#this is still my fav scene in the whole book so far

[chimaerakitten]

hello! will laurence for the character ask? have a good day!!

First impression

Oh cool, I have seen Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) and this guy is obviously basically that guy! I feel like I know him already!

(Sidenote I have since read the first book in that series and I think the differences between what young!Laurence must have been like and young!Aubrey are fucking hilarious. If Laurence ever in his life said even one of the things Aubrey says loudly at parties in that book he would never have met Temeraire because he'd have spontaneously combusted on the spot out of embarrassment.)

Impression now

There is something so wonderfully, horribly compelling about placing a character into a situation which forces them to do the one thing they would never, ever do, and then not only forcing them to live through it, but also completely reconstruct a new sense of self from the shattered pieces. Fucking great arc for a protagonist.

Favorite moment

SO hard to pick. Obviously the treason is up there, and he has some extremely funny comedic introspection (realizing that actually he is Temeraire's purse Chihuahua in crucible of gold) but I think the crown might actually go to him calmly giving orders while one of his own supposed subordinates holds a sword to his throat in LoD, neatly resolving a number of threads in his arc in the process.

Idea for a story

SO many. there's that body horror one I've talked about before, and like, a dozen basic post-canon or missing scenes, and also @elexuscal and I have lost our minds a little and started multiple AUs, of which the blood au is the only one posted so far but probably won't stay that way for long...

Unpopular opinion

While I like all his main ships either because I genuinely ship them or think they are very, very funny, his core relationship is with Temeraire and I am kinda dying for more Laurence & Temeraire gen content. This is possibly why elexuscal and I have started so many AUs.

Favorite relationship

As per the above, Laurence and Tem! (Lol Tumblr autocorrected that to Tim. thats right my fav Laurence relationship is with my OC Tim who I just invented right now) I love their intense codependent somewhat queerplatonic relationship, and all the ways they shape each other throughout the whole series, both when they're in perfect alignment and when they're going through a rough patch where they still love each other but can't help on their own.

Favorite headcanon

I think his life post-retirement turns into a baffling reverse-Austen novel where the single man in possession of a fortune is NOT in want of a wife, thank you very much, and you had best not mention it in his dragon's hearing. I also think he'll probably end up more involved in Temeraire's political career than he necessarily plans, because the man just Cannot let injustice slide, even when he would really rather just be Tharkay's kept man...

[thescrumptiousstuffs]

Only Friends Episode 4 - Emergency Contact

Where very much needed conversations between most of the casts are done. And the water becomes murkier with even more messy connections and entangled characters. This is me again just trying to process what I saw and keeping my thoughts straight before the next episode

Mew and Ray

Well, we learn more about Ray and why he is fixated with Mew. I feel like he has put Mew up in this pedestal of a perfect man/friend. Ray seems to have an obsessive personality and he has the need to be taken care of, which Mew has done so far as his closest friend, bar from one aspect - the one as a lover, and now with Top in the picture, he feels neglected somehow. It doesn’t help his poor self-esteem or his lonely soul.

Khaotung as usual nailed it with his opening performance of someone who was (may still be?) suicidal, using prescription pills and alcohol to numb his sorrows and loneliness. Mew being his emergency contact because he truly has nobody in his corner - no other close friends (maybe Chuem? certainly not Boston), an absent father and a dead mom (who we also learn probably don’t love him when she was alive, and Ray blaming himself for her death 🥲). And so, when Mew saved Ray that night, fiercely reminding him “I’ll always be in your corner. I love you, all our friends love you”, I don’t blame Ray for ditching Sand that night (he could have explain and handle it better but Ray as we now know is a disaster muffin 😫).

In some way, Ray is immature. He loves wholeheartedly but also selfishly, which in turn means he sometimes makes questionable decisions. Like him kissing Mew without consent? - a big 🚫🙅🏾‍♀️.

And I’m glad Mew called him out for it. It was a needed scene. Khao and Book handled the scene impeccably (both the aftermath and Ray’s subsequent sincere apology to Mew in the latter apartment). Similarly, I’m glad Mew made it clear to Ray while he will always think Ray as his dearest friend, that’s all they will ever be - yes it’s heartbreaking for Ray, but it’s a step for Ray to hopefully move forward, although I doubt he will be able to forget Mew as his first love/crush quickly, and my worry is as the episodes progresses and we see RaySand blossoming while TopMew in crisis - Mew calling Ray for help, the latter may again drop Sand (unintentionally or not) like a hot coal 🙃….

Ray and Sand

Which brings us to my bias couple 😅….Sand was absolutely in his rights to ignore Ray’s messages after being ditch like that on the night. He has enough self-awareness about his burgeoning feelings for Ray but knows Ray is not ready for it (he may not know about Mew (yet),but Ray’s immaturity and selfish nature means Sand is wary to start anything deeper).

But well, we all know Ray is a persistent gremlin and he is a sweet charmer when he wants to be. Paired that with his effective puppy eyes (gawd…I think we have seen it in effect 3-4 times now!!!), and Sand fold each time (I don’t blame you sir! 😂)

My favourite scenes from this episode (which I’m sure hold true for most SandRay bias) will have to be the guitar 🎸 shop and music record store scenes. The whole conversation between Sand and Ray in the guitar shop was 👌👌👌- Sand making it clear he is uncomfortable with Ray throwing money around, bluntly saying friendship and love cannot be bought and Sand advising Ray should be mindful of other people’s feelings. But we are again reminded how low Ray’s self-esteem is that he asked Sand to yell at him as a “burden to the society”, thinking it will make Sand forgive him. And when Sand does the opposite, I think there is a genuine surprise from Ray, which brought upon the soft scene of which we see Ray admits he cares about Sand feelings, wanting to make amend…

And then we penned to the music store scene where further much needed conversation between these 2 happen - that whole conversation about fav band and music was 🫶. As a metaphor of Ray being stuck and living the past, never taking the opportunity to embrace the future or open up to his present (with Sand again gently but firmly pointing it to him).

Plus the whole scene of them listening to the music record, sneaking glances at each other and their fingers gradually drifting closer while eventually intertwining 🥰🥰🥰(First killed it with his yearning and soft eyes in this episode, and Khao’s genuine smile light up his whole face - I’m a goner for these 2 🫠)

We finished this episode with Ray now focusing all his energy in wooing Sand (do I think it means he has forgotten Mew as his first love?Not really, and I think that will be a contentious matter once Sand finds out, and I still think Ray alcoholism +/- drug habits will also rear its ugly head soon. Because as we can see, Ray has no interest at present to change or confront his trauma. For now, he is using Sand as a substitute (if I can put it this way? To run away from his problem and loneliness). But I have faith these 2 will hopefully come out relatively unscathed 🤞

Mew and Top

Sigh…these 2 are so sweet together with Top always so attentive towards Mew. And I do feel he genuinely likes Mew. And Mew likes Top (he said it himself to Ray, Top is the first person his heart beat faster for). But urghhhh, Top’s lies are piling up. Not only did he betray Mew with Boston (and yes he regret it, but he didn’t come clean about the incident, even after finding out MewRay had done nothing more than 1 kiss TWO years ago). He also lied about Beam and his drug habits until Mew pressed it out of him. And yeah, I wasn’t a fan of the whole Top saying he wants a reward if he gave up his drug habits, suggestively indicating to Mew what he truly wanted was the sexual relationship he desired and up until recently being denied. And even when Mew said “no penetration”, he sneakily then volunteer another tidbit about his ex, trying to persuade Mew not to worry about the past.

You know, Mew’s list of what he thinks make a good partner/BF - I don’t think Top filled any of it (he doesn’t get along will ALL of Mew’s friend - Ray being the prime example and Mew knows this, he can see the tension and snide comments whenever these 2 interacts, he doesn’t respect Mew and he had lied countless of times 😩😣).

