#i have to say this is the worst marketing ploy i have ever seen
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Update: I have survived the surgery and am now resting at home. They took out the right side of my fallopian tubes and ovaries (I still have the left side) but I was told it was benign so no cancer!
I am just taking one victory at a time but I am very relieved I'll worry about medical bills later... But thanks everyone for the well wishes.
#text post#personal#health update#also i left tumblr for a day and apparently there is now a deranged clown running around to promote the one piece movie#i have to say this is the worst marketing ploy i have ever seen
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Horse Girl “Movement”
I’m just gonna toss my two cents in on this while it’s still a hot topic instead of taking over other people’s posts with my opinions. I think SSE, the company behind the game, made a horrendous mistake in how they’re managing and marketing this “movement” of theirs. I can understand where they’re coming from and I think I understand their general intentions.
Like I get it, “horse girl” especially in North America (though depends on where you’re from) tends to be used negatively and especially for bullying. It wasn’t a huge deal where I’m from since it’s way more rural here so kinda more normal but I’ve always had the impression it kinda implied you were weird or strange bare minimum and I’ve heard some awful stuff from friends about how it’s viewed elsewhere. So I think it’s fair for SSE to think “oh hey we’re a huge horse game that could influence people to look at this more positively and make people feel better about this.”
Problem is, they used probably the worst ever wording for their hashtag and whoever was responsible for replying to concerns on instagram was really ignorant at best and just downright inconsiderate of actual minority groups that face oppression and go through the process of reclaiming slurs. I agree with folks saying “redefining” is a better word to use, it’s at least not feeling like you’re ripping off far more serious and important movements and pretending yours is on the same level as them. Like absolutely bullying sucks but I don’t think any “horse girl” has been explicitly targeted in a systemic way for just liking horses. I have seen other things like people commenting it’s also something that might be related to neurodivergence and I’d agree, I think talking about that would be a really interesting and good topic to discuss. However, the way I think this is coming off from SSE’s side is more of a loosey goosey “uwu we’re gonna post some positive stuff about horsey girls and anti bullying advice that doesn’t do anything.”
And I absolutely hope I’m wrong, I want to be wrong about that but at the end of the day, there’s so little you can do about bullying or supply advice for bullying. You can attempt to ignore bullies, you can talk to someone of authority like a teacher if you’re in school but if you’re an adult or online? You’re kinda screwed, you just block and report if you gotta and try to move on, don’t interact. Honestly, I think the main thing that helps against bullies is just having a support group of some kind and unfortunately if you’re already the odd one out because of something like being a horse girl, you’re just kinda screwed. A lot of times, people won’t do anything about bullying because they either don’t want to get bullied or don’t want to get hurt themselves, or worse, they just don’t care.
So I don’t have any real hope for this “movement” they’re trying to do. I think it’s just going to be a weak attempt to try and uplift their female playerbase, score some brownie points and hand out some likely ineffective anti-bullying advice. Maybe they’ll tell people to be nicer to horse girls too. Again, I hope I’m wrong but SSE hasn’t had the best track record when it comes to making a stand on anything and this comes off as more of a marketing ploy to rope people into the game or just push harder on their female playerbase that they’re hashtag relatable, hashtag we’re with you, hashatag something something girlboss.
So yeah, I’m pretty salty about it and I usually keep rants off my blog but this has affected more than me, it’s hurt my friends, it’s hurt me, and I’m kinda pissed about how inconsiderate it is to minority groups and on top of that, another nail in the coffin showing how little SSE cares about anyone else in their community who isn’t cis female. Like this isn’t a one off thing, these kinds of lack of consideration moments have been sprinkled throughout my time playing and following SSO.
Like I’ve said multiple times, I’m all for SSE being supportive of girls, women, anyone who identifies as female. I want to see them do more positive female orientated things and I think this was an attempt but an incredibly poorly conceived one at best. What I want to see is more showcases of female creators, equestrians, ect. SSE is in a unique situation where they could very easily shine more light on the game design process for young girls and women. They could talk more about behind the scenes, they could showcase more of their female devs, artists and writers (they already do but what about showing them go through their work process if they’re okay with that?) They could even do events around getting girls into game design. But what do they do? Continue to spout about how hashtag feminist they are by marketing towards girls instead of actually producing content that feels like it’s really uplifting female players. It’s not an easy line to distinguish but I gotta say I feel like 8 times out of 10 they’re on the wrong side of it.
And at the end of all of this, it just wraps straight back around to the problem of SSE doesn’t care about players who aren’t cis female. I’m not saying everyone in the company doesn’t but the face of the company and perhaps the marketing and social media teams feel like they don’t. The external elements of this game and franchise don’t care about us, they don’t care about gender queer, trans, nonbinary, gender non-conforming players. They don’t care about actually showing gender equality in their game, about making it so young girls see that they are on equal footing as boys and no better or less. Or about making an actual difference in showcasing how it’s normal to be outside the gender norm even if you identify with your assigned birth gender. And maybe that’s okay if you’re a little company still just trying to make the next Barbie game and fade into the background.
But it’s 2022, gonna be 2023 before we know it and gender diversity is a huge topic now. We are moving faster and faster towards widely recognizing genders other than female and male and if SSE wants to actually be inclusive, they’ll start doing that too. It’s reasonable for them to put more effort into anything female over male or other gender queer content but it’s no excuse to either leave it on the sidelines, limit it to pride month or push it to locked areas the player may never see or only see once and then abandon. And most importantly, there are games with make your own characters or player blank slates that are more gender progressive than SSE is attempting to be right now. I love the look of the new models but I am hating how limiting they are gender wise. I want a nonbinary character, I want to have the option to be a gender nonconforming butch coded woman instead of the only one in the game being A VILLAIN. And maybe I can’t have a character that looks like she’s in her late 20′s like me but I don’t understand why I can’t have a gender neutral one or why I can’t play as a male when even most indie games that don’t have premade characters let me.
SSE needs to grow the hell up and take a long hard look at what’s going on outside their little bubble because even though we’re a minority, a lot of long time queer and male players are getting real sick of this treatment. I don’t enjoy seeing my friends drop like flies off the game that brought us together. I don’t want to drop it myself because continued lack of respect on topics like these. Maybe it feels like an overreaction to people who are part of the target audience but after a while this stuff builds up both in SSO and outside it. I’m just sick of seeing piss poor gender representation and I want to finally say something and try to do something about it.
#rant#vent#this has nothing to do with the essay if you're coming here for that#i'm going to still do the essay the best i can without letting my personal feelings get too involved#the essay will be about both positives and negatives#this is just me getting really frustrated and wanting to talk to people about it#also yeah i do think sso does do a better job than a lot of games especially older ones#you'll see what i mean in the essay#i just need to get this out of my system
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MONSTER CAMP QUOTES STARTERS
A collection of sentence starters from the game Monster Camp. Feel free to change words and pronouns as desired.
CONTENT WARNING(S) FOR: Monster Prom/Monster Camp spoilers, suggestive, cursing, crude content
“ I just have it here because [NAME] insisted that I offer it, as a marketing stunt. ”
“ And lastly, super-horny-type players no longer get a charm buff against tsundere types! ”
“ War machines don’t turn me on or anything! ”
“ I don’t wanna be weird, but do you mind if I climb inside of you and play around with your main turret? ”
“ A wine to DIE for, you say? Well, darling, don’t threaten me with a good time! ”
“ This one just says ‘ hmu with that reaper dick, daddy ’. ”
“ You on your phone, as always! Probably making blogposts on your Tik Tok page. ”
“ Yeah, you really don’t want to witness a repeat of the last time [NAME]’s diehard fans went without a selfie for fifteen minutes. My tailbone still hasn’t completely healed. ”
“ Now hold still, this will only hurt for a moment --- ”
“ Yay! You found a shenanigan! ”
“ My poems all have two or three emotions in them, AT LEAST. ”
“ CRYING IS OBVIOUSLY A COMPETITION TO SEE WHO CAN SQUEEZE THE MOST WATER OUT OF THEIR EYES! ”
“ No way, really? The way to WIN at poetry is by LOSING at life? ”
“ I dunno, maybe fall in love with someone who’s married and develop an opioid addiction? ”
“ HELL YEAH, SPEEDRUN! ”
“ It’s morbid, but... kind of romantic? ”
“ GASP! Google+? Are you kidding me? The psychopaths behind that global tragedy are here?! ”
“ Prison has changed me, [NAME]. Would you like to trade me some cigarettes in exchange for my fundamental dignity? ”
“ Undermining the laws of reality, subverting life and death, that’s the kind of stuff my followers expect. But CHEATING? No way. ”
“ Though we are imprisoned in chalk jail, we are free in our hearts. But our hearts are also imprisoned in chalk jail. ”
“ Um, no, I am NOT groveling. I am posing a dignified query to [NAME] that just so happens to be performed on my hands and knees. ”
“ I didn’t know you condoned playing the friend card to get free labor, [NAME]. ”
“ Ah, but saving the world doesn’t put avocado toast on the table. We indie seancers and necromancers need to pay our rent too, you know. ”
“ And as you know, I am illustriously Internet-famous, so if you could shower me with adoration and give me the pizza that would be fabulous. ”
“ Do you wanna fuck the pizza or not? ”
“ Are you ready to go swimming? I must admit, darling, I’ve always wondered what you would look like while... wet.”
