I'm gonna stay here for a little more...because when the hype of these 3 episodes will go down I know it's the moment I realize that starting next week no more Unknown...ahhh! Damn...
So I said earlier morning yesterday that SPR gang is well-rounded found family, and to further elaborate on that, I’m going to word vomit about how it’s such an awesome group of ghost hunters. Everyone has something to bring into the table:
Bou-san -> Buddhism
Ayako -> Shintoism/Doctor
Masako -> Mediumship/Sort of Shamanism
John -> Catholicism
Lin -> Onmyoudou (or, more aptly, Taoism)
Naru -> Parapsychology/Psychic Researcher
Mai and Yasuhara are like the odd ones out, but Mai can be considered a budding psychic researcher too. Yasuhara isn’t a psychic but he can offer some smart & out-of-the-box opinions, so he can be the objective mediator. The beauty of this found family is that they managed to bridge the gap between different set of religious & paranormal beliefs into a working relationship where everyone’s different skills complement one another. Everyone is given ways for their exorcisms and or abilities to shine. And they all nurtured respect for one another’s skills/beliefs as time goes by.
Naru with his empirical method also helps ground the group in a way that there is balance. He’s there to question people’s perception & beliefs as well as test them and how they hold up. Mai is already perceptive and observant, and she works very well to complement Naru’s different perspectives as well as challenge everyone’s biases with her intuition.
Oh and actually there’s one thing Mai can be a good source of: URBAN LEGENDS. When we were first introduced to Mai, it’s clear she likes horror storytelling & is very good at it. Throughout the series, we can tell that she’s very knowledgeable about horror stories and the occult. It’s a pastime, but with that, it’s also a solid start for psychic research; she already has the curiosity and interest for the paranormal. Adding theoretical knowledge that Naru brings, it’s like an ontological process for her.
Overall, our beloved SPR gang is a jackpot gathering in itself because it’s like a team of geniuses at some point, cracking the hardest paranormal cases in Japan. Just can’t help but further appreciate Ono-sensei’s creativity as well as radical(?) view of having an inter-religious dialogue in the form of characters in a light novel back in the 1980s. Until now, I don’t think there’s ever been a story as accepting of different religious & paranormal beliefs as Ghost Hunt tbh.
And that’s why it lives in my mind rent-free too XD
Pirate pants! Pattern by Ora Lin, the only change is a flat ass adjustment, sewn up in gray chambray with French seams and embroidery motifs from emblibrary.com.
All around a delightfully quick, satisfying, unfussy sew! I think it took me maybe 10-12 hours from cutting the pattern pieces out of the paper to wearable garment, and that's not accounting for breaks for means and like, some general dicking around. Would have been MUCH faster if I hadn't taken time to buy embroidery designs, tweak them, and run them.
In future I may add a few extra inches of length so they'll serve as full length pants if desired. As is they hit like, high ankle on me. (They're designed to be cropped, and worn tied to knee length, but I'm shorter than the pattern was designed for.)
He makes out with her to humiliate her (but also because he waaaaants her) and then she grabs him back because she sees his psycho fiancee come in and views it as a way to be kicked out.
If I had a dime for every time he grabs her face, I’d have enough money to buy shirts for the lead of Maid’s Revenge.
The intercut of fiancee twirling as she orchestrates the FL’s rape is...something. I was wondering why she wanted a dude she saw stuff a servant’s face with food like abuser supreme he is, but clearly it’s because game recognizes game and she wants to live in psycho bliss with her soulmate in insanity.
Ooops, somehow it ends up being ML instead.
This drama is, to put it mildly, insane. I hate pretty much everyone in it except the heroine who I don’t even like, just want to succeed in her murder plot. But it’s totally irresistible to watch.
Zhu Yilong + Summer time hits* . [Guardian: aired June 13th 2018. Reunion S1: aired July 15th 2020. The Rebel: aired June 7th 2021. Lighting Up The Stars: premiered June 24th 2022. Lost In The Stars: to premiere June 22nd 2023*]
give us the command sans give us the command (ooooooooooooh) show us your plan sans show us your hand I'M sans i'm a skeleton man got jokes galore whoopee cushion in my hand if you make demands you'll be met with a can of papyrus' spaghetti brochure where he stands BRAH BRAH (HA HA) throw your noodles in the pan my name is papyrus coming in like a virus who's the man? the man who's all bones showing off traps so fat you'll be saying i snapped! and i did.
I have just binged eps 2-4 of Circle of Love and I think I know what a drug trip feels like
It was barely over 35 minutes but my brain feels like it’s been taken for a rinse watching Circle of Warlord BDSM. Whoa. If you want to know what this is like, think an old school lakorn circa 2008 or perhaps a period take on Sealed with a Kiss (powerful dude forces daughter of his enemy to be his mistress; this is still more wholesome than that.)
Warlord, operating on the explicitly stated principle of “to be nice to daughter of my enemy is to dishonor my family” does things like manhandle FL:
Threaten her with guns:
Chokes her after hand to hand (the only reason this drama does not make me want to murder things is because unlike in old school lakorns or Sealed, heroine is full of fight and murder.)
He also successfully gaslights her that she’s his slutty maid (!) and, just so we’d be in no doubt of what kind of kink this is catering to, sticks chains on her legs that she has been walking with through the entire four eps so far!
She splashes him with alcohol:
So he forcefeeds her as punishment (ummm...)
He stuffs her on the bed (she’s in his room to steal the key) and asks her if she cannot wait to be under him (no, for real, direct quote.)
This is all only in ep 2!
The only thing I ship him with is a brutal and prologued death but I have to say the charge between the leads is nuts and also it is honestly refreshing to see a cdrama so far outside the prescribed rules of wholesomeness, the safe world of niceness. Guy is a 1930s warlord, of course he’s a psycho!
Also, I can’t say how much I love that the ML looks like an adult and so does the FL.