But I guess, love is blind and Mew may think he can change Top’s behaviour? (Kudos to Force and Book though, their actings were also amazing to watch! Can’t believe a sweetie like Force acting so arrogantly on screen that it made me want to throw my remote to the TV👌)

Top and Boston

Which then comes to Top and his strenuous relationship with Boston. If anything, I’m at least glad Top expressed his regret about his lapse of judgment - having that ill-advised encounter with Boston. And I’m so glad he finally confronted Boston in the lift, putting a stop on Boston frankly disgusting behaviour (isn’t it twice now he sexually harassed Top? Once in the shower cubicle when he said No as well). No means No and Boston doesn’t seem to have learn his lesson (which frankly worries me about his other sexual conquests, are they all consensus??? And now we learn his father is into politics, so a scandal of any sorts by Boston will be a disaster; plus him taking pictures/videos without consent, like what he did with RayMew and using it to spin a web of lies on Top - yeah this guy is a massive red flag 🚩)

Boston and Nick

Another big sigh from me. Nick is now realising how much of an asshole Boston can be, but I guess Boston has never really hid his intention. He has bluntly told Nick that he is not looking for a relationship - at most, FWB and I don’t think he promise exclusivity as well. Boston is promiscous and proud of it - his friends know it, and even Sand as an outsider has heard of his reputation.

But what I’m truly devastated for Nick is that how manipulative Boston can be. He knows how to twist words and sweet talk to placate Nick (not that Nick is trying hard to go against him because he loves Boston even if everyone of us here can agree he deserves better 😣). Boston gives false sense of hope to Nick, in order to basically have someone at his back to fulfill his sexual needs. Does that mean Boston stop his other “relationship?” I don’t think so, in fact, I won’t be surprised if he had other sexual partners (other than Nick) going on at the same time.

We can also agree Nick is not truly innocent in all of this mess - his obsessive love for Boston is spiraling out of control and bringing the worst in him. Him bugging Boston’s car? (A big 🙅🏾‍♀️), and then snooping on Boston’s phone (also not good behaviour). Plus, him listening to the sound of TopBoston going at it in his room (yeah..that’s a worrying sign 😫)…

(Again kudos to Neo and Mark, they played their roles 🫡🫡🫡 that I’m cursing everytime Boston opened his mouth and shaking my head whenever these 2 are on screen 😅)

Nick and Top

Which brings to the scene of Nick confronting Top, asking Top to stop meeting Boston. And when Top clarified and say, it has always been Boston who did the chasing despite Top being uninterested, well…you can see Nick face fell.

And Top giving some advice on how Nick should be careful with Boston as he is truly a piece of work (well, it’s warranted but it’s like the pot calling kettle black, yeah?)

However, I think it’s truly sad (and quite ominous) when Nick calmly say he knows how nasty Boston can be, because he is nasty too (is that a foreshadow that Nick will seek revenge and destroy Boston’s future? esp now we know Boston dislikes getting his pictures taken with Nick for the fear of the scandal ruining his dad’s political aspiration??)

Top and Sand

It’s alluded in previous episodes that these 2 had a connection. And now we know, Top seduced (Is that the right word for it?) Sand’s ex. Sand is obviously still bitter about it but I’m thinking if your ex dump you for someone like Top, Sand is better off without him (just saying 💁‍♀️). But I am curious if the ex will come crawling back to Sand and cause havoc in SandRay newly blossoming relationship??? Or even to TopMew? - Esp with Top finally informing Mew about Boeing (seriously what’s with Thai’s nickname??? I snorted when Top said this out loud), an ex who gave him the plane model, which Top reassure Mew is no longer of consequence (if he is not that important, why did Top keep the plane? I might be wrong but I do think Boeing is the ex of both Sand and Ray??)

Sand and Nick

Ahhhhh, finally with all the headaches and mess from the rest of the characters, I’m glad to see some friendly, brotherhood like relationship between at least 2 of the characters 🥹🥹🥹🥹

I love their easy banter and the way they tease each other about their crushes (although said crushes are essentially disastrous in different ways). In a way, both Sand and Nick are also lonely individuals (or at the very least, we don’t see much outside of Sand/Nick working in their respective jobs and uni (presumably). So, having a genuine friendship that is not complicated - 🙌 I am super glad for them!!!

(Also, I’m still petitioning for Sand at some stage to go all protective bear on Nick and use the baseball bat that we saw in the pilot trailer to destroy Boston +/- Top’s car(s)?)

03/09/2023

(This episode was I think a pivotal one, where we are starting to see everyone’s motivation and character development - be it good or bad…as usual, I can’t wait for the next episode…is it Saturday yet?)

[candygalaxyyy]

The TopMew book store/ RayMew call scene is one of my favourites in the whole episode, like it has set up these three’s dynamic so well. I’ve already rewatched it at 20 times. And here are my favourite details:

Mew gets a call. Top is obviously intrigued as he stares at his pocket, but pretends to not be interested by mindlessly flipping through the book Mew picked - maybe not completely mindless as the book is on all about s*x, Top’s fav pass time ;). Anyways, this shows their push and pull dynamic, Top is pushing by looking at him pick up the call, but pulling by seemingly not being interested. Mew does the same, by taking the call in front of Mew after seeing it’s from Ray (cause there’s no way you’re telling me Mew doesn’t know that Ray likes him, HE KNOWS). They’re both pushing and pulling, it’s all very calculated

Ray calls Mew to check on him, because he is concerned about Mew being with Top from last night. i also feel like Ray wants Mew to be concerned about him as well. Top now knows that Mew is speaking to Ray due to the content of the conversation. So he looks over, obviously curious and reads Mew’s body language and behaviour. It’s all in his eyes. Top also know that Ray likes Mew. Top also notices that Mew isn’t paying any attention to him in this moment, so what does he do…

He (loudly) interrupts Mew’s call, when he could of clearly waited for him to finish, but no he interrupts the moment he realizes it’s Ray on the phone. He does it so casually too, ‘like oh since you’re on a call I’ll just give you some privacy, but you must notice me first…’, think of me while i leave type of energy. Now we definitely know that Top knows about Ray’s crush, cause even in the trailer he always intercepts the conversation when Ray is around Mew. Now wether Top does this is out of ‘competition’ for Mew or pure boyfriend coded jealousy or both, we do not know yet (I feel like it’s both). But one thing is clear, it’s calculated as always.

Ray hears the second person, and asks who it is. Mew simply replies by saying ‘a friend’, which Top obviously isn’t given the smile/smirk he does as he says it. Ray, being the lovesick boy that he is, immediately connects the dots and proceeds to question Mew about it. His eyes are even widened and he tenses up, you can see this as his arm veins start showing. Mew dismisses the question and ends the call. I truly believe Mew knows how Ray would get if he mentions Top coming over and them almost f***ing, so he brushes it off to not have to confront Ray’s feelings

And then we are left with a annoyed, jealous, frustrated and curious Ray; he’s rolling his eyes and frowning so hard. He’s stuck in the friend-zone and is desperately seeking love from Mew. On top of that, he has a charismatic, sexy, straightforward asshole of a love rival, needless to say he is distraught. Even his seatbelt begins to test his patience, poor Ray (lmao to him still wearing the ‘poor boy’ shirt when this happens, also he got kicked out from Sand’s place only to get ‘kicked out’ from his call with Mew)

I just love how this scene sets up the Top-Mew-Ray dynamic and storyline. TopMew = interested in e/o and are in an intimate relationship (yes even at this stage). Mew and Ray = close friends, some could argue for best friends even, but Ray has a crush on Mew (and he knows this, but avoids getting into that). Ray is always going to be hung up on or left alone by Mew with Top in the picture. Top and Ray = enemies that have to act as friends, cause they like the same guy, just that one is the fboy boyfriend and the other is pining one-sided love. Ray and Top will always be at each other’s throats! So far, the subtle acting alone is making me so invested in this storyline and I can’t wait to see where it goes.

