#we stan a grumpy king

[lightofunova]

Happy birfdae to our resident M2 💚💚💚💚💚 we love our grumpy lil creation

@ceruleancavesmonster

[monarch-moon]

No harm in submitting this!

For the past few months, I've been working on and off on a new project called World Cell, which is more of an adventure story featuring a caravan of characters going on a world-wide journey! To put it lightly, at least lol. This is the height chart and a collection of refs for the major cast!

Bits of info of each of them under the cut!

We of course have Asher as our main character! This royal prince is ready to do what he's been training to do, but the only other thing he likes aside from swords and weapons is eating bugs!

Returning is our grumpy lady, Evo! Now sporting 20% more side boob, 40% scales, and 100% foul language.

Third is our gentle giant, Haoyu, who is the party's medic. It doesn't take long to get him to freak out, especially since he's in a gang full of reckless troublemakers.

Fourth up is our resident living armor, Alyster! Don't mind him, he may be the largest, but he's pretty chill.

You know her, I love her, it's none other than our resident potato, Aki! Now with more dogy love, especially to her angry lizard girlfriend~.

The party needs someone competent to cook for them, so meet Eirwen! When things get gloomy, you can trust his friendly face c:

But if you need someone who can bring a lot of sunshine in the group, meet Natsu! Our lovely transgirl here has a smile so powerful, the only other thing that can rival it is her punch.

The group needs someone sensible to lead them, so meet Haku, Natsu's older brother! This man may be short, but he is prepared for any situation. We stan a short king.

Next up, we have our lovely lady Sarya! She may not participate much in the action, but she contributes in a different way: driving everyone around in a sizeable carriage!

Following close to Asher is the first princess of Vaalum herself, Naiotah! This is her first time doing this, but she's ready to go either way!

Never without his box of artifacts and rocks, we have Hayden! Rumor has it he can tell exactly what era something is from just by licking it...except it's not a rumor, that's true.

Can't have Asher without Odix!! He may have more feathers than before, but he's still full of heart~

Last but certainly not least is our pearl from the sea, Xouya! Don't let her elegant demeanor fool you, this one's got p l a n s cooking in her brain, and you might not like em.

To be quite honest with you guys, this has been the most well put together main cast I've made in any story I've created (though credit where credit is due, I made all the refs, but @snowprismdragon , @hawker-the-gary , and @solannecontinuum contributed characters...namely Alyster and Eirwen from Snow....Aki, Hayden, Sarya, and Odix from Hawk, and Xouya from Solanne. Asher, Haoyu, Haku, Natsu, Naiotah and Evo are mine.)

Anyway, if you've read all this, thank you guys for your time c: I will probably be drawing these guys a lot when I can!

[slocumjoe]

some things I love about the companions 💞

Ada; is best girl. She's a cool ass robot who gives me glue and doesn't judge me. No, this is not my "transformers prime permanently rewired my brain" bias for robots. At risk of sounding like a 12 year old boy, Assaultatrons are just badass designs. And she's blue!

Cait; is a lot funnier than anyone gives her credit for. Also, weirdly educated? For example, she wonders if Raiders like tunnels as a "Freudian" thing. Few people she'd have met would known about Freud, so she'd have to have gone and read about it herself. Also also, is on Danse's level of romantic sweet talk. Girl makes me swoon.

Codsworth; somehow hates the wasteland more than X6. His wording and tone is very optimistic but you can tell that, underneath his chipper facade, Codsworth is so fucking grossed out by everything he sees. Also, the only two companions he doesn't trust to keep you safe, are Piper and MacCready. Make of that what you will.

Curie; X6-88 (like, 10 years old) calls her unqualified and she (200ish) basically tells him to get the fuck back in the play pen

Danse; Sending his eyebrows to space by showing the smallest amount of care and affection. I'm pretty sure this man would die if someone asked if he was okay.

Deacon; talks a big game about being a liar, and being very good about it, but if you don't read that 'recall code' ASAP, he bugs you about it constantly because he hates lying to you. It's not even that you're being naive, he genuinely hates that he's being trusted when you were supposed to question him.

Dogmeat; my favorite thing about Dogmeat is that I'll spend an hour scrapping all dog houses in Sanctuary, make him a little area in my backyard with a house, food bowl, toys, a rug, and classical music, and he thanks me by getting up on my countertops to sleep, using my antique pie collection as bedding.

Gage; Wears a fake eyepatch and throws hissy fits when my army of sexy chads curbstomps his furries, Nepo babies, and Joker stans. This is entirely wishful thinking and I get why this didn't happen, but I would have liked an option to convince him "Hey, I'm coming back with my army to wipe out all these raiders, but I'll give you a chance to join me or leave since you also seem to hate these chuckleheads." I appreciate his shady convict uncle vibes. I would let him teach Shaun how to cheat at cards.

Hancock; takes mentats to feel "intellectual" when he has the second highest INT of all the companions. Also, his puppy dog eyes. "IM FERAL NOW" as he gets his ass kicked by a legendary god roach

MacCready; dork man. he has more cliche stock line jokes than Deacon. I unironically vibe with his taste in trailers, fucking LOVE leopard print (fake bc we don't fuck with wasteful animal hunting like that). He's a very cozy companion to travel with, for lack of a better description. Like if a thermos of soup was a human.