“ Did you turn this date into an orgy without consulting me? ”
“ Gosh, I love it when you insult me! Please do it more! ”
“ Now who wants to make a baby? ”
“ What if she puts a curse on me that makes me magically forget the location of the clitoris?! ”
“ Hey, don’t knock wacky decisions that endanger us all! That’s how I always manage to stay a step ahead of my nemeses! ”
“ Oh gods, I’ve killed so many monsters, just for being monsters. This is making me question my entire moral foundation. I NEED MORE THERAPY. ”
“ I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: fish give better pedicures than people! ”
“ You’re not tricking me into parenting a stupid egg. I’ve never fucked even ONE chicken! The egg is not my son! ”
“ You came to visit me at camp, Daddy! ”
“ Don’t be ridiculous, I know your brand of horny, [NAME], and this ain’t it. ”
“ I thought we both agreed to be nothing but vague and haughtily aloof about our past dalliances. ”
“ Point EAST, compass! EAAAAAAAAST! You dumb fuckboot!!!! POINT! EAST! ”
“ One time I was told a soul’s worst fear was bugs and I inadvertantly sent The Beatles. It happens to the best of us... And the worst of us. ”
“ SOMEDAY I SHALL DEFEAT YOUR FIVE STRANGE FEET! ”
“ Why do you keep suppressing your monster half? Embrace your true nature! ”
“ Wow. I didn't think this was possible, but I guess I was... wrong? About social media? Oh dear God, is this how grandparents feel?!?! Am I a GRANDPARENT?! ”
“ I don’t know! I was relying on my friends to cover up my bold and idiotic statement! ”
“ ... I ate the oars. ”
“ PSYCHE. The ocean can eat my ass. ”
“ So pucker up, [NAME]! I'm about to declare mouth war on your FACE! ”
“ YOU FOOLISHLY FOOLISH FOOL! You're showing our inexperience! YOUR HONOR, THE ENTIRE LEGAL TEAM PLEADS THE FIFTH! ”
“ That's right. I'm talking about a classic Transylvania Hot Tub, a Seth Brundle, and a REVERSE Reverse Romanian Wilkinson. ”
“ Sorry, I was in your ribcage seeing if I could use it to cut strips of crepe paper into confetti and then I got lost in your kidneys. ”
“ There's nothing sexier than a doomed romance between a dating sim player and a hot fictional character. ”
“ That's right! I secretly replaced one of you with a bear while no one was looking, to teach you a valuable lesson about the art of disguise! ”
“ Enchant my armor. I’m going into the lake. ”
“ For VIOLENCE REASONS! ”
“ This stupid lake monster called me short the other day, but I was too low level to crush him like he deserved. ”
“ That dumb wet dinkhole won't know what hit him! But it will be me! I will hit him! ”
“ No, YOU'RE a fuckshark! Also, what does that even mean?! ”
“ You seriously didn't notice the enormous needles those interns jabbed into your veins as soon as [NAME] got here? “
“ It all makes sense! The Camp Dome is just an elaborate ploy to distract us from the giant mouth that eats campers! “
“ This is the BEST show I've ever seen in my life, which is now at an end! “
“ Am I high, or did he just tell us EXACTLY how to foil his evil scheme? “
“ What, like a few severed heads and visions of my grandpa screaming in horrendous pain are gonna freak me out? Where I'm from, you can buy that stuff at IKEA. “
“ ERROR: Due to the sixth mass extinction, the slaying of leprechauns is inadvisable. “
“ Then why do I have half-finished scarves, decoupage, pot-holders, friendship bracelets, and a taxidermied rabbit in my skeleton? “
“ The wang elemental. ”
“ I also have an uncle who works at Nintendo as a copy machine! “
“ What flavor of ice cream AM I?! Now I gotta know. HA! You know what I should be? 'Pistachio.' Because my outside is HARD, but I'm full of NUT. “
“ I mean, life is a bit like... this sandwich! No, stay with me, I'm going somewhere good with this. “
“ A survival situation without any sexy fun time isn't worth surviving in the first place. “
“ Rut the RUCK?! ”
“ The ' ambulance of the heart ' is just a regular ambulance! Ambulances treat all organs! ”
“ Yeah, that's why I made sure that my so-called ' emotional armor ' was also ' actual armor '. “
“ And being yourself is the key to living your dreams, which is the key to self actualization, which is the key to being really good at sex! “
“ So hot I'd buy that even without free shipping. 10/10, call me some time. “
“ Hi, quick question: does it count as kidnapping if I'm abducting you so you can help me do a thing you already agreed to help with? “
“ I could be wrong, but are you just upset because you DON'T have a skeleton that's inside your body? “
“ I'm gonna get SO FUCKING RELAXED MY HEAD WILL EXPLODE! “
“ Whoah, whoa, hold up. You're fucking my grandma? “
“ No, [NAME], that is a popcorn bag full of more dynamite. Put it down. “
“ I hear that at least 70% of people on Patreon aren't murderers! “
“ If you want cash, just rob banks like the rest of us! “
“ Did it work? Do you feel any less horny? ”
“ FUCK YEAH, LET'S PUNCH THAT MOUTH IN ITS MOUTH! “
“ Yes... incidentally, we are no longer allowed to enter Italy. “
“ Is anyone else turned on right now? ”
“ Yes! Yes! I know what you're feeling! I suddenly see how marrying a corpse isn't okay! “
“ JUST LET ME IMPROVE YOUR SELF ESTEEM, MORTAL! “
“ Look, choose whatever you want, but I'm not responsible for whatever you put in your mouth. ”
#rp starters#rp sentence starters#roleplay meme#roleplay starters#rp meme#ask meme#rp ask meme#monster prom#monster camp#monster prom rp#monster prom roleplay#monster camp rp#monster camp roleplay#mine
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I posted 26 times in 2021
23 posts created (88%)
3 posts reblogged (12%)
For every post I created, I reblogged 0.1 posts.
I added 65 tags in 2021
#kdrama - 11 posts
#kdrama recommendations - 9 posts
#netflix - 7 posts
#kdrama review - 6 posts
#seo ye ji - 6 posts
#kdrama reviews - 6 posts
#kim soo hyun - 6 posts
#psycho but it's okay - 5 posts
#song kang - 5 posts
#tvn - 4 posts
Longest Tag: 33 characters
#sunbae don't put on that lipstick
My Top Posts in 2021
#5
Kim Soo Hyun’s Most Iconic Moments
In honor of Kim Soo Hyun’s birthday, I have compiled a list of my favorite KSH’s on screen and off screen moments! Happy Birthday Soo Hyun!
1. During the Jenga Interview on The Swoon, when Kim Soo Hyun was asked to say “Wanna watch Netlfix with me?” in a concept decided by his co-stars, KSH freaked out and was super flustered and was like how could you ask me to say that because he thought they wanted him to say Netflix and Chill, and the staff had to clarify that they meant it literally.
2. KSH having the time of his life singing “Wind” on the show “Kiss The Radio” and let’s not forget the moment that he randomly starts growling cause the pitch of the song was too high for his voice
3. Kim Soo Hyun spilling facts when he said “It’s not bubble tea without the pearls [...] that’s just tea”.
4. Seo Yea Ji answering that she’s okay with a friend who tells bad jokes because Soo Hyun did that all the time, so she’s okay with bad jokes now.
5. KSH’s jaw-dropping cameo in Hotel del Luna that left all of us wanting more
6. KSH’s goofy cameo in Crash Landing on You, where he plays his character in Secretly, Greatly
7. KHS yodeling during an awards show
8.KSH singing in an opera voice in It’s Okay to Not Be Okay BTS
9. KSH unashamedly admitting that he is attracted to Seo Yea Ji’s voice and then being all cute and flustered when she says that the worst thing about working with him is that he’s handsome.
10. KSH chewing gum throughout all of Real
91 notes • Posted 2021-02-15 23:41:42 GMT
#4
What The Heck Is Going On Between Kim Soo Hyun and Seo Yea Ji? - A Story About Respecting Autonomy
Hyunji ( Kim Soo Hyun + Seo Yea Ji) is perhaps the most tumultuous ride I’ve ever embarked on....
If you were ever obsessed with It’s Okay To Not Be Okay as much as I was and still am, perhaps one of the biggest reasons why is that you enjoyed the chemistry between the two leads, so much so that you write an entire tumblr essay on it. If you were also like me, you also spent a whole day binge-watching the bloopers, behind the scenes, and cast interviews and were treated to a glorious amount of flirting between Kim Soo Hyun and Seo Yea Ji. We witnessed Kim Soo Hyun placing her coat over her when she was cold, unwrapping her Subway sandwich, carrying her across the room, and struggling to not blush every single time they just happened to slightly touch. We saw interviews where they unashamedly flirted with each other and were not afraid to even show skinship (insert gasp) during such interviews. They even left easter eggs for us (did anyone notice during the radio interview that they both did, Kim Soo Hyun was wearing Seo Yea Ji’s bracelet ahh). The content was so unbelievable that many fans wondered if all of this was a marketing ploy. Chances are that at some point you became a hardcore hyunji stan.
You may have thought that hyunji would be a smooth sailing ship, when considering their behavior during interviews and the fact that both belong to the same agency that happens to be very small because it was only recently formed. However, you soon realize that you were sorely mistaken because hyunji is a ship that in many ways feels like its stranded at sea. Since the show’s airing, there has been very little to no hyunji content. Between the months of September 2020 to January 2021, we have only seen one combined appearance of Kim Soo Hyun and Seo Yea Ji, where they briefly shared less than a minute on stage when they both won the same award at Asia Artist Awards. Since then, Kim Soo Hyun did not attend APAN, while Seo Yea Ji briefly mentioned him in the speeches for both of her awards. Considering the widespread positive reception that their pairing has received , it is surprising to see them not capitalize on this popularity, especially if you are American. In the United States, celebrity couples are a lot more transparent about their relationships and the line between personal and private is blurred. For instance, singers like John Legend and Zayn Malik have both featured their respective partners in their music videos and celebrities like Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper used their chemistry in A Star is Born to create an iconic Oscars performance. However, the Korean entertainment industry is markedly different and could be the reason why it almost seems like Kim Soo Hyun and Seo Yea Ji are trying to avoid each other.
What perhaps is the most interesting facet of the Korean entertainment industry is the fact that dating announcements are considered “scandals”. They are not moments to be cherished, but ones that spark concern. When Korean celebrities choose to embark on public relationships, they risk breaking agency contracts and losing millions of dollars in advertising because fans can disapprove of the relationship and resort to rigorous trolling and cyberbullying on social media. This anti-fan culture has become so normalized that many celebrities preemptively apologize or ask for their fans’ blessings. For instance, Son Ye Jin, whose relationship with co-star Hyun Bin was exposed by Dispatch, admitted to fans that she felt embarrassed and hoped that the fans could be happy for her. Therefore, it’s not a shock, that Seo Yea Ji, who has previously filed a sexual harrassment claim against internet trolls would not want any of her romantic relationships made public. A relationship with Kim Soo Hyun, the highest paid actor in South Korea, could warrant unnecessary attention and hate that could potentially disproportionately fall on Seo Yea Ji because of her status as an underrated actress. In fact Kim Soo Hyun and Seo Yea Ji avoiding each other in public regardless of whether they are actually in a relationship or not, could be a strategic move by their agency to secure both actors’ wellbeing.
Perhaps what needs to be discussed more among kdrama fans is the role that they can play in making internet spaces safer for both celebrities and netizens. Considering South Korea’s disproportionately high suicide rate, mental health issues, and the tragic deaths of kpop stars that have been witnessed in the recent years, it is important that this narrative of anti-fan culture changes. The lessons taught in Its Okay to Not Be Okay about the perils of being judgmental and closeminded needs to be one that is applied in the real world.
110 notes • Posted 2021-01-27 07:50:05 GMT
#3
Love Alarm Season 2: In Defense of Hye Yeong (written by a Sun Oh stan)
Warning: This analysis contains spoilers. Read at your own risk!
I binge-watched two seasons of Love Alarm in two days and I have some thoughts on the Kim Jojo- Hye Yeong ship. I genuinely hate watching k-dramas that involve the audience having to do deal with not only the relationship between the female and male lead, but also the relationship between her and an equally if not more swoon-worthy second male lead. I had a brief encounter with Love Alarm Season 1 two years ago before I decided against finishing the season because I discovered that it ends on a cliffhanger. Like many fans of the show, from the first three episodes, I strongly believed that Sun-Oh and Jojo would end up together. They both had difficult childhoods and parents and with Jojo enabling the shield, their breakup seemed temporary and that they would get back together once Jojo figures out how to disable the shield and realizes the she was never happy without Sun Oh. Therefore, I found it surprising to find the creators of the show positing a Jojo-Hye Yeong pairing. By doing so, they not only broke Sun Oh's heart but also millions of fans worldwide. However, upon deeper reflection, I think I can understand why a Hye-Yeong-Jojo pairing was the most probable all along and is necessary for the premise of the show to succeed.