[tariah23]

I wanna know why you're still reading JJK not because it's bad but bc I love seeing you rant about things you love

NATEjajajaaj tbh, I complain about everything I like and everything that I’ve said thus far about JJK, I still feel strongly about because I KNOW that it used to be written way better before but despite all of that, I can honestly say that I still enjoy it a ton. It’s so fun!? I can’t look away?!? I haven’t felt this way about a manga, especially a shounen of all things, in… I really don’t know (I kind of don’t like to count csm since it’s still a seinen to me…). Jjk is joining the ranks of my love for Naruto 🙈……. As absurd as that might sound, it makes me feel nostalgic despite not being that old!!!

It definitely deserves all of its praise as well and I’m not just saying this just because I’m a fan. If it didn’t, I’d definitely say otherwise. I’m glad that everyone is fucking with it! It just made the  Guinness world book of records the other day, I kind of want to throw up 😭. Knowing how Gege’s been writing the story lately, he probably doesn’t give a shit. He just wants to finish JJK as soon as possible so that he could get back to doing fuck all. Well… good for him. But, I’m genuinely glad that I got into it! The fans are annoying but that’s to be expected from a mainstream shounen unfortunately. It’s so nice ignoring them though. That’s the only way you’ll be able to enjoy something as big of a series like this tbh.

All of the characters that I’ve liked or loved never got to the point where they were written horribly like, I can say that Gege has remained pretty consistent in the characterization department, which is a plus, since whenever I get into stuff, I tend to pay a lot of attention to things like this especially. Yuuji is still Yuuji, Sukuna is still that petty old bitch, Gojo remained as silly and courageous till the very end (even tho I still wished that Gege could’ve focused more on Gojo’s trauma… it would’ve been nice to see him overcome the burden of being the apex of the jujutsu society… he was so much more than an idol and he still died believing that that was all that he was. Someone who was so far removed from humanity that he continued to tell himself that this would be all that he ever was and that even if his friends and peers truly did love and respected him, they’ll never learn to “understand,” him because he’s so much more powerful than they were. Their lives would never be the same. And he could never make any of them truly happy in the end. I really HATED THAT Gege let that man go to that DAMN airport still holding onto to his loneliness like this 😭😭😭… and then when you think back to that one scene in the story where various other characters were asked about their feelings towards Gojo, and all most of them had to say was that “he’s the strongest,” I just… :(… Obviously, he’s well respected despite his personality but 😭… Gege, you will burn for this-

I do enjoy how ridiculous JJK can get as well. People can talk badly about it all they want but you can’t say that it’s predictable lmfao. This looney toons ass plot 😭!!! I’m kind of here for the shenanigans. It’s been pretty repetitive as of lately though. Mainly the whole Sukuna vs everyone thing that’s been going on starting from Kashimo (his dumbass) right after Gojo’s death… but it’s okay. Outside of my favs being slaughtered left and right 👎🏾☠️. You can tell that Gege is just rushing through the story now though :/. I kind of can’t wait for it to end but I’m still enjoying the ride until the wheels fall off! I want Yuuji and the rest of the gang to be able to enjoy the rest of their lives, man… Gege wrote JJK with a chip on his shoulder 😭.

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

As a life long Gimli stan he-is-my-fav-forever person, im so glad they mostly used him for comic relief in the films. Im so glad they didn’t try showing the hairs of Galadriel (beyond a quick mention) or the Glittering Caves stuff (my fav Gimli book scene).

Once the hobbits leave the group, Gimli becomes the normal brain sandwiched between weirdo Legolas and future king Aragorn and im so so so so so happy the films arrowed in on that.

He’s a dwarf- physically the most strikingly different from the humanoid characters and most of the audience- his culture is barely shown except through him and the dead remains of Moria (unlike elves, hobbits, and men, who we get to see whole communities and living cities of)- and DESPITE that, he’s the one who feels the most normal, the most human, the most relatable.

He’s not going through this story with dramatic nigh immortal pathos or the determination of accepting some great destiny- he said he’d help these idiots try to save the world, so he’s doing that. Even if he’s out of breath from running for several days in a row. Even if he’s freaked out by the angry murder trees. Even if he can’t see over the top of the stupid parapet while waiting for orcs to come swarming over it. Even if he has to be thrown across a gap to go kill more orcs (do NOT tell the elf!). Even when he DOES NOT WANT to go into the paths of the dead- but he has to, now his idiot elf friend walked in there. His bestie future king Aragorn is trying to be dramatic with Legolas again so of COURSE he, Gimli, should take the chance to have a little fun while he's still alive to grin about it. Especially since they just took him to a city full of murderous un-killable dead people. "Watch your aim!" tee hee~

Oh our plan is to just die? That’s our great big save the world plan? Go for a walk and die??? Well let’s go then! Nothing else so far has made sense anyway so why not! Ah but at least if he has to die, he’ll do it standing next to a friend.

That hews pretty close to the true heart of Gimli Gloin’s son, in my eyes.

[tuiyla]

NATLA Ep. 4 "Into the Dark" initial thoughts

Okay wow, I think this is my fav so far in terms of changes they've made. The best ep so far is probs Warriors but this was quite bold in the changes it's made and you know what, the first episode made me fear they'd be too timid to actually lean into their changes but no. Just like Danny Pudi put his whole Pudissy into his role, this episode committed to its direction and I can respect that even in places where I don't agree with the changes. The only exception is Bumi's tests, a lot of the dialogue and other aspects lifted straight from ATLA didn't work because it felt more forced in this context than anything. And overall I think Bumi is my least favourite part of the episode and its adaptation.

I was glad to see Jet in this episode, too, even if it was brief. I'm still lacking stronger emotions and a stronger presence from Katara but I'm glad for this goodbye with Jet and how it sets up exactly what it needs to. We did lose Jet being a foil to Sokka and there was a major missed opportunity in having Jet actually interact with Sai but ah well, can't have everything.

Instead of Sokka foiling it out with Jet there's the surprise inclusion of basically Book 2 Chapter 2 which I did not expect but am pleasantly surprised by. This ep went hard on the music taken straight from ATLA between the nomads' songs and Leaves From the Vine playing over the Iroh flashback. And! And!! Oma and Shu are lesbians!!! This is not a drill, Oma and Shu are lesbians in love. If there was one thing I hoped for in terms of the live action show it was casual queer representation and I got it in the most unexpected but pleasant place. Love it.

And!! On top of the surprising but not unwelcome inclusion of The Cave of Two Lovers, the story is recentered entirely on Sokka and Katara. I'll share more thoughts on this later but suffice to say I always love me some Water Sibs appreciation and this was much needed in this version. I still take issue with essentially erasing Katara's mothering of Sokka but it's clear the impact Hakoda leaving had on them is the same and, most probably in lieu of Bato of the Water Tribe, we get this storyline with them. The fact that love being the answer was reframed as the love between these two siblings is honestly a galaxy brain change and decision and I respect the hell out of it. There's still much lacking in terms of really fleshing out our cast but I will never, ever say no to more Water Sibs content. If we were gonna spend so much time in Omashu and put so many familiar faces in there, makes sense to also do the Omashu backstory AND utilize it to shine some light on the sibling dynamic that otherwise doesn't have much room to breathe in the live action. This is the kind of bold new direction that they have to take and own to make this show work.

I also enjoyed the Zuko and Iroh stuff and that's some interesting inclusion of more Book 2 things as well. The way even their plot from the Winter Solstice part one ep was integrated here is quite clever and I enjoyed both the past and present Iroh scenes. We'll see how they handle the actual Zuko backstory and I do think this version of Iroh needs a bit more, how should I put it, softness, but there's much to like here. Especially giving Zuko the option to pursue Aang instead and having him choose to rescue Iroh. Similar to a choice he made in the above mentioned Spirit World ep but honestly, lowkey more poignant here.