Nick; Nick is what I imagine Mac would be like as he got older—just a laid-back weirdo who wants whats best for you and will insult you so you understand that. I love his tacky ass agency sign. I wish you could put him in other clothes, because I need him in a bathrobe wielding a cane against my enemies. Just really succumb to the grumpy uncle vibes.

Old Longfellow; reminds me strongly of my old neighbor, an elderly southern gentleman who was a sniper in the military, had a chunky rottie named Baby, and once watched me play Fallout and gave his opinions on the design of the weapons in game. That man is now in Thailand with his girlfriend. I've never traveled with Longfellow but I'm pretty sure its a 1 to 1.

Preston; if you don't take Preston to Quincy, I don't blame you, because oh man, does he not have a great time there! Preston sounds five seconds away from snapping his gun over his knee and going for strangulation in Quincy. King shit.

Piper; I was pretty harsh to Piper but I love her gaslight gatekeep girlboss approach to her life. She's like an adult Junie B Jones. Piper has never had her shit together and is self-medicating with sugar harder than Hancock and Cait do with drugs. She's a cringefail woman. If Bethesda was brave they would have gone with her pixie cut concept.

X6-88; a blank canvas for me to go wild on with the fanon. But I love how he's just an asshole 10 year old murderbot that's scared of heights, thinks Power Armor is so cool he privately fangirls over Danse, is scared of children, and gushes over how awesome the Survivor is to his courser buddies. What a babe.

[saturnslastgoodbyes]

[^] How I feel like twst boys would react to you coming out as trans! [^] (Probably Ooc lmao)

[ Riddle Rosehearts. ]

-Ok?? So?? This doesn’t excuse you bitch get back to following the rules. Smh

-Jokes aside, he’d probably be somewhat confused, as I feel his mother might shelter him from that stuff, but after a bit of explanation. He’d probably be very supportive. Encouraging you on your new journey!

——

[ Leona Kingscholar. ]

-The hell that gotta do with him? He’s napping like, come out a different time or something.

-somewhat supportive, but still an asshole. Probably stumbles over the new pronouns sometimes since he’s so used to the others, but it’s somewhat sweet to see the grumpy lion trying so hard to respect who you are with correcting himself.

—

[ Azul Ashengrotto. ]

-I mean this in all seriousness, would probably ask you to work at Mostro Lounge during pride month for, ‘reputation and equality’. Dudes gotta get that bag.

-He’s somewhat surprised when you come out to him, but nods in understanding. Somewhat happy you trust him enough to tell him that, and feels a bit honoured.

——

[ Vil Schoenheit. ]

-Immediately new haircut, makeup, and hygiene routine. Your old clothes that give you dysphoria? Thrown out. Don’t worry about it, Vil will ever so graciously pay for you on a shopping trip to get new ones!

-Shows you all the proper ways to take care of yourself, we stan Vil in this household.

-He was surprised at first when you told him, but smiled warmly and simply said “In the closet for so many years, and yet your outfit choice is horrid.” Safe to say, your getting a new makeover until you feel happy and confident.

——

[ Kalim al Asim. ]

-Oh wow! He didn’t know his favourite person was a train!

-Really sweet. Happily talks to you about how handsome and masculine you are. Or how pretty and beautiful you look today! You’ll always be his friend no matter what gender, race, or species. And he’s making that clear!

——

[ Idia Shroud. ]

“Oh my god. That’s just like this new ssr character!”

Rambles about how cool you are, while gesturing with his hands rapidly. Generally was confused at first, got embarassed, and started sending you memes like ‘slay queen/king’ or, ‘Me when the testosterone kicks in.’

Sometimes Idia messes up your pronouns totally on purpose! He’ll go pink and panic, scrambling to get it through that he didn’t mean that. He’s slowly getting better at it though!

——

[ Malleus Draconia. ]

-Oh? Is this a new tradition within human realms? -Malleus is generally confused. Not understanding at all, but still being accepting. Your his child of man, after all.

-…Might get confused on if he should call you child of man, or child of woman..

-Sometimes, when you’re feeling dysphoric, he’ll offer a stroll out in the garden. Oh wow! It suddenly started raining, how romantic. (Sneaky bastard.)

—

[ A/N gonna kms. Lost my shenhe account 😭😭😭. Screaming crying kicking throwing up.]

[classicslesbianopinions]

Adult Lego watcher: WHO IS ANTIGONE LMAOOOOOOOOO GROWN ASS WOMAN

what is happening with the american education system bro

i'm going to be honest i don't want this to become about some people being uneducated or enjoying children's television, especially because like ninjago has been around since i was young enough to be in the target audience and some of its adult tumblr fans probably got into it as kids, assuming they aren't still kids. (i don't know much about ninjago but i do know that.) like, there's nothing wrong with being a fan of a kids' show, even if it seems silly to other people.

and, like, if you're not interested in greek tragedy you might never get to antigone, i mean obviously i highly recommend it but i never read it in grade school, i read it on my own. and i went to a good school, it's just that we read oedipus the king as our exposure to greek tragedy.