Love Alarm is more than a rom-com about a bunch of teenagers overcoming adversity through love. Love Alarm offers its audience a nuanced critique of our dependency on technology and how such dependency makes us less intuitive about our feelings and needs. The best way to explain this in our current society is by quite literally focusing on the invention of the alarm. Before the alarm was invented, humans slept and rose based on our circadian rhythms and we instinctively woke up every day to carry out our various responsibilities. However, with the invention of the alarm clock, many of us are not able to wake up on time for anything without it. Try to sleep one day without setting your alarm and you'll find yourself waking up four hours later ( been there done that!). Similarly, in the world of Love Alarm, we see individuals overly reliant on the app to the point that it has dominated every single discourse being had in 2023. For instance, in the first scene of Season 2 Episode 1, we see a marriage ceremony that only concludes after the bride and groom ring each other's alarms and with the release of Love Alarm 2.0, people aren't even giving a chance to individuals, who don't show up on the list. The notion of blind trust in our relationships is completely thrown with Love Alarm when there is an app that is constantly verifying whether a person has feelings for you. This is detrimental because the success of true passionate love rests on the fact that we come to care for someone so deeply that we ultimately trust them to feel the same way about us, so we let them into the most intimate aspects of our lives.
This statement mentioned above is precisely why Sun Oh and Jojo were never endgame. Sun Oh and Jojo's relationship was only initiated because they rang each other's alarms and while they shared moments of happiness, their relationship was not founded on trust because both Sun Oh and Jojo lacked the intuition to see their relationship as something that transcends an app. Throughout Season 2, we see Sun Oh consistently warped in the technicalities of the app with his obsessive questioning of Jojo over the shield. While we see him question Jojo about why she can't ring his alarm, he can't seem to comprehend this idea that you don't need the alarm to be in a successful relationship even though he seems to be doing that quite wonderfully with Yok Joo. Yok Joo because someone that truly makes Sun Oh happy and remains a constant source of support that he can rely on. Likewise, we see Sun Oh prioritizing and caring for Yok Joo, signs that he is growing to love someone, but cannot accept it because he excepts the Alarm to tell him that he is in love.
Love rarely is an instantaneous experience, but rather something that develops over time, and Love Alarm completely strips this experience. In his decision to woo Jojo without the alarm, Hye Yeong embraces this idea successfully. He remains undeterred about the fact that Jojo can't ring his alarm and continues to spend meaningful time with her because being around her simply makes him feel happy and a part of him trusts the fact that Jojo feels the same way. Hye Yeong trusts his intuition more than he trusts an app. In doing so, he makes Jojo realize that she has to listen to herself rather than an app. Throughout her storyline, a common thread is the supposed lack of control that Jojo feels from her parents' death to her being left with no choice but to rely on her unkind aunt and cousin for support. In Jojo being able to finally make a choice in her life in choosing to love Hye Yong, she is arguably able to express autonomy over her life for the first time and she is not bound by her status as an economically struggling orphan in doing so.
Additionally, another reason why Jojo and Sun-Oh's relationship failed is that while the two may truly be in love, they were not in love with each other at the right time. When Jojo and Sun Oh were both dating each other, they were arguably at the lowest points in their life. Sun Oh was dealing with extremely abusive and negligent parents, while Jojo was still traumatized by the death of her parents and the bullying that she faced at the hands of her cousin and classmates. Throughout their relationship, Jojo was terrified at the prospect of Sun-Oh finding out about her background and was embarrassed by her socioeconomic status, which was what prompted her to download the shield in the first place. Jojo's period of However, by the time Hye Yeong pursues a relationship with Jojo, she is in a much better place. Not only does she feel more comfortable with Hye-Yeong because they had already seen each other at their all-time lows, but she's become more assertive, confident, and found some fame in her work as the artist of The Ringing World. She also has a best friend that understands and respects her boundaries. Loving someone but having to let them go because it simply wasn't the right time and place is all too common of an occurrence and the creators of the show challenge us to question the idea that we are only destined for one person our entire life. We can love many people throughout our life, but the ones who we grow to love when we love ourselves is where the key to long term commitment lies.
I know that many fans of the show are upset and I also have many issues with the writing and development of Sun Oh's character. Regardless, I also feel that Love Alarm challenges many of the expectations that arise from cliché k-drama tropes. There are so many things that I would change about the show, but I have grown to accept the fact that Sun Oh deserves better. But, I'm not sure if Jojo would have been the source of his happiness and I only wish that his ending didn't feel so incomplete and heartbreaking.
124 notes • Posted 2021-03-15 06:17:20 GMT
#2
K-Dramas Are Singlehandedly Saving Romance- Here’s Why
l consider myself an expert on romance (despite never being in a relationship or falling in love with someone) . Since the tender age of five, I have been forced to watch romance movies and rom-coms with my mother because she kept hogging the t.v. and wouldn’t let me watch Spongebob Squarepants. If there’s ever been a movie made with either Hugh Grant or Julia Roberts or both of them in it ( Notting Hill I’m looking at you), chances are I’ve probably watched it. I was sitting right alongside my mother as she cried through The Notebook and A Walk to Remember. As an Indian, romance is practically in my DNA. I’ve watched Jab We Met way too many times and Alaipayuthey ( Saathiya in Hindi for those who don’t know) will always have a special place in my heart. I’m not lying though when I say that romance is practically dying in both mainstream Indian cinema and Hollywood.
Faced with no place for me to third wheel a fictional relationship ( I’m hopelessly but also happily single), I have resorted to spending most of 2020 watching k-dramas.I was first introduces to k-dramas five years ago, when I decided to see what was so great about the dramas that my friend was watching. I experimented with watching a couple k-dramas like Doctors and W-Two Worlds, but the one that got me truly hooked was Legend of the Blue Sea. After LOTBS, I took a break from watching them and recently got back into watching them full time. In the past six months, I’ve watched Its Okay To Not Be Okay, Crash Landing on You, Do You Like Brahms, My Love From The Star, What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim, Something in The Rain, When The Weather is Fine, Extraordinary You, Tune in For Love ( movie), and I’m currently watching Run On, Lovestruck in The City, and True Beauty. In all of these dramas, the true beauty and joy of watching romance has been retained and in many instances, elevated. In this post, I’ll be going over why k-dramas are more successful than their counterparts in depicting romance.
16 Episode Format v.s. Multiple Seasons : Fo those who have watched many k-dramas, you probably have noticed that k-dramas operate more like mini series with 16 episodes rather than the multi-season t.v. shows that we have in the United States. The problem with multi-season shows are that the primary goal of these shows are to last more than one season and extend the show as long as possible. The most extreme example of this in the United States is the medical drama, Grey’s Anatomy, which is currently on its 17th season and has been on air since 2005. This format can often result in convoluted relationship arcs between different characters. For example, in Grey’s Anatomy, Meredith Grey, the titular character, is in a long term on and off relationship with Derek Shepherd that finally results in their marriage. However, this is short-lived because of Derek’s death and Meredith has a string of boyfriends in subsequent seasons. Even in shows like New Girl, which fall under the rom-com genre can be exhausting to watch because we know that Jess and Nick are going to get together but it takes us many seasons before we reach that destination. On the other hand, while k-dramas also tease fans with the question of will they or will they not, the intrigue is much appropriately paced and resolved.
Chemistry v.s. PDA : Let’s take the example of Grey’s Anatomy again and compare it with Do You Like Brahms. The first time Meredith and Derek encounter each other is when Meredith meets Derek at a bar and things escalate into a one night stand. On the other hand, in Do You Like Brahms, Song Ah and Joon Young meet each other at a concert, where Song Ah is kicked out from the orchestra that Joon Young is playing the piano accompaniment for. Even though Joon Young and Song Ah aren’t making out, chemistry is immediately established in this scene, when Joon Young drops his sheet music to stop the orchestra conductor from yelling at Song Ah. The chemistry in this scene is just as effective as the Grey’s Anatomy scene. However, a sense of connection between these two individuals is immediately created without any physical intimacy. In kdramas, we see love that comes from feelings of warmth and belonging that we share with an individual rather than superficial desires of lust that are often displayed in American television. Perhaps this is why so many k-drama fans say that they ship kdrama couples harder than Hollywood ones even if it takes ten episodes for the k-couple to share their first kiss. In short, its all about the fluff not the smut y’all! An example of an American tv show that truly highlights this philosophy is the relationship between Jim and Pam in The Office. Jim and Pam have a fairly tame relationship on the show, but the chemistry between the leads has been lauded by the fans because they complement each other through their banter and moments of slightly saccharine lightheartedness.
Working Around The Pitfalls of Romance: One of the biggest things that romantic comedies get critiqued for is being repetitive and unoriginal. Many of the Indian romantic comedies fell into this pit hole quite literally when they made modernized versions of classics ( Love Aaj Kal 2, Student of the Year 2, Coolie No.1, etc.), or Indian serials that constantly overuse the forced arranged marriage trope between the two leads. Many American tv shows and movies actually manage to successfully avoid this trap by creating eccentric larger than life characters. For instance, in New Girl, Jess is extremely chirpy, bubbly, and naive optimist, while Nick is the pessimist with a penchant for dark humor. In The Office, Kelly Kapoor is this crazy vain and obsessive girlfriend, while Ryan Howard is this extremely narcissistic dude that’s trying too hard to be hip. K-dramas resort to such characterizations as well to set apart their characters as well. In Its Okay To Not Be Okay, Ko Moon Young is a woman, with a painful history of trauma that makes her prone to impulsivity and harshness, while Cheon Song Yi in My Love From The Star is a sassy ditzy and self-absorbed actress that has been deeply misunderstood by the public.
However, another way that k-dramas set themselves apart in the romantic comedy genre is through the way they construct the environments and themes that revolve around the characters. K-drama characters have some of the most interesting professions and this greatly adds to the uniqueness of each drama. For example, in Its Okay to Not Be Okay, we see childhood fairy tales been interwoven with the plot and are given a unique perspective on psychiatric care. In Do You Like Brahms, Western classical music greatly adds another dimension to Song Ah and Joon Young’s relationship as they grapple with Schuman and Beethoven. Finally, what perhaps are the most interesting career choices are Oh Mi Joo’s job as an English translator for movies, which interweaves itself quite nicely with the larger themes that are conveyed within Run On. American dramas fail to exploit this opportunity in their dramas and we are often handed characters with some of the most basic careers. However, seeing the wide diversity of careers and environments that characters exist in a k-drama make them more enjoyable for me to watch! So, if you haven’t gotten into kdramas, y’all are missing out big time.
136 notes • Posted 2021-01-13 01:53:38 GMT
#1
Why Ko Moon Young Didn’t Become the Pretty Witch of the West : It’s Okay To Not Be Okay and Cancel Culture
After I finished watching Its Okay to Not Be Okay, I grappled with many questions, one of which, is why did I end up wanting to root for Ko Moon Young’s happiness at the end. While for many, it might appear straightforward as to why Ko Moon Young is the protagonist, if you dove right into the first episode of the show and you didn’t look at any of the promotional material, you could have easily believed that she was the antagonist. In fact, Ko Moon Young could have become one of the most detestable characters of 2020 rather than one of the most endearing ones. Within the first episode, we see Ko Moon Young make a little girl cry, refuse to care for her ill father, and manage to stab Gang Tae’s hand. By episode three, we see Moon Young chase after Gang Tae in Seojin City even though Gang Tae makes it explicitly clear that he doesn’t want to see her again and despite such warnings, she continues to make unwanted advances towards him.
