#top hot actors 2021

[kkginfo]

No Telugu movie shooting on day 4; Among the upcoming films "Pushpa 2" is affected | KKG INFO

No Telugu movie shooting on day 4; Among the upcoming films “Pushpa 2” is affected | KKG INFO

After expanding his market with the 1st part, Allu Arjun will increase his remuneration for Pushpa 2. The shooting of the Telugu film was halted for the fourth day on Thursday as the popular producer Dil Raju clarified that there is no intention of stopping the shooting for months. As the shooting in Hyderabad was halted, the film industry cast a shadow of sadness. Although big budget South…

[absolutebl]

Favorite first kiss?

Favorite First Kisses!

Doozie of a question. Here we go...

1 Until We Meet Again

I mean COME on. How could this not be the #1 best first kiss? It's so gentle and so good and so hot and just... EVERYTHING a first kiss should be in life. A++ romantic

2 Old Fashion Cupcake

THE LONG SHOT. The desperation. The finger bite. The oozing THIRST. A++ quality desire incarnate

3 Why R U? Korea

Korea, scooping in a top spot? It's just the body language, the striding in, dropping the backpack, the surprised MUTUAL response (no flinching), and all the yearning. A++ want

(Foreshadow: This may... or may not... be my top kiss of 2023.)

4 Bad Buddy

Seriously boys, BOYS! You had to make it so beautiful and so painfully heartbreaking at the same time? Thanks for that. A++ pain

(They may have a light kiss before this one, I can't remember. I keep meaning to do a BB rewatch but I have to gear up for it.)

5 Semantic Error

I mean, well, OBVIOUSLY. Just A++ they perfect, no notes

6 Second Chance

I am pretty sure this one got best kiss of 2021. All you KinnPorche stans are sleeping on this little gem = Tong delivering what amounts to BLs best drunk kiss ever. FIGHT ME. A++ confused needy babies

7 About Youth

Speaking of sweet af first kisses from first timers. This one drips in sweet innocence including a rainbow and some smiles. A++ first sweethearts

8 HIStory 2 Crossing the Line

Okay the actors kiss for a dream sequence before this but this is the characters' first kiss, so that kinda counts, right? It's just such a pretty kiss. A++ stay on target, stay on theme, utterly unique

9 My Dear Gangster Oppa

Ya know this show is just so much fun and so solid and this pair deserves more accolades then their previous series afforded them. A++ finally, well done you

10 I Feel You Linger in the Air

Okay it's just all the dialogue and execution around this kiss is great and then the kiss ALSO doesn't disappoint. Plus permission and snark and so much more. A+++ class & storytelling

Also, whaan (sweet) is a really good word to have seared into one's brain in Thailand. Useful when ordering drinks.

Okay they kinda kissed before but this is the one that counts:

I didn't know how else to put this category but I had to include it so I could include this kiss:

We Best Love

The crying bridge-top kiss. I mean COME ON. One of my favorite kisses of all time. I love it when the weep+smooch.

La Pluie

Honestly? All their kisses are good so I can't remember if this was their first but, it great. Frankly, off all their kisses it's not my absolute favorite, but they deserve a mention because... wow boys. Just... wow.

The Eclipse

Because of their dynamic I am pretty sure there was something before this one, but this one lives in my head.

Be Loved In House I Do

I'm not sure this counts as their first because I can't remember the sequence in BLIHID (he through line is a bit wonky in my brain) but it is a killer kiss.

There should be more Taiwan but...

The thing is, once a Taiwanese BL starts delivering great kisses they just keep it up. So unless the narrative puts particularly strong plot intent on the "firstness" of that first kiss, they just get all sexy domestic muddled in my head.

Honor the Crumbs - Sides & Shorts, Best First Kisses

Some More

"You can kiss me, heong."

2 Moons 2 - MingKit

It's just such a sweetly perfect first kiss of the very first time variety. Before About Youth, we had these two.

Cutie Pie - NueaSin

Kissing the kiss that won them their own series. No other audition needed. In the land of amazing kisses, and up against Zee, this ONE stood way out. Very good boys. Very good indeed.

kiss x kiss x kiss - perfect scandal (AKA the office ep)

Look, this is the kiss we should have gotten in Cherry Magic. It's great, both the hesitant "permission given" first part and everything that comes next. Track this down if you can, it's a lovely little short from Japan.

My Secret Love - TimMai

Very minor side dishes but they were all I cared about in this show. They gave me the kiss I wanted even if they didn't get the screen time the deserved.

You're My Sky - SanAi

We all know they stole this show, not that there was much to steal.

Kiss Me Again - PeteKao

Maybe not the best as a kiss, but it was 2016 and this was SO SIGNIFICANT to the fandom, to the plot of the show, to coming out, to EVERYTHING. This is THE TayNew kiss. I will never forget it. Never.

I don't have a good screen cap but MarkOuwen's kiss in the taxi in Love is Science? was also fantastic.

(source)

Kisses as of Dec 2023. Not responsible for great first kisses that come after this date.

Opinion and preferences based on these ideas of good kiss chemistry.

I want you thoughts, RT and add your favorites or leave a comment. I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

MORE?

[bookshop]

pardon me i'm just overwhelmed by wang yibo (as usual)

It's just, this kid, THIS KID, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND LET ME EXPLAIN

— he has to battle his way up through the ranks of YG to get to debut, in another country, away from his parents, while barely a teenager, all while learning a second language, and he not only does it, but according to legend he and Lisa are the only two foreign idols in YG history to graduate the program with all As

— and then his debut gets canceled and he has to go back to China and Yuehua and restart his entire career without much support at all from his agency, and he just does it, he starts the grind all over and just fucking does it

— he isn't even Yuehua's first choice for Day Day Up's new host competition, and they submit him only because he speaks Korean and that's good for the show, but then Wang Han sees him backstage one day and sees how hard he's working on his dance routine and immediately knows that Yibo is their next host, and not only is he an incredible addition to the show, but he stays on DDU longer than he reasonably should given how massively famous he gets, and he's so beloved that when he returns for Hunan's 2022 NYE concert, the network rolls out the red carpet and treats him like he's their hometown son and Wang Han is like, "Our Yibo has come home" (And Luoyang is the girlfriend in the distracted boyfriend meme lol but ykwim)

— he has to submit his comp shots twice just to even get an audition before anyone takes him seriously for The Untamed!! Except then the moment they see him, they immediately know he's their Lan Zhan

— he's the "pretty idol" throwaway captain for SDC3 and you can tell this when you watch the editing for the first episode because the comments for Yibo are all about how hot he is, and he comes in last place after the first captain's dance, and it's clear nobody really takes him seriously, but then the second he opens his street auditions, the tone of the entire show changes and from then on, for the next two seasons, he is completely unstoppable, his talent and intelligence and strategic thinking and competitive drive are so raw and exciting to watch that he basically takes over the entire show, the ratings more than double from s2 to s3, his fandom grows even more massive, and the dancers all fucking LOVE HIM. like dude he wins street dance of china so hard that within three seasons he's basically co-producing it and he's literally given a writing credit.

— The director of Being a Hero doesn't think he's old or mature enough to play Chen Yu and then Yibo sits down and talks to him about why he wants the role and the director realizes that Yibo basically is Chen Yu, he's the focused hard-working persevering single-minded actor of his dreams, and Yibo winds up giving a performance so moving it makes the director cry and declare, "That? That's acting."

— he jumps from no ranking at all to 9th place to #2!!!!!! within TWO YEARS on the Forbes China 100 Most Powerful people list between 2019 and 2021

— Duhua famously didn't take him seriously or treat him well for most of their long contractual relationship, oh shit, because now according to YH's latest investor report for Q3-4 2022, he singlehandedly brings in 90% of the profit for her entire company, a shareholder, the "top talent," and the one who has to pay whenever Uniq gets together because he's "the boss"

— Yibo goes from being the SDC underdog to being so respected that when Da Peng is looking for a dancer to star in his street dance movie, he asks all the best street dancers what actor is capable of doing the moves, and they all unanimously tell him: Wang Yibo. Da Peng winds up telling the press on Weibo Film night 2022 that he wrote the whole movie for Yibo, and that "if there's no Yibo, there's no movie"

— Cheng Er, director of Wuming, claims he has no idea who Yibo is, and just decided to cast him in a supporting role in his film because he looks the part of a Republic-era spy. And then he sees Yibo act, and he sees Yibo immerse himself in the part, and he sees how hard Yibo is willing to work and how committed he is, and he rewrites his entire movie until Wang Yibo is the main fucking character; Wang Yibo, in his first major film debut, acts his way into the lead and earns rave reviews from across the globe, including the goddamn new york times

Every time you think people will have finally figured out that you do not underestimate Wang Yibo, you learn of some new example where Yibo, once again, has had to prove himself in an industry that perpetually writes him off and doesn't take him seriously at first — only for the people around him to be absolutely blown away by his talent and dedication and mesmerizing star power.

And this happens over and over and over again. And he just does the work, always, every time, without complaint, and every time the result is something surprising and unexpected and fantastic and such a mark of his incredible passion and talent

— and every time I think my heart can't possibly grow any more sizes over Yibo, he proves me wrong

[1000sunnygo]

The Three Captain's Interview (2021) Part 2: Mayumi Tanaka as Luffy & Namikawa Daisuke as Kidd - Translated

The ask I received got deleted, I'm sorry! 😩

I've decided not to half-ass it, here's the remaining part of the interview with Namikawa san and Mayumi san's answers.

👒 : Tanaka Mayumi (Luffy)

🌷 : Namikawa Daisuke (Captain Kidd)

+ Kamiya Hiroshi as Law (already translated, check here)

-

Q. How did you feel when you got the role?

👒: I was mostly indifferent, as the work (the manga) itself was unknown to me back then. In retrospect, I think it was for the best. I mean, if you know it's a deeply beloved work, you'd feel greedy, won't you? That's why I passed the audition without feeling nervous. Looking back now, maybe it matched Luffy's freedom.

🌷: I remember vividly. Among the eleven rookies with more than 100 million bounty, Kidd's was the highest. I had a clear image of the voice that would express Kidd's powerful appearance, but I couldn't imagine myself playing the role of Kidd. So, I didn't know how to do the voice. I kept thinking about it while recording. I still have a hard time doing Kidd's voice, but it was even harder back then than it is now.

