I really despise the Marvelification of Stranger Things, because all the interviews nowadays are constantly referencing how fast paced and epic and big the finale will be but the reason people fell in love with the show wasn't special effects or long episodes; it was the plot, it was the characters, it was the mystery. Stranger Things 1 may have been a story about a government conspiracy and a monster, but that's not why we stuck around. The show can throw amazing CGI, Russians, a battle within the American army and an apocalypse at the audience with the biggest budget known to man but if they forget to ground it and keep it central, it'll just get lost amongst a plethora of other "epic" blockbusters. We want Steven King, not Avengers.

thinking abt how gale and wyll are both hopeless/devoted romantics, but with a very different flavor to them

wyll believes in the grand tales of romance, writing your story together and witnessing your very own epic tale, the true power of love, wanting to court you in the traditional way, being your knight in shining armor, making sure you never want for anything — the beauty of an ending through your own making, your happily-ever-after.

while gale is more spiritual in his approach to romance. he believes in the bond between souls, true connection and devotion that defies even physical factors, something otherwordly and magical that solely exists between the two of you, a merging of body and mind, getting lost in one another and choosing you each day anew. — he doesn't believe in fate, but he does believe in serendipity.

what they do have in common, however, is wanting to dedicate themselves to their partner with their whole heart. i just think they're both really neat and deserve to be appreciated more by the fandom as a whole!!

"get booped, idiot" emojis because I love the boop thing Tumblr has now, for all your booping needs :)

[ID: three similar emojis depicting two yellow heads. one has a cat's paw (each emoji has the paw in a different colour; the first is black, the second is white, the third is orange) and seems like it's patting the second yellow head in the forehead. the head being patted has a happy expression with a cat mouth. the three emojis have the same hand-drawn text in color red, and it reads "get booped, idiot". END ID]

stuck on the fact that a small part of Dongsik hoped for 20 entire years that Yuyeon was still alive. he fantasized about coming across her in random places and was anxious about recognizing her as a 40 year old woman because he genuinely still held onto a glimmer of hope for two decades. ten years and another ten years after than. half his life picturing his sister dead and alive turn by turn. maybe even when he burst the wall open he still thought there was a chance it would be empty.

and isn't it supremely fucked up that for the enormous, cataclysmic impact that Yuyeon's disappearance had on Dongsik and the central place that his love for her occupies in his motivations as a character, the only time they interact on-screen is when he finally finds her body and tenderly cradles her long-dead hands in his.

GOOD OMENS (2019-) / ALL THINGS END (Hozier, 2023)

Nana's 1st birthday...

It's been a whole year since I did my Love Letter comic. A whoooole year! it was the 2023 event for me. Big projects with the readers' choice being so central to the story are where the joy of fandom and storytelling is at.

It was so much fun, the most fun I've had in fan spaces in so long, y'all really made it possible. And I would actually love to do another poll/ choose-your-own-outcome story ... they do require a lot of planning to hace the parts and polls on time, hehe.

Anyway, every time i re read it, it makes me very nostalgic and emotional, but in a very good way.

Thanks again to everyone who participated in it and to those who discovered it later, too <3

oh the unbeatable romantic bond between an obsessive stalker and the guy with a pathological need to feel like the center of the universe at all times

One thing I love so much about the 60th anniversary specials is how it shows how much in love the doctor and donna are with each other.

(and no there is nothing sexual or romantic, but they are still so so in love with each other, it makes my heart melt)

Good Talia characterization and good Damian characterization can co-exist easily, they are not mutually exclusive whatsoever. Good Ra’s characterization along with good characterization for either Talia and Damian cannot coexist eight out of ten times, they are mostly mutually exclusive.

I've been trying to muse why Tom Wachowski from the Sonic Movie works as a good character whereas all the other Generic White Dudes from similar live action/animated mixed movies failed. I'm talking movies like The Smurfs and Alvin and the Chipmunks, because let's face it, the Sonic Movie falls neatly into that genre.

TL;DR of my insane ramblings: Tom punches Eggman in the face, and that means everything to me.

Maybe it's because Tom isn't written as an asshole? Like, yeah, he definitely has his five minutes of "I don't know who you are, weird talking animal, why would I want to help you?" -but that's just it. It's five minutes. For the rest of the runtime, Tom spends his time getting to know and like Sonic. It feels like a lot of the other Generic White Dudes seem to barely tolerate their cartoon companions, despite the movie claiming that they've learned some grand "lesson" from their inclusion in his life. Tom has no third-act breakup, no Liar Revealed, no contrived misunderstandings or sudden betrayals of Sonic- he acts like how a decent person would. Somehow this is revolutionary. (Oh, and he actually loves his wife. Somehow this is also revolutionary.)

