#woo-led

[ask-tssb]

rune are you straight (please say yes)

[ask-haphazard]

Lily, did you have any products you ever preferred to use for hair care? Do you think you'll need to maintain upkeep on your eevee mane?

Lily: I use coconut oil-based stuff for my hair, but my mom keeps telling me I should really be letting oil sit in my hair for longer, like I'm a little kid who's never done a protective braid on their own. I know all that stuff, and I have my own system now. I don't need to be doted on. Anyway, my eevee mane feels about the same as my regular hair, so I guess I should find something like that since I doubt Malachi needs to make his fur that oily. Then again, their fur looks kinda thick and rough... maybe they know about that.

[niekiddo]

Yesterday I spent two hours (or more) just googling pictures of young Robert Plant.

[the-count-and-the-raven]

Mr. Capgras encounters a secondhand pAIR OF PANTS FOR FUCKS SAKE WILLIAM

[mejkosmos]

crying I can die happy now THATS MY POST WTF JVSGJSZFUXIGXIDIGDXGXI

[hikeyzz]

dom breakup #1 handled who's next

[angeart]

Oh...oh Rei did a baaaaaaad.... Oh but he's still hurting from that himself isn't he? While people are trying to punish him... And he has to look out for Raven when he's not okay himself... (not that him hurting forgives the toxic things but that is still some hefty guilt right there)

Yessssss tell me more about this universe's Raven!

-🎀

yes, rei’s hurting <3 and it doesn’t fix or apologise or make anything better. fyi, the girlfriend incident happened about five years ago to the current raven’s events! 

it’s not the only bad thing rei’s caused, but… let’s circle back again and talk about rei’s raven and their life. 

//cw for suicide mention.

even when they were little, rei and raven were pretty different. raven was a sweet, sensitive boy who unintentionally drew all the affection to himself. he didn’t ask for it, it was just unconditionally given to him on the merit of his bright, friendly, easy personality. the adorable clumsiness and need for help. the gentle heart. basically, he was spoiled and beloved by all.

rei was the opposite. he didn’t know how to express his wants or ask for things, he wasn’t good at expressing his emotions, and never seemed particularly social. unlike raven, who was perceived as someone who thrived on and needed love, rei was deemed “independent enough not to need love or attention”, which led him to feel overlooked and neglected.

despite this, rei and raven used to have a good relationship, a tight sibling bond, for a good couple of years. but over the time, rei’s internal struggle started wedging a knife between them.

they were twins, but rei never felt seen. like i said before, he always felt like he had to fight for things. for scraps. he went down bad routes because they let him scream out his soul. the literal fights were a cry for help, littered with bruises and wounds that he pretended never hurt. 

without being sure there were going to be gentle hands to catch and hold him, he couldn’t afford to be weak.

where raven grew timid and quiet—the good, perfect kid—rei had temperament and zero idea how to control it (or even why he should bother to). he was prone to outbursts and anger and frustration. he wanted to be seen, and, at the end of it, he craved attention—no matter if good or bad. which led him to lashing out and rebelling, which only led to less love and more scoldings and disappointment aimed is way, leaving him feeling alienated and wrong.

when him and raven talked together, sometimes it went okay, sometimes it was a disaster. often it was raven trying to be a moral compass for rei, trying to (mostly) gently steer him and bring him to his senses, but rei interpreted it as condescension and dismissed it all with a scoff.

they grew older, continuing on this diverging path, hurtling further away from each other. 

raven never wanted this distance between them. it wasn’t always this complicated. it wasn’t always this hurtful. he didn’t know what he’s doing wrong, why rei seems to hate him. 

here’s the thing. in a way, they both sort of never formed attachments: 

raven craved the bond he used to have with rei, but translated his brother’s attitude as a rejection, making him think he’s not worthy. he felt like he couldn’t have relationships with anyone unless he has one with his brother in the first place. (otherwise, it felt like a betrayal of rei, like a cheap replacement to fill the hollow part of his soul where his twin should be.) 

