#timestamp: 01:21:37

[freakinator]

if theres one thing minute and wemmbu have in common its that they much prefer zam when hes being normal

[cinnamanz]

— ⋆✴︎˚｡⋆ MAMMA MIA ⋆౨ৎ˚ .ᐟ SOPHIA LAFORTEZA

❝𝐌𝐀𝐌𝐌𝐀 𝐌𝐈𝐀, 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐈 𝐆𝐎 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍

𝐌𝐘, 𝐌𝐘, 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐈 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐒𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔?❞

there’s always been one rule in the group: don’t bring up y/n. no one really knows why, but it’s clear sophia would rather leave her ex-best friend in the past. once inseparable, their friendship dissolved after a summer camp that no one talks about, and y/n vanished, moving god-knows-where without so much as a goodbye. some say it was a fight. others say it was something more. only sophia knows the truth—or maybe not even she does. now, as the third year at dream academy begins, sophia is blindsided by y/n's unexpected return. gone is the familiar, easygoing childhood bestfriend she remembers. in her place is someone sharper, colder, and—unfortunately for sophia—hotter than ever. (who gave her the permission to look so fine?)

tags .ᐟ smau, crack, fluff, awkward idiots, grumpy x sunshine (or at least my attempt to), childhood bestfriends to lovers, theatre children, coarse language, suggestive themes, nonceleb! au, university au!, sexual jokes, kys nd die jokes, mentions of substances, my writing

featuring .ᐟ katseye, p1harmony, ive, le sserafim and etc

pairing .ᐟ sophia laforteza x female reader

status .ᐟ ongoing

notes .ᐟ this smau was made for fun and entertainment. it is not an actual portrayal of the people mentioned in this smau, nor are the photos used to portray y/n. ignore timestamps. dream academy is a performing arts university. divider cred: @/adornedwithlight. TAGLIST CLOSED.

❝𝐌𝐀𝐌𝐌𝐀 𝐌𝐈𝐀, 𝐃𝐎𝐄𝐒 𝐈𝐓 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍?

𝐌𝐘, 𝐌𝐘, 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐌𝐔𝐂𝐇 𝐈’𝐕𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔?❞

PROFILES

rock, paper, 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩 (and keeho) — mommy day care

01. oomfchella @ school

02. dire omen

03. livin la vida loca

04. tying the noose as we speak

05. lore

06. just like old times

07. extracurricular

08. for evermore

09. best friend of the year

10. casting

11. square up

12. a b c d e f g

13. love finds a way

14. petty

15. nonchalant mfs

16. getting somewhere

17. shady ahh tweet

18. concerned

19. easy to draw

20. u look like u hump trees

21. cry to ur homeboys

22. cool cover!

23. for free

24. onto sumn

25. I WILL NOT BE SILENCED

26. tom holland

27. awkward!

28. thoughts nd prayers

29. hardest battles

30. let her cook

31. party on you

32. does yn know ab this?

33. hooked up

34. good driver

35. NEW COUPLE ALERT

36. pack it up

37. they hit the pentagon

38. keeho

39. OH FUCK NO

40. our last summer

41. etsy witch

42. CLOCKED

43. women scaring women

more in progress!

™ CINNAMANZ 2025

— please do not repost, copy, translate, or take from my work in any way without permission. thank you! xx

[puma-riki]

No One Noticed...

Synopsis: You've never seemed to make friends well. Sure, you had people you knew and were well acquainted with, but no one ever seemed to get closer to you or want to. You think that no one notices you and you'll continue the rest of your college years alone like all the years before. Except Ni-ki notices just about everything you do.

Pairing: Nishimura Riki x Fem! Reader

Genre: Fluff, Humor (or attempts at), slight angst, smau + written parts, idiots to lovers, university au

Warnings: consistent cursing, kms/kys jokes [Subject to change every chapter]

Characters: Enhypen (all), Eunchae (lesserafim),Keeho, Soul, (P1Harmony)

Status: Ongoing (Start: 092124)

Taglist (open!): @bee-the-loser @iaintseggsy @channieismylove @yangjungwonnie @luluvhs @nikiswifiee @kingofthekards @skepvids @sammie217 @sh0dor1 @sirens-dreams @starfallia @polarisjisung @minhosimthings @mochiwonz @jiiyen @strawberrieswithchocolateo3o @ritzy-dream-boy @roseangelxfuma @sugarikiz @stvrriki @eczlipse @ddolleri @dangerousgardenchild @roarr-ki @rikidaze @rinoosformstellation @domfikeluva @b0os-jellfyfish @wensurr @melancholy-z @brinethebean @sol3chu @luvjichang @aerijns @bananna-12 @jungwonsjellies @sumzysworld @right-person-wrong-time @rikikiynikilcykiki @pjselee @maniluvzyou @jungwonswife-real @annybah @flaminghotyourmom @vvenusoncasual @pookalicious-hq @jaykehoonist @raven-odyssey @rodelalaland @planetmarlowe @joonsprettygf @cherryangel-coke @wintereals

Comment on any chapter from No One Noticed... saying you want to be added to the taglist!! or send me an ask !! | bold could not be tagged :c

Do Not Pay Attention To Timestamps!! | Images Used Are Meant To Be Used As References

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

Profiles | [Gooners] [Children + Keeho]

01. Quick!! what's a characteristic of water!!

02. I STILL GOT THEM DIGITSS😋😋

03. Existential dread + written

04. HAPPY WEDNESDAY GUYS‼️‼️ + written

05. INCOMING RANT‼️‼️🗣🗣

06. THE VOICES

07. chat does she want me yes or no⁉️🙏

08. OPERATION RIKI[NAME]/P

09. No One Tried, No One But You + written (wc:5.7k)

10. The bum line

11. IM THE BEST ACTUALLY

12. I wasn't cut out for being a boy dad anyway

13. Feeling a disturbance in the force rn

14. I WANT MY DUO.

15. ...SURELY NOT

16. 𝖎 𝖜𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖙𝖊𝖈𝖙 𝖞𝖔𝖚… + written (wc:2.9k)

↳ Bonus : riki[name] out???

17. mama a wisp of essence behind you

18. May a man like Nishimura Riki find me in this life

19. LVL 10 BADDIE AT REGISTER

20. my coworker be losing her mind

21. eunchae my newest opp

22. banned for getting eaten up on the tl

23. Ooouuuu Turn It Awf

24. What The Hell

25. Jarvis, Jerk it a lil

26. Jarvis, What other guys is she talking to

27. Good Luck, Babe! + Written (wc: 2.7k)

28. Yearn like a good boy

29. My Barbie Senses Are Tingling

30. We're All Fucked

31. Can You Quit Your Job

32. I’m Gonna Eat Him + Written (wc: 3.5k)

33. I Miss My Family + Written (wc: 8.0k+)

34. Do You Promise 💔

35. Sorry I Got Nervous

36. Wtf is His Problem

37. REF DO SOMETHING

38. No More Pretty?

39. Wedding In June

40. But For What...

41. She Loves Me. She Loves Me Not

42.

43.

44.

45.

+ more coming soon...!

[jayflrt]

a stoner’s guide to starbucks

PAIRING ▸ lee heeseung x fem!reader (ft. enha, winter from aespa, beomgyu from txt, and dino from svt)

GENRES ▸ social media au (smau), crack, fluff, stoner au, strangers to lovers

WARNINGS ▸ profanity, sexual jokes, zero braincells, limited knowledge of the starbucks corporation, weed consumption, dumb shenanigans, ignore timestamps!

SUMMARY ▸ in which you work at the starbucks where heeseung is a regular at (and considered a public enemy). also he only goes when he’s stoned off his ass.

AUTHOR’S NOTE ▸ hello !! i am alive (real) also i was so committed to the bit that i got high to make this <3 shoutout @hoonbear for the Extensive Starbucks Knowledge 🫡 i would also like to note that i am NOT doing a tag list for this smau. also please note that this is a fictional setting and to boycott starbucks in real life for firing their workers over their pro palestine speech. remember to do your daily click!

INCOMING MESSAGES !

TEASER

PROFILES ONE | TWO

01. weed guy beomgyu

02. red bitch with the freckles rizz

03. starbucks public enemy #1

04. 50% cut ???

05. lee heeseung: upstanding citizen, NOT murderer

06. clearing up misunderstandings with an aqi under 50

07. chat is this real

08. daddy’s home 2

09. biodegrade ur chance at romance

10. triple filtered reverse osmosis water filtration system

11. losing the idgaf war

12. crazy gets u bitches

13. banned in the name of love

14. riki s worded irl??

15. 8ball brings nations together

16. killing myself postponed tonight repostponed

17. scheming sponsored by crazy bitch 62 and unimportant goon

18. the do-over date to end all first dates

19. seek BetterHelp.com

20. quarterly store meeting (remote)

21. WHAT ARE WE

22. heejake support group for heejake victims

23. bro fumbled the unfumbleable

24. sunghoon is the new Papa John

25. according to penal code 837 🤓☝️

26. jungwon pulls bitches (the duolingo owl) too

27. someone PLEASE take jungwon to see the teenage mutant ninja turtles movie

28. 14th date’s the charm

29. doc mcuggo

30. nothing to write home about

31. LONDON I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL I LOST MY QUEEN TOO

32. starbucks double chocolate brownies

33. having a kid together before dating is next level

34. tweaking out on 5 hour energy

35. 7.83 inches

36. The Milk Makes The Man, And The Man Makes The Milk

37. sunghoon from papa john's from starbucks

38. then who's flying the plane???

39. league of legends quarantine ex girlfriend

40. WELCOME HOME CHEATER 😐

41. unknown evil forces (chaewon)

42. friends to rivaling coffee shop employees au

43. do NOT get the weed frap

44. now on channel 9 news

45. choose your fighter heeseung tit variation

46. kitten i'll be honest, daddy's about to kill himself

47. a fire can be put out but missing a bereal is forever

48. baby's first customer connection score

49. #STARBUCKS_FIRST_WIN

50. epilogue

UNCUTS !

weekly weed check 🗣️

SUNGHOONXJLAW

happy weedsgiving

minjake texts

the Sunghoon Special

goons vs baby shark movie

COMPLETED 12/1/23

[yuurivoice]

BitterSweet Director's Cut......Timestamp Edition

00:00 Chapter 1.1 All In The Past

12:47 Chapter 1.2 Country Roads

21:50 Chapter 1.3 The Boys Are Fighting

32:55 Chapter 1.4 The Long Walk Home

55:30 Chapter 1.5 The Longer Walk Home

1:30:16 Chapter 1.6 Cinnamon Roll Blues

1:50:10 Chapter 1.7 Picking Up The Pieces (Of Us)

2:03:35 Chapter 1 Epilogue

2:10:45 Chapter 2.1 Home For The Holidays

2:22:18 Chapter 2.2 Can We Keep Him?

2:36:43 Chapter 2.3 Bruised And Battered

2:52:16 Chapter 2.4 Pizza Party

3:00:24 Chapter 2.5 The Winter Festival

3:17:45 Chapter 2.6 Christmas Eve Pillow Fort

3:35:05 Chapter 2 Epilogue

3:40:35 Chapter 3.1 Dark Mode

3:59:41 Chapter 3.2 Rail Road Confessions

4:15:37 Chapter 3.3 Crashing The Party

4:26:43 Chapter 3.4 Charlie The Pizza Rat

4:39:19 Chapter 3.5 No Use Crying Over Spilled Milk

4:52:52 Chapter 3.6 A Chat With Jessie

5:01:50 Chapter 3.7 Starry Night, Broken Heart

5:19:48 Chapter 3.8 Exhausting Charlie’s Dialog Options

5:33:19 Chapter 3.9 Boo’s Gambit

5:40:20 Chapter 3.10 A Race Against Time

5:57:23 Chapter 3.11 Time After Time

6:15:38 Chapter 3.12 Out With A Bang

6:43:39 Chapter 3.12 Post-Credits Scene

6:48:26 Chapter 3 Epilogue

[isa-ghost]

HEY YOU!!

Do YOU want to rewatch all of Phil's QSMP Hardcore Deity Lore in one big binge like a total fucking masochist? LOOK NO FURTHER!

In order to drag my friends into Bird Man Brainrot Hell with me, I made a bullet list of all the major lore vods with dates and timestamps included for a streamlined list of what and where to watch!

All you have to do is use this [QPhil Lore Playlist] I made from our beloved Crow Mercy's Phil vods channel and refer to the bullet list below!