That's it for me for today but I'll watch the second half of the season tomorrow. I have to say, so far it has at least provided some interesting new takes worth taking a deeper critical look at, and I don't agree with those who dismiss the show entirely. It has merit even if, halfway through the first season, it's yet to convince me it can justify its own existence.

[ardent-fox]

✨ Tag Game Master Post ✨

Hi, all! Catching up on these two games I was tagged in during the holidays 💖

First up, thank you to the lovely @lupeloto for creating and tagging me in this fun Tag Game! 🥰

📺 Favorite tv show? At the moment, Our Flag Means Death (shields self from tomatoes being thrown at her 😁)

🕴️ Favorite character? Oof, this is difficult. Gonna have to go with my precious baby boy, Stede

💋 Favorite relationship in the show? Blackbonnet (shocking, I know)

👯‍♂️ Fav sibling relationship in the show? No blood relations but the entire crew is chosen family, so… all of them?

🎨 Favorite art form? Music, with a heavy focus on lyrics/words

⚡️ A talent you wish you had? Being able to draw would be cool

☀️ What is one thing that can always make your day better? My toddler nephew saying the most hilarious things, he's barely 3 and already the funniest person I know

🎬 Favorite fictional character of all time? Atticus Finch (any works he appears in besides To Kill a Mockingbird do not count)

🌅 Dream place to travel to? Thailand or Ireland (either "land" would do, get it? 🧍‍♀️ ...I'll see myself out)

🎈 You’re planning a huge party, what’s the theme? The Masque of the Red Death, get fancy and spooky, bitches 🎭💀

🍕 Favorite pizza topping of all time? All kinds of cheese and extra mushrooms

🥂 You can pick ONE celebrity to have dinner with… Who? Andrew Garfield, {Marge Simpson voice} I just think he's neat

🎥 Favorite movie that you kinda know is bad but you still love? Rocky Horror Picture Show 👄

👖 How would you describe your style? The "I gained a substantial amount of weight in the past 5 years and haven't bought anything new since, so I now wear whatever I can fit into and lots of dresses and skirts cause pants are uncomfortable and shopping for them is a nightmare" style 😬

🖤 Finally, something making you smile this week? My mom's reaction to a present she really wanted, seeing her that touched was soul ascending ✨

----

Next, I got tagged by @deedala, @tanktopgallavich, @suzy-queued and @lupeloto to complete this round of Weekly Tag Wednesday, thank you my darlings! 💙

Name: Lyds

Location: Unknown location in Europe

Astrological Sign: Taurus squaaaad ♉

What's a TV show or movie you plan to re-watch this year? Hubby has never seen Giant, so I'll be rewatching it soon as well as some other classics like Some Like It Hot and Philadelphia Story, I'm sure I'll rewatch Frankie and Johnny for the umpteenth time as well. As far as shows go, I rewatch Our Flag Means Death at least once a month since it's my comfort show, and might do a Shameless rewatch since I've only seen the whole thing once (excluding all the Gallavich scenes)

What's a book or fic you will probably re-read this year? The entirety or The Menagerie by @crossmydna and Honeycomb by @metalheadmickey with artwork by @heymrspatel 💕

What is a song you will likely continue to play on repeat? I've been replaying One Of Your Girls by Troye Sivan for days and don't plan on stopping anytime soon, also still listening to Hozier's entire Unreal Unearth album whenever I'm chilling

What's a tasty treat you look forward to eating more of this year? Gonna steal Ri's answer here and say cinnamon buns, as well as my husband's homemade pizza rolls that I previously mentioned, as they're our favorite thing to eat while binge-watching

What's a time sink that you will continue to sink time into this year? Scrolling this beloved hellsite

Did you pick up any habits in 2023 that you plan to continue? Only unhealthy ones that I plan on ridding myself of in 2024 👋

What's your toxic trait? Inflexibility and freaking out when things don't turn out the way I've planned

What is a coping mechanism you will continue to indulge in this year? Staying in my burrow with my hyperfixations

Tell me something you like about how you look! My full, rosy lips against my smooth, pale skin

Give me at least three adjectives describing things you like about yourself. Honest, open-minded, creative 🌸

I'm out of the loop (which is about to change since I celebrated the last of the festivities today) and haven't been keeping up with the tags lately, but am still going to tag some peeps if you want to do either or both of these: @heymrspatel, @stocious, @too-schoolforcool, @xninetiestrendx, @krysmiss, @sleepyfacetoughguy, @michellemisfit, @whatwouldmickeydo, @vintagelacerosette, @metalheadmickey, @rereadanon, @francesrose3, @darlingian and anyone who sees this and wants to play! ✨

[furashuban]

A, D, J, K, L <33

A: Of the fanfic you’ve written, which is your favorite and why?

I would say a tie between As High As The Moon Above and Fox and Owl <33 Both fics felt like they had the same flow and tone of an episode of a handful of my comfort shows and middle grade books, which I'd been hoping to achieve into my own writing and with these fics in particular. So not only were they the coziest experiences I've had writing (and revisiting my) fics thus far, but were also the beginning of how I wanted to make stories moving forward <33

They've got other individual reasons for being my favs: AHATMA is of course a fic about my favorite Hilda pairing and I'm not immune to Childhood AUs/headcanons of characters' childhoods, so it was fun to write my own take for Johanna and Kaisa (plus it has my favourite title of all my fics I just think it's perfect) :D meanwhile Fox and Owl was the first time I've made something based on someone's OCs and had a wonderful time making whilst also being my gift to you <333 and just that Emmy Torvaldsdottir is absolutely Best Girl™ and I love her and writing her <333

D: What’s the most personal fanfic you’ve written?

It was a little tricky to think about, but I'm going with How It Used To Look Like since the fic was meant to somewhat lightheartedly portray a specific experience I had with gender dysphoria during my childhood.

J:  What’s your favorite fanfic trope?  Have you written it?

(Tooth-Rotting) Fluff, and yeee absolutely; it's kinda become my whole thing as a writer and generally what I enjoy reading the most, too sdgsdfw <33

K:  Do you have a guilty pleasures in fic (reading or writing)?

Hmmm, none that come to mind :0 The closest I can think of is me consistently reading and writing about crackships/rarepairs if that counts??

L:  Which of your fanfics was the most emotionally challenging to write?

I'm gonna cheat a little for this one and choose one of my original works instead of a fic—by far the story I was in complete and utter shambles to write the most was Close Your Frightened Eyes. I would even put it up there with the first prompt as one of my favourite works I've written :0

I'll never not get emotional writing and thinking about Flannel and Ramona together <33 Especially in a story about a child learning to face her fear with her parent comforting her along the way, and exploring Flannel's feelings and actions as one, I ended up crying in the middle of writing 'cause of it dsdfswfw <33 I still think about all the scenes where they embrace each other a lot, and actually revisiting the story makes me well up again; it's a strong but indescribable feeling being so attached to my own OCs <33

-Fanfic Writer Ask Meme-

[aureatchi]

no because the last thing i was expecting was fyodor’s backstory all of a sudden 😭😭 personally, i was thinking his backstory would be him beinf a somewhat “normal” person until spiraling into the mindset he has now. i definitely don’t think it’s over for him though, even if it means someone else is carrying out his plans

i also think the anime ended at atsushi and akutagawa so that viewers will run to the manga (which is still behind 💀). i feel like season 6, after they adapt whatever light novel, will open up with either the events leading up to the ending scene or fyodor’s backstory

also the theory with fyodor manipulating fukuchi does make sense!! fyodor can definitely twist things so that the whole plan they came up with seems like the only solution. seeing that part again with fukuchi + fukuzawa at the end though made me :((

also always feel free to share more theories, i’d love to hear them <3

omg yeah. this may be an unpopular opinion but i’ve never really wanted any of the “fyodor isn’t human” theories to turn out bcz i really like him as human lmfao. 😭 or the he being centuries old LMAO no wonder he sometimes reminds me of muzan kibutsuji. niki said maybe “demon fyodor” is quite literal lol. but tbh i really wanted to see kid fedya—my bad i think i’m so biased by all the childhood bsfs to lovers i’ve read on here haha

exactly !! + they also did fukufuku’s entire scene so that the finale could cut out the entire sigma’s memories from it. (omg it’s so long idek if we’ll see my fav aku & atsushi by may LOL)