rei, on the other hand, felt like nobody could love him, because raven “steals all the love away”, placing the blame in all the wrong places. he got into habit of pushing people away and acting tough, layer upon layer of pretense until he was not capable of getting close to anybody. he was terrified of gaining something only to have it all taken away, put into better hands (that were never his). he was scared of having everything sucked out of him, so he hid and pretended and fought.

then the whole Girlfriend Incident happened, on that wretched cliffside.

rei took it badly, shocked and shaken. despite his behaviour, he never wanted to bring harm to anyone but himself. yet here he was, plagued with nightmares and unable to breathe through the rampaging guilt that only seemed to prove that he is a bad person, that everyone was right—

he pushed it down. tried, desperately, to pretend that nothing was wrong. 

he couldn’t stand losing control, however illusionary it was. 

raven called out his bluff, noticing something is wrong. because for all the years rei felt invisible, raven never stopped paying attention to him. but rei just buried it deep down and kept lashing out and pushing people away even more, including raven. 

by this point, raven put a lot of attention on rei, but rei never noticed. he was too blind to it, too wrapped up in the way he perceived things to work, shackled by self-pity and guilt and outside expectations.

this was a fight raven couldn’t keep fighting for him. he grew exhausted, because he, too, wasin pain. rei put so much blame on him, all of rei’s life was “going wrong” because of raven—or so it seemed, so he made it sound. and that was a heavy burden to bear! 

raven was aware of rei’s hidden pain, and without being offered any other explanations or alternatives, he recognised himself as the source of it.  and… he didn’t want rei to be hurting. he  didn’t want to be this burden ruining everything for his brother. maybe if he wasn’t in the equation… if he’s such an obstacle in rei’s life, causing all that struggle and suffering, maybe if he was gone, rei could get better and be happy and—

without answers, raven started to believe he’s responsible for rei’s misery. his idea was that they were both only halves, but instead of complementing each other, they destroy each other, and while they both live, neither of them can really live.

this all built up, in quiet, dark recesses of raven's soul, until one day, he stood at the edge of the cliff.

oddly enough, the exactly same cliff as the incident before.

rei got there too late, but not late enough to miss it. he was forced to witness it, helpless to stop it.

raven’s last words, as he cried and looked to rei, were, “i need you.” 

which is exactly what rei was trying to get his girlfriend to say, months ago.

he wanted someone to need him, and here was a person who so achingly needed him, and rei never saw it. he failed him. he— 

he couldn’t stop this.

raven toppled, fell into the waves, and died.

he drowned.

and rei,

well,

rei screamed.

he couldn’t bear it.

and his soul tore the world apart to fix it.

because raven needed him.

[iguessitsjustme]

To My Star - Music

It has been 6 months since @gillianthecat requested a music analysis of To My Star. I said I’d do it in a few weeks and I started it then shit life happened but I wanted to actually do the analysis so here it is…a million years later. I will say this might be a bit disjointed because some of my notes are from 6 months ago and the rest are from the past week so apologies in advance for that. I did want to make this a longer post since it’s been so long since it was requested so I might have gotten a bit carried away.

As always this is my disclaimer that I’m just an idiot with a somewhat decent ear and I enjoy soundtracks. I am wrong sometimes so take everything I say with a grain of salt.

Before I get into specifics, my general thoughts are that it’s a fine soundtrack. It’s not my favorite, but it does work very well for the show. It does a good job of keeping the tone that the show is setting. Most of the time the soundtrack helps set the tone of the show, but for To My Star it felt like the actors really set the tone for the show and the music followed. It wasn’t as cohesive as I really like, but it worked well enough that it didn’t stand out as not working. But with that said, I did really enjoy it. Overall it felt like they sampled youtube’s royalty free music catalog except for certain instances, but what they did choose to do actually worked really well but more on that later.

