of a princess riding a bear™

They all seem to be running a lot.

Philip has his only character defining moment, refusing to shead fae blood, I only wish Maleficent also saw it so that she knew she was wrong about him in the beginning.

Auroras crying made me cry. Just like with Angelina in the first film. They make it feel real. Sam Riley has a good reaction face, but I’m kinda glad they didn’t show him too. The scene would have felt like such a fake out. 

Now the Phoenix thing happens and ends. And the trio is reunited. How and when did Diaval change into a man? We've been watching Maleficent the whole time, did I miss it?

Skip the Goat™ and just have the queen disappear after she's chased down by the fae. When Philip reunites with his unknowing father he can just give him a sad look when he asks where she is.

If they wanted the queens pixie minion to be redemed they should have given him a moment of doubt and regret in one of his scenes.

You can't have a wedding right after a genocide and pretend that everyone are friends now. Not even in a Disney film.

Also they made a point earlier that the bride's family has to sit on the left. Separate the humans and fae. Show that the wedding is the symbol of both people uniting. If they wanted they could make the fae that liked children interact with human children. If they managed to do it in a non creepy way.

Maleficent and Diaval crying was the best part of the film for me. Again it looked real. Not actors pretending to be touched. If I was told this was just the actors crying irl I'd belive it.

It’s probably gonna turn out that Sam is too allergic to function and Angelina is dying from a really bad joke she told.

[simply-ellas-stuff]

My Thoughts on Episode Two of Batwoman *Spoilers*

Opening Sequence, Kate finding out she's relatively bullet proof was kinda adorable. The Crows shooting that man was dumb, but understandable. Entering the batcave was a cool sequence, a little choppy but cool.

Batman fever sounds a little dumb, but I like the build up of everyone hoping it's Batman.

Breakfast scene, Kate you blunt wierdo. That breakfast was awkward. The acting was a bit... stuttered - the pausing after Kate mentions Beth was like they were being told to make it dramatic but the actual set was too dry for it be as dramatic as the actors made it seem. Kate's abrupt way of telling Daddy-Kane that his long lost daughter is actually alive. Laurel was a bit smoother in telling Quinten that Sara's alive - Kate should take lessons from... well either of the Lance sisters.

How is it "not labeling" when you immediately drop like seven labels, Mary? Just curious. That "lets not" line seemed to come from Ruby a little more than Kate, just sayin'.

Alice is insane, but I'll talk more on that in a bit. Along with the flashbacks.

Luke talking to Kate about being the city's next great hope and then schooling her about how much she doesn't know only for her to compare him to his father (which, I'm sure they're is an estrangement based on his reaction) seemed like a low blow that didn't really need to be said. That could have been a moment of Kate going "Yeah, maybe I'm not Batman and don't know all his tricks but I need to do this and I need help"

Kate going to Sophie for help seemed a bit weird, like they were trying to not flirt. Sophie already knows Kate is Batwoman, I know it.

Wonder Woman is in the Arrowverse? I mean I know on Earth-Two Barry and Iris have Bruce, Hal and Diana's numbers on their phones...

Beth and Kate are twins?! When exactly was that mentioned in the first ep? I though Beth was the big sister, not a twin.

Fraternal twins don't have exact DNA Kate, that's identical twins. So, You'd need something else to compare the DNA to.

Kate, You were going to stop a wedding? Really??

Sophie pulling Kate out of the way was a little too obviously not real.

Not gonna lie, The fight sequence of the White Rabbits getting the Knife back was a bit... pause-y and awkward almost like they'd been taught the choreography to the fights but didn't quite get taught the rhythm, if you get my meaning. but I'll attribute that to Ruby's back surgery she had just before filming the rest of the season.

Why is Daddy-Kane so fucking adamant that his daughter isn't alive?!

Everything fucking happens in fifteen years in the Arrowverse.

"Fifteen years ago my mother was murdered" - Flash

"It's been fifteen years [since Beth 'died']" - Batwoman

So, the clinic is on Bennett Ave? Mary is protective of her little clinic, Good. Mary is such a fangirl.

"Waffles" is cute, and nice story building.

They HAVE to be Fraternal Twins for Kate to even slightly consider the idea that Alice is Beth.

Why can't Mary know Waffles? That doesn't make sense? The exgirlfriend can know but the stepsister can't?

When Ruby said the line "Its better if you don't know" to Mary, her real accent came out a little.

Daddy Kane assumes that Alice is mimicking Beth's important things (The Birthstone, The House, etc) but he he won't give hope a chance?

The Wafflestand is a great storytelling tool, it gives a deeper background makes the story a little more grounded and heartfelt.

I have a feeling Beth didn't kill those old people in the house, I think it was the other guy. Alice seems a bit more, strategical than that... but maybe I'm just reaching.

The goddamn swing is very Alice in Wonderland.

The swingset/wafflestand scenes confuses me, although Alice offering up her blood as a DNA test makes me think it's really is Beth.

If Beth is Alice, some of those details would be pretty dead on for drowning in a car - although she never explained how she got out of the car. Alice seems very unhinged. My only idea if it true is, Beth clung to the story of Alice in Wonderland (maybe a story her and Kate used to love) to keep herself sane while in isolation but it slowly drove her insane instead until she took on the persona of Alice (Dyeing her hair, finding those dresses, and building a cult of White Rabbits) while keeping the memories of Pre-Alice-dom.

That moment "If I was your twin, wouldn't you feel something" (or whatever she actually says) I think that feeling is why Kate thinks Beth is still alive - Twin intuition.

Kate putting herself between Daddy Kane and Alice was a great scene. Also, Why does it sound like Kate/Ruby is losing her voice - is that because she was probably still recovering from her back injury?

Kate's "Here I thought you could keep a secret" line was sassy but said a little awkwardly.

"Three little sisters" line from Alice made me think of myself and my two older sisters.

Alice/Beth doesn't want to share Kate with someone else how... obsessively psychotic.

Alice going after Mary was... a mess. Not wanting to share Kate is believable though. If the thought of being able to see Kate again is what kept her hold on her memories it would make sense that she wouldn't want to possibly lose the only shot at keeping her sister - killing Mary. It's understandable but it's also textbook insanity and obsession.

Mary's fangirl about Batman/batwoman just saved her ass, nicely done.

The Van exploding was unexpected but I did expect something to happen on the way to Arkham.

The poeticness of Kate/Batwoman saving Beth/Alice then then literally being slammed apart by a bigger force cops/Crows is either foreshadowing or something similar. Also, WHY THE FUCK WERE THE COPS SHOOTING INTO THE WATER?! That is not how you get people out of the water, what the fuck. Also, the framing of the scene reminded me of the opening sequence of Underworld Awakening between Selene and Michael.

Also, If they used the defibrillator in the suit, Kate's reaction should have been different. A groan before she opened her eyes. a light jump from the jolt. Literally anything besides her just opening her eyes, humming, and jumping up to leave. Also, if her heart was still beating while he used the dfib, she could have had a heart attack or he could have just straight up stopped her heart. Just pointing that out.

[[I got an ad for Tomorrow People on CWWebsite;; Firestorm, Golden Glider and Lincoln from Agents of Sheild all in one show looks pretty cool - I've never seen the show]]

Gotham Skyline in from the Ocean/River is gorgeous.

"Robin's high school graduation" Oh my fucking god! Is Robin alive in the Arrowverse then? Is he with Bruce where ever the fuck he is??

Mary and Kate having a heart to heart in the medical place post-Alice attack was kind of heartbreaking. As someone whose felt like barely a sister I see where Mary is coming from and the line about "if she [Alice] is [worth it], tell her I'm not a threat" speaks to me more than it probably should because the context is pretty much in the ballpark of "If you think she's the better, tell her I know my place please. Because I know I mean less and she needs to know that" which I understand completely.

Kate and Daddy Kane arguing was kinda pathetic, he's a dick. Just straight up, He's a dick. Even though I did feel bad for him when he cried in the flashback, the person he became is a dick - and yeah grief effects everyone differently but you would think he'd try and keep Kate as close as humanly possible instead of pushing her a way and threatening to arrest her.

Sophie and Kate talking, "are you happy?" "yes" "yes or ish?" then Kate being shut down was heartbreaking (and all to a Billie Ellish song).

Also, Why does Sophie keep helping Kate if she had no romantic feelings towards her?

I'm honestly hoping that Kate finds a different girlfriend because this whole Sophie thing kinda gives me a bad feeling.

Luke and Kate should be besties, it would be perfect.

Kate torturing Alice's boyfriend is funny, in a weird way. Kate should have a voice changer on her Batsuit.

Alice writing to Kate is... poetic. The bat was gross.

StepMom Kane wants the knife gone why? What does she gain from that? Power?

Alice knows Kate is Batwoman, that was quick.

The Note "You have our fathers eyes" was beautifully written.

The CGI on the bat could've been better.

Anybody else think that Daddy-Kane faked Beth's death certicate/the DNA evidence to keep Kate from searching for Beth as hard as she was(staying up, not really eating, blaming herself, etc)? And that's why he's so fucking adamant at denying the idea of Alice being Beth??