but like, yeah some people are making arguments that don't hold weight, but some people have thought about it and think lloyd is more tragic. some people know lloyd and not antigone and are voting for the one they know, but functionally i'm doing the same thing. and honestly "do it for the bit" is a valid reason to vote in a tumblr bracket, it's honestly not that deep, even if i'm personally grumpy about it. i would rather not be called a bitch in the process, but such is life.

it is patently ridiculous to try to claim that antigone isn't tragic or wasn't born to tragedy or is a grown woman (as if grown women can't experience tragedy??) and i do feel like it's important to note antigone's place in the history of tragedy as a concept but i don't think we need to attack, like, all ninjago fans for enjoying a tv show or for voting in a tumblr poll, even if we disagree with their vote and/or their motivation for it. there's nothing wrong with being emotionally invested in a tv show about legos. and considering i not only enthusiastically voted for jack harkness in the jack vs achilles poll but also regularly write and publish fanfiction about doctor who characters kissing each other i am living in a glass house on this one.

also to be fair to the lloyd stans apparently he got randomly aged from like 8 to 11 or something and that's kind of horrifying. like antigone sweep to be clear but. stuff definitely did happen to lloyd. it sounds like

[purpleajisai]

What is Madara's Hair care routine?

ohh this man 100% has a haircare routine based on a weekly rotation!

* Washes his hair every single day. Not a fan of the oil buildup or sweaty scalp after training bc it gets itchy and ugly.

* Lukewarm water enjoyer. Cold water closes the follicles and hot water causes split ends, so lukewarm water is ideal for showering and washing his hair.

* Does some sort of hydration treatment with camellia oil about twice a week to keep his hair shiny and silky.

* Brushes his hair multiple times a day, probably a black pig fur or bamboo hairbrush! Good for spreading the natural oils of hair evenly.

* At night, he either braids his hair or does some sort of protective hairstyle to avoid it from tangling and getting damaged.

Overall, he takes a lot of care of his hair but definitely has to ditch all his routines when in battles or long missions which makes him grumpy. Imagine the sole reason for Madara snapping with Ōnoki being something like "I didn't bring my hair oil", hilarious. 1000/10 haircare routine we stan a hygienic king.

I base this off a mixture between Heian and Edo period traditional hair care. Long, straight, silky black hair has always been a beauty symbol in Japan. Sadly, there isn't much info on hair care for the IRL Sengoku period so yeah I just use two of the most culturally rich periods of Japan as reference.

[halfmoth-halfman]

it's a new year, so i wanna try something new (a month late lol) where i make a little post for all of the fics i enjoyed each month!

this is gonna specifically be for fics that were also written that month, but if you wanna see more of my fic recs and favs, i have em all organized on my recs blog, here!

if you have any fic recs of your own, feel free to send em my way here or on my sideblog- i love finding new fics and writers!

Alex Keller

sun and stars - @halcyone-of-the-sea

✧ sunshine!alex is something i never knew i needed until i read this fic. and sunshine!alex with grumpy!gf is such a perfect combination! this entire fic is so beautifully written, so cute and so tender. this is definitely going to be a new comfort fic for me!

Joel Miller

yours and mine - @uselsshuman

✧ i'm already weak for soft!joel, but this just knocked it out of the park for me. the interactions between sarah and reader, and reader's determination to prove stepmothers can be good too is just uugghh. i always come back to this fic whenever the show gets too sad, it's the perfect pick-me-up.

John Price

to the flame || pt. 7 | pt. 8 - @lunarvicar

✧ a series i found forever ago, then lost track of! i had no idea there were more chapters, but when i tell you i was over the moon to find out there was more. this series has everything: angst, fluff, just enough smut, an oc named moth, and an amazing characterization of price!

kiss time! - @newcomernewcums

✧ price covered lipstick marks??? sign me tf up. two separate scenarios and both are absolutely perfect. and the added detail of price letting reader reapply their lipstick so they can cover him in even more marks?? i'm feral.

small, dark, and kind of shady - @mvtthewmurdvck

✧ there really are no words for how perfect i think this fic is. undercover missions are already a weakness of mine and coupled with one of the best characterizations of price i've seen, i'm completely smitten.

John "Soap" Mactavish

his wistful yearning - @halcyone-of-the-sea

✧ friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes and this is one of the best portrayals i've read. the teasing, the flirting, soap being so completely obvious and in love, and the reaction from the rest of the 141 is all written absolutely beautifully.

soap and squid || adjusting. | hands and stars | softest kisses - @mvtthewmurdvck

✧ nothing but pure softness, i am melting. soap and squid are one of my favorite fic couples to read, and these valentine's fic have only just cemented my love for them.

Kyle "Gaz" Garrick

speak now - @sprout-fics

✧ i'm already feral over this because it's a gaz fic, but oh. my. god. this fic absolutely killed me, it hurt so so good and the ending just killed me. wonderfully written and only got more and more perfect with every reread.

Multi Characters

mask on, mask off - @m4ctavish

✧ very cute, and honestly got me kinda obsessed with the idea of a masked reader?? love the way both characters and both scenarios are handled, and the idea of ghost trading masks???? 👀

Original Works

unnamed - @uselsshuman

✧ we stan original works and stories on this blog. we got fantasy, assassins, shadow people, and i'm already excited to see where this goes!!