-

Q. Did you have any specific thoughts or feelings while playing in One Piece?

👒: In One Piece, there is the unshakable pillar called 'Eiichiro Oda' , but it's not enough to rely on him. I want people to think, "Wow, One Piece really is amazing" when - including myself, all the individual creators' imagination, music, scenarios, and everything else come together! We'd like to continue to create moments in anime that surpass the original manga.

🌷: Many One piece fans would say it's "fire" when expressing their opinions. Thinking about what makes them feel fired up, I can clearly see it in the scripts. The lines of a good scene are spread over several cuts. I feel that the timing; or rather, the process of speech delivery is given a high importance. So, in pursuit of an impact on the audience, when the scripts says "haah?" I myself try to stretch it with "HA~aah??" - to make everyone feel even more fired up.

[T/N: The Japanese word used was "hot", while "fire" expresses a different type of feeling, I think it works as a closer substitute.]

-

Q. Impression of the character you're currently playing?

👒: Someone who accepts his weakness, says "I can't" when he can't do something and then relies on his friends, and never wavers from the freedom of doing so.

🌷: He's surprisingly kind and considerate of his crew mates. He'd often say "Let's go!" and bring along some of them, but that's not because he's afraid. I interpret it as saying, "I'll protect y'all no matter what, so let's enjoy the thrill of going ahead together!"

-

Q. Thoughts on Mayumi Tanaka's Luffy?

🌷: Unwavering...isn't he? The story moves on, but the same old Luffy is always there. Regardless of the state you're in while watching anime, you can always relax and enjoy One piece. I think this is where Mayumi san's Luffy comes off as an undisputed champion. It's quite difficult to keep things the same for decades, so I have deep respect for it.

-

Q. Thoughts on Daisuke Namikawa's Kidd and Hiroshi Kamiya's Law?

👒: Some voice actors separate their personal lives from work, but those two are as transparent as I am! It doesn't have to do with their roles, but that makes it comfortable to work with them, so I enjoy it a lot.

🌷: Law looks cool, but he has his passionate sides; he has the calm aura, but he also becomes emotional. You need to incorporate a variety of elements to express those subtle ups and down in a Law-like manner, so I think it's an incredibly difficult role. That's why I think Kamiya kun puts a lot of thoughts and efforts in his performance.

That said, I can't help but feel a storm of jealousy regarding their rankings in the worldwide popularity poll (laughs). Law was in top 5, and Kid was 23rd. Even though they don't have the same screentime frequency, they were introduced at the same time, yet the difference was so big... Like, I understand Law's charm, but it was frustrating!

-

Q. Do you think it's possible to win against Kaidou?

👒: Of course, it's possible. But the absolute winner has to be Tesshô Genda (Kaido's voice actor). I don't think I can compete with that deep voice.. Well, I'd win though (laughs)

🌷: I want to believe that Kidd wouldn't lose his heart over his defeats. He doesn't intend to be beaten by anyone.

(T/N: Fun fact, Mayumi Tanaka doesn't read the manga. She only learns the manga's events when she reads her script. Sanji's actor Hiroaki Hirata does the same, and he admitted that he doesn't know much of the parts of story where sanji is absent.)

[trashexplorer]

BLCD Review: Zanzou Slow Motion

Title: Zanzou Slow Motion (残像スローモーション)

Author/Artist: Janome

Shop: CD + Manga

Release Date: 2021/05/28

Cast:

Furukawa Makoto x Nakazawa Masatomo

Eguchi Takuya

Satou Gen

Tadokoro Hinata

Yasuaki Takumi

Matsuoka Yoshitsugu

Ichikawa Aoi

Yanagi Kouhei

Karino Sho

Synopsis:

What happens when two rival directors who hate each other's guts are forced to share one roof? And what if one of them has a secret he's been harboring for years? Throw in a shared love of movies, BL manga, and an accidental kiss, and you've got the next heart-pumping love story in Midorigaoka High and the sequel to Twilight Out of Focus 1. Jin Kikuchihara, third-year director, main actor, and president of the film club, and second-year director Giichi Ichikawa see eye-to-eye on very little. Jin is flashy, flirty, and focused on keeping everyone happy, while Giichi expects the best from himself and others, and will compromise nothing to see his vision through. Constantly at each other's necks, the two can hardly stand to be in the same club. But what will happen when family trouble forces them to live in the same room? Will their shared interests bring them closer as friends, push them further apart as rivals, or something else entirely?

Review Proper

I love Tasogare Outfocus, but this is actually my favorite Janome.

The second installment curse strikes again!

UGHHHHHHH THIS WAS SO WHOLESOME. Don't get me wrong, Tasogare Outfocus is written pretty decently, but I really don't like how Janome just glossed over Hisashi's SA and grooming like that. It reminds me a lot of Etude vol. 1. I can still get over Etude vol. 1 'cause it's not that uncommon to see in sports and Ichi-san's deal with Futami was given some closure in 2, but given how short Tasogare Outfocus was, Hisashi felt like he just lmao byed his teacher. 😔Doesn't help that it kinda doesn't matter anymore in overlap even though it hasn't been long since it ended. Is my son Hisashi really okay now? 🥹

I'm old, so DK BL doesn't appeal to me that much anymore. It's also hard to find good DK rivalries nowadays that aren't just about fucking or delinquents. Zanzou Slow Motion, however, just checked all the right boxes for the category: simple, no drama, and no loose ends. That coupled with Janome's element of touch?

And can we talk about this monologue?

Ugh.

I will say Jin's suspenders, Ichikawa's snatched waist, and the ABO shout-out greatly influenced my decision too. Y'all should get suspended in high school, not wear suspenders!

Onto the technicalities...

I don't think I've heard these two co-star before (or I just don't remember), so I was a bit skeptical especially 'cause last I heard Makonyan in a DK was in, well... Given as BLCD!Ritsu. And where else did we hear Yuuma star in a DK too? Yuuma as Anime!Ritsu. We just had Given Anime!Ritsu in Tasogare Outfocus being somewhat friends with Ichikawa and now we have BLCD!Ritsu (thanks to ecargmura for catching this!) trying to romance him. They used very different tones for Ritsu, but the vibe was the same overall. THEY'RE THE SAME PERSON. Makonyan and Nakamo also played tops in the last works I heard of them (Makonyan as Takaba in Kurui Naku and Nakamo as Yakumo in Nu:carnival), so I was concerned about a lot of things. Thankfully, however, instead of Makonyan going for his Ritsu tone or his lighter Kimitte Yatsu for a more youthful vibe, he went all shounen in here lmaooo.

His bwakame was so funny it reminded me of this:

I love roasting Makonyan more than any other seiyuu out of fondness, but I'm really proud of how far he's gone. He's gotten so much better in his delivery, and it's obvious in his budding anime career, too.

But...

I didn't expect there would be improvements in his bedding techniques too...

What the fuck was that? HAHAHAHAHAHA. WAIT. No, y'all don't understand. I have most of this man's r-18 otome CDs and BLCDs, and I have never heard him this... this hot before???? Jin is such a smooth flirt, so I had some expectations on the delivery, but FURUKAWA MAKOTO HISSES. HE HISSES!!! SIR IS THIS APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOUR FOR A HIGH SCHOOL BOY??? THEY DON'T EVEN SHOW THEM DO THE DO FOR MORE THAN A MINUTE??? WHERE WAS THE NEED?!

PUTS THE GODDAMN FU IN FURUKAWA MAKOTO ALRIGHT!

First it was Ono Yuuki, now it's Makonyan. Is Nakamo's ass really that good that his tops go all in???

I admittedly don't have a lot to say about Nakamo because that man always slays. I was afraid that Makonyan would overpower him during their Netflix and chill, but as soon as I had that thought, Nakamo pushed back like??? THEM SHAKIRA HIPS DON'T LIE!

HOW DO I LEGALLY MARRY GINGER RECORDS???

I didn't read the scan or the official English release 'cause I actually had the raws, so I can't vouch for the translation. As for faithfulness to the manga, however, I need to stress that there were a lot of rearranged events and cut dialogue. One notable instance was Ichikawa's message for Jin. It was placed after their kiss in the last chapter, so I believe that these changes are quite significant. It is still possible to read the manga while listening to the BLCD, but I suggest reading the manga once first so you're aware of which pages you need to jump to.

Chil-chil Awards 2022 was a scam 'cause this wasn't nominated for ANYTHING! This might actually just be my favorite BLCD of 2021... and Makonyan was my favorite actor in this series so far. OKITSU AND MAKONYAN REALLY SWITCHED IN THIS LOG HAHAHAHA. Makonyan and Nakamo at least won in my heart. 😌 Definitely listen to this if you're a Makonyan fan or if you're a fan of the series in general. It's also perfect if you're looking for something light and sweet but immersive at the same time. Chesk gives this a 9/10! Only the third 9 after Sonna ni and KD!

[kiwiana-writes]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thanks @cha-melodius and @stereopticons for the tags! I know I’ve done this in the past, but it’s been a hot minute…

How many works do you have on ao3?

239!

What's your total ao3 word count?

822,937—but that’s a collaboration-boosted lie. Per my writing tracker, words that I have personally written and published on AO3 is 693,613

What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly RWRB these days, but the majority of my back catalogue is Schitt’s Creek, with a few others sprinkled in for fun. The Pairing definitely made my brain whirr… we’ll see.

Top five fics by kudos:

With so much of my heart (that none is left to protest), RWRB, 65.5k, the Much Ado About Nothing stage actor AU

Kinda think that I might be his type, RWRB, 12.8k, Alex and Bea fake date and Alex gets a little distracted by Bea’s brother

We were supposed to find this, RWRB, 3.3k, soulmate AU

We always walked a very thin line, Happiest Season, 2.7k, Riley character study/alternate ending

All the Lonely Starbucks Lovers, RWRB, 5.8k, barista Henry repeatedly putting his foot in his mouth in front of his coworker crush

(This is how I learned Puck It has been knocked out of my top five 😭)

Do you respond to comments?