Kate was so hellbent on finding her sister (staying up late, not really eating, thinking about it all the time, building a map of all the places they looked) that it makes me think Daddy Kane/Catherine Hamilton faked the Skull fragments and DNA confirmation so that Kate could move on with her life. But that doesn't explain why Step-Mom Hamilton Kane blew up the van and stole the knife so it could be melted down.

[marvel-af]

You Just Don’t Know It (Peter Parker x Reader)

Another part of my Jonas Brothers Challenge! I really let this one get away from me, but i hope you guys enjoy. The song is angsty, therefore this is angsty as well, thats about as similar this fic is to the song. If anyone ever actually reads these little blurbs in fics, reply ‘circle’. Hope you enjoy!!

Words: 2964

Warnings: Peter’s a sad boi, slight sexual situation, but nothing actually happens like PG-13 type stuff. 

My masterlist is linked in my bio! Check it out!

Peter doesn’t know what to do. He never really does, but usually he’s good at faking it.

He loves her. She knows he loves her. She loves him.

Peter knows what happens to the people he loves.

“Pete look at this.” Y/N says crawling across the couch to hand him her phone. Peter puts on a smile watches the video of a dog sneezing.

“Cute.” Peter whispers handing the phone back. A frown emerges on Y/N’s face as she takes the phone.

“Everything okay Pete?” Y/N asks, leaning close to Peter and resting her head on his shoulder. She feels Peter shiver when they make contact.

“I’m sorry, just tired.” Peter lies.

“Well then take a nap or something,” Y/N moves away from Peter and lays down, opening her arms, “Use me as a pillow.” She smiles.

Peter can’t help but smile and he moves himself to rest his head on her chest. He hums when she wraps her arms around him and runs her hands through his hair.

“Thank you.” Peter murmurs, feeling the blanket of sleep take over.

“No problem just sleep.” Y/N says placing a kiss to his forehead.

Peter loves her. Loves her enough to know what’s right for her.

The weekly Saturday night sleepover.

Peter looks forward to it every week. He enjoys a night with his best friends, watching dumb movies and eating way too much pizza. It’s also the one night a week that May lets Y/N sleepover.

Currently Y/N is resting her head on his chest as a movie plays quietly. The night had been fun and tiring, but it was obvious the group was winding down. Ned lay on the couch, head bobbing as he tried to stay awake. MJ had a book laying on her chest as she slept soundly on the armchair.

Peter shifted his head to see that Y/N’s eyes were closed and she she had a bit of drool leaking from her mouth onto his shirt. He felt his heart swell. He really does love her.

He quietly shifts out from under her and rests her head on a pillow. She makes a noise, but quickly falls silent again. He quickly opens May’s door to see that she too is asleep. Peter smiles and then walks back to the living room. He kneels next to where Y/N is still sleeping and runs a hand over her hair, trying to wake her. Once her eyes open she frowns at Peter, as if to ask ‘what the fuck’.

“You wanna go to bed?” Peter asks softly, his hand still running through her hair.

“What about May?” Y/N croaks, her voice gravely from sleep.

“She’s asleep.” Peter smiles. Y/N nods and raises her arms. Peter picks her up, holding her bridal style. She nuzzles her face into his chest and wraps her arms around his neck.

“Mmm, love you Petie.” Y/N murmurs into his shirt. He softly lays her down on his bed.

He knows he loves her, but he can’t bring himself to say it back. So instead, he just lays down next to her and lets her cuddle next to him.

His sleep is not peaceful. He dreams of his parents. He dreams of Uncle Ben. He dreams of their deaths, which is a normal occurrence in Peter’s dreams.

But this time, he sees May die. He watches Ned and MJ die. He watches Y/N die. They all look to Peter for help in their final moments, but he can’t help. And for that, they pay.

Peter jolts awake. His breathing loud and heavy. Y/N is still strewn across his chest. Peter quickly pushes her away from him, which wakes her from her sleep. He falls back off the bed.

“Peter! What the hell?” Y/N yells. His wide eyes and heavy breathing let Y/N know something’s wrong.

Peter continues to back up until he hits the corner of his wall.

“Stay back! Please stay away!” Peter cries.

Y/N doesn’t know what to do. Peter’s quietly crying in the corner, slightly whispering under his breath that it’s his fault. She has no idea what he’s talking about. She doesn’t dare move towards him, in fear that he’ll start yelling again.

“Pete, I’ll be right back with May, okay?” Y/N whispers. Peter sniffles in the corner, but continues to cry and shake. Y/N quickly runs out of the room, socked feet slipping on the floor, and bursts into May’s room.

“May! You need to get up,” Y/N yells, to which May wakes up, “It’s Peter.”

May jumps out of the bed and runs into Peter’s room. He’s still sitting in the corner, but now his breathing has slowed down.

“Peter?” May asks. Peter raises his head and his red, puffy eyes make Y/N’s heart clench.

“May, I-I,” Peter cries. May sits down next to Peter, who falls into her hold and lets out a loud sob.

Ned and MJ peek their heads through the door, rubbing their eyes, having just woken up due to the commotion.

“What’s going on?” Ned whispers.

“I don’t know he woke up and just freaked out. He pushed me away.” Y/N says, eyes trained on her sobbing boyfriend. MJ notices the look on Y/N’s face and gently pulls her from the room.

“Are you okay?” MJ asks. Y/N huffs quietly, feeling a sting in her eyes.

“Why did he push me away. I could have helped him, but he yelled at me to get away from him.” Y/N says, her voice wavering.

“Yeah, he was scared, maybe right out of a nightmare or something.” MJ reasons.

“But he didn’t want me when he was scared!” Y/N yells, tears slowly falling.

“MJ, before we fell asleep, I said I love you and he said nothing. I thought it was nothing, but what if he really doesn’t love me anymore.” Y/N cries.

“Are you crazy? Peter loves you so much Y/N. You should see they way that dork looks at you!” MJ smiles.

“I guess.” Y/N agree, the feeling of doubt staying in her mind.

“This sucks.” Y/N whispers in Peter’s ear. The movie theater was nearly empty as Peter and Y/N watched the new dumb action movie.

“Yeah this CGI is some of the worst I’ve seen this year.” Peter says taking a sip of the soda.

“Wanna do something more fun?” Y/N asks, placing a hand on Peter’s thigh, and pressing a kiss under his ear. Peter raises his eyebrows.

“Here?” Peter asks, his voice a bit higher. Y/N smiles against the skin of his neck and nods. She runs her hand up his thigh, closer to his hardening dick. Her mouth has begun to suck hickeys on his neck, and he moves his hand to tilt her chin, allowing him to kiss her.

“Mphm.” Peter groans when Y/N’s hand begins to massage him through his pants. Y/N breaks the kiss to kneel down in front of Peter.

“You want more, Pete?” Y/N asks, a smirk planted across her swollen, red lips. Her hands move to undo the zipper that’s confining his hardening cock. Suddenly his senses alert him to a man walking by, so he pushes Y/N back into his seat, and when she sees the man, she blushes.

“Let’s get out of here.” Peter whispers. Y/N nods and and quickly grabs Peters hand, pulling him out of his seat.

Unlucky for him, when he stands, his boner nearly pokes out of his jeans. Y/N stifles her loud laugh with her hand and quickly pulls him out of the theater.

“Uh, Y/N this is kind of uncomfortable.” Peter complained and Y/N tied her jacket around the front of his pants.

“Just wait till we get back to your apartment, and you’ll be very comfortable.” Y/N says, pulling the jacket tight around his waist and pulling him along.

“God, I’m so glad Aunt May’s away.” Peter laughs as they walk, no, jog back to Peter’s apartment.

By the time they open the door, Peter’s erection has gone soft, which was no problem to Y/N. She slowly ran a hand down Peter’s chest to his crotch and worked on massaging him.

She noticed as they kissed that Peter seemed to not harden. Y/N took this as a challenge. She grabbed him by the collar and pulled him into his bedroom and pushed him on the bed.

“What do you need Pete?” Y/N huffs as she straddles his hips.

Peter’s brain stopped.

He thought about Uncle Ben.

He thought about the blood on his hands. He thought about Ben’s funeral and the tears that ran down May’s face. He thought about how he had let Ben down.

He thought about how he was going to let Y/N down.

“Pete?” Y/N questioned.

“I-I, I just, Y/N.” Peter whispered.

“Oh.”

“God, Y/N, I’m so sorry.I ju-” Peter started.

“No, it’s fine. I should go.” Y/N hops off the bed and grabs her jacket. Peter stays still and quiet.

“Y/N I-” Peter whispers.

“I’ll see you later Peter.” Y/N says, turning around and walking out. Peter can hear the door slam.

“Shit.” Peter rolls onto his stomach and buries his face into a pillow, staying still long enough that he must have fallen asleep.

-------------

“MJ! You don’t get it! He couldn’t get hard!” Y/N cries over the phone.

“Y/N he was probably just tired. Or maybe he, ya know, in the movie theater.” MJ reasoned.

“No, he would have just said that. He couldn’t get hard at the promise of sex with me.” Y/N whimpers.

“Y/N, I’m sure there’s a reason for this, you should just talk to him.”

“Why, so he can lie to me again? He’s been lying and saying he’s fine for months now. Something’s up and he’s not telling me!” Y/N yelled, becoming mad.