Simon "Ghost" Riley

earl gray tea | come stay awhile | stay here with me - @a-sibyl

✧ a mini-series that has found a special place in heart, i can't count the amount of times i've reread this. such a wholesome set of fic showing a softer side to ghost outside the 141.

ghost panics when he realizes he likes you just a little too much - @euovennia

✧ such a good look at how ghost would process catching feelings for someone, especially a friend. the internal struggle, the constant worry, the sharknado series, this fic has it all!

ghost and helen || just the softest touch | fluffy headcanons re: his super king bed | pt. 2 - @mvtthewmurdvck

✧ i have no words for the entire ghost x helen!reader series, it's literal perfection. probably one of the best portrayals of ghost i've ever seen and every fic is so beautifully written and has me thinking about them for days i've read them. idk how jo manages to knock it out of the park every single time, but i am in awe of her talent.

sometimes, i dream - @mvtthewmurdvck

✧ another ghost and helen fic (and one of my favorites), but it gets it own section for this line alone: “Would you still love me if I was a rock, Simon?”

happiness series || imagine it | twice a question, once an answer | will never be enough | almost | bigger than the whole sky - @lethalchiralium

✧ this series is so cute and fun. i am such a sucker for family man simon riley and this scratches that itch in all right ways. even the sad chapters. and seeing the 141 loving and supporting the riley family just makes my heart swell.

the captain - @as-is-above-so-below

✧ my crops are watered, my livestock fed, my bills paid. ghost has a badass sniper wife and she's pregananante and i love it. ghost going feral on price and then shamelessly flirting with his wife had me rolling, but i love the interactions here between ghost and the team!

[lizardthelizard]

you might not do these anymore but who is ur definite least favorite ouat character

Hi! Thanks so much for the ask :) Also, dw, my inbox is always open for asks, but especially for random OUAT related ones.

A quick disclaimer! Absolutely no shade to anyone that likes the characters mentioned below. It's just a bit of fun (and I think some people will agree with a lot of what I have to say anyway tbh)

SO.

A really easy answer would be the Blue Fairy. After all, I don't like the Fairy from Pinocchio in general, let alone in OUAT. Her 'holier-than-thou' attitude, the way that she treats various characters in the show (August, Nova, Tinker Bell...) really rubs me up the wrong way. But...also...If I'm completely truthful about it, I find her kind of fun to hate on. And I don't think that's quite in the spirit of things here so...

I don't actually think I have a MOST hated, but I'll come up with a few names to satisfy your curiosity:

--

King Leopold is pretty high up there to be honest. I think that the writers did a poor job of characterising him. I know that his character in general is a big point of contention within a lot of fandom, so I won't get too involved with anything but I just don't like the way they wrote him.

He's a kind man who genuinely loves his daughter and kingdom. But...I dunno... The age difference between him and Regina is always a bit uncomfortable (and only emphasised after Season 3, when he and a younger Cora are in a relationship). Also, sorry, but who the hell reads their spouse's diary? I don't care how deliberately Regina placed that diary in his path, it shouldn't have been read.

Anyway, whatever. The reason I bring up Leopold is not because I think he's secretively The Worst Guy Ever. At his core, he's literally just some guy. But, as the viewer, we were expected to see him as this sweet, innocent old man (in Season 1 particularly) and... he's kind of not (something that was not intentional by the writers, as far as I'm aware). And this type of Good GuyTM character (see; The Blue Fairy) is usually the type I hate the most. (Even in Season 3, it's Eva who's blamed for the way things unfolded between Leopold and Cora, and Leopold is kind of presented as this poor schmuck in the middle of it all (which...he's not.)

--

I'm not a big fan of Neal. As a character he's...fine. Not my personally fave, but he had some interesting (albeit squandered) potential. But the way that a lot of Neal fans claim he can do no wrong and talk about him like he was the purest, most special dude on the entire show and the only suitable romance option for Emma...sorry, but it's annoying saduajsdkasdbasd

--

I don't like Doc, Happy, or Sneezy. No reason, I just don't like them. Sleepy and Dopey are on thin ice. Bashful, Grumpy and Stealthy can stay.

--

Liam the 1st... SORRY Killian stans, love you guys, I just do not like this man. I think he's an idiot (but not in a fun way) and an arrogant, self righteous prig. THAT BEING SAID, check out @dykelilypage's fic 'from time to time' It's an incredible take on his character and I almost didn't even mention Liam here because it made me appreciate him so much more than I ever would have. If canon had given him the chance to be more

[rjshepofftheshits]

Ok real talk tho, here is how they can improve dead space 3 for a remake.