EXACTLY with the manipulation !! and the last panel too :< i didn’t think it could even be sadder than the anime but… :’)

okay current theories !! (light beast & dead apple spoilers)

i have a couple on wtf is going on with fyodor. my initial thought and what i still think is most reasonable is that he fornicated his memories with his(?) ability somehow beforehand because imo i find it crazy he actually let sigma look through his memories and just leave him there w/out taking extra precaution? then the time travel theory could be possible because the amenogozen exists…so it wouldn’t be that far off? 🤷🏻‍♀️ (can you tell i’m still in shock + don’t want to accept the immortality direction we’re currently going in)

this one which i’ve been thinking about for awhile !! (this is also my favorite one.) obviously fyodor is super smart, so i found it odd that dazai is the only one who knows about the multiverse. i pointed out how i was super nervous dazai implied he didn’t get something for once (him saying “i just don’t get it…”) and then @chuuyrr brought it up later, saying this could be how fyodor was one step ahead. he could’ve figured out about the multiple universes too (without dazai’s knowledge) + he was able to get his hands on one page of the book. also mentioning the scar he has in this chapter to further add to our theory.

finally…okay i’ll address it lol. in dead apple where fyodor gives his infamous “crime and punishment” speech, it implies there is a duality or separation of his ability (literally crime as one persona and punishment as another.) there are so many parallels to fyodor’s situation in this chapter—him with ace (conversation), the helicopter (stabbed with a metal rod/he is about to get speared.) so, it would make sense that some type of resurrection/not being able to die power could be part of his ability, even if we’ve seen that his ability is that he kills people with a touch. two parts.

anyways, those are my theories on specifically fyodor. honestly, all of them could be wrong. any previous assumption i had was already shattered by this chapter, so we’ll have to wait until april to see whether they’ll be mended or further disintegrated HAHA.

[irritablepoe]

So I know that not many people will care about this because this is such a small (almost nonexistent) fandom but i wanted to write a little character analysis of Jackaby because he's so great and awesome and i love him very dearly.

There are no important spoilers!

The first time we see Jackaby in the book is when he's making an observation about Abigail. I think this is a very good introduction to the character because throughout the book we get to know him and kind of know why he may be doing things in a weird way. In this situation where we as the reader and also Abigail have no idea about his ability or even job, his action seem out of place - and this is how most people in the book feel about him. I think this is part of the reason why it feels even more like he's drawing Abigail into this new world - not only because we find out about a whole phantastic world behind the scenes but also because we suddenly understand why certain things happen or why people act a certain way.

And even though Jackaby tells us a whole lot about the world that he sees and that exist parallel to the human world, he isn't an open character. He may seem funny-looking and talkative but he doesn't or at least very rarely does talk about himself. Even when Abigail insists on information, Jackaby gets almost sick at the thought of opening up. This is also the only time we see him truly angry (even though he's more angry at himself and not Abigail). An exeption is when people that he cares about get hurt. He has a very strong connection to people that are different from the status quo and he will go to great lengths when he wants to defend them. Otherwise he is - despite being often described as hyperactive and pacey - of a more melancholic temper (Abigail describes him almost contradictory at times. One time he's pacing nervously and his energy level goes through the roof. And other times he just sits still and does nothing but stare blankly. Sometimes Abigail even describes him as scarily quiet and mysterious).

My personal fav scene of him is by far the one in the last book where he (finally) opens up a little bit and talks to Hank about why he doesn't ever drink alcohol. He states that he thinks he's not enough or rather that he doesn't think of himself as able to do enough, even when he's sober. He also talks about how he's convinced everyone that he's the one that will find a solution when he isn't as perfect as he makes it seem. What makes this scene so heart-breaking is the fact that he's truly convinced that he will disappoint everyone - but he does it anyway. Because there's no one that will take his place. Because he cares so much about these people that are in danger. Because he knows that those people place their trust in him and he's willing to try, even if it costs him everything. Abigail says to him that he doesn't have to be "good enough" because he's already "good" and this is the thing that matters. This is the point that makes people trust him.

And i think here lies the point of the book. You are simply "good enough" by having good intentions and are willing to try. Jackaby's character is built on this belief and this is what makes him so humane. It's also the reason i recommend this book all the time, just because it has such a strong and kind message.

If you read all this, thank you so much. I think this was my first character analysis and it's by far not everything i have to say about him so i'll do some more in the future :)

[stackthedeck]

the dd fanfic writers slowly fading is SO SAD to watch. like in january i used to refresh the mattfoggy tag on ao3 like 3 times a day and there would be several new fics every time, now there’s only like 1 fic every two days :(

I KNOW RIGHT!! I watched season 1 of Daredevil when it first came out but dropped off between seasons because there were other marvel things I was more interested in but the fact is that the fandom was active for way longer back then! Even though there was a "Daredevil Renaissance" it was incredibly short-lived and it sucks

actually, I've had this rant prepared for a long time so I'm sorry anon but I'm going to take your ask and run with it. So one of the bigger topics of discussion in fan studies is the shelf life of fandoms. Generally speaking, the fandoms that last the longest are serialized works. The best examples are tv shows: star trek, superwholock, x-files, etc. Why is this? the generally accepted answer is that there is a perfect balance of content and no content. You watch the episode and then you think about it for a week until the next one airs and the cycle repeats. You go see a movie, you'll think about it for a week maybe watch it again but eventually, you run out of things to think about. The formula for fandom is frustration+passion, enough time without content is going to increase frustration and diminish passion. This is why Harry Potter still has a thriving fanbase, the books were a series and the movies were a series, there's a lot of passion in the potential and the nostalgia and a fuck ton of frustration. So now that tv is less serialization and more binging, there's way too much content with no time to process it, audiences can find neither frustration nor passion, they simply binge.

okay but Daredevil was originally released as a binging series why did the fandom have such a short shelf life the second time around? Well for one, it's a good show and there was a lot of time between seasons. but two, the original fanbase probably watched marvel movies but they didn't have the mcu mindset yet. The mcu is serialized, it releases things with enough time between to process it but not so much time that you forget it exists, this should be the perfect Petri dish for fandom, right? My working theory is that the mcu is trying to have the best of both worlds with transformative and affirmational fans. There's plenty of merch to collect and trivia to memorize, but there are also lots of character moments and missing scenes to expand on in fic. I mean they even try to queerbait fans, they don't do it well, but they try. The mcu is trying to create the fandom of tv shows and movie franchises and they have, but the fandom model they really should be replicating is comics. Comics fans usually just have their one character or team and then are loosely aware of other things happening in the larger universe for whenever there's a company-wide event (which use to be few and far between but that's a different rant). Because comics are serialized and the big favorite characters were always going to have a book, transformative comic fans were small but consistent. But because the mcu are movie adaptations, they simply can't function like comic fandom. If you're watching the mcu, your fav may show up in a movie for a minute and that'll jump-start the fandom, but it doesn't change the fact that they haven't had a story or development since their last thing.