“Lying about what?” MJ asks.

“Lying about where he goes, even May is worried, She said he comes home with bruises and he just says he’s fine! And there was the night at the sleepover when he pushed me off the bed! And now he can’t even get hard and stay hard for me! MJ what if Peter’s cheating on me?” Y/N asks, her voice cracking.

“Y/N don’t think about that. Peter is not cheating on you. He’s probably just going through a hard time, I mean Ben died, what, a little over a year ago? Ben was the second Dad he lost, I think Peter’s just going through it.” MJ says, ever the voice of reason in a crisis.

“But he can’t come and talk to me about it? He’s just pushing me away, and, MJ I think it’s time I let him.”

“Y/N, what are you saying?” MJ asks.

“I’m saying, that I think I should break up with Peter.”

MJ lets out a short puff of breath.

“Wow, are you sure? I mean that’s almost three years Y/N.”

“Honestly yeah. I’ve been having doubts about whether or not Peter loves me or not. I mean he stopped saying it for God’s sake. MJ, I think Peter doesn’t love me anymore.” Y/N says, letting out a sob.

“God Y/N, you want me to come over hun?” MJ offers.

“Please. I really don’t want to be alone.” Y/N whimpers.

“I’ll be right over, you open some ice cream and put on The Notebook.” MJ says, trying to lighten the mood. Y/N says bye and MJ shoots a text off to Ned.

get ahold of peter now. Find out what the fuck is going on. y/n is really upset right now.

By the time she got an affirmative text, she was already at Y/N’s house , laying on the couch with The Notebook playing softly on the T.V.

Peter was awoken by the sound of his phone ringing. He hoped it was Y/N, but in the back of his mind, he knew it wasn’t. The cringey picture of Ned that filled his view made Peter think about what important Star Wars new he’s missed out on.

“What’s up Ned?” Peter asks quietly, his voice hoarse from sleep.

“What happened tonight? MJ texted me saying Y/N was really upset.” Ned says. Peter felt his body stiffen.

“I-I uh, I just, Ned I really fucked up.” Peter stuttered.

“Dude, did you guys break up? Why didn’t you call me!” Ned exclaims.

“We didn’t break up. I wouldn’t be surprised if she did though. I’ve been really off recently.” Peter whispers.

“What happened?”

“I just, Ned I’ve been pushing her away. I love her and I’ve been treating her like shit. I don’t want her to get her hurt an-and everyone I love gets hurt Ned. I can’t let her stay near me.” Peter says softly.

“Peter, you know none of the people you love died because of you.” Ned states firmly. Peter rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, but it’s gone to far, Y/N probably hates me now.” Peter says, his eyes beginning to water.

“Peter, what happened tonight? ‘Cause MJ said Y/N’s upset.”

“I went soft during sex. I thought about Uncle Ben and his death and all the blood and the funeral. She probably thinks I hate her or something.” Peter cries.

“Peter, no way she hates you! Just explain what happened!” Ned yells. Peter nearly flinches from the sound.

“I-I guess, but all I want to do is throw my covers over my head and die.” Peter sniffles.

“Should I come over? Is May home?”  Ned asks, worried for his friend.

“No, don’t worry about it, I’m gonna go talk to Y/N.” Peter says, throwing himself off his bed and putting on his shoes.

“Okay good luck, and keep me updated.” Ned says. Peter confirms and hangs up, jogging out of his apartment.

He knocks loudly on the door. It takes a few moments, but eventually MJ opens the door. She lets out a relieved sigh once she realizes it’s Peter.

“Great, go fix this.” MJ says pulling him in. Peter smiles sheepishly.

“I’ll try.”

“MJ who is-?” Y/N starts to ask while she walk out of her bedroom. She falls silent when her eyes meet Peter’s. Her face is red and the area around her eyes is puffy. It breaks Peter’s heart to know that he’s the reason she’s crying.

“Hey Y/N.” Peter says, awkwardly shifting from foot to foot.

“Oh, look at the time, I’ve gotta go feed my cat.” MJ says quickly before running out of the apartment.

After a few moments of silence and avoided eye contact, Peter finally speaks up.

“Y/N, I’m sorry. For everything.” Peter murmurs.

“Are you cheating on me? Don’t lie to me Peter.” Y/N asks, her voice breaking. Peter’s eyes widen.

“What? No. Y/N I could never. I-I lo- I.” Peter hangs his head. Y/N scoffs, a sick smile on her face.

“You can’t even say it Peter. Do you even love me anymore?” Y/N sneers, her sorrow turning to anger for the boy in front of her.

“More than anything Y/N! You don’t get it! I’m trying to protect you!” Y/N interrupts him with a scoff.

“Your version of protecting me is making me feel like shit? Real good job Peter!” Y/N yells.

“I never meant to hurt you! It’s just, my fucking parents die! Uncle Ben dies! Who’s next!” Peter yells out, tear running down his cheeks. Y/N’s face softens.

“What’re you saying Pete?” Y/N asks softly, walking closer to where Peter is crying into his hands.

“God Y/N, everyone I love dies. I don’t want you to die. I’m the common denominator! I just don’t want there to be anymore blood on my hands.” Peter cries, vigorously wiping at his eyes.

“I’m not going to die Pete.”

“But what if it’s not up to you! How can you say you won’t get hurt because you’re around me? If the past is any indicator, I’d say you're doomed Y/N!” Peter yells.

“Well then let me make that choice. Stop pushing me away. I love you and I want to be there for you.” Y/N says, tears beginning to fall down her face as well.

“I just want you to be safe. And the safest place for you is far away from me.”

“Peter let me decide where I feel safest! Stop trying to decide that for me! You could have just talked to me instead of making me think you don’t love me anymore. Because that shit hurts.” Y/N says, pulling Peter’s hands away from his red, swollen eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know you are, but please stop lying to me, even if you think it’s to protect me.”

“I’m so sorry Y/N. God I’m so pathetic!” Peter sulks as Y/N pulls him to the couch.

“Don’t say that. I understand why you did what you did. Just next time, come talk to me before you decide things for us, okay?” Y/N smiles, lifting his chin.

“Okay.”

Y/N sits down on the couch and opens her arms up for him.

“You tired?”

Peter lets out a relieved sigh. He nods and slowly lays down next to her, falling into her open arms. He rests his head on her chest and hears her steady heartbeat. Y/N takes her hands and tangles them into Peter’s curls, occasionally scratching his scalp softly.

“Love you Y/N.” Peter murmurs before slowly falling asleep.

[starxiddraws]

Your Guardian Angel

Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug  Rated: T "Marinette's identity has been exposed to the entirety of Paris and she has to make some decisions."

Chapter 1: Exposed

    “Oh no! I’m late! I can’t believe I overslept again! I hope Miss Bustier doesn’t send me to the principal’s today,” Marinette stumbled out of her parents’ bakery as she placed a newly baked croissant into her mouth. The nice, buttery pastry nearly melted in her mouth as she stood at the crosswalk, waiting for her cue to cross. The road wasn’t busy, so she probably could have crossed, but as the hero of Paris, she needed to set an example, albeit no one knows her secret identity. “Still though,” she thought, finally crossing as she finished her croissant, running up the school stairs as a school monitor approached the doors to close them. She managed to slip through before the doors closed, almost catching the skirt to her light pink dress in the process. Skipping two steps at a time, Marinette hurried up the stairs and almost slammed herself into the door as she entered her classroom, right before the tardy bell rang. “Yes!” She exclaimed inwardly, giving a little triumphant dance, “I managed to arrive on time!”

   Unaware of an uneasy silence, and confused looks, Marinette sat down at her assigned seat and rummaged through her bag for the textbook needed for her morning class. Finally settling to her seat, she noticed the stares her classmates were giving her, some astonished, others were covering their mouths, as if a secret threatened to escape their lips. Marinette's shoulders tensed up and her eyes darted from one classmate to another until her eyes landed on Alya’s seat, only to find she wasn’t seated there. Instead, Alya was standing at the front of the class, staring at Marinette with her mouth wide open, apparently speechless. “I-is it what I’m wearing?” She internally pondered, looking down at the little jacket and dress she hastily put on in her panic to get ready for school. There was nothing wrong with it that would cause a disturbance in the classroom, she often wore cute outfits to school. As a matter of fact, she had worn this dress before on a special occasion at school. So why...?

   “Marinette.” The teen jumped at the mention of her name, she glanced upwards towards the front of the class, where her best friend was now looking at her with concern, pointing at the projector screen which had an image, or a video paused at a  certain point. It seemed to be Ladybug in an alleyway. The blood drained from Marinette’s face as Alya played the rest of the clip, showing Ladybug transforming back into her civilian form: Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Marinette slowly stood up as Alya replayed the video, her eyes glued to the projection. The video starts off with the camera person hiding behind a car, filming into the alleyway where Ladybug was standing, looking around to make sure that the coast was clear. Then she started to detransform, revealing Marinette as the person underneath the mask. The class was silent as they watched Marinette with bated breaths, observing her facial expressions, but Marinette’s face remained stone cold still.    “Alya, how did you get this video?” Marinette bored her big blue eyes into Alya’s green ones, hoping, begging, pleading for this to be fake although she already knew when this footage was filmed. It was the day before when a child was akumatized because her mother would not let her keep a stray puppy. She was a hard one to catch, but they caught her. She remembered vividly how the girl, clad in a stylized dog outfit, commanded all the dogs with a silent whistle. It was a nightmare, a cute, fluffy, slobbery nightmare. Marinette had plans, so she had to leave right after the fight. There was no way she could come up with an explanation that it was a hoax. Maybe CGI, but the footage was too shaky and low quality to pull that off.

