#versus villain

[shykpop]

Dreamcatcher "villainS" #02 icons

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[why-so-serious-lucifer]

K-pop Discography Deep Dives: Dreamcatcher (Part ONE)

A Disclaimer: I was planning, when I first started Tumblr, to be a lurker, but then I began an office job and needed something to listen to to keep myself occupied. And then, I started going through entire K-pop groups’ repertoires, album by album, and jotting down my thoughts. And then, I stumbled into K-pop tumblr and decided, you know what, there’s at least four people on this hell site who would read in depth rants about these discographies and at least five who wouldn’t read it and then get mad because it’s kind of our job as K-pop fans. My lukewarm takes should be taken with an entire silo of salt and the knowledge that this is completely for fun and occupying my very bored, very neurodivergent brain. All this to say, for the love of god, I’m a sleep-deprived student and I don’t have time for internet hate, so don’t kill me. With that being said, enjoy!

Here are my credentials: I’m a HUGE fan of Dreamcatcher, and have been an Insomnia since mid-2021 or so, just after the release of BEcause. They were actually the first concert I’ve ever been to, and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience for that. They totally gave their all for those two hours and I ended up loving them even more afterward. I’m even considering going again if they have another tour.

Dreamcatcher debuted in early 2017, so they’re nearing their 7th anniversary (breaking K-pop’s infamous curse), with 7 members: JiU, SuA, Yoohyeon, Gahyeon, Handong, Dami, and Siyeon. Handong was not involved in their 2020 comebacks due to being in her home country of China when COVID broke out, but she’s since returned. They have very complicated storylines which I won’t be going too deeply into here besides when I think a specific song’s meaning in context is important to mention.

Their first single was Chase Me, which starts with a deceptively lovely piano and very typical for-late-3rd-gen-vocals. I was surprised by how k-poppy the song sounded, at least in its early stages and verses, but this was their debut after all. A lot of their early work is slowly stepping out of k-pop convention, one step at a time, although a sound all their own wouldn’t come for a couple songs. Any worries I had were assuaged by such a strong chorus, especially the combination of the bridge just before the last one.

Good Night immediately stands out from the often overly-bubbly, aegyo-filled 2017 k-pop landscape with its creepy ticking clock, marionette-like dance moves and an almost violent electric guitar riff. This time the guitar continues through the whole song, so there’s no fear of it sounding same-y. I’ll probably say this many times in this review, but I just can’t get over how well-suited DC’s vocals are to this rock sound, which isn’t always the case for other groups I’ve seen with a rock concept. The distorted voices in the bridge are a nice touch too. The b-side Lullaby is actually quite lovely, and is a good showcase for their voices in a more soothing context.

Fly High is a poppier sound for Dreamcatcher, although still with more of a rock base than is usual in k-pop, which does make sense as it’s supposed to be a prequel to their much darker storyline. I’ve heard it described before as a bit like an anime theme song, and I’d have to agree, especially the “I can make it!” combined with the strings, lighter electric guitar, and super high power note. Even with a bit of a sound change, Dreamcatcher never slows down their energy, which is something I really appreciate. They always sound like they wholeheartedly believe what they’re selling.

From the EP, Prequel, there are a few great b-sides I could choose (like the off-beat Sleep-walking), but I’m gonna have to say that Wake Up is my favorite. I’m totally biased, but I’ll just never forget the experience of watching them have the absolute best time performing this live for their encore and jumping into the stratosphere while waving a pride flag back and forth. It’s an anthem that needs an audience, first and foremost, and there’s really nothing more exciting than screaming “Wake up, wake up!” at the top of your lungs.

Full Moon is a special single for their first anniversary, and I won’t spend too much time on it, but I really like how it combines that anime-esque energy from Fly High, a harsher electric guitar, EDM, and some ballad elements. It’s a style that DC returns to later in their career, and it’s fun to see a slightly less complicated version here. I never gave this song much of a chance before so I’m glad I did now.