The mcu is huge, but it is migratory within itself (a largely unique and unstudied phenomenon in fan studies). Mcu fans engage with the mcu like it's a tv show, always waiting for the next episode or season, but because they're really so unconnected, so are the fan works. (this is not a dig at phase 4, this is a dig at the mcu as a whole because it can't tell a complete story like a tv show or film franchise without having one director and a start and an END point. It wants to be a film franchise and a comic book run, but it can't be both.) There's too much content demand of the audience and it's weird that it's all connected. It's weird that I have to watch the iron man movies to understand what's going on in the spider-man movies, that's not how it is in the comics, you just read the spider-man comics and maybe Tony Stark shows up and there will be a little foot note directing you towards the important iron man issues, but you frankly don't need to read them. There's too much content and fans can't possibly be invested in all of it. It's like if you were watching Supernatural and after season 3 we had to watch a prequel about Cas and it's only until two season of that, that Dean gets brought back, you probably wouldn't remember why you cared about Dean in the first place. Like audiences can only reasonably be invested in a team of 3 to 7 heroes, you could maybe push it to 9 or 10, but frankly, 5 is the sweet spot. Having over a dozen heroes that all have dynamics and stories is too much for me as a fan to keep up with and frankly it's too much for directors and writers to keep up with. There's so much happening all the time and there are wildly conflicting tones and fans are expected to not only watch it but remember it!

The Daredevil renaissance was over the minute the thor love and thunder trailer dropped because mcu fans are not behaving like comic book fans—picking and choosing a fav to stick with—but like tv fans. Mcu stans are fans of marvel movies first and their fav second. But like if you're a Daredevil fan—someone who likes gritty street-level heroes that are very grounding in personal drama—I wouldn't recommend high-concept sci-fi like thor or wandavison, I'd maybe tell you to watch falcon and the winter soldier, spy movies are kinda like detective crime thrillers, but there's nothing to keep you engaged with everything at least not in a transformative way. Like this method of producing content is great for people that want to watch movies once or twice and move on, but if you're someone that likes analysis and creation, you going to get burned out fast.

the problem is that there is too much content and not enough at the same time. The release schedule for phases five and six is terrifying, that's way too many movies at once. Even if by some miracle they are all high quality in every aspect, fans will not have enough time to thoughtfully think about it, discuss it, make fan works, and make decide what they want next, etc because the next thing will already be there. Like it's not marvel's job to cultivate a fandom, they want as much money as possible so more projects mean more ticket sales because people aren't seeing these movies twice in theaters. It's a cash cow and a terrible way to make art and it's disrespectful to the comics and all the creatives involved in the project. But hey that's capitalism baby. If you are really taken with a movie or show and you want to make a fan work for it, you'll have to do it fast for people to see it because they're only checking the tag for a week max. On the other hand, there's not enough content. There is a huge Moon Knight fan base and they're probably not going to get more content till phase seven. The show was good, but not cult classic good, no one will be around to watch the next season unless they give Moon Knight a cameo in one of the next movies. But at some point that gimmick is going to get old especially if it's like the Matt Murdock cameo in no way home because like...he didn't do anything, he wasn't important to the plot, there's nothing new to work with here.

like listen, Matt's going to get some more fics once She-Hulk airs and once Echo airs and he gets his own show, and freshmen year happens. Wait a second we're back at the too much content problem. All these projects are happening at the same time people are going to have so much Matt, but unless he's got a compelling story that runs through all those shows and changes him as a character, he's just another set piece no different than the glowing sky beam. All these projects have different writers and directors, mcu matt won't be Netflix matt (like god come on, that "I'm a really good lawyer" line was fun at the moment but when has matt ever said something like that in the show?) Comic fans understand that your fav is going to go do a team-up with another character and it's probably going to be out of character because it's a different author, hell sometimes your fav just has a terrible run and you IGNORE IT. You pick and choose canon with comic fandom especially when you're writing fic and you only want the storylines that respect the character and tell meaningful stories. Mcu fans haven't figured out how to do that because they have to watch everything and like everything or otherwise they've waste years of their life on this franchise. And it's like...yeah you have, these movies are military ads with a CGI coat of paint, but like sometimes a bad movie is just a bad movie and you either write a fix-it fic or you ignore it. Disrespectfully I ignore the entire comic civil war arc because I hate it and it's boring and spits in the face of a lot of growth and characterization (also Nick Fury makes Susan and Johnny Storm go undercover as husband and wife and it's like what the fuck marvel)

and so yeah. Bascially my point is that the mcu is trying to be both a comic franchise and a movie franchise but it is impossible with the constraints of the mediums and they should just commit to making good content even if it means that there's less of it. They need to find a way to assure fans that not everything needs to connect in a big cosmic plan, but it can still connect in a shared universe that feels lived in. Like I don't need Ms. Marvel to team up with Thor and Jessica Jones to fight Galaticus. like just let there be different levels of heroes and fans should just pick their favorite and stick with that. This as much content as fast as possible model may be good for making money in the short term but this will likely exhaust fans, affirmative and transformative alike, and will probably mean an unresponsive fan base in the future and this will result in fewer fans that they have to squeeze more and more money out of with no new fans coming in because you have to watch almost two decades of content (oh wow they're closer to the comic industry than I thought lmao)

yeah these fandoms have an incredibly short shelf life because Marvel doesn't take risks with their storytelling, there is no frustration or passion, only bright colors and flashing lights. Fans don't have time to develop complete thoughts about a work that goes past "I liked it" or "I didn't like it" much less develop their own creative work in response to it. the reason the Daredevil renaissance was so fun was that not only were people discovering this character for the first time, they were going back to old fanworks as well as making their own. Read old fanworks more often, I promise they're still good. That original Daredevil fanbase had lots of content stretched out for a long period of time, they had time to sit with it and think about it and analyze and create about it. But the mcu fanbase does not allow that because there's always the shiny new toy and as a fan creative, it's discouraging knowing that if I just got this fic out a month earlier people would have cared. So you stop posting because suddenly there's no passion, only frustration.

[aquateenpatrolsomethingshowshow]

ok so i dont feel like doing a full on review of the new episode so im just gonna make bullet points of the high lights and things that stuck out to me lmao

((contents spoilers below))

• still love that intro its so fucking awesome

• still loving the upgraded animation its so fluent and beautiful but still maintains that classic “aqua teen” look

• ok but shake is kinda hot in that outfit ngl

• shake looks like literally every millennial in my town and especially the ones that go to the coffee shops in my area lol

• MEATWAD IN THE FUCKING HIGH CHAIR IM CRYING

• “its spelled with a g cuz disney owns it” 💀💀

• “hoverboard” and its the fucking roomba 💀

• this is literally clone high istg with the self aware roombas istg /j

• all the robots had little hands that kinda looked like shakes thats so cute

• his whole rant about drinking the cream had me dead

• “its an easy fix tanner” BFNFCFNGFVX bro has beef with tanner lmao

• “master shaken not stirred” ok but that cream work was fucking bad ass

• bro literally had robots write his movie for him thats literally what it felt like when i would be paired with ppl for school projects and i had to do all the work for them but they still take credit for it 😭💀🙄

• DAMN BRO chill out with the coffee

• “script title” thats so shake

• bro literally just called his characters “boy 1” and “boy 2” 😭😭

• “i dont drink coffee its makes me uhh..” IT MAKES YOU WHAT FRYLOCK?!?! • oh hi theres more robots

• MEATWAD HANGING OUT WITH THE ROBOTS THATS SO CUTE TWO OF MY FAV THINGS TOGETHER AND THE SIPPING AND SWIRLING THE COFFEE AROUND MOTIONS WERE SO CUTE TF

• “a relationship of a gummy bear and candy cane” 🥺🥺🥺🥺

• THE MICHAEL CAINE ROBOT IS SO CUTE I LOVE HIM HIS LITTLE GLASSES AND ACCENT I CANT

• “the movie” at carls 🙄🙄🙄

• MEATWAD COVERING HIS EYES CUZ HES NOT ALLOWED TO SEE THAT STUFF 🥺🥺🥺 ARE THEY TRYING TO MAKE ME GET EMOTIONAL OVER HIM?!?! /nm ((love the nod/continuity of meatwad not being able to see that type of stuff tho))

• MOVIE TIME

• WHY DOES THE MOVIE LOOK LIKE THOSE OLD QUIZNOS COMMERCIALS HELP YALL KNOW WHICH ONES I MEAN 💀💀💀

• LOOK AT MEATWAD HES SHIELDING HIS EYES AGAIN HES SO PRECIOUS I CANT

• “easy with the hands love” 💀💀💀 I LOVE THAT HE CALLS EVERYONE LOVE CUZ HES BRI’ISH

• WHERE DID FRYLOCK GET THE MONEY TO GET A LITERAL IPHONE FUCKING 15?! DAMN BRO

• NO WAY YALL THEY GOT A ROBOT OF THE GUY FROM THE WEAPON OF CHOICE MUSIC VIDEO 😱😱😱 ((/t ik its christopher walken lol))

• HOLY SHIT IS THAT MR FUCKING BUTLERTRON I CANT BELIEVE THEY PUT MR B FROM THE HIT SERIES CLONE HIGH IN ATHF 😱😱😱 /j

• “and michael richards” THE MICHAEL RICHARDS??? COSMO KRAMER MICHAEL RICHARDS?!?!