Tallulah & Chayanne would've loved this day (Sept 15th 2023, 8:00:15 to the end)

What Happened to Me? (Sept 24th 2023, 1:09:11-1:14:11)

Is this real? (September 25th, 2023, 3:08:14-3:27:10)

Finding the Line (Oct 27th 2023, 2:50:00-3:03:00)

A discovery… (Dec 6th 2023, 2:19:47-3:15:26)

Another discovery (Dec 15th 2023, 2:42:07-2:46:28, 2:57:18-3:00:17, 5:37:39 to the end)

Healing (Dec 18th 2023, 3:07:10-3:10:08, 6:10:59-6:29:40)

Xmas Event & A New Threat (Dec 20th 2023, 3:11:25-3:18:01, 3:36:33-3:42:46, 6:19:06-6:20:22)

A message or a warning? (Jan 12th 2024, 7:53-20:40)

The date is fast approaching (Jan 17th 2024, 2:21:26-2:24:51, 6:08:28-6:15:45)

oh boy oh gosh it's island time (Feb 21st 2024, 6:21:12-6:26:13)

A Strange Gift (Feb 23rd 2024, 2:15:11-2:20:11) (OPTIONAL: WATCH WHOLE VOD)

Greed comes with a price (Feb 26th 2024, 1:50:53-2:00:00, 2:25:38 to the end) (OPTIONAL: WATCH WHOLE VOD)

Break past the void (March 1st, 2024, 4:30-27:45) (OPTIONAL: WATCH WHOLE VOD)

ALTERNATIVELY!!

EDIT: Following Twitch's change in 2025 with VOD storage, this method may not work. Try it and see, this is just a head's up because I personally haven't tested it.

If YouTube is giving you trouble for one reason or another, YOU'RE IN LUCK!!

Kristin uploads all of Phil's vods to an archive on his Twitch, so you can actually find ALL these vods on Phil's Twitch channel too! I did this myself just a few days before posting this, they're all uploaded and relatively easy to find!

In order to do it this way, all you have to do is go to here on Phil's Twitch, then refer to the dates in the above bullet list in the vod titles. Once you find the right vod, just refer to the timestamps above and go nuts!

Happy binging and reliving Bird Man Trauma! :D

And as a bonus note:

The vods in my playlist that AREN'T major Hardcore Deity Lore moments are other significant QSMP Lore moments Phil was involved in or present for, so you could actually binge the entire playlist chronologically if you want to relive it ALL! :)

[lenaariewrld]

1 2 3 . . . ON THE AIR !!

genshin impact smau ft. childe x fem!reader

| SYNOPSIS;; Teyvat University’s popular radio personality, Y/n L/n, has only one gripe with her life. Her classmate, neighbour, and all-around nuisance in her life, Tartaglia. Their rivalry extends just past academics and, to her horror, into her work. He becomes the music director and co-host for her radio show, working alongside her most nights and forcing himself even deeper into her life. But is he really trying to just be friends, or is there an ulterior motive to his actions?

GENRE ;; modern!au, college! au, crack, angst, hurt/comfort, enemies to fwb to lovers, ‘it was all a bet’ trope.

WARNINGS;; lots of swearing, sexual innuendos, incorrect information about being a radio host / radio work in general, childe goes by tartaglia and ajax, alcohol use, drug use, smoking, violence jokes (potentially a few kys jokes but nothing too graphic), bad humour, potential smut (will be marked minors DNI), childe and y/n call each other names A LOT in this, timestamps and dates dont matter, pictures used for y/n or any characters Do Not represent you and are meant to show outfits or vibes of a picture ONLY, unedited writing, written chapters will be marked with a (w), more tba as necessary.

| STATUS;; updates frequently, but inconsistent. | TAGLIST;; open ! pls reply to this post or send in an ask to be added !

CAST !!

y/n and friends | childe and co | misc / extra profiles

. . . extra;; tba

playlist!!

TABLE of CONTENTS !!

PROLOGUE.

C.01— the bet.

C.02— this is agony

C.03— ur hopeless

C.04— worst thing

C.05— the concert thing (w)

C.06— gee thanks princess

C.07— insufferable

C.08— not being a dickhead

C.09— we're going to a party

C.10— after this (w)

C.11— goodies

C.12— late nights

C.13— make his pockets hurt

C.14— formal dinners (w)

C.15— serial sniffer

C.16— are you mad at me (w)*

C.17— powers out

C.18— distraction

C.19— host your own concert

C.20— vip invites

C.21— digging a grave (w)

C.22— just a friend???

C.23— the bet, remember

C.24— c u tonight (w)

C.25— awkward..

C.26— the right choice

C.27— lovesick puppy (w)

C.28— reevaluate

C.29— postponed

C.30— settled in

C.31— people who actually love her

C.32— tradition

C.33— make good choices (w)

C.34— that's stupid

C.35— hopefully (w)

C.36— are u back?

C.37— get a check

C.38— new song

C.39— hostages

C.40— because we do

C.41— congratulations

C.42— what about you?

C.43— beach day

C.44— only if you mean it

C.45— the outcome???

C.46— picturesque summer much?

C.47— roster

C.48— liar exposed

C.49—

C.50—

EPILOGUE—

...

[thatfeelinwhenyou]

KINDRED — yang jungwon

It’s your final year of highschool, and your only goal is to graduate top of your cohort, as usual. Except as student council president, your advisor can’t seem to leave you alone. What happens when you take Decelis Academy’s top student, their star taekwondo athlete and put them in front of a camera?

“Kindred” a student documentary. Pilot episode airing tonight on TVN 7PM KST.

pairing: athlete!jungwon x stucopres!fem!reader

featuring: enhypen, yunjin from lesserafim, ryujin and chaeryeong from itzy, chanelle from runext, beomgyu and taehyun from txt, wonyoung from ive, gunwook and gyuvin from zb1 etc.

genre: high school au, enemies to lovers, nerd x athlete, forced proximity, slice of life, coming of age, he fell first and harder, fluff, ANGST, teen drama, slow burn ish?

status: completed! (01/09/2023 – 18/03/2024)

warnings: contains profanities, horrible attempt at humour, urban lingo, probably cringy, kys/kms jokes, depression jokes, sexual innuendos (nothing too inappropriate), depiction of violence, family drama, incorrect timestamps/information, no fixed faceclaims, not proofread etc.

notes from nat: story concept is heavily inspired by the kdrama ‘our beloved summer’ other than that the storyline is completely original (or so i assume since i manifested this out from the crevices of my pea brain). chapters with ‘(hw)’ next to them indicates that they are half-written, in case y’all skip over it! as always, the content and depiction of the characters in this smau do not in anyway represent them in real life. lastly, if you do end up enjoying, please do like, comment (love reading your comments btw), and reblog so this can reach!

tags: #tfwy kindred #tfwy smau

TEASER

profile. one | two | three

episode 1 - ratatouille and the underdogs

episode 2 - one way ticket to university

episode 3 - do you take constructive criticism?

episode 4 - unsolicited but appreciated

episode 5 - the art of benevolence

episode 6 - taekwondo-anti

episode 7 - beating the mentally ill allegations

episode 8 - can’t help it, i’m a libra

episode 9 - operation we-don’t-really-hate-each-other (hw)

episode 10 - she’s an oscar award winning actress

episode 11 - someone like me (hw)

episode 12 - ‘female-lead-realising-the-bad-boy-isnt-actually-that-bad’ arc

episode 13 - 5 foot 9 garfield meets avatar

episode 14 - yn the heterosexual

episode 15 - the ynwon getting closer montage :p

episode 16 - to the moon and back

episode 17 - eat 2 left toes

episode 18 - you are approved! (hw)

episode 19 - asking for a friend

episode 20 - rediscovering won’s ability to love

episode 21 - beomgyu’s 99999 eq

episode 22 - ynwon get together or else >:(

episode 23 - “hate”

episode 24 - not all problems can be solved with a formula

episode 25 - H.O.M.E.W.R.E.C.K.E.R

episode 26 - collecting facebook milfs like pokémons

episode 27 - you were brighter than the moon (hw)

episode 28 - she's studious not stupid

episode 29 - the garden is full of surprises (hw)

episode 30 - weapon of mass destruction

episode 31 - the name above me (hw)

episode 32 - no offense but she’s a cockblocker

episode 33 - the bane of my existence (hw)

episode 34 - risky risky wiggy wigi this is an emergency

episode 35 - live my life on my terms (hw)

episode 36 - separation anxiety goes crazy

episode 37 - paparizzki

episode 38 - manifested this from ashes

episode 39 - everything will work out just the way you want it to (hw)

episode 40 (finale) - her entire being is loveable (written)

epilogue - kindred, signing off part 1 | part 2

bonus chapters!

yunjin x heeseung

i can fight

Copyright© 2023 thatfeelinwhenyou All Rights Reserved

[felassan]

Game Informer:

"Dragon Age Cover Story And Shadow of the Erdtree Review | GI Show by Alex Van Aken on Jun 27, 2024 at 01:57 PM In this week's episode of The Game Informer Show, the crew discusses our recent trip to Bioware for our Dragon Age: The Veilguard cover story, our Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree review, PS5-bound multiplayer shooter, Concord, a new battle royale from former League of Legends developers, atmospheric horror title Still Wakes the Deep, Dustborn, Luigi's Mansion 2 HD and even more! It's a packed show, y'all.  Watch the Video Version: [embedded link to Game Informer video titled 'Dragon Age Cover Story And Shadow of the Erdtree Review | GI Show']"

(On YouTube, the description box for this video looked like this:)

[Article continues] "Follow us on social media: Alex Van Aken (@itsVanAken), Kyle Hilliard (@KyleMHilliard), Marcus Stewart (@MarcusStewart7), Wesley LeBlanc (@LeBlancWes) The Game Informer Show is a weekly gaming podcast covering the latest video game news, industry topics, exclusive reveals, and reviews. Join us every Thursday to chat about your favorite games – past and present – with Game Informer staff, developers, and special guests from around the industry. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Matt Storm, the freelance audio editor for The Game Informer Show, edited this episode. Matt is an experienced podcast host and producer who's been speaking into a microphone for over a decade. You should listen to Matt's shows like the "Fun" And Games Podcast and Reignite, a BioWare-focused podcast."

"The Game Informer Show – Podcast Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:42 - Cover Story: Dragon Age: The Veilguard 00:21:48 - Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Review 00:42:20 - Concord Preview 00:59:04 - Supervive Preview 01:11:59 - The Plucky Squire 01:24:37 - Magic: The Gathering – Assassin's Creed 01:35:01 - Still Wakes the Deep 01:45:52 - Dustborn Preview 01:55:06 - Luigi's Mansion 2 HD Review 01:58:26 - Housekeeping"

"The GI Show podcast is a weekly recap of exciting releases, exclusive details on upcoming games, and in-depth interviews with developers. Watch or listen to a new episode every Thursday!"

[source]

----

Felassan's notes section of this post -

In this episode of the Game Informer show, Game Informer talk some more about their trip to BioWare's studio for the DA:TV cover story, when BioWare showed them hours of DA:TV content while playing it live.

Some notes from this and from what they said:

Wesley LeBlanc wasn't a huge DA fan and he went in with no expectations. The job to go to BW for this just landed on his plate due to other peoples' schedules. After seeing the game, it's probably his most anticipated game for the rest of the year and the one he's most looking forwards to

The game really wowed him and stuck with him, he said he is thrilled about it and is engrossed in the fantasy it's bringing

The visuals and world finally feel like what BioWare has maybe always wanted to make

This is the game where the team said, yeah, we feel fully in command of the Frostbite engine, and it shows

The world is more like Fable-type whimsy than prior DA games. It has a high fantasy feel

BW want new people to play the game. They're very aware that it's been 10 years since the last game and the game does a good job of catching people up

Rook as the PC really has no idea what's going on with Solas and all the other lore-specific stuff that's happening in the game, so they kind of act as the stand-in for newer players or people who have not caught up on the lore

But it's not just a game for newcomers, there is still a lot to chew on in the game for hardcore DA fans. BioWare were saying that they know their community, what it wants and what it's looking for out of these characters

Wesley enjoyed the music, visual design, and voice acting

Nothing that they saw about the game stood out as worrisome to him

Wesley has quite a lot of further stories to add to Game Informer's DA:TV hub

Wesley: "On the topic of the [Dragon Age] fanbase, I just wanna give a shoutout to that community, because, wow, I did not, I knew people would be stoked about this cover, but people are really stoked about this cover. And it’s really funny, the day that we announced it, I got like hundreds of new followers. Anytime, if I tweet about Erdtree or Destiny 2, I get like my normal amount of likes, like, a dozen maybe, y’know, whatever. If I tweet about Dragon Age, it’s like. Today I tweeted, ‘my next feature is coming at 3pm’ and it’s at 1000 likes, it’s so funny, like, this community is like rabid for information, which makes sense if you haven’t gotten a game in 10 years. But yeah, so like, shoutout to y’all, I’m loving you guys reading the articles and telling me what you wanna hear about. So if you have any questions or anything, get at me on Twitter for sure, and I will see what I can cook up with some writing for you. But yeah, shoutout to the BioWare community, y’all crazy.”