Yes! And absent a Schitt’s Creek resurgence of some kind that sees me absolutely inundated I don’t see that changing.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Five ways it could have ended (and one way it still could), Schitt’s Creek, 1.2k, for the love of god read the tags

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Like… most of them? I love to end on a good HEA haha. For sheer joy, though, it’s probably With so much of my heart (that none is left to protest)

Do you get hate on fics?

From time to time. I’m very free with the delete button. Weirdly, it occasionally pops up in the AO3 comments but mostly seems to come to me via anons on tumblr??? I have no idea why.

Do you write smut?

It’s been known to happen, I guess 👀

Craziest crossover:

I haven’t written any AO3-era crossovers! A few fusions/media AUs, but no crossovers.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope. I’ve only been asked once, and they wanted to post off AO3 which is a big heck nope for me (and my permissions statement has now been updated to reflect that)

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Heck yeah I have. I’ve done several anthology-type collaborations where we each wrote a chapter in a fic, and I’ve fully cowritten fics with @ships-to-sail several times. We have another collab coming up for @aroyallybigbangrwrb and I’m also cowriting The Big Secret AU with @indestructibleheart which is essentially us one-upping each other on emotionally devastating ideas until someone writes them down. Good system 😂

All time favorite ship?

Stop making pansexuals choose things.

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Look, the chances of kinktober 2021 being finished at this point are slim 😂

Schitt’s Creek kinkverse… I don’t know. I have little snippets written of future fics and they’re great but… idk. Maybe I’ll write one vignette-y wrap up fic one day.

What are your writing strengths?

Narrative POV, dialogue that feels like the characters, epistolary bullshit, smut apparently.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Coming up with actual plot lmao. Visual descriptors — I’m not even remotely a visual person so I really really struggle with writing the sorts of things people can visualise. Also like… the passage of time? A scam.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

Love it. I’ll shoulder tap a fluent speaker if I need an actual sentence/anything Google isn’t super reliable for. Forever heartbroken that there are no fics in my second language in AO3 and no reason for me to be able to sprinkle it into my own writing (though one of the subscriber shindig prompts might be about to change that 👀)

First fandom you wrote in?

HP

Favorite fic you've written?

Stop! Asking! Pansexuals! To! Choose! Things!

I don’t know there are 239 of the bloody things 😂 I’m far more interested in what other people’s favourites are than what my own is!

I have no sense of who’s done this already so apologies if this is a double up but tagging @agame-writes @affectionatelyrs @anincompletelist @cricketnationrise @getmehighonmagic

@happiness-of-the-pursuit @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @indestructibleheart @inexplicablymine @nontoxic-writes

@read-and-write- @rmd-writes @sparklepocalypse @welcometololaland @whimsymanaged and, as always, anyone who wants to play!

[chcrryade]

CHERRYADE: TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE? Song Kyumin. Jul 1, 2021.

JAGUAR have emerged from their two-year period of almost complete radio silence with news that has shocked many—or perhaps a little less than many, because you can’t really expect to rise from the dead and still have millions of fans at your beck and call, ready to lap up any scraps you throw them. A new boy group is on the way, and their name is CHERRYADE. Something too sweet to drink all in one go, but too carbonated to sit on the tongue comfortably after just one sip. It seems rather on-brand for a company that has so far fed us one group that hated each other’s guts, one soloist who kicked the chair after one (1) album that tanked, and a duo who I’m still not sure were hate-fucking or making attempts on the other’s life every time the camera turned.

This time, though, they’re not unveiling their (sure-to-be devastatingly attractive) members one-by-one from wherever they’d been hiding them, as per the last three attempts. Neither are they shoving their undebuted faces in our faces with countless social media accounts or endlessly boring introduction videos. Instead, JAGUAR have made the decision to protect the idol-environment and reuse some of our past favourites, taking them from one unknown group to another. Aren’t we lucky.

This isn’t a new (or even particularly exciting) concept. You may recognise the formula from STRMRUNNER Media, who chose trainees from only the top companies to shove together in a now-superstar group named SO(U)L. JAGUAR CEO Ae Seungdae must have witnessed the success the seven have seen and decided he wanted a piece of the pie. They even share the same amount of members. But I doubt they’ll be greeting each other at any music shows or posting any cutesy selcas on Twitter, because some of the boys selected for this ‘supergroup’ of sorts aren’t known to be the nicest.

First, JAGUAR reached out to FNC and asked if they would miss SLOW MOTION’s leader KIL DOYEON terribly. The answer must’ve been no, as he’s rumoured to be the appointed leader of CHERRYADE also. Next on the list was METRONOME MEDIA’s DUAN JIEYANG (more commonly known as DJ) and JEON HAEIL from almost-forgotten group ALGORHYTHM, who had been in hot water previously for alleged physical fights breaking out between leader DAEHOON and youngest LEVI—who, funnily enough, left the group and ended up in SLOW MOTION not long after.

The higher-ups didn’t have to look too hard for the next couple of members, as they were right there in their pockets anyway. QIAO YIJUN and AHN JAEHEE (once an actor) from BONSOIR were next on the roster, and the general consensus on that was that it was certainly an.. interesting choice to make. They were the two that seemed to despise each other the most, after all. 

Next is one that may surprise some. HWAN MINHUI (or GOGO, as many know and love him as) was recruited from SM’s smallest sub-unit NCT DRIFT. Reactions were mixed, but the largest question of all was why. Alas, it doesn’t seem like JAGUAR is going to be holding a press conference anytime soon to answer that burning inquiry. There’s far too much on their plates for that, what with trying to get all these complete strangers to act civil with each other and all.

The last member of CHERRYADE is the only new face that we’re receiving. Not much is known about him except his name, LEE HASUN, and that he’s the youngest of the lot. Let’s hope he doesn’t receive the same treatment as JAEHEE did, because otherwise this ‘supergroup’ might last even less time than all of JAGUAR’s other ventures combined. And we wouldn’t want that, of course. Or would we?

Whatever the public may think of them, the one thing that is certain is that JAGUAR won’t care. Their age old motto of ‘any press is good press’ has lasted them far too long for them to be doing anything like reassessing their values or realigning their morals. Hell, some have even been saying that accused nepo baby BONSOIR manager HONG JAEYOUNG has found his new place as CHERRYADE’s handler, so from that alone it doesn’t sound like they’re going to be off to a spectacularly great start public-opinion wise.

The group are making their debut on August 1st, 2021—a mere month from now. What they’re releasing is still a mystery (a single? An EP? A mini-album? I’m as clueless as you are), but what we do know is that it’s going to be called DOUBLE DIP. I can vaguely glean the concept they’re going for from the name alone. Teeth-rotting, sugary goodness. The type of stuff that makes your mouth feel heady and vision swim. Or your ears bleed, depending on your opinion on the type of music that JAGUAR has put out thus far. Their styling seems to be heading in the same direction, as the explosion of colour that makes up their seconds-long teaser video is reminiscent of a handful of candy scooped up into the hands of an eager child.

CHERRYADE marks JAGUAR’s fourth attempt at an idol presence. Most of the hard work has been done for them, what with them lifting most of the members from other groups, but that in no way means they won’t meet the same failed fate as all of their predecessors. I feel that most deciding to follow the group will be doing so more out of morbid curiosity rather than genuine excitement for the content they’ll produce, and music they’ll put out. Right now they seem more like a ticking time bomb set to explode in an array of violently bright colours and burnt sugar than a group of boys that’ll be loved by the masses.

But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe CHERRYADE will be the success JAGUAR has so sorely been wanting, and for more reasons than how many times they’ve been caught smoking or leaving shady love hotels in the earliest hours of the morning. Maybe the seven will actually grow to like each other, and they’ll replace the previous reputation they held—of catty and spiteful boys who were there for the money and to make the lives of people they didn’t like as unpleasant as possible—with one that paints them as genuine, likeable people. We’ll just have to wait and see.

DOUBLE DIP. Whatever it turns out to be, it’s dropping August 1st, 2021, at 2PM KST. Do make sure to tune in, if you want to see what all the fuss is about.

Or don’t. I suppose I wouldn’t blame you.

got thoughts? ⠀ mentioned @syoul

[joanyio]

TOP 9 DRAMAS I WATCHED IN 2023

inspector koo (2021) - everyone here is a different flavor of fruit, crime show exclusively made for girls and gays and it’s the best thing that ever happened to me

when i fly towards you (2023) - this is what happiness is all about

doom at your service (2021) - “love me to the point that you want to destroy the world for me” that’s it that’s the line

love all play (2022) - wfkbj for people who aren’t annoying

little women (2022) - second half felt like a makjang damn the writers were spiraling and i couldn’t stop watching (gay little women i love you)

twinkling watermelon (2023) - worth the hype

bloodhounds (2023) - i remember my letterboxd post for this saying you can almost smell the testosterones through the screen but it was absolutely binge worthy, kinda homo if you ask me!

daily dose of sunshine (2023) - park boyoung is the loveliest human being

law school (2021) - is it insane to beg for a season 2 the chance is low but nonzero… right?

HONORABLE MENTIONS

hidden love (2023) - im tired of people saying the word chemistry about the main couple but it’s true they invented it

designated survivor: 60 days (2019) - maybe political dramas aren’t always badly written, also han nakyung please give me a chance

celebrity (2023) - user joanyio stop finding invisible gay subtext in every show you watch challenge failed

the good bad mother (2023) - such a gem *continues to ignore mommy issues*

time and him are just right (2022) - cute and perfect for mindless watching in the background while you do other work

the worst of evil (2023) - instead of forcing the love triangle turned love square the writers should have made all four hot main characters make out with each other it would have been perfect

and because of love all play (2022), see also:

castaway diva (2023), witch’s diner (2021), and unlock my boss (2022) (although i haven’t finished this one yet) chae jonghyeop is my new lee dohyun (read: male actor i enjoy watching multiple projects of simply because he doesn’t give me the ick). i also rewatched hot stove league (2020) for park eunbin and jonghyeop after castaway diva, still one of the all time best dramas i remember it used to be my twitter handle years ago baseball is so cool i wish it was real

DRAMAS I STARTED LATE DECEMBER 2023 AND FINISHED EARLY JANUARY 2024

shining for one thing (2022) - please don’t watch this show it was made only for me and i’d like to gatekeep it forever

reset (2022) - never watched a drama execute time loop plot device as perfectly as this did

UNFINISHED BUT PLANNING TO CONTINUE SOON

derailment (2023) - i was baited by a tiktok i thought it’d be a cute silly little high school drama but boy was i surprised

one day off (2023) - she’s living the dream

[thestylesindependent]

Harry Styles has had one hell of a year, ensuring that going forward his career will never be the same as it was. In addition to the release of his third solo studio album, Harry's House, which debuted at the top of the Billboard Hot 200, he hit movie theaters in both the paranoia thriller Don't Worry Darling and gay romance My Policeman.