While many fans would be quick to point out that she is “badass”, everything she does in the previous paragraph is definitely not badass because they are unhealthy and intrusive. Other fans of the show may attempt to justify her behavior by claiming that she has antisocial personality disorder and her history of trauma, but I don’t think that Moon Young is a character, whose behavior need to be justified. Moon Young is a flawed character and was never intended to be a role model of what ideal and healthy behavior should look like. However, Moon Young challenges us to reevaluate the idea that people are one-dimensional and stagnant. While this may seem like common sense, as we now live in a world of “cancel culture” and first impressions, it is a necessary reminder. Through Moon Young’s character, the audience can reach two conclusions. Firstly, all of us can have flaws that co-exist with our redeeming qualities. Secondly, it is important to understand what is the source (e.g. trauma, upbringing, etc)of our flaws and choose to embark on a journey to resolve what is holding us back from achieving warmth in our lives. In this post, I will be analyzing Moon Young’s redeeming qualities and how she grows as a person throughout the course of the plot.
For a woman that struggles to treat others with respect, Moon Young in many ways possesses almost a clairvoyant-like property into addressing universal human emotional needs. We see this immediately through her art, the children books that she writes. One of the reasons that Moon Young becomes such a popular children’s book author is because her work is able to comfort and soothe each person’s deepest vulnerabilities and fears regardless of their age. Before Moon Young even embarks on her own healing journey, she becomes a guiding light for others and this is perhaps her most admirable quality.
We see this quality in many of her unconventional tactics that provide the necessary catharsis for many of the OK Psychiatric patients to acknowledge and move on from their trauma. In Episode 3, when Ko Moon Young, effectively aids in the escape of a VIP patient and takes him to his politician father’s rally, he is finally able to vent his own frustrations of being considered inadequate and unworthy by his father and in doing so, finds much-needed contentment. Additionally, she is the first person to truly offer friendship to Sang Tae and provides him with the opportunity to become an illustrator for her books, and she does this because she truly values his talent and follows through with the promise. She doesn’t use Sang Tae simply as a cover to bring Gang Tae closer even though one may assume that at first glance. For Moon Young, Sang Tae really is her friend and “older brother”. For Gang Tae, Moon Young helps him prioritize his own self care and realize his own self worth beyond his relationship with his older brother. These examples suggest that Moon Young’s greatest strength is her ability to truly see individuals beyond their predicament in a world that reduces people to their mental illnesses. Unlike many who simply pity, Moon Young empowers these characters by supporting them in their journey to take back control of their own stories. Maybe this is because Moon Young, herself suffered years of abuse and trauma by her parents, and thus she is able to empathize with these characters in a way unparalleled to those who we may define as conventionally nice like Gang Tae or Ju Ri.
For Ko Moon Young, her trauma stems from the abuse that she faced at the hands of both of her parents. Ko Moon Young’s mother, a murderer, who probably has some sort of personality disorder, controls Ko Moon Young because she is her “greatest creation”. It can be argued that her mother’s controlling behavior is what may have reinforced any antisocial like personality traits that Moon Young exhibits. On the other hand, her father, who despises what his wife represents, tried to kill Ko Moon Young as a child, so that she wouldn’t end up becoming a monster like her mother. The lasting scar from both of her parents is what effectively makes Moon Young build a wall over herself and causes her to come off as cruel and difficult to others.
However, after having to re confront her trauma when her father tries to choke her again during a routine visit to the hospital ( and with the entrance of Gang Tae and Sang Tae in her life), Moon Young demonstrates an unwavering determination to not become what others expect her to be. She proves time and time again that she is more than an empty can. She breaks the chain that her mother had over her life by symbolically cutting her hair in Episode 7 and also tells her father off when he tells her that she will turn out to be like her mother. She makes amends with Juri despite their distasteful past and upon realizing that the brothers are left alone in the castle with her mother, she risks going back to the castle and confronting her biggest fear to save them. Perhaps, the greatest indicator of Ko Moon Young’s growth is her admission to her mother that she feels sorry for her because she hasn’t found the warmth that Moon Young found. In Its Okay To Not Be Okay, Moon Young’s character arc is much like ice that melts. She may be stubbornly stiff and cold but through the warmth and support from those who care about her, she ultimately melts into the very water that nourishes the magnolias of her garden.
142 notes • Posted 2021-01-08 09:33:51 GMT
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Broken Promises
Hello my dearies, thank you for all of your comments and support throughout this comeback of mine lol
And now here's the third and final installment of my mini drama...my apologies since this took me a while to post this
Tagging: @madpanda75 @dreila03 @laceybellerain @melsquared79 @southern-magnolia @glimmerglittergirl @xemopeachx @misssirenlove @tropes-and-tales @thatesqcrush @sweetsummertime99 @imjustreallynosy @amirightcounselor @rampantmuses @youreverycolor
Two pink lines...what should have been caused for great joy, instead has brought upon nothing but anguish and despair. After the incident at the apartment, you had packed up your belongings and moved into your sister’s place in Soho; leaving behind the man who had all but decimated your heart. Though the time was brief, being held hostage by your fiance’s mistress was a real wake up call, the wool that had been pulled over your eyes that day; and it revealed a very ugly truth, that Rafael Barba was nothing more than a vile creature who had taken your love for granted and threw it back in your face, however, when you revealed the pregnancy it was merely a ploy to get Sophie to drop her guard so that he could take the opportunity to take her out of the equation.
A few days after the incident, you had started feeling nauseous and had some weird cravings for pickles and garlic knots, and that was when the gears turned in your head; so one day when your sister was at work, you trekked down to the bodega down the street from her apartment where you had purchased 3 different types of pregnancy tests. Upon your return, you anxiously awaited the results as you sat on the edge of the tub, after a few minutes, you peered down at the stick and your heart dropped.
Later that day, your sister Rebecca returned home from work where she found you on the couch curled up in a blanket; eyes shrink wrapped in tears. She set her things on the coffee table and wrapped an arm around you, she rubbed your shoulder soothingly until your tears had subsided and that was when you revealed the reason for your distress.
Meanwhile, Rafael painstakingly went about his life, despite protests from Liv and the others, in his mind it made sense to keep himself busy, that way he wouldn’t have to deal with the reality that he had lost the love of his life...and her confession of becoming an expectant mother. After the Sophie fiasco, Rafael was desperately trying to contact Charlotte, he had lost track of the many phone calls and text messages he sent her; although he couldn’t blame her...he had violated her trust in an unforgivable manner and as much as he wanted to just make everything that happened disappear, there was no way that he could reclaim the life he once had.
Rafael was sitting in his office reviewing one of his case files when his phone beeped, his emerald irises widened when he saw the message… it was the last person he expected to hear from...Charlotte.
We need to talk...meet me at the coffee shop down the street from my OB’s office
Alright...I’m on my way
Charlotte scheduled an appointment with her doctor once she had time to collect her thoughts, as she was sitting on top of the examination table, her mind drifted back to the conversation she had with Rebecca the night before...as hard as it would be, if it turned out that she was indeed pregnant, she would have to notify Rafael. At that moment, her doctor entered the room with the test results in hand, with a soft smile, she confirmed what Charlotte already knew and now it was time to have an unpleasant conversation with the man who betrayed her; as she exited the building, Charlotte texted Rafael and began making her way to the coffee shop. The front door chimed as Rafael stepped inside the establishment, his eyes scanned the enclosure for Charlotte until he saw her in the back corner, slowly, he padded towards the table where she had a coffee already waiting for him. They barely looked at one another as the world around them continued to function in its normal capacity, the tension surrounding them was so palpable you could cut it with a knife. Charlotte lightly tapped her fingers on the container housing her chamomile tea as she thought of the best way to approach the subject...finally, it was Rafael who ultimately broke the awkward silence.
“I would ask how you are doing but…”
“Then don’t” Charlotte snapped all the while maintaining her composure without breaking down into tears again, she breathed through her nose and exhaled a deep breath then blurted out:
“It’s official...I’m pregnant and your the father”
Rafael blinked as he took a moment to process the huge bombshell that was just dropped on him, although he had his suspicions, receiving actual confirmation made everything all the more real. While his first instincts were to reach out and hold Charlotte’s hand and comfort her, he knew that she would rebuff his advances, with a heavy sigh, he continued:
“Charlotte...I know there’s nothing I can say or do to make up for everything that has happened, but I just want you to know that whatever you decide...I will respect your wishes”
Charlotte replied, "Well look at you...the great Rafael Barba playing the martyr"
The venom in her voice caused Rafael to inwardly cringe while on the outside his face took on a wounded appearance.
Charlotte sighed, "I'm sorry Rafael...that was unfair of me"
"It was well deserved believe me"
She looked out the window for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts while Rafael looked on, carefully gauging her mood. Finally, she spoke:
“Look...I don’t know where we go from here...all I know is that I do want you to be a part of our child’s life and we’ll figure it out as we go along with regards to visitation and support”
Her words were like a dagger to Rafael’s heart, granted that she was willing to let him see their child, a part of him hoped that she would consider the possibility of raising their little bundle of joy together; and yet the more realistic side of him understood that once a trust has been breached, it could take a long time to rebuild or worst case scenario, one can never regain that trust. He frowned but nodded his head in agreement, upon exiting the coffee shop, they both decided that Charlotte would update Rafael on the baby’s development and went their separate ways.
6 months later…
Charlotte stares idly at the monitor as the doctor ran the ultrasound wand along her abdomen, waiting to catch a glimpse of the tiny life growing inside her, today was the day that she would find out the gender of her baby. The doctor adjusted the image on the screen to where a little grey jelly bean came into view, as she pointed out how the baby was developing on schedule, Charlotte became overwhelmed with emotion; tears began to prick in her eyes as she sniffled.
“Charlotte..are you ready to know what you are having”
“Yes, please”
The doctor clicked a few more buttons and a more clearer picture came into focus
“Congratulations Charlotte...you’re having a healthy baby girl”
The floodgates opened as tears streamed down her face, the amount of joy and love that she felt for the tiny human being inside her was astounding; at that point the doctor excused herself so she could print out the ultrasound pictures. During this moment of solitude, Charlotte’s happiness was quickly foreshadowed by the fact that this beautiful child was created out of the love that she once shared with Rafael, the man that she was set to wed before it was revealed that he had been unfaithful to her but as much as she wanted to hate him for the rest of her life...there was a part of her that still loved him and missed him very much. She quickly wiped her eyes as the doctor re-entered the room, she was handed the ultrasound pictures before gathering her belongings and leaving the examination room. She was then escorted down the hall to the reception desk, as she was finishing up with the receptionist, a familiar figure was sitting patiently in the waiting room. Upon entering, Charlotte was greeted with a smiling tall, sandy haired gentleman.