One of the main thingsI noticed when doing my rewatch for this, is that To My Star utilizes silence quite a bit. While there are some instances of music when Han Ji Woo and Kang Seo Joon weren’t around, for the most part, the music only followed their story. Other characters were mostly given silence when they were the focus, which was an interesting choice. It worked for TMS because it wasn’t the only time there was silence. There was always silence during Han Ji Woo and Kang Seo Joon’s important moments. The music waited until something was said before coming in and joining the scene. So it wasn’t as jarring as it would have been to have silence for the other characters. The silence being used for Han Ji Woo and Kang Seo Joon’s important moments made it so when it was silent for the other characters, the audience paid attention because their part in the story is also important. TMS is ultimately about Han Ji Woo and Kang Seo Joon but it’s not just their story as they are impacted by the other characters around them.

But as it is Han Ji Woo and Kang Seo Joon’s story, what were some of their big moments that were impacted by silence? There are a few but I’m only going to talk about what I think is the most important one. At the beginning, Kang Seo Joon hears a crash and has a panic attack as a result (been there my dude, it sucks). There is silence before the crash that leads into the panic attack and there’s silence at the start of the panic attack as well. Then we begin hearing a repetitive, dissonant note during the attack, but it’s backed by calming music that grows louder as Han Ji Woo cares for Kang Seo Joon. This worked almost a little too well for me. I don’t like being reminded of my own panic attacks like that, ya know? But it does a good job of using music to convey what Kang Seo Joon is feeling. We see the panic attack and we can hear it. It’s jarring.

The biggest surprise to me about the soundtrack was realizing that Kang Seo Joon and Han Ji Woo have different genres. Some shows do this and do it really well. A more recent example that I really loved was Never Let Me Go. Both boys had their own distinct genre that had to reconcile with each other when those two were together. That’s probably the one of the easiest shows to watch and pick up on the distinct music for each character. It’s far, far more subtle in TMS, but it’s there.

During the show, Han Ji Woo is a jazzy boy. It’s a smooth jazz, which fits Han Ji Woo’s character very well. He’s soft and subtle and his life should be formulaic and set in routine, but nothing has gone as expected. His routine has been thrown off. He still has his calm, almost stoic exterior, but inside he’s facing turmoil. Kang Seo Joon has come into his life and brought something new and unexpected. He’s facing feelings he wasn’t aware he could still feel and he’s willing to do things he didn’t realize he’s willing to do. Once his turmoil is settled though, he reverts back to what I believe his true genre is: classical. Han Ji Woo is a piano concerto. He’s soft and beautiful and strong. He can get loud and stand up for himself when needed and he can become muted when he’s feeling a little lost. Han Ji Woo settles into his new routine with Kang Seo Joon and he’s no longer a jazzy boy. He’s back to himself as a classical boy. The inner turmoil and struggle Han Ji Woo has felt is made so abundantly clear in this line:

At this moment in the show, Han Ji Woo’s jazz was slowly being taken over by Kang Seo Joon’s music. He was already scared because his genre was off but now even not-his-genre is being overtaken by Kang Seo Joon.

Kang Seo Joon has been consistently coming into Han Ji Woo’s life and overtaking his music. Kang Seo Joon is pop music. He is fun and upbeat. He is the music that so many people in the world listen to. I mean, it’s called pop music for a reason! At first it makes sense that Kang Seo Joon should have the more formulaic music. He seems shallow on the surface, but as always, that’s not the case as he has hidden depth and struggles. A lot of the pop songs that play are in English which was surprising, but they could be a hint at Kang Seo Joon being more than he seems. He’s not just the cookie-cutter celebrity that everyone, including Han Ji Woo, sees him as. He has hopes and fears and he has experienced his fair share of pain. And when he meets and starts falling for Han Ji Woo? Their music starts to blend.

When Han Ji Woo reaches for Kang Seo Joon’s face, about to take an eyelash off, but stops and walks away, leaving them both feeling like something has shifted in that moment, their music combines. It’s both poppy and jazzy. This is the moment that they both start to become aware that there are feelings floating around. 

By the end of the show, Han Ji Woo has embraced his jazziness because he realizes that his life isn’t going to go to routine now that he’s with Kang Seo Joon. When he’s alone, classical music follows him. But when he’s with Kang Seo Joon, he’s back to jazz. And in the very last scene, when those two are in bed and begin making out, the music is pop music but with a little jazz element thrown in. They’ve found their harmony and their balance as their two genres are able to meet to become one.