   Alya turned her back to her best friend and stared at her phone. “It was sent to me a few minutes ago... by an anonymous email. They sent it to the LadyBlog named under ‘cool Ladybug footage’. I just thought it was a video about yesterday’s fight, so I put it up on the projector so that everyone can see, but...” Alya took in a shaky breath and quickly turned to face Marinette, who now looked scared, face pale and eyes wide. “I promise, I didn’t upload it to the LadyBlog! I always check my footage before uploading!” Marinette began to tremble. Who sent that video? She needs to find this person so that they can delete it, FAST. No one else needs to see, needs to know... “Is there a way to find out who sent that? That person needs to get rid of that video now!” Panic began to bubble in her chest as she approached Alya, shaky hands reaching out towards the phone. “Please, no one else can find out. If other people find out, I-my parents- you guys... will be in danger if Hawkmoth finds out.”    “There’s no point Marinette,” Nino said solemnly. He was looking down at his phone, shaking his head. “The local news is currently showing it... So everyone who’s watching this... knows.” A few kids gasped while others pulled out their phones to see what the news has to say. Marinette was planted firmly where she stood, white as a sheet, heart beating desperately with the hope that people believe that it is fake. However, it only takes one person to see and believe that this is true, and that one person could be Hawkmoth. If he finds out, he can take her parents hostage, he can harm her friends in many ways possible, he can kidnap her, he can take the miraculous, he can destroy everything, he can, he can...    “--nette, Marinette, please...” tears stung her eyes as a pair of green eyes stared into hers and strong hands held her shoulders, gently shaking her to bring her back from the grim future. Adrien gently swiped a stray hair from her face as he tried to calm her down, but as soon as she realized who was in front of her, attempting to comfort her, tears began to cascade down her cheeks as panic finally took over her being and all she wanted to do was hide. She jolted for the classroom door and escaped into the hallway, letting out a pained sob for her class to hear before the door closed. Adrien was about to go after her when Alya stopped him. “Let’s all go together, I don’t think it’s safe for her to be alone, especially in the state she’s in. Also, you need me to go into the girl’s bathroom in case she’s in there. Miss Bustier, may we...?” Alya gave their teacher a hopeful look and she nodded solemnly. Alya, Nino, and Adrien all left the classroom in the search for Marinette. A few moments of silence passed in the classroom before chaos ensued.    “Marinette is Ladybug? Clumsy Marinette??”    “She probably was purposefully clumsy to hide her identity?”    “That would make sense. But something tells me she’s just clumsy.”

   “Dupain-Cheng is Ladybug... I admire Ladybug... Does that mean I admire DUPAIN-CHENG??”    “Chloe, c-calm down...”

*   *   *

   Marinette sat in the stall directly in front of the door in the bathroom on the ground floor, quietly crying, trying to figure out what to do. Her phone rang silently beside her as Alya was attempting to call her. Her parents have also tried to call her, but she just ignored her phone. “This is a disaster...” she muttered as she hugged her knees, sniffling. A little red creature flew out of her purse and hugged her cheek to try to cheer her up, but that little action caused Marinette to cry even more, covering her face to hide her shame. “I’m sorry T-Tikki,” she managed to say between sobs, “I should have been more careful, and now a-a-all of P-Paris knows... I-I’m the worst LadyBug ever...”    “Marinette, don’t say that! You are one of the best that I’ve had the pleasure of knowing! You couldn’t have known that someone was recording. No one would have known...”    “I agree,” A voice echoed through the bathroom. “With Marinette. She is the worst Ladybug ever! Who could EVER think of giving her such an important role to play, when wee little Marinette is the clumsiest person in the entirety of Paris-- no the entirety of the universe!” The voice was dripping with delighted malice and a giggle erupted from the other side of the stall door. Marinette recognized the voice.    “Lila!” Marinette stood up and opened the door, to face Lila who was giving her the biggest, smuggest smirk with the most malicious look on her eyes that it even gave Marinette shivers down her spine.    “Who would have known,” Lila stepped into the stall, trapping Marinette into the small space, “That Marinette Dupain-Cheng was Ladybug. You really did fool them, no one would have suspected a thing. Though, now that I think about it... You two do look a lot alike. I’m surprised no one caught that-- Well... one person did though.” Lila waved her phone. Marinette gasped and glared daggers into the smug face Lila wore. “And now it’s all over the news. I’m surprised Alya didn’t upload it to the LadyBlog, that’s some juicy, juicy stuff.”

   Suddenly the door to the bathroom opened, and Lila’s demeanor did a complete 180, suddenly pretending to comfort the now infuriated Marinette. “Oh Marinette! You must be so scared! You need to calm down before an akuma gets you! And then what would we do if Ladybug got akumatized?”    “Lila! What are you doing here?” Alya walked into the bathroom as the boys stood outside. Marinette noticed Adrien looking at her as the door closed and she gave him a pained look before it shut completely.    “Oh Alya, I was running late for class because I was so caught up with the news, and then I saw Mari running into the bathroom crying, and I just knew that I needed to comfort her. Afterall, Ladybug and I are best friends, so it makes sense that I take care of my best friend!” Lila sniffed and wiped away a tear that wasn’t there. Alya, although a bit annoyed that Lila emphasised “best friend”, believed her and nodded her head.    “Well I’m her closest best friend and I’m here now, so you can leave her to me.” Alya suddenly got a weird look on her face as Lila left, as if some cogs suddenly started to turn in her mind. “Best friends? But you despise her (for no reason), how can you be best friends?”    “Exactly,” Marinette muttered but Alya missed it completely, for she began to focus on what’s more important: Marinette.    “Are you okay? You left so suddenly. The whole class is worried,” Alya cupped Marinette’s cheek and wiped away a stray tear that shed suddenly.    “No. I’m not okay. I don’t think I’ll ever be okay now that my identity has been exposed. Anyone that I know and love won’t ever be okay because they’ll be in danger. I don’t know what to do to fix this...” Marinette began to cry again, but this time she’s more frustrated because the person who recorded her was a very effective liar and if she tried to tell the truth, everyone would believe Lila over her.    “Hey hey, sh shh,” Alya held Marinette tightly as she sobbed into her shoulder. “You’re not alone in this though. Nino and Adrien are waiting for us outside. We should go meet up with them and figure this out.” Marinette nodded and followed her best friend outside where Nino and Adrien were waiting. *  *  *    Adrien had a hard time wrapping his mind around the events that happened in the past ten minutes. Marinette is Ladybug, she had a panic attack, Marinette is ladybug, they came to get her, Marinette is Ladybug, Lila came out of the bathroom looking worried, at first, but a look of malice slightly slipped out and only he noticed, Marinette is Ladybug...He couldn’t believe it, but at the same time, it made complete sense to him that Marinette is Ladybug. Was it the hair? The big blue eyes? The cleverness? Regardless, Marinette is just a friend, and Ladybug is his lady, how can she be the same person? He didn’t have those kinds of feelings for Marinette, those were reserved for Ladybug, but Marinette is also Ladybug, so maybe... he was just wrong? The look she gave him before the bathroom door closed made his chest so tight with emotion that he wanted to cry alongside her, but it was Alya’s job to take care of her for now. The boys sat down on the floor by the bathroom door and waited.

   “Can you believe it? Marinette is Ladybug,” Nino looked at Adrien who just stared at the floor, thinking. “But at the same time, it explains a lot.” Adrien looked at Nino questioningly. “Why she’s always tardy to school and why she always got flustered whenever Alya would tease her about being Ladybug. And why she chose me and Aly--” Nino suddenly shut his mouth, realizing what he was saying .    “What?”    “Nothing.” Adrien gave Nino a suspicious look then continued to look at the floor.

   Both girls walked out of the bathroom, Alya guiding a still shaken Marinette to the boys, who were keeping a close eye out for Akumas. Adrien immediately stood up, perhaps a bit too quickly, for Alya gave him a puzzled look. Gulping, Adrien ignored Alya’s inquisitive look, and with a slightly flushed face, looked at Marinette, who was staring at the ground. Feeling his eyes on her, Marinette glanced up at him and they locked eyes for a moment before Adrien looked away rather too quickly, blushing more. “Get a hold of yourself,” Adrien thought as he decided that a small piece of chewed gum was more interesting. “As if that is more interesting than those vividly blue eyes of hers.” His mind retorted as heart began to race. “What is going on with me? I find out Marinette is Ladybug and I’m head over heels over her? B-but Marinette is just a f-f-f-f--”    “Are you okay, Adrien?” Marinette’s voice snapped him from his very confused thoughts and they just stared at each other, both confused, but for very different reasons.