You & I is next in the “Nightmare” saga, and is probably both the most popular of that arc and the most similar to a lot of mainstream k-pop (which I do like, I want to be clear about that. This is not an attack on mainstream k-pop, guys, I run a blog about it.). Maybe it’s a product of that, but in such a strong catalogue it doesn’t really stand out to me. All of DC’s songs add other elements to their rock sound like EDM, pop, metal, or even a flute (we’ll get to that), but You & I is pretty straightforward, as are its lyrics. The chorus and the opening hook are both pretty good, I will admit, and always get me at least nodding to the song. Again, I in no way even dislike this one, and I’m not going to skip it if I’m doing a re-listen or if it comes up on shuffle, but I just never find myself going out of my way to listen to it.

Though the title isn’t my favorite, I quite like the EP Escape The Era. Which a Star may be an average b-side but it's really elevated by their voices and its twinkling instrumentation, while Scar takes some lovely strings and some crushing electric guitars and somehow turns itself from a rock song into a ballad and right back again. Mayday, meanwhile, is much like Wake Up with its anthemic answer, and immediately gets me headbanging to its hook.

WHAT starts with a tense energy right out of the gate with those strings, and in what may be DC’s best first 20 seconds of a song, it culminates in an excellent electric guitar riff that would feel right at home in a BabyMetal song. When the song returns to “normal” after, it only adds to the sense of “wrong” and foreboding…until the chorus smashes through a brick wall with perfect metal anthem energy. In case it wasn’t clear, I love this song and it’s tied for my favorite. You just can’t do much better than a song encouraging people to wake up, fight their nightmares, and live another day, which is one of my personal favorite song subjects.

In a switch from Escape The Era, I love What but Alone In The City is one of my least-favorite of their albums. That being said, I do like the contrast between acoustic and electric guitars in Trap, and its build up is pretty great. But I usually have more than one liked b-side.

Over The Sky is another special single and returns to the softer, more string and pop-rock led base (or “anime theme”, I suppose). It feels much happier than a lot of Dreamcatcher’s singles, and is a nice break in between their very heavy discography. I especially like the twinkling quality of its background piano.

PIRI is the end of their nightmare saga, and is a continuation of the defiance seen in What. It’s named after a traditional Korean flute that the song uses to say “sound the alarm (piri), emergency, emergency.” This is the first time rap is incorporated in its own (albeit short) verse, and I think the combination works quite well. The inclusion of the flute in the background is something I’ve never heard in a song before, but its shrillness provides a good contrast to the very low guitar and drums and Dreamcatcher’s voices sitting in the middle, perfectly capturing the song’s whole idea of being stuck in between light and dark. Overall, a fitting finale.

From PIRI’s EP The End Of Nightmares, while I do really like the sweetness of the ballad Daydream, Diamond was an easy choice for me. It has quite a minimalistic chorus, which normally I’m not the biggest fan of (for evidence, look at any review I’ve ever written to hear me decry the existence of anti-drops), but here it’s to let the great guitar hook and electronic background have some time to be appreciated and its fuller pre and post-choruses make up for it.

Deja Vu is a special single made for a game collaboration, so perhaps one would assume it to be a usual ballad or easily-overlooked piece of a great discography. One would assume very, very wrong. I assumed this, when I heard the first, very slow verse and the backing piano. Deja Vu definitely leans more into melancholy than most of their singles, but it's really at the end of the pre-chorus where the band comes in and DC goes full-on rock ballad that it begins to sound like them.The song is a slow burn, definitely, but the incredible catharsis at the end is totally worth it. Just go watch the music video itself, which is full of delightful drama and betrayal, and can best be described as “Macbeth, if it was gay, Korean, and magical.” You’re welcome.

Raid Of Dream, the EP, was also produced for the game, but the mix of metal clashing and delicate vocals in Silent Night, the backing piano for the full-on ballad Polaris, and the return of the anime theme (plus guitar solo!!) in the call-to-action that is Curse Of The Spider render it quite a strong album in their greater discography.

I don’t normally dive too deeply into Japanese releases, but, like with Taemin, Dreamcatcher’s offer an interesting expansion on their work. Endless Night starts with much harsher rock than most of their singles, while Breaking Out features a surprisingly chill tropical beat, and No More goes full now-or-never nu metal with guitar riffs that would make Babymetal proud.

