#this really got past censorship bc come on it’s so obvious

[nightdreamerr]

This has got to be one of my favorite scenes of all time. Like, what heterosexual explanation is there for that panicked face??

[feidude]

Scenes I would like to see in the drama PT.1:

Fei Du picking up Tao Ran’s call after staying the night at LWZ’s.

I loved this scene in the book, and I really want it included in the drama as well. Of course, it’ll be censored for obvious reasons lol, but I just hope it’s *there* and not cut out.

[ Fei Du was caught between laughter and tears when Luo Wenzhou’s phone, which he’d thrown at the bedside, rang.

At first Fei Du paid it no mind, but while the ringtone was about to blow off the roof, Luo Wenzhou was still sleeping like a dead dog, showing absolutely no signs of movement. Fei Du could only gently push aside the arms wrapped around him, awkwardly raising his upper body, and reach past Luo Wenzhou to get the phone. When his fingers had just reached it, Luo Wenzhou, half-asleep, pulled him back down, hugging him tighter.

This person was selectively deaf. Refusing to listen to the cry of “Ah—five rings—,” he rubbed his face against Fei Du’s neck, rolled over, and continued to sleep.

[…]

Fei Du looked at the phone’s screen. “Darling, telephone.”

Luo Wenzhou turned over and lay on him, unconsciously stroking Fei Du’s arms for a while. Then he murkily groaned, “…answer it.”

Tao Ran’s first phone call had already disconnected because it hadn’t been picked up for too long. He was evidently richly experienced in this matter. He quickly called a second time.

Fei Du had no way out. He could only answer. “It’s me, I can’t get him to wake up. I’ll put the phone next to his ear, and you can make do with saying what you have to say.”

“…huh? Uh… Haha.” Tao Ran first babbled out some meaningless filler words. After looking around for an age, he finally found his tongue. “All right… Well… Something’s happened, rather… rather urgent. Can you get him to hurry over?”

Fei Du said, “I can try.”

Tao Ran gave a dry laugh. “You just got out of the hospital. Look after your health. You shouldn’t…well…I mean…you know what I mean.” ]

If they do incorporate this scene, this is how I predict it’ll play out (hopefully…maybe):

In the drama, Fei Du is occupying the guest room. He’s an early waker, so he’s already up, but the incessant ringing of the phone grates on his nerves nonetheless. And with this in mind, he enters LWZ’s chambers cuz ‘hey man are u gonna answer that or what’. LWZ is pointedly ignoring the phone (bc #priorities), so Fei Du answers it for him. (If we’re lucky, maybe there’s a few shots of Fei Du gazing at LWZ’s sleeping figure before picking up the call.) Tao Ran, similarly to the novel, is baffled to hear Fei Du’s voice coming from LWZ’s phone. That line of ‘look after your health’ would probably be taken out, but they can still leave in the initial tongue-tied reaction.

(In the novel, it’s pretty apparent as to why Tao Ran’s flustered. In the drama, however, you could just chalk it up to suprisement at hearing Fei Du’s voice unexpectedly in the morning and nothing more. Ofc, we’ll know what he’s actually implying, but…censorship.)

[shoreabove-moved]

JESSICA RE: HER IN GAME PERSONALITY TRAITS.

underneath the cut is a meta i wrote a long, long time ago about what jessica’s in game characteristics ( confident, trusting, irreverent ) mean re: my portrayal.

CONFIDENT;

i’d like to think that the confidence comes the easiest in terms of how i write jessica. it’s obvious throughout the game that she’s proud of who she is, even if most of it (in terms of physical looks) is a front. which makes sense, because she’s a teenage girl, and you’d be hard pressed to find someone who’s completely confident and happy with who they are at age seventeen. still, it’s a delicate balance – she’s strong willed, and she knows when she’s got the upper hand. and when she does, she rightfully uses it to her advantage. she doesn’t try to pretend to be good at things she’s not, either – when it comes to academics, she’ll rightfully admit that she’s out of her league, and her confidence mostly stems from the things she knows she can excel at – her looks, for the most part, and her ability to use body language to get what she wants. this sort of thinking often translates into annoyance when she’s face to face with someone who’s too afraid to get what they way – like chris and ashley, for example. if she were around for that discussion, i imagine plenty of eye rolling and scoffs from her corner of the room, if only because she can’t understand someone wanting something and doing absolutely nothing to get it. she’s has a lot of untapped ambition, and i think that makes her a strong person before the events of the mountain eventually break her down. though, it should be said that post-mountain jess loses her confidence due to the fact that her body is physically harmed beyond repair, and her strength was pulled from her looks (with plans to be a model post high school). so, she changes a lot in the sense where she needs to learn how to rely on things that aren’t her looks – she works on her personality, she becomes more empathetic, and she tries to better herself without becoming someone else.