Less focus on saving the world and more focus on the characters. i want to see isaac and ellie try to repair their relationship, i want to see carver go from grumpy git to isaacs friend and i want to see robert norton go from a good man with good intentions to someone who cracks under pressure, not because of some dumb jealousy thing with Isaac. if you were feeling REALLY spicy you could even make Danik a reasonable if categorically wrong man who eventually goes absolutely fruit loops by the end instead of starting out that way.

give isaac more story besides running after ellie. i know saving people, particularly the women in his life is a running theme with mr clarke, we do stan a feminist king. but he was perfectly capable of doing everything in dead space 1 WHILE ALSO looking for Nicole, his every other word wasn't about her. Dead space 3 makes me feel like he is only capable of pining after ellie and that is just not him. Isaac and ellie were together for 2-3 years, he knows her and he knows she can look after herself, it's the rest of the fucking universe that needs his competence and intelligence, not her. and if you must go this way, please don't make it another rescue mission. Again, ellie is a survivor and an intelligent person maybe even as smart as isaac she does not need saving.

also give the girl back her sports bra im sick of the cleavage. how she jumped 3 cup sizes is beyond me.

keep carver in the story but make him either an AI companion or do what NIER : Automata or RE2MAKE did. you play all the way through as isaac, then as carver and then once again as whoever for the ending OR you play all the way to the end as Isaac and then on a second playthrough you can be Carver and the way that you played as Isaac is now how your ai partner isaac behaves.

do not lock Carvers story behind coop missions. i know visceral didnt want to do this, they were made to by ea but still it seems like a dumb move even on their part. Carver didnt need to be there but since he is, why are you hiding that light under a bushel ea???

big one: get rid of the micropayments and retool the fucking weapons and combat. most of the guns are like water pistols and the necromorphs tank hits like brick shithouses. i know SCAF weapons are 200 years old by the time of dead space 3 but like. Isaac is smart enough to make a ripper, a line cutter and a plasma cutter on its own without bolting them together.

do not hide the true ending behind a dlc paywall. i think i was the only person on the planet that actually liked Awakened, better than the base game too. so it pains me to say that it didnt need to exist: either cut it completly and use it as the opening for dead space 4 or merge it into the ending of dead space 3 somehow.

lastly i think the story needs some tweaking. if we look at the progression it goes > outbreak on one ship > outbreak on a station> universe wide outbreaks everyone is doomed. now granted i understand you need to escate things for sequels but i just dont feel the same gravity of the situation in 3 as a did in 1 or 2. we never see the world outside isaacs pov which is fine but i would still like to see some of the world before it got fucked over a picket fence by the unitologists. the only glimpses we get are in text logs and it would make me feel more urgency to save the world if i actually knew what the world was like.

Continuing on with my story point: isaac needs some tweaks. he is a broken and cynical man by 3 which is very fair given all hes gone through but he is also a savior and defender at heart. no, he didnt ask for any of this but since he's stuck in this situation you know damn well he is going to do his best to fix this. I always found it weird that Isaac was essentially suicidal by the time of 3s opening, he was killing himself with indifference and clearly not looking after himself but when Norton comes knocking he still says "find someone else for your suicide mission" outright refusing all of it until ellie is mentioned. why didnt norton open with "ellie is in trouble, she sent us to get you to help" ? and why did isaac flat out refuse if he didnt care about his own life???

all this to say i would very much like to see isaac living a somewhat normal life after 2. ok maybe hes still depressed and alone but hes also still trying to move on, anything better to explain his reluctance to get dragged back into things . Maybe instead of having isaac backed into a corner and avoiding the world it could be more of a case of "i fucking told you so" like the mass effect series. Isaac has spent 2 games telling everyone who will listen "do not fuck with the markers" and now maybe he could be really fucking annoyed that no one has listened and as the only competent man in the galaxy hes got to go sort this shit out on principal.

here also are some things id just like to see.

Isaac struggling with his marker problem less like psychosis and more like a general disability or chronic illness. yes it sucks ass and yes its disabling but hes still a badass despite it. i dont like the wooohhhoooo mental illness scary vibes i get from other marker touched people like stross. thats just not how it works.

isaac with psysical scars from his time in project teleomere/ the hospital in dead space 2. i would like to see him with wounds from the first game healed and also maybe some marker scrawl on him as a permenant reminder of what happened.

id like to see ellie have a more active role or even be a playable character. doesnt have to be a big thing, do something like the born from a wish scenario in silent hill 2, maybe cover the 2 weeks she was lost in space before ds3 takes place.

id like to see the necromorph process slowed down. it happens so fast its almost meaningless, not to mention unbelievable. if it happens over time and the characters can see and react to it happening that has more emotional impact.

In the ending where carver and Isaac get blown off the platform, I want to see them holding hands to stay together.

if i think anymore ill put them in the reblogs or something

but yeah ea hit me up im ready to advise

or if ur not ea and just wana chat shite about dead space you can hit me up too

[coffeelovesdramasalatte]

LITA Ep. 4 Rewatch Thoughts Pt. 2

Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

I see you being a GIANT SOFTIE Phayu, nice try

Rain looks so smug in this sequence, as he should be. Also appreciate the positive reinforcement Rain provides with his compliments

I love Phayu's side-profile right here! The reddish-brown tint of his hair is apparent and pretty, and it's just a nice shot all around. P' Saifah walks in and calls him a meanie, to which Phayu replies "don't piss me off." Look at poor Phayu being all grumpy bc he couldn't tease his Rain more.

P' Saifah, the voice of reason, reminds Phayu that while it's good that Phayu is worried about Rain losing focus, he shouldn't be too mean or Rain will run away.

Sidenote: P' Saifah, I don't think you'll get through if you're "straight" with him, just saying...