In addition to drawing notice for his first leading roles on the big screen, Styles made headlines (for many reasons) with his press tours for both movies as they premiered at glamorous fall film festivals. Then, there's the world tour, which has been entertaining flocks of screaming fans since September 2021 and isn't slated to end until next summer.

To honor the former British boy bander as one of EW's 2022 Entertainers of the Year, Big Mouth creator Nick Kroll �� who acted opposite Styles in Don't Worry Darling — pays tribute to the pop and movie star.

If Harry Styles were just to put out an album or just go on tour or just put out one movie, that would be an accomplishment. The fact that he is able to do all of these things in the same year — and then, still be a human being who you can drop in and have a real conversation with — is incredible. The elephant in the room is all the noise around his personal life. To navigate all of that, stay above the fray and to continue to try to make his art, it's a tightrope to walk. He is able to navigate it with a ton of class and grace.

When you watch him on stage, there's a buoyancy. There's clearly real joy in his performance. That's not dissimilar to how he is as a person. When you're with him, it doesn't feel like you're getting a show. It feels like you're getting a chat. On set, it surprised me how genuinely connected he was to everyone he came into contact with. Oftentimes people who are super unbelievably famous have to create some emotional boundaries. There was not a wall up, which frankly there often has to be just to make it through a day without having all of your energy sucked out of you. There wasn't a day where he didn't show up on set with coffee or donuts or extra vitamin C packets for people. He was always providing for people in a very nice way. One of the things that I enjoyed about him as an artist — but also now as someone who I know — is that he really doesn't take himself, or any of it, too seriously. When you're someone in his position, that's hard.

As an actor, I really wasn't surprised that he was so natural. One of the biggest performers in the world would be a great performer. He was so collaborative and open and fun to watch and play with. If you're used to performing live, there's nothing better than finding other people who enjoy spontaneity. In almost every scene that I was in with him, there's a found moment.

There's a moment the film where I back up, we're going in our car and I salute him and then give him the finger, and then he looks back at me and gives me the finger. The best thing you can do is find someone who wants to feel alive in a scene with you. Anyone who's watched him perform live has seen that. He feels very present, whether you're in a conversation with him or you're in a scene with him or you're watching him live on stage. It's why he's so f---ing charming — you feel like you're watching someone who is in the room with you at that moment.

He's somehow able to be an actor in two very different films, and while all of that has been going on, he has been on a world tour for a year and a half getting hit with Skittles. It's a weird thing to say, but he made me much cooler with my nieces and nephews (and many, many people) by very publicly kissing me at the Venice Film Festival. I want to rewrite the story where Prince Charming kisses a frog. I'm the frog, and I become a frog with a little crown on top. It was one of the most surreal moments in my life. That was not planned. We kiss in the first scene of Don't Worry Darling, but nobody had seen it, so it just appeared that Harry Styles had grabbed me for no reason and kissed me. No matter what I accomplish in my life, it will probably go somewhere in my obituary: "father, comedian, creator, and also someone kissed by Harry Styles." I gotta say, I ain't mad at it. That's his power.

[kkginfo]

Hina Durrani flaunts a stunning saree, mirroring her late mother Noor Jehan's style | KKG INFO

Hina Durrani flaunts a stunning saree, mirroring her late mother Noor Jehan’s style | KKG INFO

Noor Jehan, aka Malika-e Taranum, has always been a powerhouse in the Pakistani showbiz industry. Internationally acclaimed for her wide range of vocals and her contributions to Indian and Pakistani cinema and playback singing, the late Madam Noor Jehan made a name for herself that was sure to live down the centuries. Noor Jehans’ silk sarees and choker styles are staples. Women from all over the…

[jbaileyfansite]

Jonathan Bailey interview with the Evening Standard (2021)

There are worse places to conduct an interview than a park, and at least it’s only drizzling.

The only problem is that people won’t leave Jonathan Bailey alone. Which is to be expected, of course: he’s in Bridgerton, the most-watched original Netflix series in its history, viewed on 82 million accounts in a month since it dropped on Christmas Day. Wait. Did I say people? I meant dogs. They snaffle at his heels and rub against his legs while the humans remain impervious. This is because, devoid of his mutton chops and tailcoat, the 32-year-old actor looks a world away from Viscount Anthony Bridgerton, brother of Daphne; lover of Sienna; friend and foe of Simon, Duke of Hastings.

Today he’s dressed in a nylon jacket and sporting very different hair. ‘Bit of a spoiler for season two — I’ve had a light perm,’ he smiles.

And even if Bailey had spent the past two months in full regency costume, fame would have eluded him until lockdown eased and the usual signifiers — being hassled in restaurants, endless selfie requests — were back on the table. Until then it lies in wait, preserved in aspic.

Having spent lockdown thus far on the East Sussex coast staying home like the rest of us, Bailey admits the disconnect is confusing. ‘I feel like I’m being gaslit on a global scale,’ he laughs. ‘Even today, just meeting and talking to actual people who have seen the show feels weird. To me and all the British cast, it feels like Nasa. Netflix launched this spaceship, and you get launched into space. It’s a brilliantly traumatic thing to experience. The launch only happens once, and then it’s about tethering yourself and working it out. I think that might take a while.

‘The isolation of lockdown has been incredibly hard for everyone, but the isolation of feeling like you can’t inhabit the experience that other people are experiencing around you, while being locked down and not being able to see your friends…’ he tails off. ‘Presumably all it will take to shake it off is a big dinner, or even just having a few pints and going out.’

With a slew of TV parts under his belt (Broadchurch, Crashing, Chewing Gum, W1A) and an Olivier award for his role as Jamie in Company (2018), Bailey isn’t exactly an ingénue. But Bridgerton is one of those rare TV programmes that has bestowed fame on a global scale.

Produced by Shonda Rhimes and adapted from the historical novels of Julia Quinn, Netflix’s genre-busting costume drama reached the top 10 in 189 countries, thanks to a sharp script, lavish costumes and racially diverse cast that saw actors of colour inhabit the highest echelons of 19th-century society in a way that had never been seen on screen before. That this high society is presided over by a black woman, Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel), might be diversity divorced from any historical context, but the alternative — another costume drama inhabited by white people — has never felt more wrong.

Bailey auditioned for the part in 2018 while appearing in Company, sending off a tape to Rhimes’s production company, Shondaland. ‘I got offered the job on my 31st birthday, 25 April 2019,’ he recalls. Filming started in July 2019 and ended in March 2020, narrowly avoiding any impact from the pandemic. 

‘For me it feels like a lockdown anyway when I’m working, so it’s a long time since I can remember normal life.’ Has he been he a banana bread-baking stereotype over lockdowns? ‘I made more than banana bread,’ he laughs. ‘I started with banana bread but went on to cinnamon rolls, although they looked like turds — terrible. But I made amazing hot cross buns.’

The million dollar cliché: what did he learn about himself? ‘I feel more complicated than I thought I was,’ he says. ‘And then I’ve been affirmed by certain things. I did a lot of cycling between lockdowns, in Cornwall and around Italy last summer — pure recharge, pure perspective. Nature is so important. I know everyone’s saying that, and that some people can just keep going flat out, but I know I need to recharge. And I love a bath. I’ve had weeks where I’ve had a minimum of two a day.’ He suddenly looks horrified. ‘Actually, that’s awful. Don’t put that, ’cause it’s wasting water.’

Barely has ‘what did you miss the most?’ escaped from my lips and he exclaims, ‘Theatre! Not just theatre, but the possibility of theatre. But then, I’ve been watching really brilliant theatre creatives smashing it on TV instead.’ He points out that Bridgerton cast members Rosheuvel, Ruth Gemmell, Adjoa Andoh and Luke Thompson are all regulars on the stage. ‘We should be proud in Britain that there’s a massive crossover between theatre and TV. It’s not a semi-permeable membrane: it’s all one talent pool.’ 

Could the Government be doing more to support theatre? ‘Absolutely. It’s just the people who are making the decisions; if it had been someone who loves theatre, and understood the importance of it, this would never have happened. There are certain things in life where you go, “That’s a marker”, and the [2019] government campaign about Fatima having to retrain in cyber was one. That was a wound that will take a long time to heal. And the other marker of a moment is Ruth Sheen’s performance in It’s A Sin [the veteran actress had a cameo as a hospital visitor who took Keeley Hawes’ character to task in the final episode]. The last year hasn’t been about Christmas and Easter. It’s been about markers like those.’ 

Bailey has been described online as ‘openly gay’. I point out that no actors are ever described as ‘openly straight’, and he laughs. ‘I’d say I’m not openly gay. I’m just gay.’ Although he is wary of discussing his sexuality for the sake of it. ‘Then it becomes a commodity and a currency. I knew that I wanted to be visible about my sexuality, because in all the territories that Netflix goes out in, there might be a boy somewhere that goes, “Wait, what?” Which is what I didn’t have when I was young. All I know is that I’m happy to keep working really hard and if there are opportunities for representation, and to make that point, then that’s something I’ll always strive to do.’

Like just about everyone else, he loved It’s A Sin. ‘It was an incredible way to talk about an awful pandemic, and an absolute tragedy that so many people will be triggered by it. In Ruth Sheen’s character, you have a heterosexual woman who is mother to a gay son, challenging another mother. I found that rage incredible. The gay fantasy isn’t just hanging out in bars and meeting men. The gay fantasy is to have guardian angels of allyship.’

He’s hesitant to say whether he agrees with director Russell T Davies’ assertion that gay people should play gay roles. ‘It’s a big old conversation and one I’ve spoken to Russell about, and many other actors. But it’s really hard to give a sound bite to sum up.’