   “I-I’m okay.” She cares about others so readily, just like Ladybug. It just keeps making more and more sense... “Ahem. So what should we do about this situation?”    “I don’t know, I’ve been thinking but I can’t think of anything. My mind is too... worried to focus...”    “It’s okay Marinette, let’s think. What can we do to fix this?” Alya rubbed Marinette’s shoulders to help her relax. Everyone began to think.    Adrien piped up, “I know, what about we just say it’s a hoax? Marinette can go on the Ladyblog to give an interview and just say it was all a hoax.”    “An actress with special effects added in after, that’s perfect Adrien!” Alya nodded, admiring Adrien’s plan.    “Would it work though?” Marinette asked. “The main person who we would need to convince that it was a hoax would be Hawkmoth. If he doesn’t believe it...”    “Mari, relax.” Adrien placed his hand on her shoulder. When she didn’t relax, he cupped her cheeks so he can guide her to face him so she can see, so she can know that what he’ll say next is the truth. “If anything, Chat Noir will be there too.” I’ll be there for you. “He’ll protect you, with his life is he has to.” Her eyes widening, she stepped back, slowly shaking her head in disagreement.    “No, I don’t want anyone getting hurt because of me. Not even Chat Noir. He may be a silly tom cat, but he’s still my partner and I don’t want him to--to...”    “You’re right. He’s your partner. So as Ladybug, you shouldn’t go through this alone. As Marinette, you have us to support you. You’re not alone in this!” Adrien pleaded. Alya and Nino looked in disbelief at how Adrien was acting towards Marinette. Very caring, and protective, as if he’s the one asking to protect her. It’s an astonishing display.

   Marinette took a moment to absorb what Adrien has said and nodded. He’s right, she’s not alone...    “I’ll have to talk to Chat Noir about all of this, see what he has to say. So I’ll have to text you all later to see what the game plan is. Let’s get back to class... I think everyone is worried about us... about... me.” Nodding in agreement, the four of them headed upstairs into their classroom, where everyone waited anxiously.

*  *  *

   “Marinette Dupain-Cheng is Ladybug. There’s no doubt about it.” Hawkmoth stared out of his butterfly shaped window as he sensed the despair emanating from the young student. It was so easy, just akumatize her in her current state and get her Miraculous, then use that miraculous to get Chat Noir’s. It was the perfect situation.

   “What are you going to do, sir?” Nathalie asked, watching her boss ponder all of his possibilities.

   “I’ll akumatize her right now, so I can get her Miraculous as soon as I can. Then it is all uphill from here.”

   “Well, do it before all of the other miraculous users assemble, if they haven’t already.”

   “Good point,” Gabriel reached out a hand and a butterfly landed perfectly on his palm, ready for it’s master’s plan. But as soon as the purple bubbles enshrouded the little bug, the feeling of despair vanished. “What happened? Where did all the feelings of worry and frustration go?” He tried to send off his butterfly, but it just flew back, not knowing where to go. Frustrated, Hawkmoth purified the butterfly and stood there, plotting, planning his next move to get his hands on that damn ladybug Miraculous. 

A/N: This is my first MLB fic. It’s been in my mind for a while now, so I hope you guys like it!!

[poorreputation]

SPN 1X01 Pilot Retrospective Meta

Tag list for old episodes meta! (let me know if you wanna be tagged):

@emblue-sparks @metafest @verobatto-angelxhunter @evvvissticante @dea-stiel @sudo-apt-get-destiel @wildligia (tumbler’s not letting me tag you, sorry)

Pre re-watch notes/things to touch on:

Comparing the Woman in White to John, Sam and Mary/hindsight notes.

S1 motivations vs. S14/15 endgame.

Episode Notes:

Written by: Eric Kripke

Directed by: David Nutter

A long post, so I will put it behind the cut.

Lawrence, Kansas

22 years ago

We begin our tale with Mary bringing Dean into Sam's nursery to say goodnight. John enters the room, and in a nice bit of short-hand, he's wearing a USMC (United States Marine Corps) shirt, showing John was a soldier.

There's a shot of Mary and John in a picture. We already know they're married, so why is it here?

Mary thinks it's John in the nursery, only to find him asleep in the living room in front of the TV. (again, a connection to John's past, he's fallen asleep watching a war movie)

Something that'll become a continuity issue, later in the show: Mary's many years of experience being a Hunter, only to not recognize the flickering of lights as a sign of trouble.

Of course, Mary's wearing a white gown, (white is usually seen as a pure color/ of purity, but in this instance a connection to the Woman in White/see Jess later)

Mary's dead, and everyone involved is scarred for life.

The look on John's face, as we finish the Lawrence sequence, is that of a broken man, who's seen something that will eat away at his mind.

Stanford University Present Day (2005)

Okay, the first image we see of Jess is her in a nurse's costume, white with red trimming. Jess also has medium length curly blond hair. Guys, she looks like Mary, especially in Mary's death scene (white gown, covered in blood). 

We focus in on the picture of Mary and John for visual shorthand, confirming this is a grown-up Sam.

We establish Sam is "scary" smart, has aspirations of becoming a lawyer, and has a job interview on Monday.

Jess: "Knock 'em dead on Monday." laying it on thick, Kripke.

Sam: "What would I do without you?"

Jess: "Crash and burn."

*smooch*

Damn you, Kripke.

Night scene, and holy shit, why do Sam and Jess have so many plants? Why doesn't future Sam have plants in the bunker, you know, something low maintenance?

Dean, why the fuck can't you use the door? Or a phone?

From the get-go, Dean's cocky, suffers from eldest sibling syndrome, and is a shameless horn-dog.

Sam: "He's on a Miller time shift." See, when I first watched the pilot, years ago, I didn't realize this was Sam implying John was a drunk. These things would just fly over my head.

Sam wants to make a point of including Jess in the conversation, of being honest. And yet, the moment Dean says John is on a hunt and hasn't returned, that honesty goes right out the window. More on that later.

Sam and Dean's exposition dump in the hallway, a part of me feels it's an odd way to catch the audience up to speed, while the other part of me knows this is how families argue when they spend most of their time biting their tongues. Sam especially seems the type to mull over his thoughts, storing away comebacks for the perfect moment when they'll be most effective (like later in the episode). Also, it's been years since the brothers have seen each other (we're told later it's been at least 2 years since Dean bothered Sam), they're so icy towards one another.

Sam: "You think Mom would've wanted this for us?" we'd find this out later in S4, but, no. Funny enough, maybe if Mary shared her knowledge of Hunting, something more could've been done (foreshadowing).

Dean: "What're you gonna do? Just live some normal, apple pie life?" Dean, if you'd only taken your own advice, we could've avoided S6.

Sam, paraphrasing John: "If you're gonna go, stay gone." Well, that's only very emotionally manipulative.It does, however, remind me of the U.S. military’s views on those dishonorably discharged, and since John raised them as "warriors", it's not a stretch to think, in a time of crisis, John treated his sons as soldiers.

Dean: "I can't do this alone."

Sam: "Yes, you can."

Dean: "Yeah, well, I don't want to."

This exchange, this vulnerability from Dean, after his initial introduction of being a cocky asshole who hits on his brother's girlfriend, shows just how much of a facade Dean's attitude is. In the end, he's a kid scared of losing his Dad.

It's this vulnerability that convinces Sam to listen.

Come the fuck on, "I can never go home." after we establish Sam left John and Dean, left Hunting behind, and was told to never come back (home). KRIPKE. YOU'RE *not* SUBTLE.

2 years, Dean says, since they last talked. Either Sam entered college late, (20 rather than 18) or Sam and Dean kept in touch even after Sam and John's blow-out fight.

Again, Jess pries for more info, and Sam changes the subject. Nope, that’s not gonna bite him in the ass, at all.

Jericho, California

(insert biblical/wrestling reference here)

We meet monster fodder, I mean, some random dude, who tells his girlfriend Amy over the phone he can't see her that night. He slows down to a stop and picks up the Woman in White.

Anyway, another example of a young woman with curly, medium length hair in a white gown/dress. I mean, her house even looks a bit like John and Mary's old place.

We get a brief, blurry shot of the Woman in White and her kids. Sorry, but if you're familiar with the legend of her/La Llorona, it's easy to see where this is going.

Oh, and whatshisface is dead.

Chips and soda. Breakfast of champions.

Sam's being a real sassy bitch about how Dean and John get their funds. I get it, world-building for the audience, bit it shows just how passive aggressive Sam is in these early seasons; Dean's clearly playing moderator between Sam and an absent John.

Sam: "Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Metalica? It's the greatest hits of mullet rock." Sam, it's not Dean's fault you have poor taste. Shut your cakehole.

Sam: "Sammy's a chubby 12 year old." or, it's what a big brother says to his infant sibling to calm him down, oh wait.

Monster bait's name is Troy. Yeah, I don't care.

Dean sassing the officer and Sam stomping Dean's foot. Yep, they're brothers. This interaction is where their chemistry really starts to shine through.

Amy and her friend are peak mid-2000's goths/emos, good lord.

Dean's "I told you so" smart-ass look as the friend shares the rumors in town, he's such an older sibling.

They... they never tell Amy what happened to her asshole boyfriend, huh? Well. Sucks for Amy.