Ok I LOVE this sequence because yet again, we have Phayu having full faith in Rain's abilities AND confidence in his feelings as well as Rain's reciprocation of them. We stan one confident king <3 I also love the upbeat, kinda jazzy background music here - it makes me think of the word whimsical for some reason, except the point being made here is that neither Phayu nor Rain are acting on a whim. Weird mental contrast...

And then P' Saifah summarizes the whole PhayuRain situation for us in one sentence with a necessary addendum:

And then we cut to Rain taking his work seriously while my other son, Sig tells us about his atrocious hygiene habits

I love how even while showing us that Rain's working hard, we're also made aware that he's prioritizing his time with Phayu too. Yay work-love balance!

Only someone with the brilliance of Sig's single braincell could come up with a nickname like Cloud Jizz for Rain. Unparalleled and highly perceptive

Poor Sky, being responsible for 3 grown children on the daily

Then we cut to the next day, after everyone has turned in their homework. Ple invites Rain out for food together, and Rain's face goes through the funniest sequence of expressions as he tries to figure out a way to get out of it bc he planned for this time to be spent parading in front of Phayu dammit! He ultimately fails though and presumably goes to eat with her.

This is literally "QUICK, THINK OF SOMETHING, ANYTHINGGG"

Ok folks, here begins Phayu's complete and utter descent into ruination courtesy of Rain. We know Phayu is attracted to Rain from the beginning, but to me, this is when we really get to see what that means.

But first, Rain what is this sleeping posture? How are you breathing with your windpipe nearly smushed like that? Also how is your tummy not cold? Are your feet getting any blood circulation? Seduction should not come at the cost of safety

Then we get Phayu coming in wearing yellow and blue, a color combination I never thought I'd see on someone who wasn't Sonic the Hedgehog, wearing a fuzzy soft smile

This is honestly just a really good angle for Boss. Petition for over 50% of shots to be taken of this particular angle. Also there's something so sweet about Phayu helping Rain out with this little task - this scene makes me feel so warm. Loving the trend of backlighting with bi-colors every time they're in this room!

Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

[dani-luminae]

Thoughts on Wish

I've never walked out of a Disney movie with such a lukewarm response before.

It's not Bad, but it also didn't feel like it had a lot of love put into it, either.

That being said, this is still an Asha stan account.

Asha is, without a doubt, the strongest point of the movie. Which is good, bc she's the main character. Right at the beginning it's established that her generosity is the root of her character, and her "adorkable" moments are next to none aside from the trailers. She very clearly does not want to be misunderstood or mistaken for selfish. She is, in all measures, Magnifico's foil. That being said, I don't like the ending, giving her the Fairy Godmother's wand and implying that's who she becomes. Not only bc the Fairy Godmother has almost always been portrayed as white, but also bc this movie was promised as the origin story of the wishing star, not the Fairy Godmother. Especially with the whole "made of stardust" thing, it would have been stronger if it was Asha joining Star and the other stars.

The music is really hit-or-miss. Either it's great or it does nothing. "This Wish" (and its reprise) and "This is the Thanks I Get?!" do great, "Knowing What I Know Now" starts off slow and gets strong, and the others just... fall flat. I'm just going to say it, I don't think "I'm a Star" needed to be explained in a song (which I couldn't even follow for a good portion of the performance.) "At All Costs" makes sense in the plot but without context can be wildly misconstrued.

King Magnifico is a fantastic Disney Villain because yes, he starts out with noble intentions, and even the audience might be tricked, but the moment his strategies and power are merely questioned he turns into a Problem, which is the best kind of Disney Villain I think. The plot is entirely his fault in the best way. Also I think he takes the cake for "Disney Villain who physically does the most damage to the protagonist" given how he throws Asha around and slams her to the ground with magic.

I love Queen Amaya and she deserved better than Magnifico.

Beyond Dahlia, I'm very ambivalent about Asha's friends. Gabo was more "rude for comedic effect" than actually Grumpy, and Dahlia constantly has the only brain cell. Dario wasn't dopey, he was just a stoner. And... Simon deserved better. They made his "sleepy" description be a result of having already given his wish over to Magnifico and therefore losing a part of himself, which is a nice touch that makes sense, but then he spends the rest of the movie being controlled to fight them (a plot point that almost honestly felt like an afterthought to the plot more than anything.) And we get... half a minute of resolving that. After he's been terrorized by bunnies I suppose.

I expected... a lot more Disney references. Like we saw Aurora's dress in Sonja's wish, and of course we find out that a recurring minor character who just came to Rosas turns out to be a Wendy reference when she goes off with Peter-reference to build a flying machine, but these were the only two references I really caught. For a story that's been "a hundred years in the making" there was really, really little actual joy to be found in it.

The ending should have been something like "Star invites Asha to come reside among Stars like her, but Asha demurs to remain in Rosas as heir to Queen Amaya, and once Rosas is safe in the hands of Asha's chosen heir, then she ascends to join the stars."

For a Disney movie, it's sweet and cute and has a wonderful message. For it to be the 100th anniversary movie, "a story a hundred years in the making," it kind of left me looking at it like "this is it????"