I tell him I don’t want a sound bite. ‘It’s about redressing the balance of access to roles. There just aren’t that many gay roles, so when straight actors go to take that space up, it’s eliminating the chance for other [gay actors].

‘We know there has been a history of needing to be closeted to succeed and be famous, especially in acting. And the idea of not being able to believe heterosexual relations and narrative, if you know one of the actors is gay… everyone should be able to play absolutely everything. But let’s blow away all the cobwebs, and one of the hang-ups and shadows of the past is that we need to be a lot more open to the idea of sexes playing different sides. There have been amazing performances by straight people playing gay and by gay people playing straight. It’s a moment to think about that, and I think Russell’s point was that there’s a vitality and a joy to It’s A Sin because he cast gay people in gay roles. That’s completely true. It’s not a bad thing to own your narrative.”

He is glad not to have received any flack for playing a straight role such as Viscount Anthony. ‘Bearing in mind the internet is a place where anyone can say anything, there hasn’t been anyone who’s had any animosity, or challenged it, so that’s good. Yes, I’m looking forward to gay actors playing gay parts, but for me it’s so important that everyone at home can see a bit of themselves on screen, to allow them to feel heard and seen, and also allow them to have aspirations.

‘Good actors can do anything, and there’ll be amazing writers who are willing to write for everyone. If there are people who don’t have access to creating their own TV shows or telling the stories they want to tell, then absolutely, everyone has to make space for them. That’s not just to do with gender or sexuality. It’s to do with race, religion and everything else.’ He pauses. ‘The idea that someone could read that and go, “God, that’s just a woke viewpoint,” I find really funny. It’s just basic sense, isn’t it?’

Another dog — this time a cockapoo — launches itself on Bailey mid-flow. ‘We have a family cockapoo. I looked after him in Lockdown 1,’ he says. ‘That was a real baptism of fire. He ate a sock. A full sock. It was a Muji sock. Stripy. And then it came up again three days later.’ What’s he called? ‘Benson, after the village I grew up in.’

His sounds an idyllic childhood. Brought up in Oxfordshire, he eschewed drama school for an Open University degree. Neither his parents nor three older sisters have anything to do with acting, but his interest was sparked as a child after watching a production of Oliver in the village hall. He joined the local drama club and also pootled around at the back of the class while one sister did ballet. ‘I wasn’t really invited, but I remember having Velcro trainers and just squeaking in the back and trying to do some pliés. I stopped dancing aged 12 because of the inevitable narrative — peer pressure. Ballet became a euphemism for something else.’

Was he the sort of kid who always got the lead in the school play? ‘I did play Jolly Roger in Jolly Roger,’ he smiles. ‘But then I was taken down a peg or two when I played a raindrop in Noah’s Ark. You win some, you lose some.’

With Bridgerton likely to run for many more seasons, and Viscount Anthony’s storyline taking centre stage in season two (now that sister Daphne is married off, the plot will focus on his own romantic life), Bailey’s newfound fame isn’t going to dissipate any time soon. He has mixed feelings. ‘You work and strive to be an actor and you can get better at it and enjoy it. But you can’t be good at fame or enjoy it. Some people do, some people don’t. It’s a different cocktail for everyone. There are suddenly opportunities available, which is brilliant, and I’m incredibly lucky. But then I realise this is when people say it’s about saying no, because what you say no to keeps you on the path.’

What also keeps him on the right path is the role itself. ‘Bridgerton is actually delivering on changing the bar, and the standard, of representation. Because of that, I’ve had amazing messages from people who have been able to talk about their sexuality, or people who have seen themselves or their children in the Duke of Hastings [storyline]. For me that’s the thing that’s always going to ground [the experience]. It’s a candyfloss juggernaut theme park ride — like multiple sensory overload.

‘So thank God for family. Thank God for friends.’

Source

[pleasecallmeeds]

my top ten favorite television shows

did anyone ask? no! do i care? no! 

(I actually found this post in my drafts a few days ago and decided to update it and actually finish it. Most times you can tell when 2021/2022 Madison is writing because it’s all in lowercase. I mainly just moved things around and then changed a few of the standings. I also included gifs for the ships that I love the most. I hope you enjoy!) 

10. The Sandman

I wasn’t expecting to love The Sandman as much as I did, but I did. I’m also grateful that this is my first dive into Neil Gaiman’s writing, which led me to watching Good Omens, which I also enjoyed. I personally prefer The Sandman’s mythology and the strange way the season is formatted; it has a plotline running through but each episode feels like it’s in an anthology--almost like this was based on a comic series or something. Also, major props to The Sandman for being one of the gayest shows on television. I’ve never seen a show be comprised of probably 95% queer people. It was a marvel. Don’t love that Morpheus hasn’t had any queer relationships yet--doesn’t mean he’s not queer, but so far, hasn’t said anything regarding this. I’d like it if the main character was queer and not just all of the side characters, but I’ll take what I can get. 

favorite quote: “What power would Hell have if those imprisoned here were not able to dream of Heaven?”

favorite character: the Corinthian is so fucking cool. Dream is hot too.

favorite episode: “Sleep of the Just,” “24/7,” & “The Sound of Her Wings.” I love them all. 

favorite ship: dream/morpheus x hob

9. What We Do in the Shadows

On the topic of “the gayest shows in television,” this one is included. Literally all of these vampires are queer and fucking each other. It’s groundbreaking! It’s also one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever seen. I wish that I had stronger, more genuine bonds of friendship between this group, but they’re vampires that have lived for hundreds of years. Outwardly showing love toward your friends is overrated, I guess. 

favorite quote: “Trust me. Gay is in. Gay is hot. I want some gay. Gay it’s gonna be.” 

favorite character: laszlo cravensworth, my beloved

favorite episode: “The Wellness Center” (season 3, episode 8)

favorite ship: look, i’d love to ship Nandor and Guillermo but their dynamic is pretty toxic. besides, we all know that they’re all just living in a polycule. 

8. That 70′s Show

That 70′s Show is nostalgic for me. My aunt is nine years older than me, so she was a teenager when I was in elementary school. She would watch this show on the television at my grandparents’ house and I’d watch the camera circle around a group of kids getting high in Eric Foreman’s basement and I was invested. I love the group dynamics, the sarcasm, the humor, and the rare emotional moments, too. 

favorite quote: “Damn, Jackie, I can’t control the weather!”

favorite character(s): Kitty & Red Foreman (people who don’t like Kitty Foreman need to grow up fr)

favorite episode(s): “Eric’s Buddy” (Season 1, Episode 11), “Grandma’s Dead” (Season 1, Episode 23), and “Garage Sale” (Season 2, Episode 1)

favorite ship(s): hyde x jackie, eric x buddy

7. Stranger Things

If it weren’t for the last two seasons of Stranger Things, this could easily be at the top of the list. But my perception of Stranger Things has changed so much through these last couple of seasons. I still really enjoyed the fourth season, which is why it has remained in my top 10. There’s things to like about season 3 and 4, but they don’t compare to seasons 1 and 2. The mystery, the character development, and the strong relationships between characters made me fall in love with the show. Unfortunately, I feel like this has declined over time, but nonetheless it’s still a fun time, even if the actors will be grown adults playing children by the time season 5 comes out. Also, I’m just begging on my knees for queer characters and relationships in the forefront. Robin is the only openly gay one (so far, we know that Will is canonically gay) and her relationship isn’t a main focus and she isn’t actively in any relationships yet.

favorite quote: “Harrington’s got her, don’t ya, big boy?” & “Do you wanna be normal? Do you wanna be just like everyone else? Being a freak is the best. I'm a freak.”

favorite character(s): steve harrington. eddie munson. robin. my beloveds

favorite episode: “Chapter Four: The Body” (Season 1, episode 4) had me genuinely freaked the fuck out. that’s what got me hooked on this show. 

favorite ship: steve x eddie, mike x will (but will deserves better)

6. Freaks and Geeks

It’s actually criminal that Freaks and Geeks was cancelled after one season. I think it is one of the most realistic depictions of high school I’ve ever seen. I felt seen in both Sam and Lindsay Weir. I related to Sam’s awkwardness and finding comfort in a few close friends, but I also related to Lindsay’s desire to fit in and try new things but not exactly finding the right friends. I loved the dynamic, the humor, the references, and the relationships. Overall, it is one of my favorite comfort shows. 

favorite quote: “I’ve seen God...he plays drums in Led Zeppelin.”

favorite character: Bill Haverchuck, you comedy genius 

favorite episode: “Chokin’ and Tokin’” (episode 13)

favorite ship: look, I would have loved if Lindsay actually liked Nick, because i thought they were really cute together. I don’t get why everyone’s obsessed with Daniel. James Franco is gross on so many levels. 

5. Criminal Minds

When I went to college, all of my classmates were studying forensic science because of this show. They all told me to watch it, because literally my whole class was obsessed with it. So I did what they said, and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Wow, is this show fun. I haven’t even finished it because I don’t want it to end. This is one of the strongest casts of characters I’ve ever seen. I genuinely love and care about each character. If any of them died, I’d be heartbroken. The cases are compelling and thrilling to watch (well, not all of them, but most of them), and I love watching the BAU figure it out together and take care of each other. 

favorite quote: ‘You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you’ve really stopped to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”

favorite character: obviously the Dr. Spencer Reid. but Penelope Garcia is a VERY close second. 

favorite episode: “Amplification” (season 4, episode 24)

favorite ship: reid x morgan (i present evidence A, your honor: “pretty boy”), morgan x garcia (i present evidence A, your honor: every episode of CM), garcia x every woman

4. The X-Files

I recently got into The X-Files because of my friend @midwestmothman and I will forever be in their debt. I haven’t even finished more than two seasons of this show and I’m in love with it. I don’t want to watch it too fast because then it’ll be over, and what do I do then? (I know they have this exact same dilemma.) Mulder and Scully are one of the foundations of so much of our current ship/fandom culture and it’s obvious why. I love the mystery & sci-fi of it all but we all know that it is the chemistry between the two leads that keep us invested even if the episodes aren’t as strong as usual. It’s one of those shows that I could turn on and watch all day. 

favorite quote: “Mulder, sometimes I think the world is going to hell and we’re the only two people who can save it.”

favorite character: I can’t pick. They’re both iconic.