[source]

[yuzurins]

# TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH . . .

an itoshi rin social media au by yuzurins

ღ synopsis — all you wanted was a peaceful and productive uni life, but despite your pleas, your plans start crumbling when the star of the football team, itoshi rin, begins to beat you in every aspect possible. as you confront the inevitable, what happens when you uncover secrets behind an unforgettable event from the past?

pairing ∗ itoshi rin x f!reader (she/they)

genre ∗ social media au, academic rivals to lovers, university au, fluff + contains angst, slow burn, drama, crack disclaimers ∗ timestamps don’t rlly matter (unless stated), crude language, cringe attempt at humour, mentions of alcohol, kms/kys jokes, pictures used in icons and posts are not mine you — light mode ∗ rin — dark mode

status ∗ ongoing (08/20/23) no set schedule

profiles

# our big family ❤️ | # ut football exclusives

chapters (❀ -> written portion)

i. have we met before

∗ 01 — it’s unfair

∗ 02 — why does it matter

∗ 03 — life isn't real

∗ 04 — strangers with memories (❀)

∗ 05 — neighbours?

∗ 06 — worst luck (❀)

∗ 07 — you're being jealous (❀)

∗ 08 — dense

∗ 09 — arts project

∗ 10 — rin (1) has joined!

∗ 11 — a small world, after all

∗ 12 — meeting, number three? (❀)

∗ 13 — favour from a hater

∗ 14 — missing

∗ 15 — meddle about

∗ 16 — a predicament

∗ 17 — meet me at the fair (❀)

∗ 18 — i can’t do this anymore

∗ 19 — the only one available

∗ 20 — change of heart

ii. the story of us

∗ 21 — trip to the past

∗ 22 — welcome, manager!

∗ 23 — concern (❀)

∗ 24 — homework help

∗ 25 — a player

∗ 26 — accident

∗ 27 — drifting

∗ 28 — we're dating

∗ 29 — i don't get it

∗ 30 — it’s too late

∗ 31 — regrets

iii. for lovers who hesitate

∗ 32 — aftermath

∗ 33 — can we talk

∗ 34 — from the beginning

∗ 35 — coffee

∗ 36 — walking home

∗ 37 — bad news

∗ 38 — you cheated

∗ 39 — confrontation

∗ 40 — karma

∗ 41 — i missed you

∗ 42 — movie night

∗ 43 — lunch breaks

∗ 44 — cherry blossoms

∗ 45 — isagi’s feelings

∗ 46 — friend group!

∗ 47 — a surprise

notes ∗ my first smau :0 thank u sm to souta, ei, rika and xue for helping me and making me feel validated when making decisions :’) inspired by @idlerin + @tobiosmilktea !! check them out cuz their smaus are super fun to read <3 updates may be irregular once i get back to school but i’m excited to go on this journey ^_^ thank you for reading !!

taglist ∗ currently closed! (send an ask or comment to be removed)

© yuzurins '23-25 ღ do not plagiarize, change, translate or repost my works on any other platform.

[how-about-some-more-whump]

Black & White 痞子英雄 (2009) - Whump List

Also known as: Pi zi ying xiong

Synopsis: Wu Ying Xiong (on the left) and Chen Zai Tian (on the right) are two radically different cops. Forced to collaborate on a drug trafficking investigation, their opposing personalities lead to clashes and distrust between them. Monitored and manipulated by organizations with dark agendas, will they be able to put aside their differences and work together?

Notes: Yet again an amazingly whumpy show (just check this list below!) that I never see mentionned anywhere. If you're into bromance, and not too bothered by never-ending plot-twists, then you're in the right place. Just try to ignore the 2000's hairstyles and fashion, and the weird af siblings relationships (well... it's a Taiwanese show... it's to be expected...). Enjoy!

NB: Timestamps might be off (< 1mn) depending on where you watch the show. I do not disclose any character death on purpose. The characters are listed by chronological order of whump in each episode.

------ EPISODE 1 ------

Chen Zai Tian

2:11 Shot at

20:19 Jostled, scared

21:35 Disarmed, at gunpoint (with his own gun lol)

Wu Ying Xiong

7:20 Going undercover

9:37 At gunpoint, tasered, gagging on the ground, searched, wincing in pain, angry, panting

14:12 At gunpoint

17:15 Discovered as un undercover cop, fighting, shot at, running away, more fighting

19:43 Chased, shot at, more fighting, manhandled, shot at more

21:34 At gunpoint, fighting

------ EPISODE 2 ------

Chen Zai Tian

9:10 Handcuffed, manhandled, angry

12:57 Positive drug test, puzzled

47:31 Shot several times in the chest, thrown backwards, unconscious

------ EPISODE 3 ------

Chen Zai Tian

1:33 (Continued from previous ep) Shot several times in the chest, thrown backwards, unconscious

2:48 Startled, heavily breathing, in pain, reveals he was wearing a bulletproof vest, struggling to stand

8:32 At gunpoint

Wu Ying Xiong

2:05 At gunpoint

8:32 At gunpoint

------ EPISODE 4 ------

Wu Ying Xiong

17:59 In a fight, drugged, woozy, unsteady, fighting more

22:45 On the floor, dazed, weak legs

25:15 Still feeling the effects of the drug

Chen Zai Tian

22:51 Shoved

25:13 At gunpoint

48:05 Running after someone, falls, hurts his leg, limping, collapses, wincing in pain, shouting

------ EPISODE 5 ------

Chen Zai Tian

14:48 Sees a friend get shot, scared

16:15 In an interrogation room, considered as a suspect, puzzled

23:17 Interrogated, gun to his head, scared, panting

48:11 Bitten

------ EPISODE 6 ------

Chen Zai Tian

9:52 Shot at

11:50 Shot at (a lot), scared

47:42 Surrounded by a group of men, trying to talk his way out of it, hit and knocked out, abducted

Wu Ying Xiong

9:52 Shot at

11:50 Shot at (a lot), shot

13:19 Wincing and groaning in pain

47:35 Hit on the back of his head, knocked out, abducted

------ EPISODE 7 ------

Chen Zai Tian

2:02 (Continued from previous ep) Unsconscious, tied in the air with his partner, bleeding head injury

4:10 Wincing and moaning in pain

5:35 Wincing in pain

10:35 Still bleeding from his injury, holding a tissue on it

Wu Ying Xiong

2:02 (Continued from previous ep) Unsconscious, tied in the air with his partner, bleeding head injury

4:10 Wincing and moaning in pain, pissed off

25:13 In a fight, laughed at (understandable honestly), taunted, fighting more

27:32 Surrounded

------ EPISODE 8 ------

Wu Ying Xiong

4:45 Feeling sorry, apologizing, slapped

10:08 At gunpoint

43:45 At gunpoint

Chen Zai Tian

10:08 At gunpoint, scared, arms in the air

43:45 At gunpoint

------ EPISODE 9 ------

None.

------ EPISODE 10 ------

Chen Zai Tian

9:40 Blown by an explosion, in shock, inhales smoke

13:17 Sitting on the ground, still in shock, not talking

15:51 Crying

16:20 Still sitting on the ground, drinking, isolating himself, unsteady on his feet, bursts in tears, collapses, grieving

26:13 Helped to walk

42:50 Grieving, sobbing, drunk

Wu Ying Xiong

40:23 Worried for his partner

------ EPISODE 11 ------

Chen Zai Tian

26:01 Drunk, beaten up, lying on a pile of trash, bloody face, angry

30:49 Sobbing, lost, comforted, leaning on his partner, holding onto his partner (Vic Zhou is ACTING here damn)

34:06 Shut down, not talking, not moving

43:45 Crying

48:17 At gunpoint

Wu Ying Xiong

26:54 Worried for his partner

28:00 At gunpoint

36:55 Feeling betrayed, angry

40:51 Done with his partner, pissed

------ EPISODE 12 ------

Chen Zai Tian

1:30 (Continued from previous ep) At gunpoint

Wu Ying Xiong

14:40 (Not whump but… she’s aking the right questions here lol)

------ EPISODE 13 ------

Chen Zai Tian

20:05 Upset, about to throw up, teary eyes, shaking

------ EPISODE 14 ------

Wu Ying Xiong

11:13 Fighting, kicked, disarmed, punched

12:38 Shot at, in a gunfight, attacked with a knife, fighting, outnumbered, chained, beaten up, stabbed, wincing in pain, blurry eyesight, passes out

17:16 Bleeding, holding his wound

------ EPISODE 15 ------

None.

------ EPISODE 16 ------

Wu Ying Xiong

14:59 In a heated argument with his partner

36:40 In shock, heavily breathing, whiping his eyes, shaky voice, repeatedly punched, collapses, about to cry

42:38 Face covered in bruises

Chen Zai Tian

14:59 In a heated argument with his partner

39:00 Holding back tears

------ EPISODE 17 ------

Wu Ying Xiong

1:55 Face still covered in bruises, drunk, tearing up, ashamed

24:30 Drunk, put to sleep, kissed in his sleep

Chen Zai Tian

30:48 Feeling sick, dizzy

------ EPISODE 18 ------

Wu Ying Xiong

31:50 Manipulated (this scene is super damn hot though, this big softie is such an idiot)

46:24 At gunpoint

------ EPISODE 19 ------

Wu Ying Xiong

1:30 Interrogated, wrongfully accused, pissed off

6:03 Suspended from work, holding back tears while saying goodbye to coworkers

9:20 Blaiming himself

18:50 Drinking, coughing, sad :(

------ EPISODE 20 ------

Chen Zai Tian

31:48 Heartbroken

41:49 Furious

Wu Ying Xiong

34:23 Drunk, has been drinking for two days, in disbielief, depressed, heartbroken, crying

48:26 Betrayed, running away

------ EPISODE 21 ------

Wu Ying Xiong

1:31 (Continued from previous ep) Betrayed, running away

8:18 Depressed, drunk

15:18 Sees a friend get shot

27:42 Locked in a basement, suffocating, panicking, collapses

33:00 Unconscious

Chen Zai Tian

32:52 Electrocuted, unconscious, given CPR

34:56 Helped to walk

------ EPISODE 22 ------

Wu Ying Xiong

16:05 In a gunfight, at gunpoint, tearing up, heartbroken, pissed, sees someone he loves get shot, crying

26:36 Grieving, exhausted, sobbing, at breaking point

Chen Zai Tian

36:00 At gunpoint, gun to his head

42:50 Handcuffed

------ EPISODE 23 ------

Chen Zai Tian

19:50 Sees someone get shot in front of him, shocked, at gunpoint, running away, shot at, surrounded, running away

37:32 In a gunfight, out of bullets, shot, passes out

39:45 Sweaty, can't stand on his legs, bleeding

Wu Ying Xiong

27:25 Hands tied behind his back, black sack on his head, threatened, crying

39:24 Fighting while tied up, smacked in the face, falls down

44:47 Shot at

------ EPISODE 24 ------

Wu Ying Xiong

2:05 In a gunfight

13:10 Attacked from behind, disarmed, fighting

15:07 Joining his partner in a fight

Chen Zai Tian

12:05 Disarmed, fighting (more like beaten up but he’s trying, okay?)

14:40 Still getting beaten fighting, spitting blood, struggling to stand up

22:22 In disbelief

___

Head to the WHUMP MASTERLIST for more whump! For more of Vic Zhou (Chen Zai Tian), click here.

[choonietoonies]

NO1 PARTY ANTHEM

The look of love, the rush of blood

The "She's with me" is the Gallic shrug

The shutterbugs, the Camera Plus

The black and white and the color dodge

The good time girls, the cubicles

The house of fun, the number one

Party anthem, oh

han, a guy you would rarely find a party and yn, that one girl glowing under the clubs neon lights. perhaps the drinks and dancing was fate for both of them? maybe not, but the headaches were worth it all.

warnings ! swearing. a LOT of swearing, kys/kms jokes, threats, angst, fluff, suggestive scenes, underage drinking uh oh.., mentions of death, plzz ignore timestamps 🥲 i cant be bothered to change the time cus im lazy

taglist ! @peskybirdysya (open)

status ! ongoing

A/N ! all the characters are 17+ btw! They're in their last year of highschool (based off Korean school age system)

-

🎸🌪️

🪩 🎉

the roomies

00 so youre on the prowl wondering whether

01 she left already or not

02 leather jacket, collar popped like cantona

03 never knowing when to stop

04 sunglasses indoor is par for the course

05 lights in the floors and sweat on the walls

06 cages and poles

07 call of the search for your soul

08 or put it on hold again

09 shes having a sly indoor smoke

10 and she calls the folks who run this,

11 her oldest friends

12 sipping a drink and laughing at imaginary jokes

13 as all the signals sent,

14 her eyes invite you to approach

15 and it seems as though those lumps in your throat

16 that you just swallowed have got you going

17 come on (6x)

18 number one party anthem.