R. o. S. E. BLUE is another special single produced for a game, and does lead into the more ballady side of k-pop soundtrack songs, but without sacrificing Dreamcatcher’s rock edges. It, like Deja Vu, is a slow burn that doesn’t seem to have much energy at first, but builds up to it through its great pre-choruses. It’s definitely not as good as Deja Vu (few things are), but does remind me of later-stage Gfriend’s more dramatic and celestial sound, and the music video follows JiU attempting to rescue her friends from the magical prison their minds are trapped in, at the expense of herself.

So that’s where we’ll end it for now, being around halfway through. I mentioned last time in my TXT review that this was supposed to be a one-parter and became two, but the second one is basically done and will be coming out in a few days (after I listen to the new album), not a week from now, and I won’t be doing supplementals. Apologies to the five people who actually read those, lol. So, I’ll see you next time for Part Two. Tschüss!

[moni-byul]

only dc can make me like edm cause DAMN. I’m pumpin my fist on the couch over here 😭

[piosplayhouse]

[Qi Qingqi x Yu Ziyuan] What could have been

(alt text)

[johnbleepingzoidberg]

WELL.

evil weegee.

idea where luigi becomes evil one way or another (i’m into the idea of it being a wish-turned-curse-situation) and mario and bowser have to team up to figure out wtf happened and to stop luigi from causing mass destruction.

bowuigi bonus: relationship is pre-established meaning luigi is ruling koopa kingdom alongside bowser. perhaps luigi is self-conscious and feels like he isn’t seen as a leader, leading luigi to make a well-intentioned wish to be taken more seriously. the wish is warped and turns into a curse, turning him into a wicked ruler that takes over koopa kingdom, and his subordinates follow him out of fear rather than respect, when deep down respect is really all he wanted. it starts internally by luigi kinda turning against bowser (confusing the hell out of the poor guy) and just gets worse from there. bowser’s dismayed because both his husband and his kingdom have been yoinked away from him, so he begrudgingly has to team up with mario and peach and whoever else to get everything back.🤠

i kinda wanna write a whole fic now but i honestly am not as well-versed in mario lore as i used to be and haven’t played any of the games in years 😭😭 but ngl drawing evil luigi was fun. low key been in love with luigi since i was 8 years old so it was quite cathartic for me

EDIT: guys i know Mr L exists 😩 i knew of him when i drew this but not exactly who he was/what he did. but i still wanna try to make my own thing here/try to differentiate them LOL. there can be multiple flavors of evil right

flats under the cut because i’m not entirely happy with how the lighting turned out 😩

[itsmyfriendisaac]

InuYasha: an adolescent girl slips into feudal era Japan & is tasked with collecting scattered fragments of the precious Shikon Jewel. Kagome survives several dangerous encounters with yōkai along the journey thanks to her companion, a hot-headed half demon!

[bleue-flora]

There has been a lot of discussion regarding c!Quackity, c!Tommy and c!Dream recently, a good portion stemming from the recent video circling around, where it is depicted that c!Tommy not only knew of c!Quackity’s torture but approved.

But while I could write an essay about it (ok yea I did…but) instead I want to shift the focus a bit, away from the same debates we keep having year after year. Because I think we’ve become too focused on the characters themselves over the audience's perception of them and too focused on morality, justification, and right and wrong in a story where everyone is morally questionable. Because at the end of the day it isn’t whether c!Dream or c!Tommy were actually right or justified, it is about - Who you root for and why. It is about (you) the audience's perception of the characters, not the characters’ perceptions of each other. Sure, c!Tommy himself feels justified in hurting c!Dream but do you believe he was.

With that thought in mind I found myself reading a 24 page research paper last night on a psychological study that looked at what an audience defines as the hero and villain. Why they are naturally pulled to like certain characters and hate others. What the audience’s classification of morality in regard to the characters of fiction where the conditions of morality are often not defined. One of the things shown in the data and line up to real life is that at the end of the day, heroes and villains are not defined on true purity and morality itself. If they were, action heroes and anti-heroes wouldn’t be successful and enticing. And yet, anti-heroes are some of the most beloved characters. In fact, I for one am typically drawn to violent anti-heroes, some of which are the heroes despite being perhaps sadistic murderers and torturers. But if the audience doesn’t simply define hero and villain as ‘good’ and ‘evil’ then what is pulling us toward taking one side over the other.