• “now i can make toast in another city” said no one ever AND BOI WHERE YOU GOING ANYWAY YOURE POOR

• HOW DARE YOU DENY THE BABEY BOY TOAST

• bro literally just killed all the robots 0s and 1s are like robot poison lol

• classic athf to just blow up the house lmao

• DAMN THAT LEAF TRANSITION WAS SO GOOD AND PRETTY

• “sticks and hicks” lmao

• it looks so peaceful up there kinda reminds me of that one og emma chamberlain video where her and her dad go to her grandparents house in the literal woods lmao

• “read some books, play some board games, make some s’mores” that sounds so cozy and im just picturing them all doing that and its so cute

• “no wifi? im going back to the robots” thats an honest to god mood

• IS THIS THE FUCKING TRANSFORMERS?! /j

AND SCENE

ngl the most recent episode wasnt the best out of the 3 so far tbh but it wasnt horrible probably give it like a 6 or 7 out of 10 i also like how they do the credits over the episode it gives them more of the episode to do but also ends in a way thats still very “aqua teen” if that makes sense

also wish they did more with them out in the country and like maybe doing something at a regular cabin instead of the robot in disguise ((which ik was the joke/point of how it ended)) but still that wouldve been really wholesome

[lutawolf]

hey hi hello ma’am Luta

so it’s been a while since i sent an ask

how are You doing ma’am? i hope everything is going well.

thank You for writing all of your reviews. they mean so much to me, You have no idea.

my question is about Love In The Air. You’ve said You’ve read the books. how do you rate them as D/s representation? is it worth reading or not? is the D/s aspect developed or rather skimmed over? is the series accurate so far? are there scene You would like to see adapted that You don’t think will be? and will You be including some kind of note of scenes that happened differently in books than in the show?

and not really a question but more of a thing i wanted to gush over. so i’m lowkey in love with P’payu any time he touches rains head or neck. it just does things to me.

and i’m also lowkey in love with rains speech paterns (if i can call it that way). the way everyone knows he has a bit of a foul mouth and swears regularly. as well as speaking kind of down to people by in polite form (if that makes sense? at least that how i interpret his speech. i don’t know thai so don’t take my word for it). so comes of as slightly crass (would be good word i guess) but still polite boy to his seniors. but with P’payu he speaks politely and kind of softly. at least he tries, even when it hurts him to do so. since he knows that’s what P’payu likes. and when he forgets himself and is corrected he immediately apologizes. which shows he learned his lesson well.

i can’t wait for the Ep 3 review. i’m super interested in Your opinion on the last part of ep3. which might’ve been my fav part of the whole ep. i love when characters get vulnerable.

sorry that it got so long.

please have a great day/night wherever You are ma’am 🥰

Hey minnie!!!

I really appreciate that. Thank you very much! 💜💜💜

I have read the book and Mame is part of the community. Now keep in mind that BDSM does have some cultural differences. As I myself learned by talking to different kinksters around the world. I have found the author to be relatively accurate though the series has in my opinion perfected it. Mame is messy and doesn't always know how to relay the kink correctly, which I get but hello not just kinksters read your shit. I'm laying this all at Mame's feet when in all fairness it could be an error in translation as well.

The series has been very accurate as far as scenes. Even more accurate at portraying a D/s lifestyle than the book. Thank you Mame for giving us the bones and thank you script writers for fleshing it out. Is the best way I can put it. Mame is a vibe and I enjoy them but I'm also a kinkster with a background in book reviews so I've learned to read between the lines.

I have no plans to add book related commentary to my reviews. As I don't want to give spoilers and they are making changes so stuff might not be relevant. That's not to say I won't ever make a book comment but only when I think it's necessary.

The head and neck touches are everything to me. Le Sigh. Really truly I'm there with you.

Rain is rude as fuck so it makes him going into respectful tone all the better. Seriously. I Love It!

I got the episode 3 review out yesterday! Sorry it took so long but I was actually kind of bummed about the whole TikTok thing so it was hard to get hyped like I needed. I got there though and I hope you enjoy! 💜💜💜

[btssavedmylifeblr]

you mentioned that youre reading some of sarah j maas’ books, what do you think about it so far? i read her stories (the acotar series and the tog series) as a younger teen and reread it again recently now that im older. when i learned that youre allowed to criticise a book (i was a blind follower with weak opinions 😅) i found out that there are some readers who arent too fond of her and her writing, it was quite a shock for me cause she used to be my fav author (i read only her books as a preteen 😂). personally, from her books that i’ve read my favourites are throne of glass and crown of midnight (the novellas were really good too)

So I’ve really only read the acotar series so far, so that’s the only one I can comment on (my favorite book was a court of mist and fury, followed by a court of silver flames). There are a bunch of things that I really enjoyed in that series and a bunch of things that annoyed me about it. There will never be an author that every reader agrees about. My favorite living author is John Green, but there are people who criticise/dont enjoy his books. I hate Catcher in the Rye but it’s considered a classic. Different readers are going to resonate with different books more or less and certain things will bug some people more than others. For every author that is someone’s favorite author, there will be a bunch of people who hate them. I think it’s more interesting to look at what book does well and what it doesn’t.

Things I enjoyed about acotar:

1. The main characters, love interests and ensemble casts are great. I really like Feyre and Nesta. They are both flawed and fierce and show real character growth over the series. I love Rhysand. He is pretty much everything I want in a love interest, wings included, haha. I love Azriel and Cassian too. The whole Inner Circle is well drawn and makes you want to read more to find out what happens to them.

2. The romance is great. The whole misunderstood villain/enemies to lovers aspect of Feyre and Rhys is great and made especially compelling because it plays out over such a long time. It’s also some of the most enjoyable smut I’ve found outside of fanfiction.

3. The action scenes are great. When there is a lot happening and things are changing rapidly, it’s very fun to read. Her scene and action description are very immersive and she does a good job of keeping you surprised and invested in the outcome. The scene with the giant worm, the scene in the weaver’s cottage, the battle of Velaris and Nesta in the Blood Rite are all still things that I can picture very clearly in my head.

4. It’s easy to read. And the combination of compelling romance and good action makes it very hard to put down when you’re in the middle of it. So for someone who wants a fun, quick, romance series, I would highly recommend it.

Things that bugged me about acotar:

1. It really needs more editing. The prose on a line by line level is sometimes infuriatingly bad. She will have paragraphs that are just the same sentence written three different ways. There are weird descriptions of internal reactions that get way overused. Like I think Feyre’s “bowels turned watery” at least three times in the first novel alone, which is three times too many. There are long stretches with no action where characters just wander around big houses doing nothing that I found hard to get through.