Researching on a public library computer, fucking hell. (nothing wrong with that, I’ve worked in a public library, but they’re doing super-secret Hunter’s stuff in such a public place)

Have it paused on a photo of Constance Welch, the Woman in White, and the article mentions her husband's exact line of work; associate manager who works the graveyard shift at Frontier auto salvage. Gives me shades of Bobby, who also lost his wife under tragic circumstances.

A mother leaves her child unattended, comes back to check on them, tragedy strikes. Or, so the story goes.

Dean confronts Sam about living a life of willful ignorance, and even asks if Jess knows the truth. Sam makes it clear she doesn't and he intends it to stay that way, as Dean sarcastically quips, "That's healthy".

Really, the more I think about it, the more S6 feels like the inverse of S1; Dean tries to live a normal life, Sam comes stomping in to rain on his parade. Lisa is kept largely in the dark about Dean's past, and gets hurt because of it.

Dean: "You can pretend all you want, Sammy, but sooner or later, you're gonna have to face up to who you are."

Sam: "And who's that?"

Dean: "One of us."

Sam: "No. I'm not like you. This is not going to be my life."

Sam thinks Dean's just talking about Hunting, but Dean means more than that, he means family. One of us, Dad and me, a Hunter and a Winchester.

Sam: "Mom's not coming back." and so on about how he doesn’t even remember Mary, doesn’t share John’s obsession. 

Dean: "No chick flick moments." Dean, dude, bro, you're the one who started this by breaking into Sam's place like a dramatic bitch, and then proceeded to give life/relationship advice. It's already a chick flick.

John's room being covered head-to-toe in case notes, only to come to the obvious conclusion it's the Woman in White. But, Sam said, because of the salt line, John was worried. Now, as far as I can remember, John was never a target of this spirit, so, I think he was paranoid about Yellow Eyes. After all, John had notes on devils/demons up, too, so maybe. I could be wrong.

There's something amusing about Sam and Dean's first duo Hunt, one without John, includes one of them getting arrested. Just, how rare that happens in the rest of the show, compared to how many laws they break daily.

Sam talks to Joseph Welch, who seems to wear the same clothes as Bobby. Also, Sam looks like a giant standing next to him.

Joseph lies to Sam's face about his and Constance's marriage, and it takes Sam a moment to work up the nerve to call him out on it. Or, it's Sam losing his temper. They're dealing with a murderous ghost, after all, and this guy wants to hide the truth.

Sam's done with lying witnesses, and now he's making fake calls to the cops. Gloves are OFF.

So, it's revealed John's purposefully leaving Sam and Dean clues, the journal, and the coordinates, but won't outright tell the truth.

Sam: "I'm not unfaithful. I've never been." See, Sam, that's only in the cheating department. You are, however, keeping Jess in the dark about dangerous stuff. Can any relationship with such big lies every be a faithful one?

Again, the imagery of the flickering lights. A standard in the show later for when a ghost's around, but considering all the visual parallels between the Woman in White and Mary, I think it's intentional.

That CGI of the ghosts vanishing was kinda shit, though. So is the sound of water swirling down a drain, I'm now just thinking of a toilet.

Dean: "I'll take you home." and there, in an episode where the ghost is afraid to go home and face the consequences of their actions, Sam too must go back to Jess.

Sam discovering Jess' body on the ceiling, as the room's engulfed in flames, never fails to give me chills. Hot damn.

Post Episode Notes:

While the pilot is a treasure trove of world building, plotting of character arcs, and chemistry between Jared and Jensen, it still doesn't make up for the fact it's bookended with 2 women getting fridged. Mary and Jess don't get to be characters, only fuel for man-pain, and argue with me all you want, but Mary's send-off in S14 is far superior to what she got in the pilot.

I remember seeing Kripke discuss how many drafts they went through while writing the pilot, and it feels like that at quite a few points. Like maybe the sheriff was to get more time, or Troy's father, who I believe is a cop, would've been more vital to the plot. And Amy, who'll spend who knows how many weeks and months putting up missing person posters for Troy.

I believe Kripke also said they'd considered killing John at the end, rather than Jess. I think, and this is pure speculation, the more they went into the lore for the Woman in White, the more they knew Jess had to die. I don't like it, wish they could've done it different, but it fits the story they wanted to tell.

The Woman in White, John, Mary and Sam, in hindsight

It's a retcon from S4, but if Mary was honest with John about her past as a Hunter, maybe they'd have a better chance with fighting Azazel. It's tragically paralleled to Sam not telling Jess about his own past, which may have prevented her death. And while you could say Heaven and Hell would still have their way, and shape Sam and Dean the way they want to, I'd like to think, given the chance, free will could prevail, And, look at how often keeping secrets is framed as one of the worst things the characters could do to each other?

Additionally, if John had been honest with Sam and Dean about what he wanted them to do, and what kind of danger they were really in, maybe Sam wouldn't have left Jess alone.

Thank you for reading this monstrosity of a meta, I hope you enjoyed/found it interesting!

[mayfuji]

Oneus Twilight full comeback review

When I say full comeback review it’s because it’s a FULL comeback review. From the concept films to the Japanese verison, were gonna cover a lot so get a cup of something to drink cause this will be hella long aka Bible (I’m a nice person I’m telling you this beforehand).(You should do a Youtube video review then… nya… BORING)

So let’s begin. This is not the first time I follow a group comeback in real time… You know… Checking everyday the performances, so I kinda know how it works. We have gone through a lot of stuff… KARD You in Me, GFriend Fingertip, Red Velvet Peak a Boo, Dreamcacther as whole, BTS Fake Love, F(x) Dracula, BTS Wings album as a whole and last but far from least BTS Blood Sweat and Tears. I wouldn’t call some of them dark concept, I also wouldn’t call some of the sexy concept. By these examples you can see I have my standards pretty high. I’m that annoying perfectionist old uncle and declare myself guilty. For years Blood Sweat and Tears was the top song for me. (I’m a sane person ok… That doesn’t mean I listen to it 24/7). The MV had very beautiful aesthetics and I liked the lyrics and the song. Clothes were cool and the coreography too. F(x) Dracula would come in second and I never thought something could also join these two. Until… It happened. I knew RBW was releasing a new group but I just waited. Turns out I found out the group some months later then the actual debut. Oneus debuted with Valkyrie. The way they changed the coreography every stage, the amazing fashion sense, song was good quality. They had vocal thecnique, they had dancing it caught my attention and Valkyrie was straight to my playlist. Then… it happened. The group’s first comeback. I don’t know how, when or even who am I but I found out about the comeback EXACTLY AT THE RIGHT TIME (Technically not because I was 16 hours late). I know you know we know, we are not going retro like 80’s or 90’s. We are not going retro like acient Corea like BTS Idol. We are going retro 1500/1700 not Japan, not China, not Corea, EUROPE. Welcome to the renaissance. The MV was shot in Italy, the amazing fashion sense strikes again (I swear to God stylist min is communicating with me), the song, the lyrics, the coreography, the cool colored camera filters, I need to mention the vocal technique again, the rest of the album being consistently good (BingBing), I dare say nothing is perfect… But man… This gets 99,99% of what I call perfection. It’s a shame they didn’t win any music show… Because they are a newer group and still don’t have a large fandom? WHO CARES. Let me tell you something BTS sucess should have been in 2017 Wings… The high point of their artistity…  Ateez was also a newer group AND THEY DID WIN. I give congratulations to them but Oneus needed to win and it had to be with Twilight nothing changes my mind. (Don’t come to me saying we can give them their win next comeback, it won’t do it) This type of thing only happens once in a lifetime, why? Repeat and it gets boring, they can do the same concept again but it won’t be the same, same for BTS wings. It’s not about quantity is quality. Veiws never mattered to me and now I can say with all my mighty that wins do not make art. (I was never a fan of streaming but you count my ass off this mess cause YES I did some small streaming of the MV, I did my homework) (Take in account they did this comeback with BLOOD IN THEIR EYES) (Please give Dreamcather and KARD their first win too. Did you know that with You and I Dreamcatcher also had comeback with blood in their eyes??). Let’s start with the song name… Twilight. Remember 2009 movie sensation Twilight? Yup that’s it… I know you know we know, we are going deep in the vampire/ werewolf style in here and why I said I know you know we know? Xion posted about it on Twitter… 

THEY ARE AWARE therefore I know you know we know. JUST IMAGINE THEIR LIGHTSTICK AND FANDOM COLOR AND END OF YEAR PERFORMANCES. CHECK OUT ONEWE TOO.(I took the liberty of making a playlist with extra post promotion content (with English sub) - cause I know you all love content - linked below, you don’t need to thank me, not I’m not putting english girl, focus on Twilight)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTiTzw8HrCfxRiB1DyD77ktE9UQm6sBeQ

Just in case you haven’t watched this beautiful MV here it is.

Song, yes. Lyrics, yes, coreo yes, key point of coreo YES, Keonhee vocals YES (I trust this legend vocal thecnique more then I trust myself). Aesthetics? YES. Italy? I need to sneakly and illegally go there RIGHT NOW. This is a whole YES. ( Sir... If you think I haven't noticed the moon changed from previous album you are wrong cause I noticed. Sir are your albums going to complete the moon please say yes... Also... Have you noticed Woongie used the wet hair effect? + his brown eyeshadow is stunning.