TRUSTING;

this one is a little harder to manage, if only because people want to assume that someone like jessica is a natural gossip, and therefore has loose lips because of it. i think it works in two ways – she’s trusting because she’ll easily put her trust in other people. it’s part naivety, because growing up she didn’t have a lot of stable relationships to rely on. she didn’t have the chances to make mistakes, so she never learned how to protect herself from terrible things, or a moral code in the sense that her version of a joke isn’t always everyone’s versions of a joke (re; the prank). because she made her first friends in high school, she’s desperate to please them and fit in, which means she’s eager to latch onto anything they say, and any promises they make, regardless of their intentions being good, bad, or in the middle. i also think it works in reverse, too – despite her tendencies to appear as someone who’s ‘selfish’ and ‘manipulative’, i honest to god think she means well. she just doesn’t know what to do with the information she’s been given. she wants, more than anything, to be that person that someone confides in, and she doesn’t spill secrets or spread rumors about her friends, because she wants them to trust her, and like her, and support her. and, if she betrayed them like that, nothing good would come of it. the prank is another situation entirely – it’s not a secret that hannah had a crush on mike, and through a lot of headcanons and writing things out, i think it’s pretty clear that jess and hannah weren’t very good friends, if only because jess finds her quiet demeanor off putting, and her pursuit of a taken man disrespectful. the person she’s absolutely the most loyal to is emily, and when/if emily expressed a concern about that, jess would be willing to toss a minor friendship aside to keep her best friend happy. it’s how her brain works – she doesn’t know any better, and doesn’t understand the repercussions that could (and would) occur.

IRREVERENT;

this is something that’s also kind of hard to balance. i’ll be honest – when i first watched the game, i had no clue what irreverent meant. i was like these game developers are making shit up right now bc they’re lazy as fuck what the heck. but!! the google machine cleared away the clouds, and then it all made sense. irreverent means 'showing a lack of respect for people or things that are generally taken seriously’, and we see that on more that one occasion in the game (i.e.; 'are you guys having a really weird stroke?’ 'who needs grades when you have all the natural advantages you can handle?’). it’s in the way she speaks, and thinks, and was raised. she didn’t have parents who were big on discipline, therefore she was never reprimanded when she said something out of step. she gets it from her mother, too, no doubt, who tends to be judgmental of the smallest things. jess doesn’t have that same sort of stance – she doesn’t care about things like money, for example, and won’t think less of someone for being lower class – but she follows the same sort of pattern where she’ll say something without thinking it through. crass comments are often made without realizing or knowing the context of the situation, and her phrasing tends to be a little.. poor. there’s also a line, though, that i often have to debate in my head. because she’s so tactless in the way she speaks, would she say offensive things without knowing that they’re offensive? as a writer, you want to stay true to who your character is, and a large part of that is doing so without censorship. however, you also have to know your audience, and i’m afraid that – when i make her go through with the thoughts that i know she has – people will think it reflects on me, as opposed to on her. and, furthermore, i don’t want them to stereotype her, either, as nothing more than a dumb blonde. because she learns – it doesn’t help that most of her time is spent with mike, who’s also a little questionable with what he says, but if she said something and someone called her out on it? she’d take note to not repeat herself. she just needs the chance to grow!

i try to implement these things into my writing, both pre and post mountain. it’s a tricky balance, and i never want her to turn into a trope, or a stereotype, even if that was the intention with the game. because i can totally respect and understand that, and i get it! that’s the point. it’s a horror game w/ cliches, and that’s why it’s so cool. but, in terms of bringing these characters to life and expanding them outside of the twelve hours we play them in the game, it’s important to me that i showcase the kind of person i think jess could be. and i don’t want to make her perfect, either, or victimize her, because she does some shit. the prank was her idea, and she had a very heavy involvement with making sure it went off without a hitch (i think she wrote the note??). she also dates her best friend’s ex-boyfriend like, a week after they break up, and that’s not cool, either. that’s where irreverent comes in, and that’s where confidence helps her get past the nasty things emily says about her, and that’s where trusting becomes muddled because she wants to trust mike due to the way he makes her feel, but her trust with emily is broken by giving into something she wants. it’s a vicious circle, fam. but! it’s fun. and i love my tiny daughter so much, so it’s always worth it.