“You ready to go Charlotte”
“Ready when you are Sonny”
Sonny smiled as the two of them made their way out of the building, he helped her into his car that was parked along the sidewalk and as soon as he was in the driver’s seat; he started the ignition and drove off. A few months prior, Sonny had ran into you while grocery shopping at the local market, the two of you exchanged pleasantries and even agreed to meet up for lunch later on that week and ever since then, Sonny was like a Godsend. Whenever you were feeling overwhelmed or you just needed someone to talk to, he would always be there. He even invited you over to his place a couple of times where he would share with you the many culinary delights from mama Carisi and cuddle up on the couch and binge watched on various movies involving tragic romances. Sonny meandered down the streets of downtown Manhattan while Charlotte looked out the passenger window watching the buildings pass by, her mind a jumbled mess with everything that has happened, she finds herself in one hell of a moral dilemma. It was almost as if Sonny could read her mind because when they came to traffic light, he looked over to her and asked:
“Is everything ok?”
With a heavy sigh, Charlotte replied, “I don’t know Sonny...how can you miss someone who dismantled everything you once knew to be true...who you gave your heart and soul to, only to have it torn apart…”
He frowned as he put the car in gear and continued driving towards her apartment, “I know what Barba did was inexcusable…but I’ve seen him in the office and he puts up a good front but deep down I know he misses you terribly and would give his soul to be with you again”
Charlotte smiled softly, knowing that Rafael still cared for her brought some comfort, but the underlying question was that if she reunited with Rafael...how does she know that she can trust him again. The car came to a stop outside her apartment building, and they began their ascent up the elevator then as they reached her floor, they strolled down the hall towards her door; Charlotte settled down on the couch while Carisi prepared dinner. The aroma of cooked pasta and oregano filled the room, after chowing down on their exquisite feast, Charlotte and Carisi planted themselves on the couch and browsed through Netflix until they decided on a romantic comedy with Jude Law and Julia Roberts.
They were well into the movie when there was a knock at the door, Sonny got up and looked through the peephole and then opened the door a crack where in his line of sight he was welcomed by his colleague in a three piece suit; the well rounded and sassy ADA known as Rafael Barba. The two men nodded at one another upon entry, Charlotte carefully sat up and stood in the middle of the living room, there was a moment of awkward silence before Sonny spoke:
“Well I’m going to run down to the store real quick, we ran out of milk”
And with that, Sonny grabbed his coat and left, Rafael and Charlotte looked at each other with weariness in each other’s eyes, not knowing what to say or do. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Rafael broke the ice:
“How are you feeling?”
“For the most part, I feel tired and gross”
Rafael snorted, “If you don’t mind me saying...I think you are still the most beautiful woman to ever walk this Earth”
Charlotte blushed at his words, she forgot that he could be pretty charming when he wanted to be, she fiddled with her fingers as she sat back down on the couch. Rafael soon joined her but kept his distance.
“Listen...the reason I came over was to tell you that I’m happy for you and Carisi”
Charlotte furrowed her brows, “Excuse me”
“He’s a good man...and I know that he’ll take care of you the way you deserve to be...and I think we can make this whole co-parenting situation work as long as there is an open communication with one another”
Charlotte grinned and began giggling, at the same time, Rafael looked on with puzzlement.
“Did I miss something?”
Once she sobered up, she replied, “Rafael...I’m not dating Sonny, we’re just friends”
“But everyone at the precinct has been saying how close you both have gotten and that it was only a matter of time before…”
“Look Rafael...these last six months have been hard and as much as I want to hate you with every fiber of my being, I’ve come to realize that I still love you and I miss you so much”
Rafael gazed upon Charlotte’s face, slowly he brought up his hand and cradled her face, his thumb caressed her cheek as she leaned into his touch. He pulled himself closer to her until their faces were inches apart, he gave her a hesitant kiss on her lips but from there it gained momentum. All those months apart, the longing and need spilled out into the fiery, passionate kisses but then they reluctantly broke the kiss in need for air; their eyes connected for a brief moment until Rafael spoke again:
“I love you Charlotte...and I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you...if you’ll have me”
Charlotte desperately wanted to believe him, and while she was unsure as to what the future held for them, all she knew was that she couldn't imagine a life without Rafael in it.
“We have some work to do, but I am willing to give us another try”
#rafael barba x reader#reconciliation#I'm so sorry this took forever for me to get posted#hopefully you all enjoy
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@love-less-love-again asked
“I was re-watching/reading Ajin, and I noticed something I thought was interesting and I wondered if you'd had thoughts about it too? While Kai is shown to not really be bothered about Kei touching him, (holding his hand, letting Kei hold onto his hip while riding the bike, ect) Kai is always seen to be /very/ respectful of Kei's personal space. He offers his hand to Kei, he never /takes/ it. He always, /always/ waits for Kei's consent before actively touching him. He only ever actively touches people when he's planning on fighting them (the cop, the gangsters, the convicts), otherwise he doesn't initiate any kind of physical contact- but he always offers. Even in times of high stress. I'm not the most fond of the second season of the anime, but If you watch the scene in s2ep11 when he breaks into the hospital to save Kei,(and by proxy eriko, I personally am not positive Kai went there with the intention of saving /her/, but he knew she would be there? Idk) he /offers/ his hand to Kei instead of just grabbing it and running. He pulls a Kirishima and extends his hand, only grabbing it when Kei starts to move to take it. And notice after they escape, Kai never touches Kei again. It's interesting honestly, it makes me wonder about why that is. Touch is important to Kai, but Kai is never shown to be touched by anyone in a kind way, except by Kei. And chapter seventy three, Kai is saved by Kei having to beat him, albeit to save his life. It's something I noticed, that I didn't really see the fandom talking about, and I was wondering what you thought? Maybe I'm just reading into it too much...”
No worries at all, I am literally ALWAYS happy to talk about Ajin :D
So what I’m understanding you saying is that Kai likely isn’t touch-averse (to Kei), and he offers to touch (Kei), but he doesn’t touch (Kei) without permission.
Actually, I hadn’t thought about it! At least, not more consciously than “I like this relationship” and that waiting for permission to touch is one criterion that would make me think that.
I remember that gesture in the anime! In that specific situation I’d almost consider it a marketing ploy more than anything (I feel like I remember it being used in trailers, to show that Kai came back or something), but you make a good point. I just looked it up again too, there are screenshots at the end of this post for anyone else following along.
I just went back through volume 1 and ch 28 and 69 and a little of the recent chapters, and other than fighting people, it didn’t look like Kai touched anyone at all in the manga (even Kotobuki and his ‘friends’ in ch 69). Even when Kei was riding on the motorcycle, he wasn’t holding onto Kai like I had thought- he’s gripping the motorcycle. In the anime, it looks like he has one hand on the motorcycle and one hand on Kai, like you said. I’m a fan of the “touch is important to Kai” idea, but is it possible that’s something the fandom made up?
In Japan in general people aren’t very touchy-feely, and it’s not like Ajin was written to be in the BL genre, so perhaps it’s just natural that they wouldn’t touch very much. I didn’t really go back and look at the Kei-Kou interactions, so I’d be interested to check on how they compare.
Be that as it may, I think what you said reflects really interestingly on their expanded characterization in the fandom. We really have so little material with Kai to work off of, but canon either explicitly shows or heavily implies that Kei and Kai value and respect each other very deeply; Kai is much more upfront about how he feels about Kei; and Kei is constantly denying his own feelings.
This is definitely a biased and personal opinion so feel free to disagree with me, but I think the degree of sureness they have about their feelings towards the other is what causes me to read Kei as ace/aro, and Kai as allo (not ace/aro). I think that’s where the discussion of touch factors in too. Allo ~> touch is important; ace/aro ~> touch-averse/cautious of being touched; and so Kai, despite possibly desiring touch, recognizes and respects Kei’s orientation, and only touches when given permission. [Also afaik ace/aro orientation can still enjoy cuddles etc. so I’m not sure where I’m taking this .n.] Then again, you could also say that for Kei the torture in the lab could have had an impact on touch sensitivity & that for Kai he honestly just has the worst friends so he’s just super duper extra out of luck in the people-who-would-touch-him-nicely department.
In ch 73, they touch a lot more, obviously- Kei pulls Kai back into the grate, they land with Kai on top of Kei, Kei checks his pulse and does CPR with a little extra, uh, emotion. I hadn’t really thought about the sudden increase in time spent touching was too distracted by Kai not being dead dead and also the trope of CPR=kissing. It’s definitely a change, but given the situation, it just seems like a function of the action of a doctor isn’t that lucky Kei’s been studying saving a patient, so I read the touch as just incidental and blew past it.
I’m still waiting for more closure about how they act towards each other in later chapters, but in the meantime I’m grateful for everyone in the fandom who reads the need for consent to touch in the Kei-Kai relationship in canon, and incorporates it into their work.
I’d also really like to hear what other people in the fandom think about this!!
(Screen caps for reference below the cut):
Did I mention this ^ cracks me up because in Japanese, “come with me” is “koi”? Koi, the missing member of the Kei/Kai/Kou/Koi squad, hahahaha.
#book club#Ajin#love-less-love-again#answers#I'm starting to feel like I could write an actual book analyzing this series#It's too much fun to spend time picking everything apart#I really missed the evenings of spending WAY too much time on this#I've been really happy that the fandom is picking back up again lately with Kai's reappearance#long post#?
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( victoria pedretti, cis woman ) hey ! have you seen JOSEPHINE “JO” CORMAC around ? SHE works at the HOT COCOA STAND at big bear resort, but they must be off their shift by now. well, if you do see them can you let me know ? they’re 24 years old & they’ve been working here for TWO YEARS. they tend to be +OPTIMISTIC & +EMPATHETIC, but can also be -IMPRACTICAL & -PASSIVE. the other employees have labeled them THE IDEALIST. thanks a lot ! ( the few nights the stars can be seen, books worn down by dog-ears and marks left throughout the years, the first crisp breeze of autumn, the duality… of t.s. eliot )
OK. a few notes before i get started:
1) i hope everyone loves how i literally j copied my ivan stuff. url format? ‘sure jan’ lives on. theme? too lazy to find a different one that’s easy to work with. luv that for me.
2) speaking of this theme i forget if i addressed this on ivan’s blog but tabbed bullets don’t appear tabbed.... so if anything seems like it doesn’t make total sense.... it is supposed to be tabbed™.