19 shes a certified mind blower

20 knowing full, well, that i dont

21 may suggest theres somewhere from

22 which i might know her

23 just to get the ball to roll

24 drunken monologues, confused because

25 its not like im falling in love, i just want ya

26 to do me no good

27 you look like you could

28 come on (6x)

29 number one party anthem.

30 come on (3x)

31 before the moments gone

32 number one party anthem, yeah, yeah

33 the look of love, the rush of blood

34 the 'she's with me''s the gallic shrug

35 the shutterbug, the camera plus

36 the black and white and the colour dodge

37 the good time girls, the cubicles

38 the house of fun, the number one

39 party anthem, oh.

-

[cinnamanz]

— ✩♬ ₊˚. ONLY ON CAMERA ᝰ.ᐟ DANIELA AVANZINI

❝𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐘 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐀 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑,

𝐁𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐎𝐍 𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐀.❞

when katseye's main dancer daniela avanzini accidentally throws shade at chart-topping singer y/n l/n on an interview, the internet erupts in chaos. with y/n already in hot waters with the press over her latest scandal, both their pr teams scramble for damage control. the solution? a 'picture-perfect' fake relationship to turn the headlines in their favor.

❝𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐖𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄,

𝐁𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐎𝐍 𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐀.❞

tags .ᐟ smau, crack, fluff, one-sided hate, love-hate relationship, coarse language, suggestive themes, celebrity! au, sexual jokes, mentions of substances, highly toxic relationships, red flags, toxic ppl, angst sometimes, my writing (shite)

featuring .ᐟ katseye, p1harmony, enhypen, aespa n more celebs.

pairing .ᐟ daniela avanzini x female reader.

status .ᐟ completed— 21 jan 25.

notes .ᐟ this smau was made for fun and entertainment. it is not an actual portrayal of the people mentioned in this smau, nor are the photos used to portray y/n. let's just say that some kpop groups mentioned are living in california. y/n is lwk based off billie eilish. ignore timestamps. divider cred : @/mikeykuns.

❝𝐈𝐓 𝐌𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐈 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐄,

𝐁𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐎𝐍 𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐀.❞

❝𝐃𝐎𝐍’𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐒,

𝐈 𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐒.❞

PROFILES!

THANK YOU BEYONCÉ KATZEYE BY MEGAN KATZEYE BY MEGAN PT. 2

01. 2014 justin beiber but worse

02. zoo wee mama

03. DATING

04. not spiderman

05. yuri blunt

06. coffee

07. punching a wall

08. pr relationship in doubt

09. lunch

10. dickhead

11. schizophreniatitis

12. stronger than us

13. shade

14. dream... nightmare?

15. angel

16. solace

17. woman loving winner

18. peace

19. pretty cute

20. MY SHAYLA

21. want to know

22. come home

23. GOD PLEASE BRING OUR FAMILY BACK TOGETHER

24. FUCK MY DISGUSTING GAY LIFE

25. assthetic

26. count your days

27. welcome back princess diana

28. congratulations?

29. albums and pcs

30. licked my screen

31. pc gone missing

32. nutcase

33. welcome home

34. our baby

35. my passenger princess and her mami

36. save the dates

37. fam meeting

38. come home pt. 2

39. 3AM

40. heavy

41. wake up

42. what the hell, no

43. understand

44. not so weird psychotic way

45. accurate representation?

46. casual

47. children of divorce

48. yuri gods

49. messages

50. whoremembers

51. she

52. the end!

bonus! incorrect texts and tweets

™ CINNAMANZ 2025

— please do not repost, copy, translate, or take from my work in any way without permission. thank you! xx

[the-conversation-pod]

The Untamed Episodes: The First Life

AND WE'RE BACK

It's been a hot minute since we dropped an episode, so we're back to talk about a project that has stuck in fandom for years. We finally got NiNi to watch The Untamed, so grab your snacks and come listen to her talk about everyone's hair along with our friends @lurkingshan and @neuroticbookworm. We'll be discussing censorship in media as we try to run through the big overview of Wei Wuxian's first life.

Timestamps

The timestamps will now correspond with chapters on Spotify for easier navigation.

00:00:00 - Welcome 00:00:55 - Introduction 00:03:55 - Censorship in Media: A Global View 00:12:37 - The MoDaoZuShi Phenomenon 00:24:33 - The Big Picture 00:33:36 - The First Life 00:40:07 - The First Life: Thoughts and Impressions 00:46:21 - The First Life: WangXian and Other Fucked Up Love Stories 01:01:17 - The First Life: Various Random Musings 01:11:02 - Outro: Notes From the Future

The Conversation Transcripts!

Thanks to the continued efforts of @lurkingshan as an editor and proofreader, we are able to bring you transcripts of the episodes.

Please send our volunteers your thanks!

00:00:00 - Welcome

NiNi

Welcome to The Conversation, the Queer Media And Brown Liquor Podcast.

Ben

I'm Ben, the media critic.

NiNi

I’m NiNi, the VIIBs queen.

Ben

And we are your drunk Caribbean uncle and auntie who are sitting on the porch in the rocking chairs.

NiNi

We’re here to talk queer film and dramas, with a special focus on Asian QL.

Ben

So if you like to dive deep into queer stories…

NiNi

If you like cracked out takes on art and commerce in queer media…

Ben

If you just enjoy simping for attractive people…

NiNi

We believe in simping!

Ben

Tune in!

00:00:55 - Introduction

Ben 

And we're back. This week we're doing a little bit of a retrospective. We're gonna be covering The Untamed. Friend of the pod, pod team member, and troll of the pod, Shan—who is of course here. 

NiNi

Say hi, Shan.

Shan 

Hi, people!

Ben 

Shan mentioned during our Diamond League episode that this was a huge oversight in the pod's discussion history and so we successfully bullied NiNi into finally watching it. And she managed to watch the whole thing.

Shan 

I'm so impressed.

NiNi 

It was a struggle. It was a lot. There were some episodes in the middle where I was just like, ooh, okay, I'm just gonna have to push through. But I made it.

Shan 

You sure did.

Ben 

Because The Untamed is such a large project to discuss, we brought an additional clown along with us. Everyone welcome back Bookworm. 

Say hi, Bookworm.

Bookworm 

Hi people!

Ben 

Bookworm, despite how busy she is, has been following Shan's [laughs] recommended BLs list for like two years now. And then for about, like, a one month period, we completely lost Bookworm to reading all five of these books. And then during Christmas of ‘24, I think, you guys watched all of The Untamed in like a week.

Bookworm 

We did it in two weeks, I think. Six episodes a day.

NiNi 

That is commitment.

Shan

Bookworm has very short windows where she actually has a lot of free time. So we took advantage of the holiday season.

Bookworm 

She trapped me between Christmas and New Year's.

Shan 

I just strapped her to a chair, and said [Bookworm laughs] we're watching the episodes, let's go.

NiNi 

She's good at doing that. 

Bookworm 

Sure is. 

NiNi

That's how she got Ben to watch Goblin.

Bookworm

Wow, that was a moment. That was so good.

[NiNi laughs]

Shan 

I'm feeling really proud of my accomplishments.

[NiNi laughs]

Ben 

Goblin was at least better than Coffee Prince, ‘cause there was a moment when I was watching Coffee Prince, around like episode 10, where I'm like, I'm over this show!

[Ben and Shan laugh]

Shan 

He was so mad because he was waiting for the turn and it hadn't come yet and he was getting so frustrated.

NiNi 

Episode 10 of a kdrama? That's not when it happens. Come on!

Shan 

He just didn't understand the rhythms yet. He pushed through, and then he came around and ended up loving the show.

Ben 

Goblin did a much better job of not losing me during the episode 10 phenomenon because they had great Bonds Between Men content. Every time I'm like, “ooh, I'm getting a little tired of this modern angst shit,” they're like, “here's a scene from the past with that one guy you love.” There he is. There's my boy.

NiNi 

I think that's a good segue into what we're gonna talk about here, Bonds Between Men, because this is a show that works on multiple levels deliberately because of details that we're gonna talk about. So let's dive into talking about The Untamed.

00:04:14 - Censorship in Media: A Global View

Ben 

Normally on this show, as you all know, we would do like a “Ben, what the fuck is the show about?” and I'd give some kind of snarky blurb about it, and then we get into it. Because we're talking about the biggest Chinese BL that exists, we're gonna unpack a ton of the context around our understanding of Chinese censorship. 

Shan, you've done a bunch of the background on this one. Take us in.

Shan 

So first, just an acknowledgement up top that censorship exists in all media. That there are standards in every country that have to be met for anything that is aired, on public television in particular, in movies. This is not a thing that is unique to China. And most Asian dramas are censored to some extent according to whatever the social norms of their home country are. 

That said, Chinese censorship is especially strict. It's considered one of the worst state censorship models in the world. The Chinese Communist Party monitors everything that comes out. They're very often concerned with curtailing political opposition and promoting Chinese nationalism—if you include more of it, you can get away with doing stuff they don't like. They want to prevent negative depictions of Chinese history. They're also very often just doing basic morality policing around sex, in particular. So, even in heterosexual romance media, this applies. You see very little sex in cdramas, even when they're het. Angle kisses, stuff like that still exist even in het media. Of course this is even more severe for queer media. Typically, you're not even gonna see things like onscreen kisses in queer media out of China. 

They also put limits on things like magic, which is very relevant for the story we're gonna talk about today. It has to be depicted so as to avoid seeming more powerful than the state or promoting superstition. This is very often why characters who use magic are not really allowed to have happy endings. You can't show a character thriving because of their use of magic in Chinese media. So sometimes magic is changed out completely in these stories for quasi-scientific explanations, or magic is used and then the characters have ambiguous or sad endings in order to counterbalance that.

On top of those censorship norms, there's also law around pornography. Pornography is completely illegal in China. Technically, since the mid 2010s, homosexuality is not criminalized legally anymore in China, but there are a lot of really vague laws that still exist around abnormal sexual behavior, quote unquote, and obscenity, quote unquote, that allow for queer media to be targeted by censors. 

In terms of Chinese BL shows, there were a handful of them prior to The Untamed that did make it to air. Most of them adapted from novels—we'll get a little bit more into that in a minute. In 2017, in the middle of the airing of Addicted, is when the censorship crackdown on BL really took shape. That show was very popular and was actually depicting things like kisses between men and it immediately got terminated, yanked off the air, and then the censorship laws got much stricter. 

Y'all probably remember that, NiNi and Ben. I think you were around in fandom when that went down.

Ben 

I sure was.

NiNi 

I wasn't quite there yet, I watched Addicted after the fact and I didn't have the context.

Shan 

You were confused, right? [laughs] You're like, why is this show such a big deal?

Ben 

Both of those guys kind of disappeared from acting for years afterwards. 

Shan 

They got blacklisted. 

Ben

They're only just now starting to work again.

Shan

Yeah. So that show got yanked off mid-airing right after the first kiss aired on TV. And then after that, you never saw anything like that. Even the few Chinese BLs that managed to get released after that, you don't see things like on air kisses or acknowledgement of sex at all. 

It's hard for a lot of these shows to get made in the first place. Even after they get made, a lot of them don't end up going to air or they start airing and then get yanked off TV very quickly. There are many, many danmei adaptations sitting on the shelf in China. There are shows that have been made and will never get released. It's a really rough environment for creators who are trying to make this queer content and get it out in the world.

Ben 

Let's add some additional context, if we can, about censorship outside of China. Since we have two Americans and two non-Americans here. 

Bookworm or NiNi, do you have any specific cultural memories of censorship in media from your home countries? ‘Cause I have a few American ones I will of course bitch about.

NiNi 

I'm gonna let Bookworm go first because India and censorship? This is a big one.

Bookworm 

I know, right. So in India, the most prominent kind of censorship that I've noticed in media is almost a self-censorship by the creators themselves around things that deal with caste or religion, and we very rarely get homosexual depictions, but whatever we do get, it's almost always a tragedy. I've never seen a gay character have a happy ending in Indian media yet. When we have inter-caste romance depiction, for example, the story will struggle between the realities of how caste can affect these relationships and how it will be received and how difficult their lives will be made, and giving them a happy ending. In India, even though openly we say that it's bad and we shouldn't be clinging to the caste systems now in the 21st century, it's still there. And even though it's not said out loud, most of the powerful media producers and people who can fund this, they tend to be people who are from upper caste. So, if you make something that is openly against their caste, it's just never gonna come out. 

So, when I watched The Untamed, it was very relatable to watch something where they wanted to do more, but you can see that they just can't.

NiNi 

In Trinidad, we don't have a very big recorded media tradition. A lot of our art is theatre-based. And you can find pretty much most things in the theatre, but it's mostly for comedy sake so there's a lot of sex farce, that kind of thing. In terms of recorded media there isn't that much, but what there is, you don't really see, like, actors kiss that much. But that’s not a censorship thing because t's not like they would not be able to air that. It's just a question of the traditions being different. There's no standards boards or things like that, but we don't put very much on the air anyway.