Here are some other things I noticed but they didn’t make it into the post itself:

-When Han Ji Woo is running to Kang Seo Joon at the end, it’s a pop song playing

-The music in the restaurant is smooth jazz

[mechsbrackets]

Learned how to draw the toy soldier today so I am finally prepared to help you with TS propaganda!!!! What the fuck is even going on!!! It goes by it/its pronouns, it has a suit and drawn on mustache, it's voice is Jessica Fucking Law who is BEAUTIFUL (have you fuckign HEARD actaea and lyssa when she's singing lower. ETHERAL) and THEN just the fact that it doesn't even exist. It is everything and nothing at the same time. I genuinely want its gender so bad now you are incredibly correct and smart all the time forever <3

YES!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!! TOY SOLDIER PROPAGANDA!!!!!!! YES IT IS INCREDIBLY GENDER ISN'T IT!!!!!

[ask-tssb]

hey malachi, can you tell me about your past?

Malachi: Oh... well... That's really hard, but... I'll try to be brave.

[He takes a deep breath.]

Malachi: (Starts beatboxing)

[ask-haphazard]

You seem old enough for it, but Thomas have you been to any weddings for your friends?

Thomas: Sure. Plenty of weddings for my old sparing buddies and my... Um, I mean, my sister too. It was a nice one... it was a simpler time, maybe.

Lily: You the type to always cry at weddings?

Thomas: I'd like it if you were the type to mind your own business.

Lily: Maybe one of these days we can just talk.

Thomas: I have nothing to say to you.

[starrie-amethyst]

Yeah just...😳 Yeah

[solvicrafts]

What gets me about certain people being so fucking pissy about Bob not writing much about Eilistraee (until the last fucking trilogy where EIlistraeans featured heavily) is that

a) Bob basically built drow culture up from almost nothing, and Eilistraee came after he started writing Drizzt

b) no you guys really don't understand. I own the first 4 modules drow appeared in. There's... not much there. And it hasn't aged well.

c) and the Big One: he has a specific vision for his specific characters when it comes to the narrative he wants to explore, from sexual abuse to religious trauma, both of which are fucking complicated and for most people just switching deities isn't enough to fix that.

I have religious trauma that I still struggle with to this day and probably will for the rest of my life to some extent, and it's fundamentally different in nature from what most people would probably expect, and the thing is even though I am happily polytheistic and very enthusiastically into it, I still struggle a lot with certain things because every time I get into my religious practice I have to actively force myself into (or out of) certain things because my whole relationship to religion and spirituality is complicated and messy.

It would be easy and frankly incredibly superficial for Bob to decide to just have them all convert to half-assed Neowiccan ~woo~ drow Jesus Eilistraee to *~*save their souls*~* and call it a day

BUT HE DIDN'T DO THAT

Partly because she wasn't his creation and other authors were writing her at the time so he really couldn't, and partly because it's a shitty message to send.

Sometimes people benefit from converting to a new religion or following a new deity. Sometimes people don't.

I benefited from gradually converting to my religion, but it's come with a whole different set of complications and hasn't been a smooth journey for me.

Just going from extensive religious trauma to switching deities does not fix your problems, and for a lot of people it realistically can make them much worse.

but also

you don't have to be saved by a deity in order to have value as a person

[5-htagonist]

i love art, im very grateful for adderall for gifting me with the executive function, ease of prioritization, and clearness of thought <3

[ladies-and-jennes]

I adore the creative use of screens throughout City Hunter and I love love love whenever shows have a filmed theme song sequence, Ace Attorney did this too. I was waiting for my 'Mina sama...' greeting at the beginning of the show but doing it here 5 minutes in instead is so coooool

[ms-boogie-man]

WHAT?!!!!! Thas it, mah brutha!!! Woohoo!!!! 🦇👍🏼

I felt something very similar the first time I heard TuPac and Wu Tang Mmhm!!!

🦇🙃s (bat smiles and bats her eyes)