3) get ready for drama!!!!! you may ask yourself “but the app looks so tame! there will be no drama!” but you are wrong........ because she loves cats. the t.s. eliot book......... the musical........ even the movie.
ok jo,, is also a resurrected character,,, hence how i already kno,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, that she loves cats. anyway ! let’s begin ! (listen,,,, the intro format will at least be a little different from ivan’s ok im evolving)
QUICK FACTS:
full name: josephine “jo” rose cormac
date of birth: march 6, 1995
*does not perfectly reflect the below big three zodiac chart because that’s too much math
zodiac big three: pisces sun, gemini moon, cancer rising
gender & pronouns: cis woman & she/her
sexual orientation: bisexual ( preference for women bc we luv that for her but we also luv leaving things open to chemistry )
education: bachelor in english - literature that she is doing nothing with
enneagram: 2w1
mbti: infp
various inspirations: eleanor crain ( the haunting of hill house ), dolores price *as a child and towards the end of the book ( she’s come undone ), fox 8 ( fox 8: a story ), “why try to change me now?” - fiona apple (cover), “be still” - the killers
BACKGROUND INFO:
triggers: verbal/mental/emotional abuse/gaslighting, very slight implication of spousal abuse, brief mention of car accident/death & drowning
( ivan and jo’s breakout pop-punk single: “fuck happy backstories!” stream it on spotify ! )
jo......... was born into the wrong family, let’s get that out of the way.
it was pretty clear she was a ploy to save the marriage of her parents ( who have names: lucy and benjamin, luv that for them ). it didn’t seem like they’d ever picked up a parenting book, gone to a parenting class, rly prepped for being a parent at all...... in their entire lives.
that being said, her mom was actually decent at parenting. her major flaw, though? ok, so you know how kids usually have that one bedtime story that they love and want it to be read to them over and over? well lucy complied ! but y’all wanna know what that book was ?
t.s. eliot’s “old possum’s book of practical cats” whfeiuldjkn
anyway ! when jo was seven, after many failed attempts and simple threats, her mom was finally divorcing benjamin for realz. due to his volatile nature, it was becoming very clear that she was the more fit parent and she almost got sole custody ( the only reason benjamin was motivated for it in the first place was the power so?? )! how exciting!
but the keyword is ‘almost’!
alexa, play ‘my heart will go on’ but the off-tune flute version
just as the proceedings were going through, jo’s mother was hit by a drunk driver on new year’s eve. the car skidded onto some ice, minimal damage done... then the ice broke.
jo and benjamin both devolved after that. jo withdrew more into herself and pretty much coped by..... just reading old possum’s a LOT (hate that for her). all mopey, benjamin became much less outwardly violent. the keyword is ‘outwardly.’
ya, instead of j bein like “i will just chill” he was like “i will just make my rage more subtle because in this house, we love intimidation, manipulation, hostility, the blame game, and gaslighting! uwu” managed to convince jo that her mother’s death was somehow her fault, that he was the only person she could trust, that she will never be able to live without someone else, etc., etc.
a few years in and a cycle of many impromptu sleepovers began. luv that for her. hate that for her, but luv that for her.
there is a lot i cld talk abt here, but it all seems like it cld j be tl;dr’d as: “basically became the surrogate daughter of a bunch of other people”
as for things that r not tragique™, jo was v much a drifter when it came to friends. managed to make a fair amount bc she does not seem like she will put a tadpole in ur hand like ivan. also j a people-pleaser but that’s starting to get into her personality which is another section.
did go to college. luv that for her. has NO CLUE what she’s going to do with her degree, but she can make some really sick niche william faulkner jokes.
began seasonally working at big bear during the winter break of her last year in college because bitch needed some money!! wound up loving it and was like “i think,,,, i will continue to do this,,,, the people here,,,, r cul,,,,”
still visits benjamin every once in a while. not a way to say that uwu you should forgive ur abusive parent(s) uwu rather that jo.... still has slight belief in him. just to end on something emo.
THE REST IS HISTORY!!!!
TL;DR:
started life out as a saddie, not a baddie. still not a baddie, but no longer as much of a saddie. loves “cats” and there is no irony to that statement. can make good niche literary jokes, but that’s about it.
PERSONALITY/MISCELLANEOUS INFO:
a child. a literal child. a child to the point that she should have supervision when she goes on grocery trips because she falls for marketing ploys so easily. can’t believe she hasn’t fallen into a pyramid scheme yet.
an absolute dumbass. again, can make some great niche william faulkner jokes, but ask her the order of the planets? “...well mars is somewhere in there.”
unironically LOVES cats - both the musical and movie. thinks jennifer hudson’s grizabella is the best. will start sharing random facts about it or old possum’s book of practical cats if she runs out of things to talk about but feels pressured to keep talking. was broken when she first read a different t.s. eliot poem and realized he was actually super dark. the only thing that got her through it was a comparison to batman :\ bruce wayne is old possum’s, batman is everything else.
to take a brief break from fun personality facts, v down on herself bc benjamin’s words rly!! stuck with her!! convinced she is an absolute idiot and does not trust her own memory. v indecisive bc of this and always longs for someone to help her figure things out. tries to distance herself from memories of her mother because, again, benjamin got to her. her love of cats doesn’t help that, but... can you believe that’s her coping mechanism? makes up for it by giving all of her love 2 everyone else!! we love tragedy!! and needing to go to therapy!!
secretly knows her love of cats is weird and dumb. a part of her knows why it’s considered one of the worst musicals ever. but LISTEN. we luv rly weird coping mechanisms!
big dreamer. will develop the most impractical goals. she usually knows they are impractical, but still..... uwu
has decided everyone is good until proven bad! except for,,,, like,,, murderers and rapists,,,,
is #StraightEdge for the most part,,,, literally has a drink maybe three times per year
says “like” a whole lot for someone who majored in english with a concentration in literature and should therefore be more eloquent.
i am not great at these sections!! feel free 2 j refer to her zodiac, personality tests, and character influences!!
literally fox 8. i put the others there bc she’s similar but wow,,,, if u read fox 8 (it’s a short story i recommend it i luv george saunders u can find a pdf online),,,, she is fox 8.
here u go here is a sample that doesnt need context: "Fox 4 woslike: No ofense, Fox 8? Your ideas are not super praktikal.
Dreem, dreem, dreem, said Fox 11.
Fox 41 woslike: Fox 8, does this honestly never get old for you?"
OH ALSO. she has a slet. a cat,,,,, named asparagus,,,, whom she calls “gus”,,,,, and y’all know WHY.
recent development: has downloaded tor so she can get on the dark web. why? because she thinks there will be more funny animal videos on there. is shockingly good at navigating it.
CONNECTION IDEAS:
close friends bc we luv that –– roman (nuanced), aylie (nuanced), hazel (nuanced), cleo (nuanced), vic (nuanced), marco (nuanced)
childhood friends whom she possibly had impromptu sleepovers with bc that is v soft and,,,,, y’all i left the city blank for a reason. –– hazel, marco,
on that note, the person who was like “wait,,,,,,, u know that book was turned into a musical right,,,,,, like,,,,, a musical literally everyone knows” and shook jo’s world
good influence / bad influence –– cleo, vic,
~*confidant*~
roommate
exes –– ian,
reciprocated pining
unreciprocated pining
someone..... who has accepted..... that she likes cats.... in a way that is not ironic. will see the movie with her. –– aylie,
an enemy,,,,,, aka this person was like “cats is literally the worst thing in the entire world” and now they r on jo’s very short hit list –– riley
idk!!! im also obvs up for brainstorming!!! luv that!!!
** descriptive connections page is here ( only people who i’m messaging are on it, but i ?? would love to plot w everyone ?? so don’t make the short list make u think i’m trying 2 limit it 2 these ppl auhfoeidla )
LIKE THIS OR HMU TO PLOT !
#bigbearintro#y'all my intro style evolved!#there's a tl;dr beneath the bg info bc i!! rambled!!#i feel like i went back and forth b/t proper grammar/punctuation and.... not.... caring.#also i am. dumb 2night. it j took me a hot while to figure out how to spell punctuation and it still doesnt look right the english language#is so weird????#we post this before we have many followers we die like men.
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The Retreat Chapter 20
Characters: CEO!Bucky x reader, Natasha
Warnings: Angst, again (sorry) and language
Word count: 2k
Description: Y/N Y/L/N: determined business woman, sought after by most businesses, creative visionary for advertising. She has it all. Or so she thinks. Life has a way of kicking you sideways when you least expect it, want it or are in anyway prepared for it. Numerous times. How can Y/N remain from cracking under the pressure when her career isn’t the only thing on the line and everything isn’t all that it seems?
A/N: I remembered that it is Thursday. Yay. So a lot is about to happen and I hope you are prepared. Enjoy(?) xx Series Masterlist Marvel Masterlist
Story:
India lifts the red roses up to my eye level with a toothy smile, taking a half step towards me as an offering. When I don’t take them the smile falters ever so slightly and she slowly lowers her arm to her side.
“It’s good to see you, you look great. You always did.” She laughs a little at the last part as she reminisces our failed shit-show of a relationship as if it ended on amicable terms which- news flash- it did not!
“What are you doing here? Leave a shirt behind or something?” I snarl. She may not have come for a fight but I didn’t get to do this. I didn’t get to tell her everything I felt because of how she just cleared out and left- I want to scream in her face in the way she never let me.
“I thought we could try again. We can get past what happened, it’s us!”
“Are you for fucking real?” I scoff, “You walked out on me without a reason and think you have the authority to come back here demanding I take you back because this is fixable, because ‘it’s us’. Either you take me for an idiot or are one yourself.”
“I was wrong to leave. I thought it was best for us but I’ve been so miserable without you Y/N/N.” India smiles a hopeful smile as she speaks. Note the lack of an actual apology. Almost on the point of laughing from the ridiculousness that is this situation, I tip my head back and walk a few paces on the spot. Meanwhile India just stays put smiling by my front door preventing me from just heading inside and locking her out.
“Please leave. Just go and don’t come back.” I step aside to make a path to the stairwell. India moves towards it but it quickly becomes apparent that she’s actually aiming for me and I freeze on the spot.
“Tell me right now that you don’t want this.” she says breathily, her face ridiculously close to my own. Is that alcohol on her breath?
“I don’t want this India. Now go!” I look up into her eyes defiantly and keep steady, my resolve unwavering. Go me! She doesn’t move though, not to leave the building. Her face gets closer and her lips purse in order to kiss me but I react too quickly for her, turning my face down and to the right to look at her shoes. Her sneakers. Black converse with scuff marks on fabric and discoloured laces… and splashes of red paint on the toes.
It was her! India painted my door. India called my phone. India sent me the photos. India is my stalker! It was all her.
“You! You’re the one who’s been stalking me! Don’t try to deny it, the paint is on your shoe.” I push her gently away from me as I make my accusations. Her demeanour immediately switches to something far more sinister as she starts to laugh.
“You always did have an eye for the details didn’t you?” She asks rhetorically- now it’s her turn to walk around on the spot with one hand running over her face and through her hair. “Yes, it was me. Well, not all me. We hired a PI to take those photos and follow you around with that fool of a CEO you work for. I never would have pictured the two of you together until I had the photographic proof. The idea was to get you to dump him so we could carry on our jobs but you just wouldn’t do it so, we had to take drastic measures.”
“What are you talking about.” I whisper, frightened.
“I’m not a fucking therapist, am I? We work for HYDRA Technik. They found openings to gather intel on Barnes and Rogers so put us to work undercover, lucky you.” I can’t believe what I’m hearing- it’s insane!
“Wait… who’s we?”
“Caroline! Thought you’d have got that one by now genius. They hired her when she first started dating Barnes, paid quite the hefty some for that gold digger but she’s been invaluable. Your face was a real picture at the gala by the way.”
“Wha- You were there?!” Caroline being a lying, backstabbing spy comes as no surprise to be honest but I think if my ex was at a party, I’d have seen her.
“That man didn’t back into by accident you know. We had to get you out of the way so Caroline could get Barnes distracted. It was supposed to end with the two of them getting back together but the real outcome was so much more enjoyable.” India grins like the cheshire cat. It was all a ploy and not Bucky’s fault at all. He really was telling the truth. This is the most messed up story I’ve ever heard and it just makes me feel violently ill- mine and India’s relationship was never even real! Much of the last year of my life wasn’t real. Is she even really a lesbian?
“Why would you-”
“To get back in position you dumb bitch! You were never meant to work it out but I guess that’s not going to happen now. Because of you, things are a little more complicated.” India snarls. I only just manage to duck in time as she makes a swing for my head.