The answer is actually more complex than you might think. According to this paper, the first thing taken into consideration in a viewer’s appeal or unappeal of a character has to do with what the viewer considers “appropriate behavior.” Simply put, “appropriateness” is basically a social judgment which serves to approve or disapprove of a character’s behavior. This can be based on many things, such as cultural norms, societal code of conduct, your personal morals or experiences. And I think this is key, because I for one see stealing and griefing when I play Minecraft as seriously hurtful things to do (even though you can always rebuild). To the point that if you blow up the house I spent hours building or take my items it can ruin the fun for me entirely. So my definition of the appropriateness of such behavior might differ from people who take those things much more light-heartedly, causing me to disapprove of c!Tommy more than they would for that behavior.

Even further, when it comes to determining their appropriateness of behavior as in whether we tend to approve or disapprove of them we can look at moral domains, which spark our moral intuition instead of simply categorizing everything into ‘good’ or ‘bad’ since not even our subconscious brain is always so black and white. In the research I read, they looked at two sets of domains (aka sets of relating attributes used to measure and compare): The person-perception domains of Warmth (tolerant, friendly, warm, polite, gentle, trustworthy), Competence (intelligence, cleverness, opposite of stupidity, efficiency) and Duplicity (mad, tormented, violent, and tragic), which help to measure our perception of morality in characters as well as the five moral domains of MFT - harm/care (concerned with the suffering of others and empathy), fairness/reciprocity (related to justice), authority/respect (related to hierarchy and dominance), ingroup/loyalty (common good and punitiveness toward outsiders), purity/sanctity (concerned with contamination). According to the research behind these domains, we, the viewer, evaluate characters immediately and without cognitive deliberation. In other words, when characters fulfill domains it sticks with us and when they violate domains it can send out major red flags to us as soon as it happens without us thinking about it, not later in more considerate retrospect. So then, it makes sense that now as we debate we struggle to find common ground because our judgment was made ages ago and it's hard to reason with our already defined moral intuition.

As such, since I started getting into the dsmp first by watching all of the recordings of previous streams in order in this one playlist then going onto watching all of the blueberrytv videos (at the time of course), which edit the streams to allow you to see things from multiple perspectives. Therefore, I watched things from the very beginning, back when it was just c!George and c!Dream goofing off and dying in the nether. So, my intuitive judgment of c!Dream involves him building the community house, always trying to keep the peace between his friends, exploring the world so he can bring back all the types for wood for people to build with, building the prime path to connect everyone's houses together to make for easier travel, rebuilding Tubbo’s house after c!Tommy burned it down, helping c!Ponk when people kept burning down his house. These are just some of the moments I suspect helped to form my evaluation of him. Showing him as being very empathetic and caring, being loyal to his friends and accepting of new people, being a mediator and trying to keep things fair between his friends, fulfilling at least 3 (since he kinda is the authority that is hard to classify) of the moral domains. The streams also depicted the characteristics with warmth as well as competence and intelligence. So immediately my perceptive moral intuition deemed him the hero. As he fulfilled the warmth and competence domains of the one method and most of the domains of the other method without violating them in an obvious enough manner for me to remember at this moment (These are by no means the only reasons why I’d be inclined to root for c!Dream but that's beside the point).

On the other hand, my introduction to c!Tommy was him immediately breaking the three rules, by going around taking down donator’s signs, griefing, stealing, claiming things and property as his, trying to kill people until he ends up being banned. So he hurt others and causes harm, he is invited to join and have fun but fails to reciprocate that by going about and messing things up, he immediately disrespects everyone and defies authority by breaking the rules, hard to say on loyalty though (as mentioned above) him burning down c!Tubbo’s, his best friend, house doesn’t give me the impression of loyalty, concerning purity he scams and lies, is obsessed (though hardly the only one) with male genitalia (which I personally find unsavory) and is disrespectful towards women so definitely failing in the purity and sanctity domain as well. In regards to warmth, I wouldn’t say so, nor particularly competent, though certainly meeting the more violent and aggressive elements of duplicity. So in other words, in just his first few streams he has violated every moral domain, while also not meeting the warmth or competence but meeting duplicity. So immediately my impression of him is to dislike and disprove as my moral intuition labels him as a villain.