Maybe it's also because Tom slides naturally into the wacky cartoon hijinks instead of desperately trying to stay out of them. Films like Smurfs and Hop and Alvin and the Chipmunks constantly have the cartoon characters "ruining" the Generic White Dude's normal life with their presence. Tom's life and plans are ruined by Sonic, sure, but this is because Dr. Robotnik becomes his antagonist, too. Tom sees his house getting totally ruined by the cartoon villain who's hunting the cartoon animal and, instead of blaming the cartoon animal for it, he gets mad at the right person- the villain! Instead of lamenting "why are these talking animals happening to me?", he takes stock of the actual situation and goes "woah, this asshole wants to hurt this kid, that's not okay" and then proceeds to do something about it. He's got stakes in the outcome of the cartoon hijinks, which makes his presence in them feel like a natural inclusion rather than a random coincidence.

You get the sense that Sonic matters to Tom. The events going on in plot affect Tom. For Christ's sake, he gets a full character arc over the course of the runtime! Tom is a fully integrated part of the Sonic movie, core to it's DNA- you couldn't replace him without changing everything.

Because no other Generic White Dude besides Tom Wachowski would punch Eggman in the face.

“I also personally LOVE the delusion of "Everyone we know understands why we're meant to be" because it's so integral to the entire point of the song” — THIS THIS THIS. Remember, that line comes after she admits that they’ve both told their friends separately that they’ll kill themselves if the other leaves, one of the biggest and most obvious red flags a relationship can have. As someone who’s had a friend say something similar to me in the past, I can guarantee that everyone most certainly did not understand why they’re meant to be — if Jack’s experience was anything like mine, that statement would have gotten an anxious laugh and an internal she doesn’t mean that seriously, right? The relationship described in little ttpd is neither healthy nor romantic. The narrator is trying desperately to convince herself it is, which is why she’s telling herself all their friends are on board with it when it’s not entirely clear if they are (notice that we don’t hear Lucy or Jack’s reactions to these very concerning statements — we have to take Taylor’s word that they understand why they’re meant to be*, and a recurring theme throughout especially the first half of this album is that Taylor isn’t always the most reliable narrator). For that reason I don’t really struggle with the “how could she write this about HIM??” feelings with little ttpd in the same way I do for songs like loml. Little ttpd is just a detailed accounting of what she’s summarizing in icfh(nric) — an unhealthy, rapidly failing relationship built on lovebombing and delusion. And I am totally fine assigning that to Mr. Smallest Man Who Ever Lived (said jokingly — obviously with the paternity test disclaimer and understanding that Taylor’s music is much more than the men who may have potentially inspired it)

*and yes I realize that all of Taylor’s work is technically based on us taking her word for things, and that even if she gave us the full conversation we would still be taking her word that it’s true, but I think even with that she’s still presenting herself as an unreliable narrator in this song and that the choice to leave out her friends’ reactions/responses was an intentional one

This was fantastically said friend and I so agree and I also think that this extra bit of Required Reading is perhaps why Poets might have such a higher barrier to entry for listeners and also why some of its earliest criticisms lose weight once you give the album its due and listen to it the way it was meant to be consumed - over a long period of time and with careful consideration to the context and the intent of the artist.

The album is too long and overly, unnecessarily wordy. Yes.

Some of the lyrics are super cringe and weird and awkward. Yes.

It's really gross that she's romanticizing being in love with someone who's not a good person. Y E S. YES?!?!?!??! YES!!!!!!

THAT'S THE POINT. THAT'S THE POINNNNNNNNNT! THAT'S THE POINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And yes completely agree that while there's a precedent set that if you're listening to a Taylor Swift song you're getting her *biased* POV as in her version of events (which, tbh, her version of events usually goes reasonably unrefuted by people which I'm led to believe means it's typically close to right even if it's fuelled by her own biased personal emotions). But never elsewhere in her disco as we do on TTPD do we have to confront the fact that her biased POV is also a really fucked up one that she herself does not even necessarily believe but is doing her best to convince herself that it's true and good for her and right. And you have to be actively hearing and discerning and comprehending and analyzing what she is saying and how she is saying it in order to *get that*.

Poets inherently does not reward passive listening. And if you tuned out once you grasped who a song might* be about because you personally dislike them** you miss almost the entire point of what Taylor is trying to communicate.

Many men had offered her many things in the past, love and friendship, luxury and jewels, entertainment, dogs, amusements, homage--some she had accepted, some refused, but no man before had offered her work. Peter had offered her that, he had offered her a share of his--not noble or inspiring or fascinating work, just his work, what he had. He had offered it her, called her great energies into play, and set her to work beside himself in a furrow. And she was glad; for some reason she found it very good.

--Desire by Una Lucy Silberrad

every time scott lang appears in someone else’s movie all he does is show up, look confused, make goofy jokes, smile, baffle everyone, and be extremely useful

I know I said I don't particularly care about the Falin/Marcille relationship but seeing Dunmesh fan content go from F/F dominant to M/M dominant is heartbreaking and tragic like WHAT ARE YOU DOING....WHY. WHAT ARE YOU SEEING IN THERE BECAUSE I'M NOT. I'M NOT SEEING IT.

Guys, I think I'm in the final 2-ish chapters of DoS and I'm actually so scared

(ig this warrants a taglist: @little-mouse-gardens @wildswrites @cheeto-flavoured-pasta @fleurtygurl @joswriting)