Bucky’s POV
“What do you want Caroline?” I pace around the window of my apartment, whiskey in hand and a frown on my face. She saunters in, gently leaving her bag on my couch and taking a seat as though she still lives here. Her whole demeanour is completely wrong for this situation; she’s too calm, too relaxed, and there’s something else too as if she knows something that I don’t and it’s right there just under the surface. What does she know? There’s always something with Caroline, it's never just simple and straightforward. That’s partly why I was relieved when things ended- the mystery and the games draw you in but I’m too old for those games now. Y/N is exciting in a whole new way, a good way. And she doesn’t mess with my head.
“You and I both know the answer to that one Juju. This isn’t over, it never was. We’re so perfect for each other and we shouldn’t let all of that perfection go to waste now, should we?”
“Like I’ve told you before, you screwed it up. And I’m glad, thankful even! Because of you, I have Y/N and I could not be happier.”
“Y/N… So that’s who you’re new little fling is. It’s sweet of you to consider the aesthetically less fortunate.” Her voice is sweet but her words are twisted and borderline evil-villain-like. Wait,
“How did you know I’d moved on? No one did- have you been following me?” Her smile falls from her eyes leaving a creepy, empty expression behind, I think I’ve found what seemed wrong before.
“I… No.” She stands up having regained her smile although it is clearly fake. She knew about me and Y/N, who knows for how long, meaning she knew exactly what she was doing when she came to see me at the benefit and she knows what she’s doing now.
“Have you been following me Caroline?” I clench my fists and step over to where she is now pacing. She swallows hard, maybe from fear or the guilt, her tough shell showing cracks like a porcelain doll.
“I didn’t follow you.” I hear the tremble in her voice. Liar.
“If you didn’t, who did you pay?”
“Nobody, JuJu I swear I didn't-”
“I'll only ask one more time, Caroline. Who did you send to follow me and Y/N?” my contained rage causes me to shake, nails digging into the palms of my clenched fists. For a moment, she doesn't answer, remaining poised and staring me down. But those cracks just can't hold.
“He was just some PI, I don't know the details. India did all of the planning and stuff, I just did as I was told.” She tears up, turning away to dab at her eyes.
“Wait, India as in Y/N’s ex India?”
“Yeah, she hired me to work with her.” Caroline fishes a packet of tissues from her purse and blows her nose loudly. India was working with Caroline, that fact makes no sense in its own.
“But why? Who were you working for? India was a therapist!” I look to her, completely confused, to see her touching up her smudged makeup around her eyes- it's all image with her!
“I haven't a clue what she did, I just know HYDRA Technik were the ones paying for it all.”
HYDRA! Those backwards bastards are behind this?! I've heard of them using desperate and, more importantly, illegal measures to get ahead in the technology game. They've never come close to our own sales before, something to do with a bug they never fix in the voice and facial recognition software, but if they've been spying on the competition they might just have an edge with their upcoming releases. Hell, they may even take over the whole market! And what about Stark industries? Do HYDRA have people on the inside in Tony's offices too? Do I warn him? He may be my enemy but I wouldn't wish the theft of work on my worst enemy, especially not HYDRA with their ways of working. God damn my conscience, I'll call later.
“If you were working for HYDRA why did you come back, Caroline? Not get enough info to please your bosses?” I focus back on the problem at hand, that problem being Caroline. She's dry-eyed and back to picture perfect. That being said, her perfect image is significantly tarnished in my eyes now knowing what she's done.
“India told me to, it's her you should be asking all of these questions. In fact, she's probably at Y/N’s little apartment right now.” she admires her nails, waving her hand around when mentioning Y/N.
“She is? Why?”
“That was the whole idea… I get back with you and she gets back with Y/N. It really wasn't meant to go like this, who knows what they're going to say back at the office.”
“I hope I'm not too late…” I mutter to myself whilst grabbing my jacket and phone.
“You're going?!”
“I have to do something!”
Y/N’s POV
India's fist collides with the plaster where my head was as I fall back into the pot plant by my door toppling it over, soil and leaves going everywhere. Rest in peace Planty, sorry for forgetting to water you so often. Heart thumping, I barely have time to get back up before India is doing it for me, yanking me by the lapels; man she is strong! With my toes barely touching the ground, she holds me up with an arm across my throat, my windpipe squeezed tight.
“S-st-op… p-leas-se…” I sputtering, rapidly running out of oxygen.
“Sorry my darling but we can't have you talking now, can we?” Her smile is sickening, twisted- has she done this before? These hands that used to touch me so lovingly will now be the cause of my death. Poetic? I hate poetry. Using all of the remaining energy I have, I kick and punch and scratch and fight to stay alive. She must be immune to pain as she doesn't react to any injury I inflict. The edges of my vision go black and fuzzy, hot tears running down my face. Strangling takes a while doesn't it?
“Ahh!” I squeak in pain as India increases the pressure on my neck. The agony is never ending and I feel like my spine might just snap in two- I kind of wish it would so this ordeal would just be over.
“You should be happy Y/N/N, you always did want to spice things up between us.” India sneers. I feel the last dregs of energy leave my body, my grip on her arm going limp. At least the pain is numb now.
#bucky x reader#bucky x you#bucky barnes x reader#bucky barnes x you#ceo!bucky#ceo!bucky x reader#ceo!bucky x you#ceo!marvel#ceo!au#marvel x reader#marvel x you#marvel#mcu#the retreat#james buchanan barnes#james barnes#angst
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A Flame For A Cabbage (Part 1)
Summary: The world is at war, it has been for a hundred years or so. The tribes have fallen and the Earth Kingdom is next. In the midst of a war, an ambitious merchant simply tries to sell cabbages. Azula-Cabbage Man Role swap AU
The sky hanging above the wall is an incredible sight, a canvas of orange with splashes of pinks and golds. It is a fine opening to what may very well be a final day. In her travels, Azula has heard tell of it. Of a device that set to breech Ba Sing Se’s walls. Even still, she has a job to do. She isn’t particularly worried about trifles outside of the wall. She fashions her hair into a scraggly topknot--she can never seem to tame her locks--and slips into her day clothing.
She doesn’t have much in way of possessions just a small cabbage stall--already twice destroyed by the Avatar and his companions--and the essentials, a few changes of clothes, a makeshift comb, a waterskin, a few pairs of shoes, and some kitchenware and gardening tools. She puts on her conical hat and heads out and into the streets.
She can hear the rumbles even from this distance and considers that maybe it is a horrid idea to find herself outside. But then, maybe she can sell a few doomsday cabbages. She pushes a cart full of them into the center of the market square.
The square is bustling and jovial. Azula can’t help but be intrigued, it perplexes her how they can be so happy with their sanctuary seconds away from a breech. A woman passes by her stall. “Would you like to buy a cabbage?” She asks. “It may be your last chance to buy one, now that the war has reached Ba Sing Se.”
“Excuse me?” The woman tilts her head.
Azula conceals an exasperated sigh. “The city is going to fall and we are all going to die today. I recommend buying a cabbage as your last meal.”
The woman gulps and walks away. A rather brisk and hustled walk. Azula pouts to herself, she never has been particularly great with people. Not friendly conversation anyhow. She wonders if she may have come on too strong. She approaches the next passerby differently, “would you be interested in a doom’s day cabbage?”
“Doom’s day?” The man asks.
“Yes. Doom’s day.”
“What do you mean?”
Azula blinks, “I mean that the wall is about to be breeched so I am offering you a good quality final meal.” She pauses, looking at the tray of food that he is already holding. “Rather something to enrich the one you already have.”
The man seems to consider for a moment and Azula dares to get her hopes up. She thinks that today will be her lucky day. With the Avatar and his friends preoccupied with the wall, there is no one to make a mess of things. The man pats his pockets. “I think that I just spent the last of my money on this.” He motions to his meal.
Azula nods. “You should make better spending choices in the future. Good day.”
The man frowns and makes his way away from her stall. She is almost certain that she has offended him somehow, but she opts to pretend that he had simply been mournful of his lost opportunity.
She greets a second man and offers him a cabbage.
“Maybe tomorrow.” The man smiles.
“But there will not be a tomorrow.” Azula insists.
He halts in his tracks. “Why wouldn’t there be a tomorrow.”
Azula founds herself staring in bemusement again. Could it be that they really don’t know about the drill. That they are absolutely oblivious to what transpires just on the other side of their walls? Azula parts her lips. “There’s a drill.”
“A drill?”
She nods. “It is Fire Nation. They are going to breach the outer wall very soon.”
The man gives an uneasy chuckle and shifts his weight from one leg to the other. He mumbles something before taking off much like the first woman. Azula sighs. She wonders if the Earth King knows about this, perhaps word has not reached him yet. Mayhaps it is she who should bring it to his attention. Her expression dims, who is she kidding? She can’t even sell a single cabbage much less be able to deliver profound information to the king himself.
She re-adjusts her hat and decides to herself that if she can sell just one cabbage, she will bring her news to the Earth King. She tries to draw consumers in but she doesn’t have the spunk nor vigor that the woman running the meat cart does. And she doesn’t have that suave and slick voice that the man running the jewelry stand boasts. She certainly doesn’t have the perky, cheeriness of the brother-sister botanist duo.
She is just Azula.
She supposes that her voice is pleasant enough and that her appearance is at least somewhat charming. But the baggy cotton pants and shirt she wears do her no favors. She is exceptionally average in those regards. But she has a sharp mind and she is something of a prodigy. She knows so, her father has said as much. Even if he hadn’t, she hasn’t seen anyone grow a cabbage as fast or as large as the ones she grows. The sheer amount of them is impressive if she must say.
She decides that she is wasting her talents on people who can’t recognize her talents. If she wants to do this, if she wants success--and she will have it one way or another--she will need to be bolder.
She looks towards the sky; it is clear and blue. Early afternoon. She still has much of her day to accomplish what needs accomplishing.
.oOo.
“This drill is a feat of scientific ingenuity and raw destructive power. Once it tunnels through the wall, our troops will storm their city. The Earth Kingdom will finally fall, and you can claim Ba Sing Se in the name of Fire Lord Ozai. Nothing can stop us.” Vows Qin.
Tylee taps her chin, “hmmm, what about those muscley guys down there?” Once quick glance into the drill’s binoculars reveals a team of well chiseled men. They slam rocks up against the drill’s framework.
Sie listens intently to the conversation, wondering just were his life has gone wrong. He doesn’t wonder for too long, he thinks that he can pinpoint the exact moment when things had taken such a stark turn.
Qin flashes a confident and boastful smile. “Please! The drill's metal shell is impervious to any earthbending attack.”
But that doesn’t alleviate the queasiness in Sie’s stomach.“Oh, I sure hope it is, War Minister Qin…” He trails off, he knows how these things usually go after a healthy amount of experience. “...but just to be on the safe side.” He looks to Mai and TyLee. “We should probably take care of that.” He cringes to himself as another rock collides with the drill.
Twirling knife around her finger, Mai remarks, “Finally.”
Sie winces to himself, he hates when she does that. One of these days she is going to take someone’s eye out.
“Something to do.” Her words are punctuated by a clunk and a shout. There it is. The moment he had dreaded. Mai apologizes less than half-heartedly.
.oOo.