In other words, perhaps our affinity for characters and perception of their morality has less to do with actual legal or other measurements of morality but more of what our initial impression was that formed our judgment from the very start. Because at the end of the day, I feel like the discussion needs to be less about whether this character or that character is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ because their motivation or trauma justifies their behavior and more about what qualities do you appreciate about the character. At the end of the day, it's fiction and you should be able to love or hate whatever character you want regardless of morality or right & wrong. It’s your opinion and I don’t see other fandoms shaming and bashing other people for liking a certain character that others dislike and/or the protagonist dislikes meaning therefore they are bad so how can you like them. But in the same way, I should also be able to hate a character without being bashed for not being empathetic to their trauma… Anyways I think the idea that we all see characters as justified and innocent in our own way is cool, especially in respect to the dsmp which is told from all angles, and that’s what I set out to learn more about and share with you. Hopefully, you have enjoyed my findings and I made sense (…..and if it didn’t, you are always welcome to ask or add on :D), sorry for the length I’m beginning to realize conciseness is not my strong suit…

I hope with this interesting angle, we can lean away from discussions on legal, moral, crime, trauma and more towards questions of preference and characteristics and personal perception - Why do you root for them? What was your introduction to the characters? How do you think that impacted your viewpoint on the story? Has your viewpoint ever changed? What do you think helped define your definition of ‘appropriateness’?… etc <3 <3

[kimpossible-polls]

THE ULTIMATE BATTLE

Dr. Drakken vs Shego

Dr. Drakken (Drew Lipsky)

WINNER of Best Villain Tournament

Crimes: Stealing and/or inventing technology built for world domination, body swapping, kidnapping, catphishing teens with clones, conspiring with aliens to rule the planet, creating villainous robot girlfriends, etc

Shego

WINNER of Fan Favorite Tournament

Crimes: Becoming dictator of planet Earth, kidnapping, multiple accounts of jailbreak, mass theft, aggravated assault using supernatural powers, aiding Dr. Drakken in multiple schemes, identity fraud, destruction of property, etc

[min5ji]

VillainS Highlight Medley — Gahyeon icons (@miniepsds)

[azurecanary]

In general i think the fandom's conception of Ahsoka and Anakin's relationship is just a bit weird

[why-so-serious-lucifer]

K-pop Discography Deep Dives: Dreamcatcher (Part TWO)

A Disclaimer: I was planning, when I first started Tumblr, to be a lurker, but then I began an office job and needed something to listen to to keep myself occupied. And then, I started going through entire K-pop groups’ repertoires, album by album, and jotting down my thoughts. And then, I stumbled into K-pop tumblr and decided, you know what, there’s at least four people on this hell site who would read in depth rants about these discographies and at least five who wouldn’t read it and then get mad because it’s kind of our job as K-pop fans. My lukewarm takes should be taken with an entire silo of salt and the knowledge that this is completely for fun and occupying my very bored, very neurodivergent brain. All this to say, for the love of god, I’m a sleep-deprived student and I don’t have time for internet hate, so don’t kill me. With that being said, enjoy!

Here are my credentials: I’m a huge fan of Dreamcatcher, and have been an Insomnia since mid-2021 or so, just after the release of BEcause. They were actually the first concert I’ve ever been to, and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience for that. They totally gave their all for those two hours and I ended up loving them even more afterward. I’m even considering going again if they have another tour.

So, we left off after the end of their nightmare arc and a few special singles. Scream begins their next work, the dystopia trilogy, focused on hate speech and cyberbullying. This was the first DC song I heard, and god what a starting point. Those flashes of angry guitar and drums that pound like a heartbeat lead into a soft pre-chorus that lulls you into a false sense of security before that chorus just destroys you. The song is just so done, fitting for a person driven evil by cruelty because they simply couldn’t take it anymore, and its expansive string section adds layers of drama, especially with the distorted (kind of demonic) voice that echoes throughout the post-choruses. Overall, one of their best, though I wish that Handong (who, as mentioned before, was on hiatus during 2020) was there too,

The Tree Of Language is their first full album, and it’s so tough to pick a hidden gem. I know a lot of people love Red Sun but it’s a bit too vibey and meandering for me; it’s never been my favorite. Sahara is a total head-banger and I hope that they take its harsher rock for a title track again sometime. Black or White has some great Michael Jackson energy with its sharp moves and equally sharp chorus, letting the rock take a backseat. Jazz Bar is softer than I expected, with the jazz being more of an undertone and a nice backdrop with the dancy piano for the “I think I love you, oh I love you.”