Also line and center distribution is on the playlist for in deepth study... Twilight is basically Seoho eating up all the line AND center distribution and detail... the only thing he does is SING THE CHORUS. Also thanks Keone Madrid for making this coreo for Oneus (he also did BTS Blood Sweat and Tears -  DO YOU SEE THE PATTERN). Also rumors that Oneus actually created about 40-50% of the coreo so also thank you Oneus hehe.

Bitch it's me we are taking about do you really think I would miss a possible plotline?? Xion is with a red diamond and later he breaks it into dust (I'm scared). Keonhee is with a ring. Ravn is looking at his own reflection in the water and Seoho is looking at his own reflection through a broken mirror. Woongie is with a necklace. I guess the high point in Leedo's individual shots is the wolf (question mark)... Woongie and Keonhee are the only members that change the eye color. Seoho and Woongie are the only members that simulate super powers (question mark). Summary they all lost someone.... Silence is also a way of communication... I'm not a huge fan of theories or the fanfics I know ya'll write later in wattpad but fell yourself served, you're welcome, no need to thank me.

Now some highlights.

Ok this goes straight up to the hall of iconic earnings… (Man... But his walk was so POWERFUL)

How ASIA did not notice two SKULLS in here and how they are not SHOCK??? The ring is small… BUT POWERFUL.

Question time, if they had money to do the CGI then why didn’t they erase this little hairs in Leedo’s eyebrow?????? We’ll never know...

MV behind (english sub cause I love you all ~~ plays english girl in reverse in the background ~~)

Humanity mystery here. They recorded a version of the coreography when the sun was actually falling down in real life and we see those scenes in the MV. But if the whole staff was SHOCK about the key part of the coreography being extremely perfect and beautiful then why not use it on the MV? Sure the version they used outdoors was pretty too but this was ALSO awesome and I think I need as many version of the MV as I can.

Album review

Of course I would listen to the whole album.

Intro - What can I say... it fells so chill out, kinda minimalistic I just loved it. Twilight - Just amazing... I liked the dumbstep, the music is confusing witch I find extreamly cool. English Girl - Let em tell you not my type of song... but the lyrics are extreamly funny and relatable... so I forgive (I’m waiting crazy ho now Oneus, do not disappoint me) BingBing- YOU DON'T FREAKING START A SONG IN FRENCH IF NOT AIMING FOR TITTLE TRACK LEVEL. Ok and can we talk about the coreography???? BEAUTIFUL and I want to know the mastermind behind it. I just don't know why this was not above English Girl on the tracklist... White Night - Ok a more slow song but as always Oneus always delivers. (low key Red Thread sequel??) Now - This gives me Calvin Harris vibes. More dance eletronic standard pop but it's good...

PACKING-

Look... the CD case is very unique but think about it... if you take your album from above there is a risk everything wil fall... (1theK unboxing on the playlist, cause they were the cover for 1theK youtube chanel so 1thek is Oneus bitch)

1theK Suit dance and Dance cover contest

Please give Seoho something that WILL NOT FALL FROM HIS SHOULDERS cause clothes are made to be comfortable. What is the point to take off the jackets when the night is COLDER??? (Wait.. let me answer that one… cause you can’t see black in black… I get it… BUT REGARDLESS) one of the mysteries we’ll never know. (Poor ties must have suffered a lot in the middle of the harnesses)

Now before we jump into the important stuff let me tell you a secret… Keonhee is the most difficult member to dress… why? He’s 1,81 cm tall… anything you give him to wear can make him look even taller and his face is more projected (did you know he uses braces?) so you really need to pay attention to his hair. We’ll use this information latter.

So the first performance ever was… Guess what… Before the MV was released and where? JAPAN (My half japanese ass is shaking). So people there kinda received a spoiler (clothes too) and Mnet uploaded it in the same day of the MV release so other people that weren’t at the kcon wouldn’t receive a spoiler. No complains here except Ravn chocker being TOO BIG and Keonhee clothes making him look taller. (Nice expensive microphones you got in here)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaxWHKRm9xo

Now the actual comeback in Corea begins. (Images cause tumblr won’t let me upload the videos) (I’ll upload the links below the image) (No… before you ask I’m not uploading english girl, too much work… focus on twilight) ( As I spoiled above English girl was the chosen B side. Look... I know it's us international fans unofficial anthem but c'mon... BING BING) (I know I'll miss camerawork in here but I'll eventually get the hang of it) (Don't ask me about make up cause unfortunately I don't have 4k 360° to get THAT close up. But from other close up photos I trust their make up artist) 

WEEK 1

31/05/19

https://youtu.be/qe2p_nKZ7uo

First choice was the ACDC Black in Black 1.0 clothing set from the MV, Keonhee clothes making him look taller as usual… Pretty clothes but… YELLOW LIGHTS??? with red?? is this ketchup and mustard? The lighting did not appeal to me and shout out to the physics mystery.

2:03 (Time stamp cause I love you all) HOW ON EARTH DID HIS EARPIECE END UP THERE? I guess we’ll never know.

01/06/19

https://youtu.be/adhuo5pMVbw

Keonhee clothes making him look taller as usual… but oh his hair was NICE… Fight me I’m the last person in the world to advocate in favor of coconut hair but it looks nice on him. No yellow lights so it’s a win situation, I like to call this the GLOVES set of the MV.

02/06/19

https://youtu.be/j7DhdicaV9I

Kudos for the physical scenario and Woongie earings (same as the MV). Keonhee clothes making him look taller as usual… no yellow lights… and this comeplete all the clothes they wore in the MV. Please… save Leedo from his chocker… too large.

04/06/19

https://youtu.be/Rl1f0vSxP14

THE SUITS a whole YES. Keonhee clothes were good but we got yellow in here and this is a NO, Woongie coconut hair was also a no but Seoho red highlights? YES. Also… Woongie… the harnesses should go UNDER the jacket not ABOVE it…

05/06/19

https://youtu.be/xmLNWuAyc9Q

Repeating clothes… but this doesn’t bother me. Ketchup and mustard lights is a no. Woongie earing yes and in case you haven’t noticed Seoho gold huge ass rings… blame the yellow lights. Keonhee hair was actually nice.

06/06/19

https://youtu.be/LcRe_SUL7Ok

Physical scenario yes, yellow lights no, clothing NO, Seoho huge ass rings YES. That’s the summary.

07/06/19 v1

https://youtu.be/hlrKa9b_P60

Uniforms? Approved, Leedo earing approved, Physical scenario approved. Orange? NO. Keonhee harmonizing with himself 1.0? YES

07/06/19 v2

https://youtu.be/3bI3GY4nALE

So… they blessed Japan with that set of clothes now it’s Corea time. Ketchup and mustard lights is a no. No earings or rings today… but  Keonhee harmonizing with himself 2.0? YES

08/06/19

https://youtu.be/0K1bhbuvYYU

You know what this SMELLS like? PERFECTION. Purple, black and red the holly trinity of colors. Keonhee clothes finally making justice to him, his hair was also nice. A LOT of light in the scenario to get THAT CLEAR LOOK cause I want to SEE things. Not a single yellow light… Woongie earings? YES. Please save Ravn from his chocker. Seoho dear… what is the point of wearing a black waistcoat… WITH A BLACK SHIRT? (But it’s approved regardless).

09/06/19

https://youtu.be/kf_C_GaCeGA

I present you Michael Jackson Black or White 1.0 clothing set. Woongie earing? YES. The light was a bit tricky. Chorus was beautifully black and white. We also had blue/green. In the red one we had yellow lights but it didn’t bother me at all. Overall it’s approved to me.

WEEK 2

11/06/19

https://youtu.be/eQcu7UH3354

They repeated clothes, but it didn’t bother me. Seoho rings? YES. No yellow lights. This is also super good and I can’t choose between the two times they wore this clothes.

12/06/19

https://youtu.be/DdI37HMWAJk

They repeated Michael Jackson Black or White 1.0 set. Ketchup and mustard? Purple? Lighting was a no. Seoho ring was a yes.

13/06/19

https://youtu.be/hBGhwPXRVec

New clothes yay. Keonhee hair and clothes were nice, I don’t know what to think about this set of clothes because I was never a fan of prints or this variations of cream and brown. The way the lights were positioned was tricky but the small amout of yellow lights didn’t bother me at all. No rings or earings today unfortunately.

14/06/19 v1

https://youtu.be/8jyzbTMMUgw

Clothes were repeated witch is a no. Do not think that instead of wearing silver or gold wearing black jewelry will make me forgive the clothes. No rings or earings today unfortunately. Ketchup and mustard lights is also a no. Keonhee clothes making him look taller as usual… This whole performance was a whole no.