2. The world building is shallow. There are all these different courts (spring court, fall court, night court, etc) but other than aesthetic differences it’s really not clear how they are in any way culturally or magically different. There are different classes of Fae, but the potential political or social repercussions of that are rarely examined. Some classes of fae are just ugly and bound to serve the pretty High Fae, which is a fairly problematic trope. The villains are rather generically evil without really examining what their motives are. There are characters of different races, but their race has no impact on their character or story arc. Certain cultures like the Illyrians are written as fairly monolithic except for our few “enlightened” main characters.

3. The stuff around gender is not great. One of my favorite booktokers (pagemelt) explained this better than I can, but the whole series and potentially all of Sarah J Mass’s writing, suffers from what she calls “gender essentialism”. All the women are small and thin and young and beautiful, and they might be warriors, but they never overpower the main male characters. The men are all large and strong with giant *ahem* “wingspans”. The male love interests are all much older than the female love interests (like centuries older) and vastly overpower them in both physical and magical abilities and familiarity with the world around them. SJM frequently uses the terms male and female in descriptions such as “he gave her a male smirk” or “looked at her with a male gaze”. I think because she wants to emphasize that they are Fae and not humans, she always uses the terms male and female instead of man and woman, but it creates an atmosphere where the terms male and man always mean the same thing and there is only one specific way to be male. There’s also a whole bunch of stuff about fated lovers and soulmates and such that seems to only leave room for cishet relationships (though there are hints that this may change in future books).

4. It’s fairly predictable. This may be a pro for younger readers or people just getting into fantasy/romance books but it fairly obvious where things are going in advance. The answer to riddle at the end of the first book is so glaringly obvious that it makes the whole ending of that book and the fallout from it seem kind of stupid.

So for someone looking for a complex fantasy story with elaborate world building that more accurately reflects the complexities of the real world, there are a lot of other books that will provide that better than this one.

[hometownrockstar]

I’ve been wanting to read new books/comics do you have any suggestions? I wanna broaden my horizon and try out works I haven’t had the chance to get into!

yeah sure! ive been reading quite a bit lately, mainly horror and disturbing books/mangas so obviously trigger warnings for those ones i can elaborate on specific ones if u ask but i'll keep it short... iunno what specifically you might want so i'll just shoutout my favs recently

Berserk has been the latest manga ive been reading, probably one of the hardest ones to read bc its VERY sad and disturbing but is an incredible story nonetheless. i am not phased easily by written stuff but berserk was the first thing to have a scene that i had to look away from so proceed with caution... Berserk is interesting bc it has Nietzschean tragedy themes and structure, portraying a world where evil and pain happens for no reason despite humans fearing not pain but pain without purpose, but it also holds a sense of compassion and realism to both the good and bad, exemplifying how Nietzsche saw tragedy as beneficial to enjoying and valuing the good parts of life. Sorry this got long but a lot of horror stuff i feel can be boiled down to "Super fucked up bad things happen in it" which doesnt give the whole scope of how a specific media might handle or portray it, so i wanted to explain how it feels to me, rather than just saying its gratuitous.

Something different is the manga Ultra Heaven! this was like finding gold when i discovered it, its short and unfortunately incomplete but i highly recommend it just for the incredible illustration work and playing with paneling and crazy mind stuff. its written by a guy who does drugs and often points to psychadelics as a heavy influence for his work, and its extremely apparent in this one. if you love beautiful artwork and surrealist mind-fucky narratives (like perfect blue or eva) then i cant recommend this enough.

ok i cant let this get too long ummm Animorphs! throwing a curveball but its still horror, just kid's cosmic horror. and war. and its really good, even tho i read it as an adult for the first time i loved it. actually rlly good commentary on the ethics and grey morality during war. Heres where u can download every book, the megamorphs and alternamorphs are required for the plot btw theyre listed in the order u read them in-between the series books.

A good horror/comedy manga is Franken Fran, i INSTANTLY took to it when i picked it up its my style of dark comedy exactly. i really liked black jack for the episodic chapter style, n this is like black jack but with dark comedy body horror and i love it :3

Back to books... I'll list these together, Come Closer by Sara Gran and Confessions by Kanae Misato. I stayed up all night on two separate nights reading these bc they had me hooked so well lol... I wouldnt call them horror, more like thriller/tragedies. come closer has a great writing style, its a rather sad book about a woman being possessed by a demon, really good sparse prose that emphasizes details. Confessions is just... u gotta go right into it, its GREAT. really intriguing style and premise, love the epistolary format, SO good with details.

The Melancholy of Anatomy by Shelley Jackson, short story compilation. i talked abt it best in this post so i'll link it

Bonding by Maggie Siebert is a great short story horror collection as well, the horror feels like aching and emotionally palpable in it, very well done one of my fav horror books ive read so far.

These next two things are about more abstract writing so dont expect completely clear narratives -w- but I read Amygdalatropolis by B.R. Yeager and i SUPER loved it but i might have to reread it a couple of times to get the hang of it. his newer book Negative Space has good reviews so i'll check it out soon but thats more of a grounded narrative, Amygdalatropolis juggles surrealist imagery, forum text, symbolic elements in a truly hypnotic way.

Umm finally i have been really into books of poetry by Sam Pink lately :)! theyre rather short and like some are more story-related but theyre absurdist and really like, good and resonating in a personal way, i really super enjoy it, i read You Hear Ambulance Sounds And Think They Are For You and a bit of Person and i like them a lot :)

[fluxedbuds]

What was your favorite thing from each season of flux buddies you remember? Apprentice for me gotta be portal to the moon episode. Moonquest is probably the introduction to tiddles/the sapphire. Flux buddies 1.0 is the magic police crossover that shit blew my mind. FB2.0 I think the episode where they just talked the smut books cracked me up way too much. 3.0 the only thing I remember is the episode with 5 and Lalnable underground going crazy and 4.0 was just an awkwardly written love letter to the fans that stuck through that I appreciate

GOD I actually have answers for all of these that I barely had to think about (except 3 but. Nothing Happened In 3 lol)

For Apprentice it's absolutely 100% the scene where Nano comes out of the tower and starts yelling at Lalna, and Lalna is backing up and freaked out- I even wanted to do a scene redraw of that, but I never got very far on it 😔

Moonquest. I mean. Do you even have to ask. (I really get the feeling, Duncan-)

FB1.. OH it's GOTTA be them finding the lab are you KIDDING, that scene gets me hyped EVERY time!! And then lalna starts visibly showing flux afterwards which is a secondary fav. Runner up is Nano cursing Lalna and then almost having to go get Lom to undo it lmao

FB2 I mean.. the whole imposter reveal is a contender ofc, but I think my actual favorite moment is Lalna chasing after Lalnable in the rain while Nano has already given up and is telling him to come back. It's a small thing and doesn't hold any actual plot importance but it's a really good moment

FB3. Again nothing happened. But it was funny when the Doctor suddenly started existing just to yell at them lmao. I also like this one quick moment where Kim tries to bring up the plot- I mean Nano tries to bring up the clone situation and Lalna is just like 'Nope I Do Not See It'

FB4 fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you hitting it The Entire Final Episode Makes Me Fucking Explode and I'm STILL UPSET THEY SEPARATED THEM PUT THEM BACK!!!!!!!

I did like specifically Nano's note to Five. It confirmed a lot of things I'd always thought about her, especially the desire for a family, and it also shows how much she's grown and changed since Apprentice.

And then that next to Lalna's continued refusal to face what's happening, right up until the very end.. He didn't want to believe Nano was really going to kill herself. He could've stopped her, but he couldn't accept the idea at all. And even once she's gone, he can't admit it- asking where she is, having to be dragged out of a collapsing deadly dimension.. he's changed a lot too, but, it wasn't enough.

MAN FB4 was objectively bad and full of the endings of massively important arcs they had to skip to get Anything finished, but they went all in on the finale, and I hate it so so so much put themBACK