[shoreearchive]

JESSICA RE: HER IN GAME PERSONALITY TRAITS.

underneath the cut is a meta i wrote a long, long time ago about what jessica’s in game characteristics ( CONFIDENT, TRUSTING, IRREVERENT ) mean re: my portrayal.

CONFIDENT;

i’d like to think that the confidence comes the easiest in terms of how i write jessica. it’s obvious throughout the game that she’s proud of who she is, even if most of it (in terms of physical looks) is a front. which makes sense, because she’s a teenage girl, and you’d be hard pressed to find someone who’s completely confident and happy with who they are at age seventeen. still, it’s a delicate balance – she’s strong willed, and she knows when she’s got the upper hand. and when she does, she rightfully uses it to her advantage. she doesn’t try to pretend to be good at things she’s not, either – when it comes to academics, she’ll rightfully admit that she’s out of her league, and her confidence mostly stems from the things she knows she can excel at – her looks, for the most part, and her ability to use body language to get what she wants. this sort of thinking often translates into annoyance when she’s face to face with someone who’s too afraid to get what they way – like chris and ashley, for example. if she were around for that discussion, i imagine plenty of eye rolling and scoffs from her corner of the room, if only because she can’t understand someone wanting something and doing absolutely nothing to get it. she’s has a lot of untapped ambition, and i think that makes her a strong person before the events of the mountain eventually break her down. though, it should be said that post-mountain jess loses her confidence due to the fact that her body is physically harmed beyond repair, and her strength was pulled from her looks (with plans to be a model post high school). so, she changes a lot in the sense where she needs to learn how to rely on things that aren’t her looks – she works on her personality, she becomes more empathetic, and she tries to better herself without becoming someone else.

TRUSTING;

this one is a little harder to manage, if only because people want to assume that someone like jessica is a natural gossip, and therefore has loose lips because of it. i think it works in two ways – she’s trusting because she’ll easily put her trust in other people. it’s part naivety, because growing up she didn’t have a lot of stable relationships to rely on. she didn’t have the chances to make mistakes, so she never learned how to protect herself from terrible things, or a moral code in the sense that her version of a joke isn’t always everyone’s versions of a joke (re; the prank). because she made her first friends in high school, she’s desperate to please them and fit in, which means she’s eager to latch onto anything they say, and any promises they make, regardless of their intentions being good, bad, or in the middle. i also think it works in reverse, too – despite her tendencies to appear as someone who’s ‘selfish’ and 'manipulative’, i honest to god think she means well. she just doesn’t know what to do with the information she’s been given. she wants, more than anything, to be that person that someone confides in, and she doesn’t spill secrets or spread rumors about her friends, because she wants them to trust her, and like her, and support her. and, if she betrayed them like that, nothing good would come of it. the prank is another situation entirely – it’s not a secret that hannah had a crush on mike, and through a lot of headcanons and writing things out, i think it’s pretty clear that jess and hannah weren’t very good friends, if only because jess finds her quiet demeanor off putting, and her pursuit of a taken man disrespectful. the person she’s absolutely the most loyal to is emily, and when/if emily expressed a concern about that, jess would be willing to toss a minor friendship aside to keep her best friend happy. it’s how her brain works – she doesn’t know any better, and doesn’t understand the repercussions that could (and would) occur. 

IRREVERENT;

this is something that’s also kind of hard to balance. i’ll be honest – when i first watched the game, i had no clue what irreverent meant. i was like these game developers are making shit up right now bc they’re lazy as fuck what the heck. but!! the google machine cleared away the clouds, and then it all Made Sense. irreverent means 'showing a lack of respect for people or things that are generally taken seriously’, and we see that on more that one occasion in the game (i.e.; 'are you guys having a really weird stroke?’ 'who needs grades when you have all the natural advantages you can handle?’). it’s in the way she speaks, and thinks, and was raised. she didn’t have parents who were big on discipline, therefore she was never reprimanded when she said something out of step. she gets it from her mother, too, no doubt, who tends to be judgmental of the smallest things. jess doesn’t have that same sort of stance – she doesn’t care about things like money, for example, and won’t think less of someone for being lower class – but she follows the same sort of pattern where she’ll say something without thinking it through. crass comments are often made without realizing or knowing the context of the situation, and her phrasing tends to be a little.. poor. there’s also a line, though, that i often have to debate in my head. because she’s so tactless in the way she speaks, would she say offensive things without knowing that they’re offensive? as a writer, you want to stay true to who your character is, and a large part of that is doing so without censorship. however, you also have to know your audience, and i’m afraid that – when i make her go through with the thoughts that i know she has – people will think it reflects on me, as opposed to on her. and, furthermore, i don’t want them to stereotype her, either, as nothing more than a dumb blonde. because she learns – it doesn’t help that most of her time is spent with mike, who’s also a little questionable with what he says, but if she said something and someone called her out on it? she’d take note to not repeat herself. she just needs the chance to grow!