[nonhumanhottie]

The bad batch season 1 rewatch

Common ground

I love that the background characters are a lot more diverse than tcw

I am a GS-8 stan

Omega sitting on Wrecker's shoulder and feeling him Mantell Mix is so pure (and then Echo dubiously sniffing the mix is hilarious)

Cid said very clearly they shouldn't trust her and honestly she's a queen for that

Echo is so grumpy this episode I love it stay mad king

Omega being a sulky little kid is honestly great because it means she IS acting like a little kid

I love the star wars logic of pressing random buttons to open doors and what have you

I love humanoid droids being so impractically designed in-universe because they're modelled after an actor in a restrictive suit

Yo shout out to the two aliens in Sid's parlour I kinda live for them

GS-8 is thriving with the batch's shenanigans what an icon

I love how Tech is throwing shade the whole episode about Echo being paranoid but the moment Echo isn't in earshot, Tech is sus

Oh Echo look at you swallowing your frustrations and being the bigger person

Omega you tactical queen

Hunter getting scolded by Cid and shoulder checked by Wrecker is so iconic because he absolutely deserves it

We all know Omega fucking slayed Hunter at Dejarik

[emmyrosee]

Omg thank you thank you thank you for writing for my request (sukuna vs selfies)!! I loveee it, so cute 😭 We stan our grumpy king, I know he is trying!! 🥺

Thank you sm, love your works 🖤

YOURE SO WELCOME SMOOCHIE 🥺🫶🏻🫶🏻

Hes trying so hard to stand on business but when it comes to you, he caves so hard and so fast 😭😭🩷🩷

[gotgifsandmusings]

Hi, been a fan since season 5 but was MIA during season 8 because life. I was wondering what you thought of Dany's descent as Queen of the Ashes? Do you think some of your earlier points i.e Hizdahr zo Sansa work in D&D's benefit unironically now (even though they have lost all credibility as writers)? Ignoring how it was butchered, of course.

Congratulations, you asked the very question that broke Julia and my collective brain and is the reason we never finished our S8 retrospectives, lol.

Because like...yes. This show had basically done a horrible job of distinguishing "good" vs. "bad" guys on the show in all ways other than marketing. It was just accepted that Cersei was the "most vile woman in Westeros," when we see the "heroes" do similarly awful things (e.g. Arya murdering the entire Frey male line, baking them into pies, and feeding them to Walder).

So enter Season 7/8 where it's I guess setting up Dany's descent (while also being an earnest love story for some reason), and we get this weird case of "it's only evil/questionable when Dany does war things." Tyrion can burn Stannis's fleet with wildfire, but Dany can't burn her enemies' soldiers with Drogon because...Tyrion is on a hill looking sad? Jon can execute a literal traumatized child who tried to kill him, but Dany can't execute the Tarlys who wouldn't have taken the black anyway?

It just becomes this crap pile of misogynistic implications, where it seems like our reasons we're supposed to be skeptical of Dany are because she does things unilaterally, and when women do that on the show it's bad. When men do it on the show, it's leadership. Then of course, her strafing to burn as many innocents in King's Landing was just comically stupid. We've SEEN Dany in power already...we saw her grapple with not being beloved by everyone in Meereen. We know what motivates her, and it's just not fitting that she'd suddenly want to kill all the innocents. Or that bells make her take things personally.

Really, what's sort of funny about this show is that we could have had a heel-turn for Sansa to be Queen of the Ashes, or for Jaime to be King of the Ashes, and because this show is so obsessed with everyone being motivated by revenge and having cool badass moments, there'd be equal seeding for any of these characters burning down King's Landing.

But no, the issue was Dany's..."liberation theology" (these guys are so, so stupid).

So like...yes? It does help retroactively sorta? But also no, it doesn't, because they don't get to have it both ways and argue her 'targ madness coin' just happened to land in S8, especially when Dany is arguably the character we've seen in a position of power the most, and understanding how she wields it.

This is getting rambly, so let me leave you with a snippet from one of our many failed attempts to write this retrospective (note it's a very rough draft):

"...After rewatching Season 8, the true point of Varys turning sides was hearing that Jon had a better claim to the throne. The Tarly executions in Season 7 kicked off his skepticism about Dany’s leadership qualities. However, in between those two events, the only beat we could point to was Dany being grumpy at a party. She did try to fire Tyrion a few times and Varys is a Carol Award-winning Tyrion-stan, but we never saw his reaction to that specifically. It had been Jorah that pleaded for Tyrion remaining her Hand this year. All we saw was Varys side-eyeing her sitting back in a chair at a party. 

We couldn't even adequately tie Dany’s actions to similar actions on the parts of Tyrion and Jon and make a solid sexism case, because it just became this horrible circular discussion of which actions counted vs. not. The fact is, Varys was in Dany’s camp until he wasn’t. He had concerns, sure, but the turning point was a grumpy party! Maybe her UberEats delivered the wrong latte and she’s lactose intolerant!

Taking this to the macro level, we simply never saw Dany develop into a villain. The narrative decided she was a villain in Episode 4 of the final season, and then chided and insulted us for ever thinking she wasn’t. We could spend a separate 6,000 words arguing whether or not her actions of previous seasons could have been framed as villainous (remember how Kylie kept saying how Cersei and Dany were kind of the same in their actions?), but it’s not productive. The writers were in Dany’s camp until they weren’t.