favorite episode:  “Ice” (season 1, episode 8)

favorite ship: mulder x scully ofc

3. Seinfeld

ok, sorry (not sorry?) but Seinfeld is hilarious.

i absolutely love it. it is partly a nostaliga thing, but when i got old enough to actually give a damn about what i watch i decided i would watch it on my own instead of reruns on my grandfather’s television and i decided on my own that it is one of the most hilarious things i have ever seen.

i am a piece of each of these characters. they’re all complex characters with deep flaws but just as deep character and depth. they’re not meant to be praised; they know they are selfish people but the whole point of the show is that we can laugh at the terrible things that they say that we’re too afraid to joke about (as in like little rude things not hateful things).

this show is iconic. there are so many sayings, so many scenes, so many quotes that are iconic. Kramer--iconic. Seinfeld’s apartment--iconic. they’re all iconic.

obviously i do not care for the actual namesake of the show but every other character has an incredibly special place in my heart.

favorite quote: “You’re a nice guy, but I actually only have three friends. I can’t really handle any more.”

favorite character: the man, the myth, the legend Cosmo Kramer

favorite episode: “the red dot” (season 3, episode 12) & “the voice” (season 9, episode 2)

2. Fleabag

Fleabag has a special place in my heart. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is a genius and this show is a testament to that. I thought season one was a great examination of what it’s like to be a woman that feels like she’s being a woman wrong. That she wants to say things and feel things that she’s not supposed to. She also doesn’t know how to handle her grief or to handle love. Then season 2 is a full-blown love story (admitted by Fleabag herself) and I LOVE it. It is so tragic, it is so beautiful, it is so comforting. It is upsetting that Fleabag finally finds someone who gets her but they have a barrier that they can’t overcome. It is one of the most heartbreaking moments of TV for me recently. “I love you.” “It’ll pass.” ARE YOU JOKING. 

favorite quote: “I want someone to tell me what to wear every morning. I want someone to tell me what to eat. What to like, what to hate, what to rage about, what to listen to, what band to like, what to buy tickets for, what to joke about, what not to joke about. I want someone to tell me what to believe in, who to vote for, and who to love, and how to tell them. I just think I want someone to tell me how to live my life, Father, because so far I think I’ve been getting it wrong.”

favorite character: fleabag, duh. but obviously the hot priest, too. 

favorite episode: series 2, episode 1

favorite ship: fleabag x the hot priest, it truly breaks my heart

1. Succession

Succession is one of the best meshes of comedy and drama that I’ve ever seen. Endlessly quote-able, at times nauseating, at times hysterical, at times the most depressing thing I’ve ever seen. A story of cycles and power and prisons. A tragedy. Witnessing these ups and downs over the past few years have been one of my favorite television experiences. It was like a new Game of Thrones for me. In a similar vein I think both shows ended the way the story demands but weren’t very satisfying in nature. (Spoilers) No one will admit it but Tom being the successor is like Bran being the King at the end for me. I loved it, though. Every minute. (I was secretly rooting for Ken but we don’t need to talk about that.)

favorite quote: all of the best quotes are between Greg and Tom. Tom’s “Are we talking to each other on the deck of a majestic schooner? Is the salty brine stinging my weather-beaten face? No? Then why the fuck are you are wearing a pair of deck shoes man?" always gets a laugh and Greg’s “It’s not like they pre-poop them” response regarding the dog poop bags. Also of course “You can’t make a Tomlette without breaking some Gregs.”

favorite character: roman roy you weird fuck 

favorite episode: “This Is Not For Tears” (season 2, episode 10) - probably my favorite episode of television ever

favorite ship: tom x greg, ken x nate somehow?? like can we go back to the line “Man, I forgot how eager you were to get laid at a party”??? also ken x stewy -- once again going back to the line “You like pancakes and waffles and you kiss guys on molly”??? kendall roy & his relationships with men will forever remain one of life’s greatest mysteries

HONORABLE MENTIONS 

House

favorite quote: "It's one of the great tragedies of life — something always changes."

favorite character: Dr. James Wilson my BELOVED !!!!!!!!

favorite episode(s): tough because i love “three stories” (season 1, episode 21) but “wilson’s heart” (season 4, episode 16) absolutely destroyed me. 

favorite ship: wilson x house ofc 

The Great British Bake Off

favorite quote: James Acaster’s “Started making it, had a breakdown.”

favorite contestant: GBBO 2020′s winner PETER (noel’s not a contestant but he’s my favorite) are you kidding me he’s so cute

favorite season: 2020 season 

Full House

look, it’s peak nostalgia. I’ve been getting back into it lately. 

favorite quote: Stephanie’s “How rude!” and Michelle’s “You’ve got it, dude!”

favorite character: Uncle Jesse. He’s easy on the eyes.

favorite episode(s): “Secret Admirer,” (season 4, episode 5) & “Silence is Not Golden” (season 6, episode 17)

favorite ship: danny x joey x jesse. don’t act like you don’t see it, too!!

Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones used to be my favorite show of all time. It was one of the only shows that kept me in anticipation every week for the next episode. It takes a lot for a TV show to do that. And I loved every minute of this show, even the last season and its ridiculousness. I’ve always felt this, but I feel like that now that we’re a few years out from the finale I think maybe if some people looked back on the last season they wouldn’t think it’s so bad. I thought the ending made sense. It was disappointing, but it made sense. I’m more upset about the character arcs reverting, ending in disappointing ways, or progressing too fast (I’m looking at you, Daenerys.) However, even when it was bad, it was still good. Just not good enough to break my top 10. Close though! That’s why I’m giving it a little speech. 

favorite quote: “Our fathers were evil men. All of us here. They left the world worse than they found it. We're not going to do that. We're going to leave the world better than we found it.” (Oh, Daenerys. You had such potential.)

favorite character: jon fucking snow 

favorite episode: “The Winds of Winter” (Season 6, episode 10)

favorite ship: jaime x brienne (we almost had it all), jon x ygritte 

Thanks for reading. What are your top ten favorite television shows?

[emperor-peach-sensation]

Hello, hullo,

I have just recently got into Lee Junho (thanks to KTL) and 2PM. While I have a general idea I want to do a deep dive starting from their earliest survival shows to debut, to their concerts and variety. And I wanted to keep a journal of my journey.

I will also be honest about my thoughts and feelings.

I had known of 2PM and heard a few of their songs in passing (tho never listened to the full songs to be honest). I had stayed away from 2PM as I thought they were not for me, the stsge outfits, ripping of shirts on stage performances was off-putting - I was never a big fan of hypermasculinity (I had only seen a few scenes here and there at this point).

I was also not a big fan of kpop since the popular tracks I checked out back in the day was not to my liking. But I started to find songs that are more my taste later on, which were more 3rd/4th gen groups. Since I didn't have much fun on my earlier checks I didn't think of diving into older groups.

Oh but of course that changed.

One fine sunday on June I decided to check this new drama everyone was hyping about: King the Land. The 2nd episode had just aired and Ibsaw one of the leads was an actor on my radar: Lee Junho.

I kept hearing about Junho since 2021, all praises how hood of an idol-actor he is and so on. Whenever I see these kind of comments I note the names down to check later. I noted Junho's name down, I kept hearing how hoid he was and how great this historical drama Red Sleeve was. And on top of it he swept all the awards for TRS. Now I was curious, but not being a big fan of historical dramas I waited for his next project.

Yes I could have watched his earlier works but I wasnt feeling like it and had other hyperfixations going on.

So, KTL... I decided to check it out for a few episodes. Since I'm not a big romcom drama fan my prediction was to drop it in 4 to 6 eps in (because of the premise I was expecting a rich asshole abusing the FL in work environment with the drama romanticising it).

The moment I saw Junho acting I was gone, it didn't even take me a minute. Man's micro expressions are crazy. Instantly obsessed. So between KTL episodes I started watching his filmography, 'accidentally' expanding these watchs to his idol works. And 1.5 month later I have watched everthing (about to finish memory, which was the last on my list) have a general idea of 2PM, know their title songs, watched a few stages & squeezed in a concert. I have discovered I love their stages more than the recorded versions. They give so much energy, I wish I could watch them live, at least once...

A few of my favourites of them are: make it, hot, merry go round, Go crazy, I'm your man, adtoy, this is love, kimi ga ireba...

Now as the 15th anniversary concert is approaching I wanted to start my deep dive into 2PM. I have been gathering links to contents and putting them in a chronological order. 15 years is a long time and there are a lot of vids out there. I am scouring different youtube channels and putting the links on my excel - it feels like this is never ending but yay to hyeprfixations (I have over 4K links saved but it's still missing a lot).

As I start to watch everything in order, starting from 2006, I will also share my thoughts here. It will be a looooong journey but it will also be fun one as it lasts.

So, let's go!

[submissivegayfrenchboy]

Have you written many stories that focus on the domestic service a boy provides his King, even better if there’s zero reward/relief for the boy?

Love your stuff btw

10 / 06 / 2023

ASK ANSWERED

This is a really interesting question! I wrote a lot of stories about Kings and their servants. I do love writing about this kind of relationship because the King have all power on his servants. I wrote about fictional Kings from comics, fairytales, movies, or alpha celebs.

But maybe you didn't meant Kings as rulers, but to talk about someone who act like one. In that case, I've also wrote a lot about superior men worshipped by fags / losers.

These stories are good examples of what is closed to what you described in your message, but i couldn't linked them all (Tumblr only allow 10 links in a message).

I've tried to chose stories about different tone, universes, characters, and kinks. But they share the fact that it included chores and dominant masters who doesn't care of the subs / fags / losers who work for them.

It's a story about a gay couple who serves a straight white alpha man during Pride Month and do housechores just to be able to see him. At the end, they aren't the only ones to do housechores for him. Who am i talking about? Well, you know what you have to do to discover it! It's one of my best stories 😁

Story about rich people domination where two nerds are serving their alpha best friend's family at Thanksgiving. Truly humiliating story (sissy, feet worship, alpha couple...) written with my dear friend and co-author @leftprogrammingroadtripdean. The two boys are forced to do housechores.