i try to implement these things into my writing, both pre and post mountain. it’s a tricky balance, and i never want her to turn into a trope, or a stereotype, even if that was the intention with the game. because i can totally respect and understand that, and i get it! that’s the point. it’s a horror game w/ cliches, and that’s why it’s so cool. but, in terms of bringing these characters to life and expanding them outside of the twelve hours we play them in the game, it’s important to me that i showcase the kind of person i think jess could be. and i don’t want to make her perfect, either, or victimize her, because she does some shit. the prank was her idea, and she had a very heavy involvement with making sure it went off without a hitch (i think she wrote the note??). she also dates her best friend’s ex-boyfriend like, a week after they break up, and that’s not cool, either. that’s where irreverent comes in, and that’s where confidence helps her get past the nasty things emily says about her, and that’s where trusting becomes muddled because she wants to trust mike due to the way he makes her feel, but her trust with emily is broken by giving into something she wants. it’s a vicious circle, fam. but! it’s fun. and i love my tiny daughter so much, so it’s always worth it.

[month9books]

Riverdale Recap and Review - Season 1 - Chapter 8 - The Outsiders by Andrew Buckley

There quite literally is not one happy marriage happening in Riverdale. Maybe it’s the water, maybe it’s the maple syrup, maybe it’s the disturbing amount of redheads . . . but relationships are not meant to survive in that town. Tensions ran high in this episode with double crosses and back alley deals happening all over the place. Riverdale is a dangerous place to live. But they do have Skeet Ulrich, so there’s that. Let’s get to it . . .

How many times can you reference abortion without actually saying the word ‘abortion’? I counted five times, but I may have missed one. I’m assuming it’s a CW censorship thing, but I was surprised they had to avoid the word as it’s absence made it all the more obvious, but I suppose that was the point. This week, Mr. Cooper became oh so much darker than just some guy who breaks into the Sheriff’s house to steal his murder wall. He’s harboring such a hatred for the Blossoms that he actually wanted his daughter to abort the baby. The guy is certainly carrying enough hate to push him over to the darkside, but his banishment from the Cooper household says a lot more about Alice Cooper (the blonde chick, not the guy who used to bite heads off chickens on stage) than it does about him. Mrs. Cooper has always seemed so controlled in her insanity, however we certainly saw some cracks as she tries to deal with the Blossom family now trying to steal her daughter, while also revealing her own shadowy past, also at the hands of her husband. There goes another Riverdale marriage.

Polly herself is still severely lacking as a character and I think it’s partly due to us not really knowing her. The reason we care so much about who killed Jason, and not about Jason himself is because we never got a chance to know him. All we really know is he had terribly fake-looking red hair and apparently he was a mute. The same almost goes for Polly. We met her at the mental asylum where she was hysterical and she hasn’t really calmed down since. Okay, so the father of her child was murdered, her dad tried to have her abort her baby, the father’s family want to keep the baby, her parents sent her to a mental asylum, and now she’s back, there’s a power struggle over this child who will undoubtedly have fake-looking red hair. Okay, fine. She has every right to be hysterical. Unfortunately, her lack of grounding as a character is making it really hard to sympathize with her. Maybe that’ll change now she’s a member of the Blossom household. By making the choice to join the Blossoms, she’s effectively shunning her own family. And who can blame her?

Speaking of the Blossoms, let’s take a moment to appreciate just how awesome Granny Blossom is. Come on, that crazy old lady is great. Part horror story cliche, part gypsy, part crypt keeper. She keeps getting better and better.

Fred Andrews and his business woes seeped throughout most of the story this episode. With the Blossoms wanting to buy the old movie theatre land, and Mr. Lodge being the secret buyer, and Hermione knowing this but not telling Fred, we can clearly see another relationship is about to go down the toilet. It all makes for interesting TV though, so who cares? Fred confronting Clifford Blossom was a nice scene but it felt a little empty with Fred not really having a good threat to come back with. Too bad he doesn’t have a biker gang working for him . . . oh wait.