Paradise is the last song on the album and is a solo for Siyeon, which makes sense given that she’s their main vocalist. It’s a bit calmer of a ballad than usual for DC, who often favor power ballads, but her vocals bring some great depth and emotion to what could be an average b-side. Also, shout-outs to the distorted strings in In The Frozen and the great energy in Tension.

BOCA is part two of the trilogy, and focuses more on the cyberbullying part than the hate speech as Scream does. It’s probably their most popular song overall, breaking into a k-pop market that, in 2020, was much more willing to accept rock than it had been at their debut. BOCA starts muted with a common-for-the-time tropical house beat, which should feel out of place but doesn’t. It then begins to build, as all their best work does, to a power ballad above an insistent electric guitar. It wasn’t one of my favorites at the beginning, but there’s no denying that it’s grown on me in the years since. Coming right on the heels of two tragic suicides in the k-pop industry (Sulli and Hara), which were partially due to immense amounts of online bullying, the lines of “Why do you fill your precious time with hate?” and especially the soul-piercing belt after “Too many angels dying now, I’m gonna change your mind” never fail to get me emotional.

From Lose Myself, despite the sweetness of fan-song Can’t Get You Out Of My Mind, I can’t think of a better hidden gem than Break The Wall. In K-pop, it’s common to decry “ugh this should’ve been a single”, but this should’ve been screamed from every rooftop in the galaxy. From start to finish, it’s a full-on alt-rock anthem that riles up its audience to stand together, rise up, and break the walls of prejudice with all of their strength. Seeing this in concert and screaming the words with thousands of teenage girls and the assorted parents, partners, and siblings that they dragged along (who ended up loving it) was what I might call a transcendent experience. For a couple moments, one would be forgiven for thinking that we could’ve really saved the world.

Odd Eye is the final part of the trilogy, and the return of Handong! It’s a great song, especially in its building pre-chorus, its cathartic bridge, and its distorted background mixed with traditional rock elements, but it’s never been one of my favorites. Unlike with You & I, where I had a very specific reason for feeling meh? about it, I don’t really know why I’ve never connected with this one. Even so, I do love how it ends the series, with the phrase: “in the end, the Dreamcatchers couldn’t find the Utopia they were looking for”, a surprisingly dark finish. When asked about this, member JiU said that they were trying to communicate that a perfect world doesn’t exist, but that the imperfect one we have is still worth fighting for. So, I have to give the song massive props for that.

From Road To Utopia, my hidden gem was Wind Blows. It maintains Dreamcatcher’s essential energy, but both slows it down for a hand-clapping pre-chorus and then ratchets it forward with an EDM-driven chorus that decides to end with a chant-filled post-chorus (that I don’t hate? I know, shocking). I also liked Poison Love, although a lot of that is due to the absolute hilarity of its music video, which is basically a 4-minute soap opera. New Days returns to their early years’ anime soundtrack energy, which is always appreciated.

BEcause is a special single in between the Dystopia and Apocalypse trilogies. It’s technically a love song, but I really like how it plays into many k-pop cliches—cutesiness, love, doll-like aesthetics—but in keeping with DC’s dark concepts, it’s actually about a stalker. The verses are understated, quite upbeat, and poppy, before the pre-chorus figuratively (and literally, in the music video) turns that calm feeling completely upside-down. The vocalizing and the “Be…cause I like you” in the chorus is chilling, and the song goes from 0 to 100 so quickly but so well, as you immediately get the sense that something is very, very wrong.

This EP is, hilariously enough, called Summer Holiday, as though the title track wasn’t one of their most horrifying. It does have some very upbeat tracks that are a rarity in DC’s discography, most notably Whistle, which turns its namesake into a recurring underscore and makes a quite catchy hook. Overall, though, this isn’t one of my favorite albums of theirs.