Ben 

In America they would just lie. 

NiNi 

All men do is lie. [laughs]

Ben

They pretend that the advertisers or the nebulous white midwesterner won't want to watch things like Pose, or if a gay actor says something out of line they hurriedly cancel their show despite the show being really fucking good. Having to pick up the scraps that the establishment here is willing to make each year is incredibly frustrating. There's a lot to be said about top-down state level censorship, but I don't think it's inherently worse or better than this.

Shan 

Well yeah, there's state censorship and then there's censorship due to trying to attract sponsors and advertising dollars. But it ends up in the same kind of results of not having honest depictions in media. And I think American media is very susceptible to the latter.

NiNi 

There's also some interesting things there between how sex is censored and how violence is censored in Western media. I wouldn't say that it's not censored, but you can get away with a lot more violence than you can with sex.

Ben 

I have a lot of feelings about the MPAA, so we're not gonna get into that, but let's just point out that you can have somebody run through a building shooting up everybody and get a PG-13 rating as long as there's no blood. But if two gay people even look at each other too long, that's an R rating immediately.

Shan 

Rated R, mmhmm. This stuff is not new, it is not unique to any one country, it exists everywhere. But currently, in 2025, China has one of the strictest state censorship models. And so that's the context under which Chinese BL is made. And, the context under which The Untamed was released.

00:14:54 - The Mo Dao Zu Shi Phenomenon

Ben 

All right, now let's get into Mo Dao Zu Shi properly. This has been around for awhile.

Shan 

So, danmei is the term that is meant to describe Chinese literature that features male/male romance within a whole bunch of different genres. It's a very broad term, danmei. It just means male/male romance. These typically are published as web novels, usually serialized, written mostly by and targeted mostly to a female audience. 

Danmei exists in a kind of a gray space legally in China. It's both queer and pornographic, so it's technically not allowed, but there's not really an enforcement mechanism. The authors stay anonymous because of course, if they're caught publishing this stuff, there could be serious repercussions. 

A lot of danmei novels have become available in recent years to an international audience. First, via fan translations that were done just purely out of love. And then those translations got passed around via the online whisper network of international folks who were interested in these stories. And this genre became so popular that there are now official English translations of some of these books being made. There's a publishing company called Seven Seas that has acquired the rights for many of the most popular danmeis and are publishing them over time. And so that is how this book, Mo Dao Zu Shi, aka Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, became much more widely available to an English speaking audience. 

This book originally started in 2015 and the writer is Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. It was so popular that it has been, over the years, translated into over a dozen languages. It was first passed around the international audience via a very popular fan translation, and then became officially published in English starting in 2021. Made the New York Times bestseller list, expanded the audience for this story even further. This is a story that is set in a genre called xianxia which is a popular Chinese media genre about humans in historical China who are called cultivators, which basically means that they do martial arts enhanced by magic. They have paranormal, spiritual, physical powers that help them achieve immortality.

This story was so popular that it's had a bunch of adaptations. It's had a webcomic, an audio drama, an animated series and a spinoff to that, an audio book, a mobile game, and of course, The Untamed, the live action show, which we are gonna be discussing today. And there are additional adaptations still being announced. We just found out that there's gonna be a Japanese stage adaptation in the theater, which I'm very curious to see what that's gonna be like. 

So this is an extremely popular story that has really gone global through fan word of mouth. It's a huge deal in terms of its reach and its enduring popularity with fans.

Ben 

You have no idea how much time Shan and Bookworm spent trying to get all of these notes in order. 

Shan 

It's a lot to cover! 

Ben

[laughs] We had a whole side thing with Twig about, like, a canceled international tour that was gonna happen before COVID.

Shan

I didn't even know about that.

Ben 

Let’s establish when everybody came to this. So, I came to The Untamed through normal Tumblr BL sphere around episode 25ish of the drama, I believe? 

Ben

Shan, when did you come to The Untamed?

Shan 

It's hard for me to remember now. I've been so up in this story’s business for years now that it's really hard for me to actually untangle in my brain when I got to certain versions of it and how. But I didn't watch it live. I definitely binged it after the whole thing was out. So I think I probably first watched the series in 2020 or 2021, read the novel and then watched the series again. I was watching a lot of Asian dramas. I had started getting into BL and Netflix just told me to watch this. They put it right on top and I was like, “oh this is interesting, I haven't seen anything quite like this before.” It's kind of remarkable that I'm just sitting over here in the United States and Netflix is telling me to watch this Chinese BL web series. 

This aired in China on Tencent Video. But it was so, so popular. It became one of the highest earning dramas of 2019. Over time, it passed 10 billion views. Netflix picked it up in late 2019, brought it to a much broader international audience. And that's how people like me saw it. This is a story that in both novel and show form spread fiercely by word of mouth. People just loved it so much that it kept getting picked up and brought to new audiences.

When did you first hear about this show, Bookworm?

Bookworm

I think I was just vaguely aware of a very long Chinese drama that was on Netflix. I possibly could have seen it on my recommendations before getting into watching BL at all. I started watching BL only in 2022. So I definitely was not in the fandom when this released live. 

So how I was introduced to this, the time was December 2023. And I just went to Shan’s DMs to talk about how my BTS bias was going to the military. And she was like, here you go. 

Shan 

Something to distract you. [laughs]

Bookworm 

“Here's a picture of this man who's so beautiful and always wears white for some reason. You can think about this man.” And it was like, “what do I do to know more about this man?” And she was like, “I know exactly where I should send you.” And she just directed me to all the books. So yeah, that's how I spent my 2023 holidays, just locked in my room like a gremlin inhaling all the books.

[Ben laughs]

Shan 

I did not remember that I showed you Wangji because V was going to the military. [laughs]

Bookworm

That's exactly what happened. You trapped a freshly grieving army wife!

NiNi 

it just amazes me how Shan is so good at tempting people. She knows exactly how to get people to do things. It's a little bit scary.

Bookworm 

The whole thing was done in 10 days. I genuinely don't think I slept for more than maybe four to five hours. [laughs]

Ben 

[laughs] You did not. You were talking to us in a haze. You screaming about sections.

Shan 

The thing about Bookworm is she also likes to live blog her book reading. So we were along for the ride. [laughs]

Bookworm 

That's right. Every time something happened, I bothered them. It's kind of their fault. Shan put me through it. Like, she has to suffer.

Shan 

I had to be there for emotional support after doing that to you.

Bookworm 

Exactly.

NiNi 

That's the thing, Shan's gonna, like, be the temptress that is seducing you with the apple, but then she'll be right there with you when you fall apart. [laughs]

Bookworm

Exactly.

Shan 

It's my duty.

Ben

NiNi, what did you know about this whole experience from just sort of seeing it in the background noise of BL constantly for the last five years before you sat down and engaged with it?

NiNi 

So I don't think it's any surprise to anybody who listens to this show that I don't watch cdrama, but this show is sort of inescapable. I have friends who are not BL fans, who are not Asian drama fans, who watch this and rave about it and talk about it all the time. This thing is a fucking monster and completely inescapable. And I was just like, “eh yes, I know everybody says it's good. It probably is really good. I don't know how I feel about censorship like this. I don't know if this is something I wanna watch, if it's gonna frustrate me.” I was aware of it out there in the world and aware of how big it was. But, “eh, not sure it's for me.” And then after the Diamond League, I was basically Shan’d into watching it. [laughs]

We're gonna use Shan’d from now on, like to Shan somebody.

Bookworm 

That is a good verb. We are gonna use that.

NiNi 

We're gonna coin a new term, to Shan somebody.

Shan 

I'm just here to enrich your lives with this amazing media that you need to see. And NiNi ended up enjoying this way more than I thought she would. So I was very pleased.

Ben 

We're gonna jump ahead slightly and tell on NiNi. NiNi is now watching Word of Honor.

[all laugh]

Shan 

She sure is!

Bookworm 

She is!

NiNi

I am. [laughs]

Shan

The evil plan is proceeding very nicely.

NiNi 

I will say though, Word of Honor is like the Passions to the Days of Our Lives that is The Untamed. 

Shan 

Yes! 

NiNi

And anybody who does not understand what that means, I'm so sorry for you.

Shan

It's exactly right.

Bookworm 

It's me. I'm the one who doesn't understand what that means, but it's fine.

Shan 

These are American soap operas that NiNi is referencing.

Ben

American soaps that have been on forever.

[Ben and Shan laugh]

NiNi 

Basically, Days of Our Lives is wild, Passions is lower quality and wilder.

Shan 

This show, this story, the book, all of it. It's ubiquitous if you hang out in fandom spaces online. You cannot avoid it if you are in those spaces. It is one of the biggest fandoms. It's certainly the biggest BL fandom on the internet.

Ben 

When we watched this in 2019, I was minding my own business, watchin’ shit like Until We Meet Again and Trapped. And then they started posting all these gif sets of all these Chinese boys with really long wigs and very clean outfits. There was a lot of screaming. I'm like, what the fuck is going on? Why is every goddamn lesbian on tumblr howling about this show?

Shan 

Why are the girls freaking out?

NiNi

And we all know from listening to this show that Ben listens when lesbians talk.

Shan 

That's right.

Ben 

I was like, I don't know what is happening, but every goddamn girl in BL is losing their minds over a censored Chinese BL in 2019. Have we not learned? [laughs] And they wouldn't shut the fuck up about it. And I'm like, all right, that's enough. Around episode 20 to 25. 

I got intrigued by the Bonds Between Men stuff. There are some gif sets at the time. Like, this looks like Man Angst. Hold on, I'm intrigued now. Let me go check this out. 

I remember going through The Untamed loop. Being kind of overwhelmed with details in the first few episodes. And then we went, “okay, we're in a flashback sequence. Guess we'll be here for like an episode or two.” We weren't. And then I ended up catching up with where the show was around episode 38, which was great timing for me. Like, I ended up catching up to the show right around the time we got into the present. And I was like, “I have context’ and then watched the rest of the show [laughs] live with everybody else and had a pretty good time. And then like a week after it finished, I ended up watching the show again. Because I feel like I needed to reprocess it.

I don't think I was prepared for how sticky the show has been for fandom itself. I guess I shouldn't have been because fandom really loves to fill in the blanks on stuff. That's their favorite thing. I grew up watching a lot of Chinese action and a lot of wuxia films, so I had a good time, but I was not expecting this to be the show for everyone. I like the show a fair amount, but I was very surprised by this becoming one of the biggest BLs of all time.

Shan 

It's not only the fill in the blank stuff, but it's also that there's just so many characters, so many relationships, so many dynamics that are just great fodder for meta and fanfic and just, thinking. There's just so much here and I think that's why it has endured for so long.

00:28:42 - The Big Picture

Ben

Okay, we are going to now attempt to talk about the show.

NiNi 

I'm glad you said attempt, bestie, because there's just so much here.

Shan 

Please don't get mad at us for whatever we inevitably leave out.

Ben 

Let's just get that out of the way. We will not be able to discuss everything that happens in a 50 episode drama adapted from a five book complex novel series. We will be covering some highlights of things that are interesting to us and doing some comparisons along the way.

This is a pretty big story and at its core, it's a mystery. So, if you've been holding off on watching this and you feel some kind of way about spoiler culture—I personally don't subscribe to it—but we will be talking about the details of this show for the rest of the episode. So, if you'd like to resume this later, go ahead and pause, grab a shit ton of snacks, go watch The Untamed, [laughs] and then come back.

[all laugh]

Bookworm 

Be prepared to not sleep for a long time.

NiNi

Two weeks is the bare minimum. 

Ben 

You have been warned. All right. So, The Untamed is primarily a story about a talented young cultivator named Wei Wuxian who was kind of in a high ranking role within one of these major clans that organize themselves around cultivation. They have a role in their society where they help manage supernatural phenomena and protect regular people from supernatural and ghost related bullshit. 

There is an expected way that you're supposed to practice and study cultivation. The most powerful clan who wears a lot of red is like, “that's it, we're taking over everything,” and then begins murdering everyone. A lot of things happen. Wei Wuxian ends up developing demonic cultivation in the book, rediscovers it in the show—we'll talk about that later—and helps the not-red clan defeat them, after which we end up in the complex politics that follow after a major power shift. 

Eventually Wei Wuxian dies in a major confrontation after he kills thousands of people, and then 16 years later in the show, he is brought back, reuniting with some of his close friends and allies—because this is a BL romance/not romance—as they go on an investigation to figure out why this cursed hand is trying to kill everybody. 

That is the simplest overview I can give of a very complicated show.

Shan 

You did good, bestie. That's about the best you could do.

NiNi 

I did not look at the timer when you started talking, so I do not know exactly how long that took.

Ben

It was about three minutes. I was trying to do it under three. There are a shit ton of characters in this. Wei Wuxian is a very likable protagonist with very clear relationship dynamics with every character. So there's a lot to really dig into.