14/06/19 v2

https://youtu.be/7fIFwRPK9tk

I present you Michael Jackson Black or White 2.0 set. IT’S HIGH END JEWELRY YOU WANT? IT’S HIGH END JEWELRY YOU’LL GET. Seoho rings (in both hands), Woongie earings, Keonhee double necklace, Leedo earings and TRIPLE necklace, do you know how powerful you have to be to use a triple necklace? The only things that killed it were the hand microphones and the yellow lights…

14/06/2019… I will never forget this day… How do they DARE to arrive at the recording… like THIS?

and when it’s performance time they step down the clothing? Well the clothes they were using ARE pretty but the ones they arrived? STUNNING ( aka ACDC Black in Black 2.0). Stylist min there are occasions you need to save the outfit to use… just arriving at the recording with those clothes is a waste of fashion. It could easily replace one of the times you repeated clothes. (I may say make up and contact lenses were on point too)

15/06/19

https://youtu.be/4LticXTZC8U

(Thank you music core for the low definition)

Yay new clothes, the hairs and clothes look SO FLUFFY. Seoho rings yes, Woongie earings yes, Leedo rings YES, lighting was good, no complains here.

16/06/19

https://youtu.be/z1A7pgFJMVE

First of all I’m really mad because they cutted the song. Second I’m really mad because they didn’t upload on YouTube. It’s seems like this is was pre calculated beucase it was EXACTLY WHEN THEY CHANGED THE COREOGRAPHY. I don’t know if they changed because they knew the song would be cut or if it was really a coincidence… humanity mistery again. Lighting was so beautiful until they came with the yellow… Woongie hair was so fluffy and earings was a yes. Clothes were Michael Jackson Black or White 3.0 and that’s it… That day I learned my lesson… you either are team rings or team gloves… there is no in between.

WEEK 3

18/06/19

https://youtu.be/xGnQRWIejOc

They repeated Michael Jackson Black or White 2.0 set. Yellow lights? This is a no.

19/06/19

SKIPPED CAUSE WEEKLY IDOL

20/06/19

https://youtu.be/uDQhH1X6SCk

I present you the new year eve set… Happy new year everyone, white and gold. From the same writers of black waistcoat with black shirt we have white waistcoat with white shirt. Ketchup and mustard lights? No. Seoho rings, YES. Woongie earing? YES. Shout out Ravn looks super good and Leedo chocker was middle term. Xion was not present and they had to do small changes (I SEE YOU SEOHO THANK YOU SIR)

21/06/19 V1

https://youtu.be/OOdS62gRMOg

Suits YES. Seoho rings, YES, we didn’t have earings… I’m sad. Ketchup and mustard lights? No.

21/06/19 V2

https://youtu.be/gU8cdpbEK0k

I’m sorry… WHAT????? Clothes are a no… Grey? With black purple and red? No. Noodle hair Woongie? NO. Woongie earing? Yes. Hand microphones? No. Yellow lights? Like…

SERIOUSLY??? NO.

22/06/19

SKIPPED

23/06/19

https://youtu.be/dBDRVdC9ntQ

(I’m so sorry for the low definition here)

Same old story. I’m mad they cutted the song, didn’t upload on youtube and exactly when they changed the coreography. On the other side we have new clothes yay. It’s not only black and gold powerful match. It’s black and gold with snake print cause I’m a bad bitch. It’s the only place where they NEEDED to use the yellow lights and I’m actually mad they used black and white. Someone save Seoho from his chocker. Color scheme was great but it’s not like the clothes desing are bad. I just feel it could have been better. We didn’t have earings or rings today BUT HEY, FANSING, BING BING HAS A COREO AND ITS AWSOME. 23/06/19 will be in my heart (even though it was just a sneak peak).

4 WEEKS BICTHES

Ya’ll misbelievers will hear this song untill your ears BLEED

25/06/19

https://youtu.be/rg_x8oKwibs

Woongie you really fooled me here I was scared. He only did the fingerheart cause it was their last performace at that specific program. Repeating clothes… Lighting was good, no earings or rings… Well really tricky. I don’t see roots so you all did a touch up on the hairs and Woongie got a little bit blonder… I don’t like it, it don’t think the color suits him. Keonhee hair got a little darker but no problems… That’s it.

26/06/19 

https://youtu.be/dMUSRroP1K0

Repeated the new year eve set. Seoho had to repeat the clothes for me to understand the clothes. Seoho ring yes, Woongie earing yes. Lighting was huge no, all crazy combinations like blue and yellow and purple and etc. But in the ending even though it was yellow the lighting was pretty.

27/06/19 ~~FINALE~~

https://youtu.be/TfEpkKwGQuA

We going Marilyn Monroe Woongie? His earings as always YES, Lithing... well… very tricky since we almost couldn’t see it but it didn’t look promissing. White and cream with black look more promissing then grey with black and red and purple… but not my favorite clothes, they have better weapons… Well… that’s it.

I wish they would go the whole week but they didn’t…

SUPRISE BITCH, YOU THINK 27/06/19 WAS OVER? THINK AGAIN

Oneus first photobook in Milano was announced. I won’t go into detail cause this is not the goal here... but we get it... YOU WEREN’T JOKING AROUND IN ITALY. Usually it takes a lot of time for a group to come up with a photobook so I’m proud and that was pretty smartass way to finish promotions if I may say...

Now… you have seen me against the yellow light for the whole post and you must be asking yourself WHY? Well… when you have the work to color correct the entire MV to cool colors YOU MUST AS WELL DO IT ON THE PERFORMANCES… that’s it… it’s called color pallet and you should respect it. Or in other cases like when they used black and gold respect the color palette of the specific performance.

Now let’s go to 05/07/19 Oneus is a newer group so I wasn’t even dreaming about this cause again... It takes a while for this to happened. My spider senses told me something was off when they announced they would be attending breakout in Japan and SURPRISE. Twilight japanese version was announced. Versions A/B/C and CD+DVD. Some questions were raised. There will be another version of the MV and new clothes? If yes I WANT SOMETHING ON THE SAME LEVEL. Will there be a instrumental version? Will they put Valkyrie japanese version too? They would all be answered later... AND MORE. They had the audacity to show BingBing complete coreo for the first time. They must really love Japan. Legends also say that they already performed the japanese version in this festival.

I was getting uneasy with the release date coming closer and no photos of the covers of the CD’s... then 25/07 they released a schedule... I wasn’t really expecting a schedule but I was happy cause next day we would have a teaser of the MV and surprise, it was basiclly the same thing. Good because is quality stuff but bad cause I was waiting somehing new... 29/07/19 We got tracklist and GUESS WHO WAS THERE?? EXACTLY, VALKYRIE JAPANESE VERSION +++++ TWO new songs.... We are blessed.. until 30/07/19 where we got what actually was happening...

IS THIS WHAT YOU CALL LIMITED CD+DVD? It follows Raise US desing but I wanted something more... It fells like it’s missing something...

Version A (Clearly Valkyrie) IT’S INSTRUMENTAL YOU WANT? IT’S INTRUMENTAL YOU’LL GET. But I’m sad... where are the other two new songs you may ask?

Verson B OOONNEEEE of the new songs (ok we also have it’s instrumental too and cover is ok)

Version C THE OTHER SONG (we have it’s instrumental too and I didn’t know people had silver skin...)

Do you see the strategy? Each version has one of the songs so you have to buy all the versions... And I didn’t like this...

07/08 The MV was released. They don’t have official youtube chanel so they uploaded in the company that represents them in japan.

The major changes were the individual shots as they had to sing in japanese. Nothing to complain in here, their pronunciation was good but the lyrics timing didn’t seem to match the song. Valkyrie had a better japanese version then Twilight... I loved the two new songs we got too.

(Bless the person who putted Korean and Japenese side to side, I saved the video on that huge playlist)

Also, can we appreciate how well Oneus and Twilight was received in Japan? They went to national television, topped Oricon AND Billboard Japan. Tower Records was EMPTY on the first day and they promoted for almost a whole month with shows. Japan basically adoped Oneus.

But nothing is flowers. It’s was extreamly difficult to buy this single online outside japan.LET ME TELL YOU. CD japan? Nothing, Amazon japan? Nothing, Yahoo Japan? Nothing. Rakuten? Nothing, YesAsia? NOTHING. THE ONLY PLACE I COULD FIND TO BUY THIS ONLINE IS TOWER RECORDS OFFICIAL WEBSITE WITCH GUESS WHAT IT IS IN JAPANESE. AND TO BUY OUTSIDE JAPAN YOU DON’T BUY FROM THEIR WEBSITE. IT’S FROM ANOTHER WEBSITE WITCH TOWER RECORDS THEMSELFS PUTED THE LINK IN THOSE HUGE ASS BANNERS IN THEIR WEBSITE. Summary it was  literally giving birth to buy this online.

I tought I could rest BUT NOT. They would attend Soribada Music Awards... THEIR FIRST AWARD SHOW. Look I love Valkyrie... but I want Twilight to be performed and I WANT FASHION OK. I’m full of expetations, do not disappoint me Oneus. The day of the award show came and well... I was actually disappointed. Simple suits and the performance clothes? They repeated one of the worst weapons in their closets. C’mon... if you are going to repeat you have better choices IT’S NO EXCUSE... that’s the summary...

Well, from now I have covered everything... Don’t sleep in Keonhee vocals, Oneus has TWO MAIN VOCALS, appreciate Woongie vocals, that’s it.

If y’all want in my research I have build a really small database of Woongie earings in this comeback, maybe in the future I can do a compilation.

And that’s the end… if you got here congratulations you are a warrior and me too for the hours of links, print screens and editions… Byeee