MAISON is both the beginning of the Apocalypse trilogy and my first Dreamcatcher comeback as an Insomnia (since BEcause came out when I was just becoming a fan and I wasn’t really “aware” of it at the time). Full disclosure, this was the song that made me buy tickets to their concert, and in hindsight, I’m not surprised. Unlike many of DC’s songs, it comes out of the gate swinging. There’s no slow first verse, no ballad to be found, and no way of reading its message as anything other than it is: a vicious criticism of the leaders who stand there doing nothing while climate change ravages the earth (“Oh no, you can’t fool me anymore. It’s weirdly warm, right? The planet, and your conscience drying up”), (“Pretending not to know, you can’t make it disappear”). It ends with only a simple plea: “Please, someone fight for us.” This song remains, to this day, my mom’s favorite Dreamcatcher song. (Hi, mom).

Apocalypse: Save Us is another full album, and has a lot of great songs (some we’ll get more into in a minute). I particularly liked the fun, boppy synths of Starlight, the choppy jazz-meets-alt-rock energy of Locked Inside A Door, and the very sweet Always, which is a song written for fans that they performed near the end of the concert.

Apocalypse: Save Us also contains a solo song for each member, which each of them got to write, and I was lucky enough to see them perform a medley at the concert I attended. First is JiU with the bouncy, retro Cherry, which is a love song written for JiU’s pomeranian Cherry. Yes really. It’s utterly delightful. Second is SuA with the EDM No Dot, which totally fits her role as main dancer because she performs the hell out of it. Third is Siyeon’s traditional Entrancing, which is quite soft and lovely, and makes the best of her excellent vocals.

Fourth is Handong’s quiet Winter, which is a fairly standard k-pop ballad but gives Handong a chance to sing a short a-capella section in her native Mandarin, which, as a linguistics major, I really loved. Fifth is Yoohyeon’s smoothly jazzy love song For, which is the rare k-pop song in English that I don’t mind. Sixth is Dami’s pop-punk Beauty Full, which has some great 2000’s energy and always gets me head-banging. And seventh is Gahyeon’s upbeat and youthful Playground, which is about holding onto childhood. These are all good songs and reflect their own styles well, but my favorite would either have to be Beauty Full or Cherry. I’m a huge fan of artists writing their own tracks so I’m so glad they got to do this!

After that slight digression, next up is Vision, the second song in the Apocalypse series. This one builds on what Maison began, but is resolved to take a far more involved position and not simply wait around for someone else to save them. Instead, Dreamcatcher leads the charge, giving Vision a militaristic feel with its insistent drumline, very present electric guitars, salutes, and flags. It’s a call to action if ever there was one, and features a breaking point just as Scream does, but this time it’s for good. “For your bright tomorrow, and this beautiful place,” JiU announces on the microphone, “For ourselves, give it up tonight! March! Raise your flag and fight again!” And Siyeon’s power note at the end? Excellent.

From Vision’s EP, Follow Us, I liked the synth-pop-meets-chill-rock of Fairytale, which works way better than I thought it would. It’s a sweet love song, and honestly would have made a great single for them if their singles weren’t set on storytelling. It’s very Dreamcatcher while tying that rock to another genre, which is part of the reason why DC’s work always sounds both fresh and true to their core. Some Love is more straightforward rock and EDM, and the Outro is peaceful, steering us into the next song quite well.

Bon Voyage wraps up the Apocalypse trilogy, and begins in the exact opposite way to Maison. Its first minute sounds like a classic love song, and in a way it is one, to the Earth, but I was left slightly baffled. And then, of course, that pre-chorus takes off and we’re back to classic Dreamcatcher in its excellent guitar riffs and power ballading to the stars. The bridge strikes a middle ground, keeping up the energy as the song barrels to its conclusion in what may be Siyeon’s most incredible high note yet. It may be a love song, but it’s also a promise to keep fighting for the Earth, until the day we have to say goodbye.

From the From Us EP, I had trouble choosing between Propose & Demian. Propose at first seems to be this album’s obligatory ballad, but the background crackles with an odd sound and suddenly pulls away with the “Don’t run away, you can’t escape my love,” and I got flashed back to BEcause’s stalking concept. Propose takes that and runs with it, delivering what can either be read as a creepily obsessive song or a power ballad in the name of love. Demian, meanwhile, is very disjointed, going from a usual Dreamcatcher b-side to Dami’s scream-talk sections, sharper raps, and a full-throated run into metal with a guitar breakdown that they haven’t really reached since No More. (And, as a lover of Break The Wall, I of course appreciated the shout-out.)