It was a touching moment when Archie and his pals came out to work for his dad, even more so when Fred and Archie have their heart to heart in the kitchen later. While I didn’t love this episode as much as past ones, I did love this scene. And it wasn’t just Luke Perry’s sincere delivery, it was the balancing out of Fred and Archie’s relationship. While Archie’s legacy speech was a bit on the flawed side, the messaging was still solid and the Andrews boys still represent a united front that doesn’t appear to exist anywhere else in town. This is of course after Fred tries to solve the problems he’s experiencing himself, and Archie walks into a biker bar. We’ve yet to see Mary Andrews but we know she’s coming (bring it on Molly Ringwald), so we’ll likely see that balanced father/son relationship shaken again very soon.

Skeet freakin Ulrich as Jughead’s dad is fast becoming one of my favourite characters. After we saw all his misgivings in the last episode, it was nice to see him find a bit of redemption here. His volunteering information to Jughead and Betty regarding Jason and then rounding up a crew to help out Fred proves that Mr. Jones isn’t all that bad of a guy. Well, except for him having Jason’s jacket, and that he uses teenagers to sell drugs, oh and he’s the leader of a violent biker gang, and that he has Joaquin (who I’m still saying is Jason’s murderer) cozy up to the delightful Kevin . . . so yeah, never mind, he’s a bad guy.

STORY FLAW ALERT! - Mr. Jones tells Hermione that it was likely Mr. Lodge who had people disrupt the construction site and beat up Moose. He blames it on Hermione getting frisky with Fred and someone ratted her out (Veronica, clearly Veronica) and that the incident was part of a jealous attack? On property he owns? Disrupting the building of his weird hipster community housing? Where he stands to make a lot of money? And didn’t Clifford Blossom all but admit to being the culprit in order to bleed the owner of the land dry? Something isn’t adding up there but maybe it’s all a bunch of red herrings. Or trout. Or whatever fish happens to be native to Riverdale.

This was a setup episode, inserted so we can get from here to there. The Jason story got moved along with Mr. Jones and Joaquin (the murderer) hiding the jacket. Polly moving in with the Addams family effectively destroys the ‘Stepford Family’ archetype that the Coopers had been trying to project. Fred and Mr. Jones getting the band back together means it’s being setup to be broken apart again later. And the looming threat of Mr. Lodge stretched its shadowy tendrils a little bit further.

Next week sees the return of Ethel (finally!), though it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting an answer to the burning question on everyone’s mind: Where is Hotdog?

Until next week . . .

STRAY THOUGHTS OF AWESOMENESS . . .

- Valerie was there, but . . . not really there? True, there wasn’t much room for development of Varchie? Valerchie? Archerie? (we’ll need to work on that) Hopefully we’ll be able to see more of that relationship over the coming weeks.

- Same goes for Bughead. Not the best way to start a relationship, amid a murder investigation and a crazy pregnant sister, though we’d still like to see some development happening here. And more than just ‘yeah, my Dad’s a biker’.

- Sheriff Keller - Absolutely terrible at his job. Fortunately for him, he appears to be the only law enforcement agent in all of Riverdale so he’s got great job security.

- Was anyone else hoping that Moose would lay some smack down on those two guys? I mean, c’mon, he’s Moose!

- Archie and Jughead’s ‘bro moment’ was underwhelmed by the lack of conflict. Archie got a little angry, Jughead got a little sad, and then all was well again.

- I kinda love how much Kevin loves the Lodges. From his awe over Veronica’s party invites to complementing Hermione’s shoes. Yeah he’s a walking gay stereotype, but he’s adorable.

About Andrew: 

Andrew Buckley attended the Vancouver Film School’s Writing for Film and Television program. After pitching and developing several screenplay projects for film and television, he worked in marketing and public relations, before becoming a professional copy and content writer. During this time Andrew began writing his first adult novel, DEATH, THE DEVIL AND THE GOLDFISH, followed closely by his second novel, STILTSKIN. He works as an editor for Curiosity Quills Press.

Andrew also co-hosts a geek movie podcast, is working on his next novel, and has a stunning amount of other ideas. He now lives happily in the Okanagan Valley, BC with three kids, one cat, one needy dog, one beautiful wife, and a multitude of characters that live comfortably inside of his mind.

Andrew is represented by Mark Gottlieb at the Trident Media Group.

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