Shan 

I think you should reiterate for folks what the experience of watching The Untamed is like. There's this very famous tweet that I think we should give some credit to that described it perfectly.

Ben 

We'll post the screenshot and a link to it in the transcript. Gavia Baker Whitelaw, is a film critic who runs her own podcast, she has her own Tumblr blog, I'll link to hers on here, she goes by @hellotailor. I'm a big fan of Gavia's writing, I really like the way she engages with media. Gavia went through the same experience as the rest of us in early 2020 of like, “what is this show?!” [laughs]

So Gavia starts watching The Untamed and is live blogging on Twitter. “What is this nonsense that I'm watching? What is happening?” And the user who went by Dr. Kate Wild at the time writes, “There's three stages to watching The Untamed. Stage one, this is nonsense. This is very bad.”

That's like episodes one and two.

“Stage two, this is quite watchable nonsense.” That's around episodes four to eight. 

And then “Stage three, I have never cared about anything more in my life.” [NiNi laughs] That happens for different people at different times. 

Shan

NiNi, it was taking her a while to get to stage three. And I said, “Don't worry, NiNi. Stage three comes for all of us at different times. You will get there.” And she did. [laughs]

Ben 

When was stage three for you, Shan?

Shan 

Okay, so first of all, I am a Lan Wangji devotee. I love that man. He owns my heart. So from episode one, as soon as he appeared, I was like, “okay, hell yeah, that's my guy. I'm here, I'm seated.” But in terms of when the story kinda took over my brain, I think that really happened for me during the arc where Wei Wuxian is liberating the Wen prisoners of war and he meets Lan Wangji on the Qiongqi Path in the rain and they have a very sad and tense conversation before Wangji decides to let him leave with the prisoners, but does not leave with him. 

That scene—which by the way is unique to the show—just drilled itself into my brain so deep and I was never normal again, ever, and I never will be. That was the point when stage three took root for me and I became obsessed with this media, and that obsession will last for my whole life.

Ben 

I think it was during the cave arc when Wei Wuxian made Lan Wangji vomit blood. I'm like, “that's way too fucking gay. I have to watch this little man for the rest of the show.” [laughs] 

Shan 

I feel like most people are super in by that sequence, too.

Ben

That whole section is pretty good though, between the handling of the hostage arc, the blow up in the cave, and then the sacking of Lotus Pier. That's a really strong section for people who really like historical political dramas. There's a really strong sense of inevitability at the point at which Wei Wuxian in particular is thrust into the situation, because he's not a passive person. But you can feel the next 15 episodes about to unfold.

Shan 

What about you, Bookworm?

Bookworm 

For me I think it's different because I read the books first and the books are structured quite differently from how the show is structured. So the show does it very linear. Once you jump into the flashbacks you just keep going for 33 episodes and then you emerge, as Ben said, with context. But in the books it interweaves between the present and the flashbacks and the structure kind of gives way to the author releasing information in like very small amounts to keep the tension and intrigue going. 

I'm just the kind of person who starts screaming from the very first moment a question appears on my book or on my show. Like if there is something that needs to be revealed, I need to have it. Just tell me. I don't care if it's a 50 episode show, I don't care if it's a 10 book series. I just start vibrating from the moment I see the puzzle that needs to be solved. 

So in the books, Wei Wuxian, when he's in Mo Xuanyu’s body, people are not gonna recognize him as Wei Wuxian. So he was just like coasting on that and he was doing all sorts of shenanigans with Lan Zhan. But we get to a point where Lan Zhan calls him Wei Ying and he just freezes and he's like, how did you know that it was me? And Lan Zhan just tells him, “You're gonna have to think for yourself.” And that's it. That was stage three.

Shan 

Classic. And that dynamic keeps coming up over and over again through the whole story.

Bookworm 

I was like, “oh my god, how did he know? Just tell me, just tell me!” So that was my stage three. 

What about you, NiNi? 

Shan 

NiNi’s came later, right?

NiNi 

Mine came very late. Stage three for me came when Wei Wuxian is hanging off the cliff and Lan Zhan is trying to save him. And this implacable man just breaks and his face just completely changes. And I'm just like, “okay, I'm in.” 

Shan 

Yeah, it was definitely Lan Zhan’s emotional break for you, right?

NiNi 

Oh, most definitely. From the outside, he appears controlled, even though it's very clear to anybody who's watching this show that this man is losing his mind at all times. And in this case, he just cracks. Because he's about to lose this man and he knows it. And that's when I was just like, “okay, I'm in.”

00:39:30 - The First Life

Ben 

We gotta get into the overall set of arcs that we went through in the show. Wei Wuxian is our viewpoint character and we've gotten really caught up in the romance between him and Wangji. But at the core, this is a political power drama where there's a lot of different players vying for control. Wei Wuxian is the wild card because he actually doesn't value political power that much. We at least need to establish, like, what does everybody else give a shit about.

Shan 

We're gonna divide this because there's two different time periods. So let's start with the first life of Wei Wuxian, the first time period. 

When the show starts, we are dropped into the story in a very confusing manner. Wei Wuxian is resurrected. He's in a new body 16 years after he died. He doesn't know why the fuck he's back or what's going on. He runs into lots of friends and allies and enemies and frenemies and he is running around like a chicken with his head cut off. He's confused. We're confused. You're not really supposed to understand what's going on in those first couple episodes, but there's actually a ton of information packed into them. As Ben said, once you have context, if you go back and watch them, there's so much information in those first couple episodes.

NiNi 

This is the “this is nonsense” stage.

Shan 

Exactly. This is the stage one. Where you're like, “What the fuck is going on? Why are all these people running around like this? I don't understand anything.” [laughs] It's intended to be kind of disorienting. 

Then you jump into this long flashback, which is about 30 episodes long. So you get the political power struggle between the great clans. There are five of them: the Jiang which Wei Wuxian is part of, the Lan, which Lan Wangji is part of, the Nie, the Jin, the Wen. That main political power struggle is driven by the Wens trying to do a hostile takeover of the other clans. They burn the Cloud Recesses, they storm the Unclean Realm, they sack Lotus Pier, and then the war—the Sunshot Campaign—is a response to that, the other clans joining hands to try to stop the Wens from trying to take over the cultivation world. Lots of complex dynamics between the clans going on there that we will not get into that culminates in this Battle of Nightless City.

Alongside that political power struggle, we have Wei Wuxian's rise to power and his fall from grace. He is incredibly smart. He's a cultivation prodigy. He is also not as reverent about the traditional ways of doing things. He's very interested in unorthodox cultivation methods, including demonic cultivation, which is very much looked down on. As the war played out and as the Wens take control, he was part of fighting them alongside his struggles with controlling his own power. He took great exception to the aftermath of the war, the treatment of the Wen prisoners of war, the more innocent Wen clan members who were not part of this, who are just regular folks or weak cultivators, medical cultivators who didn't actually hurt anyone but were treated badly because they were Wens by the other clans. So he intervened to protect those folks. That is what led to him retreating from the cultivation world to the Burial Mounds to live with the Wens, resurrecting Wen Ning and ultimately setting himself up to be a scapegoat and get ambushed by the other clans, because they were very unhappy with him.

Alongside that, we have a couple very personal storylines going on. One to do with Wei Wuxian's family relationships and the implosion of his clan family, the Jiang family. They are his adopted family, the heir, who is Jiang Cheng, and sister Jiang Yanli, these are his adoptive siblings. It's a very fraught family relationship. His adoptive mother resents him partly because of who his mother is and partly because he outshines her son, the sect heir. When Lotus Pier—their family home—is attacked, both of the Jiang parents die. The clan is basically decimated, Jiang Cheng loses his core, and Wei Wuxian decides to pull a real big noble idiocy. Sacrifice his own life, basically, for his brother, give him his core, tell nobody he did this, and then start cultivating on the demonic path to try to come up with another source of power as part of his survival. His relationship with his brother is, in particular, one of the most interesting and dynamic and complicated relationships of the show. And he has a very, very deep love for his adoptive sister, which of course ends up coming back to bite him when, as a result of him losing control of his powers and starting this battle at Nightless City, his sister is killed in the chaos. Huge traumatic event, causes him to go off the deep end and destroys his relationship with his brother. 

Alongside all that, one more big storyline, of course, is the unfulfilled romance between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. We get alongside all this political power struggle stuff, some actually really lovely moments of them. First, meeting each other as teens, Wei Wuxian very infatuated with Lan Zhan right from the beginning, but didn't really understand what his feelings meant. Lan Wangji, of course, did understand what the feelings meant [laughs] and was not happy about it. 

NiNi 

Oh he was so mad, friend. He was so pissed. He's like, “Why do I like this wastrel?”

[NiNi and Shan laugh]

Shan 

“Goddamn it! Why is it you?” 

So yeah, big gay panic on poor Wangji's side and big oblivious nonsense on Wuxian’s side. But then we see them over time bond over their shared values. They actually believe in a lot of the same core ideas. They end up doing adventures together. They defeat bad guys together. They survive together and support each other. They kind of develop, like, a deep friendship that on Wangji's side is always very consciously also romantic love and on Wuxian's side is a little bit more oblivious. 

When Wuxian loses his core and starts doing demonic cultivation, there is a divide that comes between them. Wangji does not understand these decisions. Wuxian will not tell him why he's doing any of this stuff. So they end up in this very tense dynamic where they're fighting all the time, but they don't wanna be fighting because they really care about each other. They spend some time together and attempt to reconnect, but of course everything ends in despair when Wei Wuxian basically jumps off the cliff after his sister dies at Nightless City and gives up on his life. And that is how the first life arc completes.

00:46:32 - The First Life: Thoughts and Impressions

Ben 

What I think works well with the drama, I personally like dropping us in and just being like, there's a lot of shit going on. You guys are gonna have to figure out a lot of shit over time. And I actually, in retrospect, like the very long 30-something episode flashback sequence. I think if they had tried to maintain the back and forth nature of the source material, the audience who maybe missed an episode or two here or there would be confused as hell. 

I also think it's a pretty clever choice because you start in the present and there's way too much shit going on. And then they flash back like, “so anyway, they're in school.” And everybody's like, “okay, I understand school. Let's meet some kids.” I think that's a really smart adaptation choice. Everybody may not understand what's going on in the world of cultivation, but everybody knows what it's like to be bored in a classroom with a stuffy old man telling you to write a bunch of rules down.

NiNi 

I kinda had the opposite reaction. I understand why they structured the story the way that they did, but for me, if they had started at Cloud Recesses, I would have been fine. And I feel like I would have had less of a who's on first kind of thing going. It took me a really long time to clue into what the story was even doing, because I was so confused. I didn't even understand that the Cloud Recesses stuff was a flashback at first. To me, if they had done the story more linearly, I would have gotten it. I understand why they did it the way that they did to set up a hook and to do this reverberation throughout the story of showing that these things happen over and over again. But for me, I would have been fine with a more linear narrative.

Shan 

Part of that is also just your unfamiliarity with cdrama tropes and, like, the signifiers of things like age and timeline shifts and class stuff. One thing I think is really funny, NiNi, is that you cued in so quickly to what the hair was telling you, which I thought was just so funny. [laughs]

NiNi 

This is the only reason I survived. I was reading the show and all the characters through the hairstyles. So I saw Wei Wuxian and his wild little tendrils and I was like, “okay, this guy's a rebel.” And then Lan Wangji with his very structured beehive. I was like, “okay, I know who you are, sir.” And then all the different characters, depending on how their hair was styled, I could get a sense of who they were as a character. If this person is mischievous, if they're playful, if they're, like, rules focused, I could get all of that through the hair. So that was actually really good. [laughs]

I could not remember anybody's names for the longest time. So I was in, like, the chat saying, “what is Beehive doing?” Or “Tendrils is acting a fool today.” And they would know exactly what I was talking about.  [laughs]

Shan 

It really worked for you. 

NiNi

It really did work.

Shan

NiNi was tracking as Wangji's beehive was getting bigger and bigger.

NiNi 

It was massive at one point. I was like, “oh, you are really trying to intimidate people now with this.” Like, that's what's happening here.

Shan 

It's true. Like, their hair changes with their status and with their age, right? So as Wangji attains higher status in the cultivation world, his hair pieces get more elaborate and huge. It's actually a very effective visual language.

NiNi 

It's like the Texas rule: the higher the hair, the closer to God.

Ben 

I mean, you're genuinely not wrong.

Shan 

No, it's real. I'm something that cued for you.

NiNi 

It really paid off for me at the end when Wangji comes to Wei Wuxian and his hair is all down and soft. I'm like, “oh my God, he's so in love.” 

Shan 

That's when NiNi just started melting. 