My story about Noah Beck being King of faggots and uses most of them as domestic slaves. A lot of humiliations for one of my longest stories, one the most sadistic ones. This story is really important because a lot of others stories are linked to this one (for exemple KJ Apa travel to Noah Beck's island in the story focused on the actor KJ Apa). Here, Noah Beck make his fags slaves do a lot of chores, even the most degrading ones.

Story about a best friend who is so in adoration with his own best friend that he become his literal dog! A lot of humiliations! And the boy perform a lot of chores for his best friend and his hot girlfriend and also to.... You'll need to read it to finds out! 😜

This story is something i never expected to write someday because i haven't watched the TV series in particular, but one scene inspired me. It's about shoe licking. A poor boy worship a old but hot sadistic rich man.

A young gay fragile boy serves his fat boss who is very dominant and uses him as a chair ! It was inspired by a french movie, and what i find very humiliating here is that the boy is ashamed of liking it and at the same time he dislikes being humiliated! He is forced to do chores (scrubbing toilets, floors)

If i had to make a list about the most sadistic stories i wrote, this one would be in the Top 5 because it's cruel and humilating! Poors are considered as inferiors and richs peoples are the masters! The poorest guys in the HIERARCHY UNIVERSITY I invented are forced to perform the lowest chores and guys from the middle class are still slaves. You are searching for cruel humiliations! Here is a story where there is no love / tenderness!

I wanted to include at least one HUMILIATED BY A CELEBRITY story, since i wrote so many. This one is about the famous Portuguese football player CHRISTIANO RONALDO. Here he is a sadistic dominant alpha male who become King of Portugal and uses fags as slaves to make his chores.

This story tells a story of a very rich white boy who humiliates his servants for being poors and ugly. Lot of social sadism content!

A story about a gay old feet pervert man who wants to become the servant of a man as long as he lets him worship his huge feet! 🤣 He performs housechores just to lick his feet.

I could have includ a lot of others stories, but here are some of the main stories about chores and Kings who treats badly the slaves.

I hope you'll like them and please don't hesitate to like, reblog and comment them 🙏

On Deviantart you'll find all my stories related to Kings

https://www.deviantart.com/submissivegayfrench/gallery/86459769/kings-and-princes

If you have requests and questions about stories about chores and Kings, don't hesitate 😁

@awesome-male-alpha @mastermedit @awesomethisisausername-blog @tidodore2 @feet-supreme @torinya @rainykpoptravelcreator @innerpiratefun @lovefanfiction01 @gayhopefullove @masterslavecommunity @fartfagoutlet @leftprogrammingroadtripdean @fagformen @fagsworshipalphas @alphastraightmale @faggotscometoworship @betaloser8 @betafaggot4alpha @mastersandslaves @superiorstraightwhiteman @feet2eat

[ryanreynoldsfangirl]

Ryan Reynolds' Career

Today's hot topic is.... guess who? Ryan Reynolds! (his career but who cares.)

The charming, affable, and boyishly handsome Reynolds has made his way through everyone's hearts. His captivating personality and his witty humor never fails to amaze the crowd, be it teenagers or people old enough to be his grandmother.

HIS DEBUT ROLE IN THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY

At the young age of 15, Ryan made his debut as Billy Simpson in the Canadian teen soap opera, Hillside, in 1991. The show lasted till 1993. Along with that, his journey in Hollywood began from the movie Ordinary Magic in 1993. He played the 15-year-old Ganesh who was born and brought up in India. Hinduism and Mahatma Gandhi's teachings highly influenced his character in this movie.

(WE KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING. EVEN WE'RE LOSING OUR SANITY OVER THIS!!!!!)

(Look at our lil' floatie-floatie boy <3333)

Anywaaaaay.

Reynolds had a few supporting parts in films and TV shows. Because he no longer wanted to play an adolescent, he declined the role of Xander in Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003). (Terrible fate, we know.) Instead, he was cast in the ABC comedy Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place as medical student Berg (1998–2001).

His role in the comedy The In-Laws marked his entry into the world of high-budget entertainment. He had an appearance in The X-Files episode titled Syzygy. He also made an appearance as the letter 'A' in the A-Team, in the 4225th episode of the popular kids show Sesame Street.

(THIS IS OUR LITTLE ANGRY A-BOY.)

Now the more exciting part,

HIS MOVIES!

When it comes to effortless charisma and wry wit, it's hard to top Canadian charmer Reynolds. But even though the Vancouver-born actor is mostly unchallenged in those categories, it took a while for him to take off as a bonafide movie star. After a decade of hit-or-miss comedies, Reynolds eventually hit the bullseye with 2016's Deadpool, marking the perfect use of his naughty humor and comic delivery.

(Our top G Ryan as Deadpool *rock 'n' roll*)

Deadpool is regarded as one of the best superhero movies of all time and quickly became the highest earning R-Rated film ever, only beaten by Joker in 2019.

A few of his most adorable films include 'Definitely, Maybe' (2008), The Proposal (2009), The Change-Up (2011), and Just Friends (2005).

He's got many spectacular action movies under his belt. A few of them include, The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017) with top-rated co-star Samuel L. Jackson, 6 Underground (2019), Free Guy (2021), Red Notice (2021), and The Adam Project (2022).

Let's not forget his role as Harvey Kinkle (with the bad hair, ew, but he's cute so we'll take it.) in the movie Sabrina The Teenage Witch (1996).

And then there are a few movies which weren't very well received by his audience. These include R.I.P.D. (2013), Amityville Horror (2005), Green Lantern (2011), and Turbo (2013).

Moving on....

AWARDS HE'S RECEIVED OVER THE YEARS.

Our gorgeous superstar Ryan has received many notable awards as his career progressed. The first ever award he received was in 2003, it was the 'Young Hollywood Award for Next Generation - Male'. Then came an award for his role in Green Lantern - 'People's Choice Award for Favorite Superhero' in 2012, even though this movie was met with conflicting reviews, Reynolds managed to win different hearts by doing what he always does. Turn his charm on. (We AREN'T complaining at all.) A huge number of awards followed his movie Deadpool, which was a major box office hit. One for Best Entertainer in a Comedy Movie, and another for Entertainer of The Year.

Here's Ryan accepting the People's Icon Award at the People's Choice Awards 2022. (Look at his adorable smile, we all love him here at Ganesh Lovers' Community.)

Reynolds' has had a total of 60 nominations and 21 wins in his Hollywood career, which is actually quite a lot.

HIS PERSONAL LIFE

Childhood

Reynolds was raised in a Vancouver Irish Catholic home as the youngest of four boys. His parents were police officers and his mother worked in retail. Two of his brothers work in law enforcement, while a third is a member of the RCMP. From 1940 until 1944, his grandfather Chester Reynolds served as a legislator for Stettler, Alberta, as a member of the Social Credit Party.

Love Life

He was engaged to singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette from June 2004 to February 2007, when they called off their engagement.

Ryan with Alanis.

Shortly after, Reynolds started dating actress Scarlett Johansson, with whom he married on September 27, 2008, at a resort in Clayoquot Sound, close to Ucluelet, British Columbia. In December 2010, they divorced and filed for separation.

Ryan with Scarlett.

He started dating Blake Lively, his Green Lantern co-star, in 2011, and the two got married on September 9, 2012.

Ryan with Blake.

Children

Ryan and Blake have three daughters together: James (born in 2014), Inez (born in 2016), and Betty (born in 2020). Betty’s name was publicly revealed by a close friend, Taylor Swift in her song of the same name from the album Folklore.

Them with their three kids. (Our mini Ryan's and Blake's <3)

Personal Achievements

In 2008 and 2009, People magazine ranked Reynolds as one of the sexiest men alive. He was named the magazine's sexiest man alive in 2010.

He was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2011, but the event was postponed since he couldn't make it. (Kinda depressing, TBH.) The day of his official induction was October 18, 2014.

But in December of 2016, Reynolds was honored with a star of his on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

(They're the cutest, seriously.)

Let's move on to....

HIS CHARITY AND ADVOCACY WORK

(This is kind of lengthy, bear with us.)

He's a humble and down-to-earth man, at least from what we've heard, and with the help of his super incredible wifey Blake, they make the power duo and set foot on Earth to save a few souls here and there. Here are a few of their contributions:

A half-million dollars were given to the Canadian nonprofit Water First Education & Training Inc. in March 2022 by Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively. 

In Vancouver, Canada, Reynolds also appeared in campaign videos sporting his recognizable "ugly" red-and-green sweater. By January 2021, according to the charity, $640,000 had been raised as a result of his fundraising efforts.

In March 2021, Reynolds and Lively gave $250,000 to a Canadian organization that mentored Indigenous youngsters, Influence Mentoring. 

Reynolds and his wife had also matched donations made to Covenant House Vancouver and Toronto up to a total of $250,000 in a remarkable gesture of generosity to help youngsters who are homeless, victims of trafficking, or in danger, back when COVID-19 had first struck.

Reynolds joined The Michael J. Fox Foundation in 2008 when he participated in Team Fox's New York City Marathon run. Reynolds ran the marathon in his father's memory, finishing in under four hours and raising more than $100,000 for Parkinson research.

And lastly,

HIS ALCOHOL COMPANY AVIATION GIN

As we see his posts on social media promoting his gin company:

Let's give you a brief history on the company and his role in it.

The goal of Aviation Gin was to develop a democratic gin blend with juniper in the background. It was formed in 2006 out of Portland, Oregon. a gin that is suitable for every cocktail. For the next ten years, it would remain mostly unknown.

Fast forward to 2018, when gin use was growing more rapidly than that of any other type of alcohol. This led to substantial changes in the sector, such as Reynolds buying a stake in the Aviation American Gin.  Reynolds is the creative director for the marketing campaign, and it is spectacularly successful (Aviation Gin is now the fastest-growing gin brand in America). How could it not? Reynold is a comic genius who conveys important messages about the quality of gin in the funniest, most approachable ways conceivable. Here's one of his advertisements for the company:

Hilarious! Are we right?!

Ah, sadly we have to end this splendid deep dive into our favorite floatie-boy Ryan Reynold's life here, but! We're not signing off without blessing your eyes with a few photos of his ;)

Your welcome.

Anyway, signing off, it's the dream team, Ganesh Lovers (get it?).

Adios till our next blog!