[first she came for the slavers]

Ignoring the just horrific implications of how they evoked Niemöller here, this Tyrion quote is just baldly ridiculous. You (dear writers) cheered for her when she burned the Dothraki, and we know because of the framing and the music and the things characters said about her afterwards. Also, you wrote an entire plotline about how nailing the slavers to the crosses had unintended consequences that she had to reconcile with, and it was part of her development as a leader. But then you decided learning was wrong, or opening the fighting pits was wrong, or Tyrion had to convince the red priests to worship her to re-engage commerce? Or something??

It’s almost like there was no coherent planning and Dany didn’t have a series arc at all! She was the cool, badass Khaleesi lady, until she wasn’t. She was the person in charge of Meereen until Tyrion came. She was the revolutionary who loved the smallfolk and wanted to reduce suffering until she was the paranoid narcissist who didn’t get enough praise. She was a feminist icon until she was a cautionary tale about ambitious women. She was a Marxist reformer that wanted to break the wheel which had harmed so many until she was Horde Prime who sought people’s liberation through their deaths."

[bitchofdarkness]

*screeches at the new Witcher season*

They managed to make Yennefer look so unthreatening and smol, but then she'd go ahead and flick her wrist to kill someone. I do like that a lot 😂

Geralt being Geralt. We love that.

Also that weird flirting between Jaskier and that one kings brother 🤣 Jaskier isn't even really into it, but fuck me, this is funny.

Him saying "people I love" and it's impossible for him to mean anyone other than Geralt 😂😂 like, he doesn't know Ciri enough to love her and I don't believe Yennefer managed to get past "liking" in his books. Only leaves that one grumpy horsegirl Geralt.

And lastly, Ciri being in her absolutely stubborn and rebellious teenage era 😂😂 yes, girl, get on everyone's nerves by doing whatever the fuck you want! I stan.

[unnursvanablog]

Thanks to my insomnia I have checked out more dramas than I would normally take on at a time these days… but it's also just about a week until I go on summer vacation so it's okay. I didn't want to bother making a post about all of them indevidually so I am just going to be compiling them all together here.

Time can only tell if I will drop any of these or not during or before my summer vacation because juggling all four of these might just be too much for my brain who has a hard time focusing on things atm.

But with Junho in King the Land, Shinee making a comeback, Myungsoo in Numbers and Taec in Heartbeat I am truly living my beast 2nd gen stan life at the moment. I wish both Infinite and 2pm will do something musically as well this year... but if not I can't at least enjoy these men in their dramas.

Numbers wasn't a drama that I had initially thought about picking up because a drama about accountants does not sound fun. But you know what, I can't seem to resist that pretty pretty face Myungsoo has and if I could sit through all of his god awful cat drama (I am scarred for life) I can at least check it out.

And you know what… it wasn't hald bad. Sure it throws some basic kdrama plot clichés at you for some added tragedy and stuff, like the main character is an orphan who apparently has no memory of his past… because trauma and dark backstories make up a good character and the motivations and the buildup to the main conflict does feel week at this point, but it's also just there for setup and so forth.

Aside from the pacing and the accountant terminology and some company/rich people drama (which I don't mind that much) it is quite entertaining and the hours flew by while watching it. And I do feel for the main character and his quiest to make something out of his anger.

Revenant is a horror kdrama… which I wish was airing in the fall/winter because that's the time you should be watching horror dramas. It's good tho. It's fast paced, it has familiar kdrama horror beats but it does it very well and the characters are very easy to root for.

I don't find it overally scary - but then again this type of horror doesn't scare me in the slightest. If anything I could do with a bit more of it. I am more enthralled by the folklore and the mystiscism. And this is a good thriller. I can't wait to see how this story progresses and what more secrets, more darkness is there to find as we go deeper. It's quite alluring.

Heartbeat is a light and fluffy fantasy rom-com drama which is on paper totally my cup of tea, but it does feel like the genre is a bit tired. But only just a bit. It's a fun show, but it sometimes tries a bit too much imho to be funny and idk if it's totally adding anything new or a fresher take on the fantastical-roommate trope or the sort of fish out of water magical being that has to figure out this new world he has found itself in.

The leads characters are both kinda grumpy and sort of play 'the straight man' in this comedy which is interesting and fun. I do enjoy a more grumpy heroine a lot of the time.

It's just a bit too nonsensical at times. It's like this drama was written on pure vibes and nothing else. And I get suspension of disbelief in fantasy. I love suspension of disbelief but you also need it to be grounded in something for it to work. And that's hard to find here it seems. It just all feels a bit random if that's the word to describe it.

The drama didn't hook me that much during my watch of the first two episodes despite how entertaining it was. I feel like I have seen this before, which sure does add to the light and brainless fluff watch of it all… but I already just finished another fantasy comedy brainless fun aka Tale of the Nine Tailed and my cliché rom-com choice atm is King the Land (why are Junho and Taec so often doing dramas around the same time) so maybe that's the case. This isn't scratching any itch for me when it comes to drama viewing… but I will be giving it just a few more episodes.

And Tale of the Nine Tailed and King the Land did or are doing the brainless fun just a bit better. Both felt… less dumb? like there was a bit more thought behind it? I can't put my fingure on it. There just isn't that much of a hook in Heartbeat.