NiNi 

I did, I absolutely did. He had no beehive. He was entirely defenseless, basically, in front of this man. It's a great visual language for when you have this censorship that you can't say certain things and show certain things. Showing what was happening between the characters through the hair was very effective. For me, anyway.

Bookworm 

One of the key moments when NiNi really queued into the beehive and the tendrils thing was when, after Wei Wuxian was thrown into the Burial Mounds and Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji was searching for him, he just walked up to the Wen headquarters and the reveal was just slowly, you see his hair and then he just keeps walking with his sword out and NiNi just was like, “Oh, he has the biggest hive I've ever seen. You guys are done for.” [laughs]

NiNi

Like, these motherfuckers are dead! 

Bookworm

Dead.

NiNi

His beehive is up there, okay—

Shan 

Beehive is up. The sword is out.

NiNi 

He came to kill somebody, that's what's happening right now. [laughs]

Ben 

I think what works so well for me with the show and especially on, like, secondary or tertiary watches, is because you start off being told this is a tragedy. It, I think, puts you in the right mood when you're watching the past stuff. The show opens with people literally fighting each other for a plot token. We're watching cultivators in the midst of a crisis literally stab each other to grasp what they hope will make them stronger than other people. So we're ready for everything that's gonna go wrong because of the opening sequence. It's very well structured and why I think the show got away with so much. We know Wei Wuxian’s gonna die. We know that his brother is gonna be furious with him at his death and we know that this guy who's wearing all these white clothes is gonna be very upset about it when that happens. This set me up very well to anticipate a lot of what was coming.

You end up meeting all these characters in the past and then some of these people are just straight up dead 16 years later. And it's like, well, how did these people die? I thought the war was over. And this leads to the next phase of power play stuff that's happening.

00:53:00 - The First Life: WangXian and Other Fucked Up Love Stories

Ben

While this drama is censored, there is all sorts of really fucked up gay energy all over this story. 

Shan 

Let's talk about how impressively they managed to communicate the romance without being able to show anything explicit.

NiNi 

The romances, because I clocked about four romances in this thing and I was told that I was correct, so I'm so proud of myself. [Nandy and Shan laugh] There's two het romances and two queer romances. The het romances are between Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan—

Ben 

I love that they low-key hated their brother-in-law. [NiNi laughs] Like, that's such an appropriate brother experience.

NiNi 

There was nothing low-key about it, bestie. High-key hated. 

Shan 

Zixuan is very immature. He likes Yanli, but he's embarrassed that he likes her. And so he's kind of mean to her. And she, for some fucking reason that I never understood, just really likes him anyway. Which is why her brothers hate him. They do eventually get married and for their extremely brief marriage seem to be happy together.

NiNi 

So brief, so sad. We'll get into that a little bit later.

Ben 

Their marriage is arranged originally by their parents because their families have been allies for at least a generation or two and this is an attempt to strengthen that, and so the parents want these two kids to like each other. It's actually beneficial for the political goals of the families that in the end the kids actually do like each other. But there's complications. People never understand Wei Wuxian's relationship with Yanli, people constantly misread his relationship with her. And then there's the genuine issue of of Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian fucking despising Zixuan for being such a dick to their sister all the time.

NiNi 

I keep thinking about the whole inn thing where he takes over the entire inn and they can't even get a room. It's so fucking dumb. And he's such an asshole about it. [laughs]

Bookworm 

This is the storyline where I was glad that this was here because amongst all the fighting and the flying and the magical shit happening, like fighting a giant tortoise and being generals in war and all of that, this is where you're like, “oh, they're teenagers. Oh, they're so stupid.” [laughs]

NiNi

That's so true! 

Shan 

It's a good reminder that they’re all teenagers.

Bookworm 

Every time Jiang Yanli gives a pass to that man, I'm like, “oh my god. What?”

Ben 

I'm like, “girl, him, really?”

NiNi

You're like, Yanli, stand up! Stand up, girl.

Shan

It gets even wilder in the context of the political power struggle going on and the scapegoating of Wei Wuxian because that's her fucking brother and the Jins are going after him! So it's very wild to me that Yanli decides to marry into the family that is actively hunting her brother. Like, girl.

Ben 

I get the sense that she never understood how serious that was and I think she felt like her one big tantrum solved the problem.

Shan 

I do think that they set this character up well for that to be believable. She is not a strong cultivator. She is not very involved in sect politics. She is a very caring person who just loves who she loves and doesn't really want to deal with the idea that they won't get along. So she just doesn't allow it to be true in her head. And Wei Wuxian loves her. So, he was never going to say to her, “I don't want you to marry that man who's trying [laughs] to hunt me.” Because he wants her to be happy. 

I think her character makes sense. But she's a character that I can never personally get on board with, because I'm just like, “girl, your choices are so bad.” 

Ben 

I feel for her the same way I feel about the messy hets in Coffee Prince. Like, we needed, like, another like pat but tragic het story to make sure that we could get away with this very queer story.

Shan 

That's a good segue to talk about the other very subtle mini romance between Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing. Not in the books, by the way, this was added only for the show. And I think Ben, when we were watching, you commented that you thought it was really there to add an additional layer of heterosexual plausibility and plausible deniability for the show.

NiNi 

I feel like that was part of it, yes, but that is also a romance that doesn't happen. Jiang Cheng is definitely in love with Wen Qing. Wen Qing feels sort of the same, but Wen Qing is also an incredibly practical woman and Jiang Cheng is not saying anything that is going to help her. Like at one point, after everything's gone down with the Wen clan he was just like, “You should leave your clan.” Which is basically him asking her to marry him, and she's like “Dude, really? How do you think this is gonna go? My clan killed your parents, you are the heir and then you're going to bring me there as your wife? That's not gonna work.”

Shan 

I thought it was a really good way to illustrate the rock and hard place that Jiang Cheng was between for all of this show. 

NiNi 

Oh my god, I love this character.

Shan 

Right? He did care about the Wens. He did wanna help. But politically, there was only so much he could do and what he could do was not enough. He knew that. She knew that. They had to accept that. Given the circumstances he was in with a mostly decimated clan, very young and suddenly thrust into having to lead and rebuild the Jiangs, he just didn't have the power and the resources to do something like offer protection to the Wens. He couldn't do it. And he was not willing to risk the total decimation of his clan in order to try.

That's why he and Wei Wuxian ultimately broke, right? Wei Wuxian knew that. Which is why he left the clan to do it on his own. It's really good conflict because you can see that people care and they wanna try, but they just can't do what they think they should or what they want to. Wuxian did do those things and he paid for it, big time.

Ben 

See, and this is why I like it so much. If we're gonna have to do gay tragedy in a story, I need hets to suffer too. [laughs] Nobody's happy! The Jiang family relationship sucks. The leader of the Jin clan is a womanizer and an abuser who doesn't give a shit about all of his bastards he leaves all over the place. He's a gross, nasty man. The only happy heterosexuals we had died within a year of having their baby. 

Ope, nope that's not fair. Mianmian’s doing okay. Good for her.

Bookworm

Mianmian’s doing great. How dare you! [Ben laughs]

Shan 

She's the one happy het person in this show. [NiNi laughs] She's the one.

Bookworm 

The only sensible one.

NiNi 

Because—

Ben 

She supported the gays. 

NiNi

Mianmian stood up for the gays, exactly.

Ben

That's right!

Bookworm 

Yes!

Shan 

And because she left the clan. She said, “Fuck this shit, I'm goin’ rogue” and did her own thing.

Ben

One of the reasons why I think some of the other censored stuff fails is they just don't have enough hetero plausible deniability in them. You have to give the straight audience a bone if you're trying to get stuff past the powers that be. 

Shan 

Let's talk about the third love story that is technically never explicitly confirmed in book canon, but that's in my opinion only because the book is from Wuxian's point of view and he doesn't have the visibility to see it. That is, of course, Meng Yao and Lan Xichen.

NiNi 

My God.

NiNi

The most tragic of all the tragedies.

Bookworm 

Oh no! No no no!

Shan 

Go off, Bookworm.

Bookworm 

I just don't agree with the tragic part of it because for somebody in Lan Xichen’s position, he is so oblivious. He was played like a fiddle by this man. This is, like, dialed to a hundred in the show because the way Meng Yao was played in the show, you see him on screen just smirking around. And I'm like, “This man, he doesn't have good intentions. You can't trust him!”

NiNi 

For me, that's the tragedy. The visual language and everything, like the acting is telling me this is a villain. But I trust Lan Xichen so much that when Lan Xichen trusts Meng Yeo, at first I'm just like, okay, well, there must be a reason. If he trusts him, maybe I'm reading this all wrong or maybe this is a plot because he trusts him so completely. And he is destroyed for that in the end. Like, absolutely destroyed.

Shan 

I actually love that reflection, NiNi. I think that's a really fair way to read it.

Bookworm 

I just want to quickly add that NiNi basically got Nie Mingjue’d into this. Like she basically did the same thing that Nie Mingjue did.

Shan 

[laughs] That's really true. Nie Mingjue, their other sworn brother, who goes along with trusting Meng Yao—even though he clearly doesn't—only because Xichen asks him to.

Bookworm 

And then he got his head chopped off for it!

NiNi 

He got got. [laughs]

Ben 

It's so fun watching people watch this show. NiNi's like, “ooh, I love this Dimples of Doom boy.” And I'm like, okay, she's falling for the dimples. And then he stabs the battalion commander in the middle of a battle. And NiNi's like, “oh, I guess I can't like this boy anymore.” [laughs]

NiNi 

Then he had a really good explanation for it. And I was just like, “okay, maybe I can.” This is the thing!

Shan

He's good at what he does.

Bookworm 

She saw that man stab the commander and then Mingjue called him into the room to throw him out of the sect, and do you remember what NiNi said? She said, “Can you at least treat this man for the stab wound before you throw him out of the sect?”

[all laugh]

NiNi 

By the end, I was like, no, you should have killed him. Banishment was too good. You would have saved a lot of people if you had just killed this man in that moment.

Ben 

I do not feel sorry for Xichen, because there were so many signs and he actively ignored all of them.

Bookworm 

Yes.

Shan 

We'll get into the second life arc, but like it took until the very, very end for him to accept, despite all the evidence he saw, despite everything he witnessed over two decades of being friends with this man. 

To be clear, Meng Yao, who becomes Jin Guangyao when he moves up in the world, he's married to a woman. But Xichen is basically in this hopeless love with him. They're both clan leaders. They cannot become a couple in a real way, because of their position in society. And because of that love, he is so susceptible to manipulation. He just believes whatever Meng Yao tells him, even if it doesn't make sense. He will believe Meng Yao's words over his own lyin’ eyes. 

Ben 

Wangji and Wei Wuxian: “We have evidence that this man is the most evil.” Xichen: “Okay, but have you considered that I love him? Jot that down.”

[all laugh]

Bookworm 

Oh, I hate him!

Shan 

That is exactly what it is! It’s so wild.

Bookworm 

Oh, my god.

NiNi 

That is not even an exaggeration, that is almost exactly how it goes down.

Bookworm 

I think it's a good connective theme between all three of these romances, that people have their own ways to separate the politics of the person that they like. And when they want to protect them, do they wanna choose diplomacy, do they wanna choose brute force, do they wanna choose compromise, what route do they take? You can see that Jiang Cheng, when he came to the proposal, he must know that that's not gonna happen. But you can see that there is this need to protect this woman who he knows is innocent. He also knows that he has this huge weight of clan politics, that he's now the clan leader and his clan is severely wounded and he has to make responsible choices to weigh between whether I choose my clan or whether I choose to do everything I could to protect this person, which is what I want to do in my heart.

My problem with Xichen is he doesn't really separate what the politics or the clan is going through and what Meng Yao is basically feeding him. You shouldn't be this gullible to a person who is basically another important figure in another clan that you know is doing just shady shit. You know they're having prisoners of war. You saw them use them for target practice. You saw them abuse the prisoners of war, beat them and kill them and all of that and this man is a part of that clan. Not just a part, he is pretty high up in the ladder. 

Ben 

He's also a known spy.

Shan

Yes!

NiNi

Exactly! Precisely!

Bookworm

I know! Exactly!

Shan

You're right, Xichen does not have an excuse. He witnessed this stuff with his own eyes.

Ben 

I don't care how prettily he blinks in frustration. He's stupid. [laughs]

NiNi

Bookworm, I found what you just said really entirely fascinating because I think that one of the reasons, then, that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji works is that neither of them are directly in line to take over the clans. Wei Wuxian is an adoptee. He's not ever gonna take over the Jiang clan. So he does in some ways have to make his own way. And Lan Wangji is the second son. He also has to go his own way. So the politics for them, they're still the politics of clan loyalty and all of that, but they don't have the leadership responsibilities that all these other romances are involved with. 