[mariacallous]

Using the U.S. military in Mexico to deal with the fentanyl crisis in the United States is the hot new policy solution for lots of U.S. politicians. The top three Republican presidential candidates have endorsed using the U.S. military to fight Mexican cartels. Similarly, Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw, the newly appointed chair of a congressional task force for countering Mexican cartels, announced recently that “Colombia is the model” for what Washington needs to do in Mexico.

Crenshaw is the author of a bill in Congress authorizing the use of military force against Mexican cartels or any actor “carrying out other related activities that cause regional destabilization in the Western Hemisphere.” He argues that the “American partnership” with Colombia helped make the country safer today than it was 25 years ago and that this provides a model for dealing with Mexican cartels:

“We need to somehow figure out diplomatically how to make this Mexico’s idea. That they’re asking for our military support, such as close air support, such as an AC-130 gunship overhead while they’re prosecuting a target and surrounded by sicarios. … If I was in that situation as a Navy SEAL, we would just call in close air support, all those guys would be gone, and we’d move along our merry way.”

This is bad analysis on a number of levels: bad history, bad economics, and bad political science. Since Crenshaw has volunteered himself as an expert on Colombia—he went to high school there—and its lessons for fighting the war on drugs with the U.S. military, we can start with his proposals.

In an Instagram post, Crenshaw stated, “Anyone who has watched Narcos knows that the Colombia of 30 years ago looked a lot like Mexico does today.”

The problem with that theory—beyond its reliance on a Netflix series to formulate U.S. foreign policy—is twofold. To begin with, if you consider annual homicide rates, today’s Mexico looks an awful lot like today’s Colombia. In 2021, Mexico had 28 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, whereas Colombia’s rate was 27. This convergence—Mexico’s homicide rate surpassed Colombia’s for the first time in 2017—is certainly bad news for the former country, whose homicide rate was 8 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2007, one year after then-President Felipe Calderón deployed Mexican Army troops to fight the drug cartels. Nonetheless, despite seeing its homicide rate more than triple in less than two decades, Mexico is still nowhere near Colombia’s levels of violence during the Narcos era of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the country reached the alarming rate of 85 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Comparing Mexico’s violence in 2023 to that of Colombia in 1993 borders on the preposterous.

Crenshaw’s argument also overlooks that Colombia today is slipping back to the 1990s, when the country, under siege from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a narco-guerrilla group, was on the verge of becoming a failed state. Although the homicide rate remains comparatively low, large swaths of the national territory are still under the control of the FARC and other illegal armed groups, which are expanding their spheres of influence. In May, the U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory to warn that three of the country’s 32 departments (the equivalent of U.S. states)—Cauca in the country’s southwest, Arauca and Norte de Santander in eastern Colombia—were high-risk areas due to widespread organized criminal activities including homicide, assault, armed robbery, extortion, and kidnapping.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, seven different armed conflicts are now taking place in Colombia (an increase from six in 2022). While the Colombian state battles the FARC, the National Liberation Army (ELN), and the Clan del Golfo, the latter armed group is waging its own war against the ELN. The FARC, meanwhile, is fighting two of its own splinter groups, Segunda Marquetalia and Comandos de la Frontera, the latter of which operates along extensive parts of the Venezuelan border. Finally, the FARC and the ELN, both communist narco-guerrilla groups, are facing off against each other for control over Arauca, a department that also controls key access routes into Venezuela.

Although each of the unofficial armed actors takes part in illegal mining, extortion, and other criminal activities, their main source of financing—and the main source of the conflicts among them—is the cocaine trade. The major difference between the situation now and that of the 1990s is that no single group enjoys a monopoly over the drug trade while waging an all-out war against the state, as the FARC then did. Instead, a multitude of armed actors fight both the state and one another over strategic coca-growing areas and export routes.

It is true that, overall, the conflict now has a lower intensity than in the 1990s, but Crenshaw’s thesis that Colombia is a safer, more peaceful place today than it was when he lived there at the turn of the century is valid only up to a point. For the population in entire departments like Arauca, Norte de Santander, and Cauca, the security situation is no less lethal now than two or three decades ago. It is unquestionable that the change in strategy in Bogotá and the assistance from Washington helped the Colombian military in its struggle against insurgent groups. But this misses the point.  From a U.S. perspective, the reason for getting involved in the first place was to stanch the flow of cocaine into the United States. As seen above, that objective was not attained. From Colombia’s perspective, the tactical victory provided a some Colombians refuge from the conflict, but the country is still afflicted by the endemic violence that plagues countries stuck in the middle of the drug war.

The last four years have also seen a resurgence of the type of violence that struck the country when the Medellín Cartel and the FARC were at the apex of their powers. In 2019, the ELN carried out a deadly terrorist attack against the National Police Academy in Bogotá, killing 21 with the detonation of a car bomb. In March, the ELN attacked a military base in Norte de Santander with explosives, leaving nine soldiers dead. The FARC, meanwhile, recently reestablished its 53rd Front in Sumapaz, a rural locality of Bogotá, thus reviving dark memories of 1999, when the terrorist group threatened the Colombian capital itself.

Given the persistence of armed groups financed with cocaine proceeds and the continuation of drug-fueled violence in Colombia, it is telling that Crenshaw, while heralding Colombia as a model for U.S. policy in Mexico, does not mention cocaine once. That was the reason the United States got involved in Colombia in the first place. In the 1980s and into the 1990s, there was an enormous increase in the flow of powder and then crack cocaine into U.S. cities. U.S. politicians concluded that the solution was to use U.S. military aid to help solve problems inside Colombia, drying up the supply of the drug at the source. As a result, under Plan Colombia and its successor counter-narcotics programs, nearly $12 billion was dedicated to helping the Colombian military eradicate coca leaf and undermine actors participating in the cocaine trade between 2000 and 2021.

Unfortunately, as an Office of National Drug Control Policy study showed in October 2008, cocaine prices in the United States consistently declined in the 1980s, and then remained relatively flat throughout the 1990s. The idea of attacking the drug supply at the source relies on the idea that interdiction will reduce availability and drive prices up, limiting consumption and negative consequences at home. If price is not even increasing, that is proof positive that a supply-side model is not working.

The large expenditure of American taxpayer money in Colombia did nothing to halt the spread of coca crops, illicit drug production, or the continuous export of cocaine to the United States. On the contrary, coca cultivation in Colombia increased between 2000 and 2020, from roughly 136,000 planted hectares to a record 245,000. In this sense, Plan Colombia’s counter-narcotics element can be seen as an utter failure, even if its military component did help the Colombian military launch an effective offensive against the FARC in the 2000s.

That is why Crenshaw’s soliloquy on how Colombia should be a model for our policy in Mexico is so strange. The U.S. government failed to solve the cocaine problem, but Crenshaw now heralds the “Colombia model” as an unqualified success. The reason we went into Colombia in the first place, cocaine, just fell out of the story altogether. The “do something!” impulse in U.S. foreign policy is strong, but surely a proposed solution to a problem should be able to pass scrutiny better than this.

Colombia’s drug war has proved to be a Sisyphean struggle, with each victory against the dominant drug cartel leaving a power vacuum that is quickly filled by new drug cartels. The Medellín Cartel’s fall led to the rise of the Cali Cartel, whose own demise allowed the FARC and a series of paramilitary groups to take over the cocaine business.

Between 2002 and 2010, then-President Álvaro Uribe’s government successfully fought the FARC, but this was undercut by the fact that it was impossible to do away fully with the FARC’s main source of financing (cocaine). Hence, the FARC, despite heavy blows to its leadership structure, didn’t surrender fully and was able to outlast Uribe’s government. Uribe’s successor, Juan Manuel Santos, negotiated with the FARC and amnestied its leadership, yet only a part of the FARC demobilized in 2016. The rest, known locally as FARC dissidents, remained up in arms and, as mentioned, remain fully immersed in the drug trade.

As shown above, this hardly made a dent on the supply of cocaine to the United States. If anything, the fentanyl problem is even more daunting. Cocaine is much more expensive and difficult to produce than fentanyl. During Plan Colombia, U.S. and Colombian pilots sprayed more than a million acres of Colombian territory with glyphosate in an attempt to eradicate coca crops. Fentanyl is produced on a much smaller scale with comparatively tiny amounts of precursor chemicals that are easy to obtain. Fentanyl could be produced in meaningful quantities almost anywhere. Even if Mexico stopped producing any fentanyl, there is little reason to believe U.S. supply would evaporate.

And the profit margins are astounding: According to an indictment of the Sinaloa Cartel in the Southern District of New York in April, $800 of fentanyl precursor chemicals can produce up to $640,000 worth of retail value in U.S. cities. Even if greater interdiction cuts into those margins, they are large enough to absorb a lot of pressure.

As an unintended result of the drug war, Mexico has already become a heavily militarized country. As one of us has previously noted, the tendency has increased dramatically under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has put the army in charge of infrastructure projects, customs duties at ports and airports, gasoline and fertilizer distribution, school textbook deliveries, and the provision of hospital materials, among other mundane or strictly logistical tasks that, even in many Latin American countries, fall well outside the military sphere.

In 2019, López Obrador created the National Guard, a new branch of the armed forces with over 100,000 regulars (compared to less than 150,000 in the army proper). In recent years, influential members of the armed forces have waded into politics, thus breaking the decadeslong tradition of an apolitical military. If anything, the United States should refrain from abetting any further militarization of Mexico. Plans to further involve the U.S. military against Mexico’s drug cartels, however, would likely add fuel to the fire.

A final word might bear mentioning, since Crenshaw referenced the Netflix series Narcos. The series continues after the denouement of the Medellín and Cali cartels in Colombia. There is a second series, set in Mexico. The first episode sets the scene quite clearly, with DEA agent Walt Breslin growling over a spliced cut of grim drug war clips:

“I’m going to tell you a story, but I’ll be honest: It doesn’t have a happy ending. In fact, it doesn’t have an ending at all. … It’s about … a war. … A drug war. The kind that’s easy to forget is happening, until you realize that in the last 30 years in Mexico, it’s killed half a million people—and counting. … I can’t tell you how the drug war ends. Man, I can’t even tell you if it ends.”

Crenshaw, and the leading Republican candidates for president, want you to believe that they have a plan for how the drug war in Mexico ends.

Ask yourself: Should you believe them?