Reason is a special single for DC’s 6th anniversary, and starts out delightfully sappy: “Because of Insomnia, Dreamcatcher exists”. Overlaid on adorable footage of DC’s journey throughout their years in the industry is a song that somehow manages to be both a rock-metal anthem and an incredibly sweet tribute both to each other and their fans. “I will go far away, I spread out my wings to fly, I have to go on…because you are the reason.” No, I’m totally not crying right now. What are you talking about? (Cue me blubbering into a handkerchief).

OOTD came out less than a week ago, and I admit I was a little wary with its teasers. And it turns out I was right to worry. The song starts with a good EDM smash and some great vocalizing right away, and its pre-chorus’ build reminds me of Vision. I’m intrigued by its choppier editing and its commentary on the fashion industry. Overall, though I think the song has some great ideas (the nu-metal mixed with hip-hop), it goes far too into sing-talk for me and I don’t like the chorus. Honestly, the most accurate thing I could say is it doesn’t sound like Dreamcatcher. It’s not a bad song, so perhaps it’ll grow on me, but for now…I’m afraid not. I think this is the first track of theirs (in an almost 7-year-career) that I haven’t liked to some level, and as long as the issues I had with it don’t continue into other releases, I’m willing to overlook it, like I did with Birthday by Red Velvet, as a “you can’t win them all”.

Versus Villain, the EP, is thankfully as strong as always. Rising carries that great alt rock energy and DC’s signature encouragement to keep going (“raise your arms up, with all your strength, shout!”), which is always nice to hear. I loved this one from the first chorus, and immediately wondered, why on earth was this not the title, guys? It would’ve been perfect!

This may be the most fun I’ve had in my reviews so far! Besides having an excellent discography in just sound alone, they’ve covered trauma, cyberbullying, stalking, climate change, depression, hate speech, love, and hope in under 100 tracks, all while waving pride flags on stage, writing special tracks about loving their dogs, and working their way up in the k-pop world from a tiny company. Their work reminds us all that it’s okay to have bad days but that one day, we will have the strength to accept ourselves, wake up from our nightmares, and start changing the world. And really, what’s more empowering than that?

My Top 5 songs are Break The Wall, What, Deja Vu, Bon Voyage, and Maison, with Wake Up and Fairytale as honorable mentions. Dreamcatcher gets a 10 out of 10 from me, which is no surprise. I can’t really think of anything I would change about what they’ve done, and even though I have my tiny gripes here and there, none of them are enough to make me change my mind. Maybe I’ll be eating my words in a few months, so we’ll see how this ages, but for now I don’t think that there’s any group out there whose work I would rate higher. For now, I’ll end by saying that I’m very proud to be an Insomnia.

Next time, we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming with another boy group of the week, this one one that I barely even know, so I’m looking forward to it! Tschüss!

[disney-stuff]

Prince Phillip and Maleficent (in dragon form)

Walt Disney’s ’Sleeping Beauty’

[shykpop]

Dreamcatcher *Highlight medley* icons

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Credits always welcome

Ask is open

[bylertruther]

the repeated and deliberate emphasis that season four put on mike needing to be needed + needing to be useful to his loved ones above all + his crippling fear of losing the ones he loves + how he felt like he'd lost will and was thus unmade by that and will's confirmation that he will always need mike + viewing him as a knight in shining armor + believing him to be the heart + him being in danger again + them being best friends and a team again + standing side by side with mike's heart pocket pointing in his direction + season five being will's season all leads to the fact that mike and will are central to defeating vecna in season five 📣📣📣

[itsmyfriendisaac]

Rocky IV: the Italian Stallion nearly meets his match when he agrees to fight in a 15-round unsanctioned bout against an undefeated Soviet heavyweight boxer named Captain Ivan Drago. Dolph Lundgren makes his film debut as the iconic antagonist!

[bellaroles]

Reading SVSSS made me laugh so hard. Mostly be cause of Shen Qingqiu. So I want to draw him!