So what they can do and particularly what Lan Wangji can do to protect Wei Wuxian is far beyond what any of the other romances can do to compromise, protect, whatever. Lan Wangji just basically decides, that's my man, and nobody's gonna touch him. Even when I am mad at him, even when I don't understand what he's doing, nobody is touchin’ that man, ‘cause that's my man.

01:10:06 - The First Life: Various Random Musings

Ben 

Before we leave the first life stuff, let's do a couple of quick hits. Favorite moments from the first life, starting with the school shit through the Battle of Nightless City.

Shan

My favorite moments tend to be tied to Wangji, of course, and his emotional landscape. So, the standout moments that feel really crucial to his character arc are where he reaches this emotional cliff that he falls over, and that happens for him several times. It happens when he is sitting with Wei Ying making a lantern—

Ben 

I knew she was gonna fuckin' say that.

[Ben and NiNi laugh]

Shan 

—and he draws him a rabbit on the lantern, which makes him smile. But the more important moment there is that he listens as Wuxian makes a vow for how he wants to live his life. And Wangji turns to him and looks at him like, “oh shit, I see you. I understand you now.” He agrees with the morality of the values that he holds. And that's a huge moment for him. They were in this stage where Wuxian was being a pest and Wangji was having his little gay panic and they were kind of adversarial with each other. And that moment really shifted things for him emotionally where he was like, “I understand him. We are actually on the same page about the things that matter. And I cannot go back to not knowing that.”

And then, as they have their adventures together and they get to know each other better, moments like in the cave with the tortoise, where Wangji kind of explicitly acknowledges his romantic feelings—not in a way that Wuxian can understand and receive, but he definitely does. And then the rain scene on Qiongqi Path, when he makes a choice to not stop Wuxian from leaving with the Wen prisoners of war, but also not join him. I think that was a huge moment for him where he came up against his own limitations about what he felt he could do for Wuxian. He was not actually willing to break from his clan and help him, but he didn't stand in his way. 

And then of course that all culminates in his attempts to bring Wuxian back into the cultivation world that ultimately go sideways because of the machinations of the Jins, and the moment where he is forced to let him go when he is falling off the cliff. That is the moment where his heart just shatters. And then, we'll pick up with him 16 years later and all his regrets.

Ben 

Alright, Shan, no crying yet. 

Shan 

I'm doing great.

Bookworm

Bookworm!

Bookworm

I will fight Shan for Lan Wangji if I have to.

NiNi 

I think we all will.

Shan 

Don't even try it.

Bookworm 

Most of my favorite moments will also be tied to Wangji. Shan already mentioned a lot of them, but we still have a couple. After we see Wei Wuxian lose his core, get thrown in the Burial Mounds and learn demonic cultivation, when he shows up in that Yiling supervisory office wearing red eyeliner and a black robe on—

Shan

It just naturally goes on, the evil spirits put the eyeliner on. 

[NiNi laughs]

Ben

It’s one of the many ghosts in the sword.

[all laugh]

Bookworm

Just full emo get up and gets his revenge on Wen Chao while Lan Zhan and Jiang Cheng is watching. That scene was very well depicted, it was very well shot, was very well acted. I really liked the tension of Lan Wangji realizing that something is different and you can see his heartbreak, you can see him calculating what's going on. You can see him just being so happy to finally see Wei Wuxian. He was gone for months and he just showed up in the middle of a war. And my man wanted to just, I don't know, grab him and kiss, but no, this guy wanted to murder. That was his first priority and it broke him. That is one of my favorite moments. I mean, obviously, I'm very normal. It's fine.

[NiNi and Shan laugh]

There was the moment after the archery competition. Phoenix Mountain Hunt. We see Wei Wuxian just lounging in a tree and Lan Zhan shows up and they finally, finally have this conversation where they try to ease some of the tension that they've been holding because of Wei Ying’s, like, reticence to engage with Lan Zhan, when he asks what is wrong and Lan Zhan going insane basically trying to figure out what is happening with Wei Wuxian, why he's not following the sword path, why he has turned to demonic cultivation. I think that that is one of the iconic moments in the show and of course it has a whole discourse about the “soulmates” translation. 

Shan

I think the actual word is zhiji and it doesn't have a direct literal English translation. So, no translation is really capturing it correctly.

Bookworm 

But it was translated as, I think, soulmate for the show.

Shan

Lifelong bosom companion!

NiNi 

And they were roommates!

Ben 

He's my boon companion.

Bookworm 

I really liked that conversation and how it diffused a little bit of that tension that they were holding, and then of course everything goes to shit. But at least they were happy for a brief moment.

NiNi 

I think for me, there's three things that tie together into a line. The two caves and then when Lan Wangji meets Wei Wuxian in Yiling Town and he invites him to come back to the Burial Mounds for dinner.

Ben 

There were two caves! [laughs] Oh my god!

Shan 

There were, that's legit.

Ben 

Goddamn, there are a lot of caves in this fucking story.

Bookworm 

The caves belong to the gays. It is what it is.

NiNi 

I think those three points in the story form a very interesting line because the first cave is the Cold Pond Cave and they meet up with Lan Wangji's ancestor who developed the Lan clan's signature martial arts magic style and she basically explains to them their mission, what they have to do, this thing about the plot MacGuffin, the Yin Iron. But it's so interesting to me, when they came out of the cave, it's like Wei Wuxian instinctively understood that they don't tell anybody about what happened in the cave. I found that was an interesting change and dynamic to their relationship and also very gay. 

And then when they're trapped in the cave with the Tortoise of Slaughter—

Ben 

She really could not get over that fucking name.

NiNi

I could not. [Ben and Shan laugh] The Tortoise of Slaughter, okay. Yeah, so they're fighting this thing and Wei Wuxian basically goes into its shell and finds this sword which is the first step on the path to his demonic cultivation. Everything that happens from the moment he touches that sword took him directly to his break with all the clans and ending up in the Burial Mounds in the first place so that when they see each other after such a long time apart, after everything, and he's just like, “Hey friend, how are you? Come to dinner at my house. You're gonna go fight a monster? Fuck that. Come over.” It's, like, basically like the “Hey big head” text of all time. And I was completely into it. 

Ben 

Hold on, I just got triggered.

[Ben and NiNi laugh]

NiNi 

It was such a romantic moment for me. You feel Lan Zhan's feelings the entire time, but it's really the first time that you feel Wei Wuxian's feelings for Lan Zhan and how they confuse him. He knows that he has these strong feelings and he wants Lan Zhan to be around him and in his life. But it's almost like, he doesn't know what to call it or at least he can't face what to call it.

Ben 

I like moments in the past where people's personal ethics and loyalty to people who have helped them directly makes them ignore the responsibilities they may have to their clan. So, the first one for me is when Wen Ning poisons his own clan to help Wei Wuxian rescue Jiang Cheng.

Shan

I knew it was going to be about Wen Ning. Ben loves Wen Ning.

Ben 

I really do. You mentioned him twice earlier and I held it in. 

Shan 

She did so good.

Ben 

That moment's earned. Because Wei Wuxian showed him regard and kindness earlier and he returned it in kind. 

The next big moment I like is Yanli's tantrum when she's like, you better keep my brother's name out your fucking mouth. Because that was really fun for a character who's been very reserved, who doesn't really challenge a lot of people. We have not really seen how all of the trauma they've survived directly impacted her. I really liked her in that moment, putting her foot down, like, “fuck you, I don't care.” You can see Wei Wuxian barely holding onto his control, and the only two things holding him back are his sister and his not-boyfriend. And then, like, within five episodes, neither of them will be present, and everything's gonna go to shit.

NiNi 

Yep, pretty much.

01:20:53 - Outro: Notes From the Future

Ben 

It's Ben and NiNi from the future! 

NiNi 

All the way in the future. So far in the future. 

Ben 

This episode is too fucking long. We're sorry, guys. We had a lot to say and we got Bookworm in the booth. It's also The Untamed. It's a very fucking long drama. So we're gonna take a pause here after the end of our discussion of Wei Wuxian's first life, and we'll pick up in the next episode with his second life. We appreciate you all for joining us. 

NiNi 

Yeah, we talk too much and so, there's gonna be two episodes. So see you guys in the next one! 

Say bye to the people, Ben. 

Ben

Peace! 

[catslvrr]

game plan

kim minji x fem!reader | smau

Synopsis: Your relationship with university roommate, Minji, starts off rocky because of your love for gaming, which has led to many sleepless nights for her. However, you’re determined to change this through your self-proclaimed charm and with the help of your #1 hype-man, Hyein (and with Haerin watching on the sidelines).

Contains: cursing, injuries, fire, drinking, suggestive & death-related jokes, timestamps matter(?), self-indulgent game mentions

Profiles: 🦦🦦🦦 | 🤝

Chapters:

00. the build-up

01. the blow-up

02. let them (over)cook

03. the furies

04. david anklebreaker

05. bed-ridden

06. snorrr mimimi

07. change for the better

08. get along t-shirt

flashback: false accusations

09. the first conversation

10. just ONE run

11. haerin’s beloved mug

12. just roommates

13. recovery week

14. mission dwm initiated

15. hyein attenborough strikes again

16. add it to the list

17. let her cook (literally)

18. the aftermath

19. an honest mistake

20. two sides of the same coin

21. moving (back) in

22. famous last words

23. dying a legend

24. the foretold prophecy

25. back to reality

26. change of heart

27. pick a struggle

28. WWYD (what would y/n do)

29. making up for lost time

flashback: leaning tower of pocky

30. back in the game

31. thumbs up

32. levelling up

33. sage advice

34. game night

35. a GREAT morning

36. compsci club UNITE! (plus haerin and hanni)

37. forgotten nuggets

38. URETHRA!

39. game night pt. 2

40. y/n stats

41. be there or square

42. local celebrity

43. smash tournament

44. game night pt. 3

45. mission luts initiated

46. return of the furies

47. game night pt. 4

48. d-day

49. going out with a bang

50. over and (knocked) out

51. deja vu

52. after all these years

flashback: the very first mission

53. endgame

[scummy-writes]

Ikemen Series Tierlist Video

Using the tierlist here, I spent four hours going through each ikemen game listed and ranking how I felt about them. We talk about route spoilers, ships, which characters need to 'get bent', and which should be given a loving home...or second chance. For the first hour-ish, @rjthirsty joins me on voice chat to gasp or agree with my opinions.

This is a long one, and in my opinion its fun background noise. We go through Ikepri, Ikesen, Ikevamp, Ikevil, some JP ones I don't know, and even Ikerev! Thank you to everyone who joined the stream!! If you enjoyed this, please feel free to suggest other ikemen discussion videos/streams I could do that you'd be interested in!

Under the cut are going to be some fandom folks I mentioned (due to discussing fanworks and such). I may miss some names and I apologize in advance. Further, timestamps for when each game was discussed will be right under the cut.

TIMESTAMPS:

Ikemen Sengoku - after setting up the tierlist, it's the first we tackle!... but it's at 11:37

Ikemen Revolution - 57:20

Ikemen Vampire - 01:21:33

Ikemen Prince - 02:14:54

Ikemen Villains - 03:15:12

Smash or Pass with other ikemen games - 03:44:30

Server Member Tierlists - 03:57:30

MENTIONS:

@rjthirsty a friend and co-host for a part of this stream! RJ writes a lot of gilbert with me, in and outside of DMs, and streams with me every now and then! I highly recommend their writing in general. We also do reviews together over at @dokidoki-digest and do a podcast on the youtube channel.

@honeybyte with their fanworks with motonari and kennyo (and kennyo again) that live in my head rent free. They're mentioned a few times with ikevamp too, so overall check out their art!

@beni-draw-ikemen-please just. so much ikemen arts. she is now heavily into twst, but she ALSO has a fun youtube channel discussing art and her life. Right now she's working on becoming a japanese VA - check her channel out!

Dark-Frosted-Heart was also mentioned - I'm avoiding a tag since I do not Know her (I'm sorry if this still somehow tags), and is a fun resource for upcoming JP spoilers for some of the games, and some other games!

@kazesuke a writer who used to write ikevamp a ton! I love a lot of her works, and I do recommend them if you enjoy poly mansion fun and more.

BatteryRose has a bunch of fun fanarts of the ikemen series, but the arthur/vincent i mentioned is here.

I distinctly remember mentioning Tarren, Solomons-poison, I don't remember if I referenced any fanworks they've created, but they're another writer I recommend!

@drewadoodle created the gilbert chibi we use later in the stream! go check him out, many good arts.

I am likely missing a few people! I apologize. If i mention someone and you're curious, feel free to reply and ill try to figure it out.

(The arthur/naps fic we laughed about is...mine.. and it's Here.)

also hi! I have written a lot of fanfics for ikepri and ikevamp, but I also stream video games over on my Twitch, @scumberly. Feel free to check any of that out, and if you like my streaming shenanagins, here's a link to my discord server regarding it.

Ikepri Masterlist || Ikevamp Masterlist || Ikepri/Vamp Server