There, that should do, Azula thinks to herself. She knows that her task is no longer going to be easy. She is well aware that she has maneuvered herself right into the general vicinity of the Avatar himself. But she is a girl of goals and plenty of determination.
“Excuse me! You can’t be out here right now!” Calls the general.
“I can be! And I will be! Maybe you don’t have the nerve to come down here and do what is necessary, but I do. I’m stronger than you.” Is what Azula would have declared had she heard the man over the sound of whirring mechanics and rebounding rocks. Instead she continues arranging her stall as though he hadn’t spoken at all. Because, as far as she is concerned, he hasn’t. And really, if a plea falls on def ears, has a plea really been made at all? Azula doesn’t ask herself this question because she has no reason to.
Instead she taps one of the earth warriors on the shoulder. “Would you like to buy a cabbage. Battles are exhausting, you will have an advantage if you aren’t fighting hungry.”
“WHAT?” The man hollars over the noise of the drill.
“These cabbages will help you prevent the apocalypse.” Azula speaks with more volume.
“WHAT!?” He repeats again.
She flinches as the man drops to the ground. The man’s attacker waves before cartwheeling over to the next. Azula narrows her eyes, to think she had a sturdy sales pitch going for her too.
.oOo.
Sie is growing more and more anxious. Mai and TyLee have returned and the earthbenders have been dealt with. But he knows that there will be more of them. He just knows it. He is also well aware of just how much trouble the Avatar can cause after having run into him in Omashu. But where is he? Where.
A horrid noise violates his ears. “Congratulations, crew. The drill has made contact with the wall of Ba Sing Se, start the countdown to victory.”
So why is it that he begins counting down to their defeat. It might be that he knows deep down that the protagonists always win. That those are the rules and he can deny them no more than he can deny the knife-related background death of one of the drill staff. His corpse has already been drawn out of the frame (blood and all) with no trace of it ever having been there. But with no place for it to have been reasonably moved to.
He decides that it is also worth noting that a cabbage stall has been erected just outside of the wall. He wonders what kind of ploy this may be.
“War Minister, an engineer was ambushed! His schematics were stolen!” Declares one of the personal, confirming his suspicions about that damn cabbage stand.
“Titans, go!” He coughs, “Sorry, I mean, let’s go ladies.” Whatever that cabbage merchant has planned, he won’t let it succeed. Too much is at stake here. His nation is depending on him and the Fire Lord, his father, has set expectations high. He dreads to think of what could happen if he comes home without victory. He can’t allow himself to end up like his banished and scarred brother.
.oOo.
She watches them fall left and right, her potential customers drop like flies. The worst of it is that they actually seem interested in buying cabbages off of her. The problem is that by the time she has successfully communicated over the drill’s volume, they only have time to smile and say, “yeah, I’d like one” before a Fire Nation soldier intervenes.
Feeling utterly defeated and rather useless, she makes her way to the infirmary. The least she can do is offer them a free cabbage for their troubles. She has an excess of them and she decides that it wouldn’t pay to waste a perfectly good cabbage.
With a pang in her heart, she gathers a few of them into her arms and wanders back within the wall. This, of course, would have been a pristine opportunity for Sie to make a move but he has already opted to go after the ambushers. So, as most mishaps accidentally are, Azula blissfully avoided her own.
For some reason she ponders what everyone used to say of her; that she was born lucky.
The sky is still blue and the temperature is pleasantly warm. Several of the soldiers take comfort in her cabbages. She supposes that, that is what matters; that people know the value of tedious and painstakingly grown produce. Particularly of the cabbage variety.
Despite their suffered injuries, they seem happy.
In fact, they thank her for the cabbages.
No, she decides, she has hasn’t been born lucky. She forges luck for herself.
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Capitalism, The Reaper of Hope
(How I found a panic attack relief locked behind a paywall)
It was late in the day, the time? I’m not sure. The sun was just starting to set. My stomach had been a little iffy most of the day but then my mom, who’s my rock, told me she had to leave for awhile. I laid there, my head swirling with racing thoughts, hoping so badly this won’t get worst and I’ll get sick or have a panic attack. Sure enough, though, the anxiety caused from worry hurled my stomach into a frenzy and that in turn elevated my anxiety and stress levels. I was caught, yet again, in the cycle and as much as I tell myself it’s all in my head, it doesn’t make it better.
“Google!” I thought. If I read an article documenting the link between stomach problems and anxiety that would make me feel better. (Like I haven’t done that a million times already in my life, high anxiety me is not very rational.) So mid panic attack, I searched. To my surprise I found an article I hadn’t read before. On a website I didn’t know existed but should have considering I’ve seen and am a big fan of their documentaries. “How Meditation Helped Me Poop Less, The Link Between Mindful Breathing And IBS (Irritable Bowl Syndrome)”.
This article hit me like a train with rocket boosters doing downhill. It just MADE sense. Here are a few quotes from said article.
“ The mind-gut connection is very strong—in fact, some have gone as far as to say that there is a second brain in your gut. ”
“ Christopher Willard, a lecturer of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and author of Growing Up Mindful, explains to me that it is common for IBS sufferers to get caught in a cycle of stress, just like I had. Willard describes it as a "cascade effect, where IBS causes stress and exacerbates itself."
This one is what really got me, a scientistic reason as to why my body is like this!
“ Willard describes to me how meditation works to quell some of the worst symptoms of IBS: "One way certain meditations 'work' is by inducing the relaxation response, which effectively gets the body out of the fight/flight response to stresses," he says. He explains that when we are in a state of stress, "our body is prepping for short-term, rather than long-term survival, which shuts off energy to the digestive system and the immune system." This is what causes some of the IBS symptoms.”
This was it! The end all, be all. The facts I’ve needed to know! This was around the time the author of the article started really diving into meditation. Being a long time sufferer of anxiety I already know some breathing techniques to help calm me down, they’re usually hit or miss, but I’ve never really tired meditation. The author details the experience, the guided meditation voice on the app she downloaded and just reading it made me feel at ease. It’s been a long time since I’ve had any kind of hope of ever getting better, feeling ok, or managing my mental health but I was actually starting to feel like maybe I had a chance still.
Until it hit me....more of that later...
I finished reading the article, kept breathing and my stomach actually settled. My breathing didn’t feel rushed and shaky. I didn’t feel my impended doom! I had done it, I had beaten anxiety today! Being me, though, the strategist I am, warrior even, I thought I needed to press my advantage. I clicked the link to the meditation app. My App Store opened to the developers page and I was taken aback. The app in question wasn’t free.
I scrolled through, app after app, all of them had a price tag. I finally found one of there’s that was free, it was very stripped down, lack features but then it really hit me, I’ve been doped. Doped, fooled, tricked! I thought I’d found someone who not only understood but wanted to help, instead it was a crusty man with a nice suit and twirly mustache, maybe a cowboy hat. A snake oil salesmen, claiming to have every tonic to cure every aliment.
Panic started to set back in.
Now, was this whole article a marketing ploy to boost a sales number on an app? Probably not. Did the author actually care and intend to help? Probably, but that doesn’t negate the feeling that I’ve been played. That to ease suffering on the list of priorities is second to profiting and that has always been an a concept I’ve struggled to grasp. I’m not saying it’s time to eat the rich, burn the flag and pick up a sickle and hammer, not at all. The idea of capitalism is great. A market is great. Competition is great. My problem is, somethings shouldn’t be for profit, one being good health. If you want to sell someone a new iPhone for $1,500, go for it, it’s a cool luxury to have if you can afford it but if you’re selling a relief to someone’s hardships that directly hurt their quality of life, you’re kind of a piece of shit.
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What I learned for this whole experience.
Mediation is a powerful tool, along with breathing techniques. Scientistic explanations about what’s going on with my body helps me greatly understand and minimize my irrational panic. This particular article did help me in my time of need but also made me question my self worth and the intention of it’s creation.
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If you liked my own article maybe consider sharing it around! Maybe I could write more like this, who knows, maybe have my own website and journalism publication! Maybe leave a like, reblog, share it on other platforms, just maybe. ❤️
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Something About You
Author: locke-writes
Title: Something About You
Prompt: “Keep it. It looks better on you” & You and Me - Lifehouse For: @becaamm ‘s Valentine’s Day challenge
Rating: T
Word Count: 1,541
Tony Stark continually attempted to push you away. Every day, every hour, every minute, he had tried to get you to abandon him. In his mind it was for the best, he didn't want you to go, would never want you to go, but he couldn't keep you close to him. The pain of losing you if you were used as a pawn to get to him as Iron Man would be far greater than the pain of losing you because he had pushed you away. All he did was hurt those closest to him and you could never be one of those people. He cared for you, he wanted you safe, and by associating with him there was no way to make sure of that.
You had always been stubborn though and you were sticking around. Truthfully Tony knew he wasn't even trying hard to push you away. He'd told you time and again that it was dangerous for you to even be near him but every time you simply told him he was being ridiculous. He knew you were right, he knew that the worst pain of all would be if you walked out the door and never returned. You had always meant a lot to Tony, after all you were his closest, oldest friend. You were all that and more to him.
You had been his first kiss, his first love, and his first heartbreak. He had been your first kiss, your first love, and first heartbreak.
He had been a part of your life from the day you were born. You knew him inside and out, knew him better than anyone ever would. Tony had always been grateful for that.
He had loved you once and he had lost you once. Yet for whatever reason you'd never been angry with him. Part of him wished you had been, part of him wished you'd screamed at him, stormed out of his house, left him alone. Instead you stood your ground ignoring every word spoken, calling him an idiot and telling him that he was stuck with you.
Your first kiss happened at age 15 during a Howard Stark hosted New Years Eve party.
Your first feelings of love appeared after he'd left to return to college after winter break his sophomore year.
Your first heartbreak came after the day his parents died.
Tony had been grief stricken, he had mourned strongly and deeply. Standing by him you failed to shed a tear, you were too focused on helping Tony grieve that you hadn't processed their deaths yourself. Helping Tony, getting him to eat, to shower, to change, to deal with grief, that was your priority. He had been angry with you, said things to you he'd eventually apologize for and that he'd be forgiven for.
In the midst of it all he had said that you were through. In the midst of it all he had said he never loved you, that the two of you were done. At that moment in time love was a sham to him. If love conquered all then why couldn't it conquer death. Tony was speaking through grief, he knew that and you knew that, but still, you had taken his words to heart. You knew he didn't mean what he said but you were aware that he needed time. He didn't need a relationship, he needed a friend. While you could be both, being romantically involved would have hindered any growth in him. At least that was the lie you told yourself.
Tony would need time to come to terms with the sudden changes happening in his life. One moment all he had to worry about was college finals now he had too many decisions to make. There were advisors sure, but Tony needed a confidant, and that would remain yourself no matter what feelings you had towards him. Feelings had to be pushed aside in this moment.
Tony Stark now had to finish college, plan a funeral, and run a company. He was only just 21.
Time passed and Tony never did acknowledge the manner of all that was spoken on that day. It didn't matter, you would never press him about it. Let him forget it, let it be a part of his past. It had become so intertwined with a moment of vast grief that you wished it to remain there. To reflect on a memory of grief would only bring more grief, or so that was what you wanted to believe.
In all the years that had passed since that moment you had never stopped loving Tony. Now he was the playboy that everyone thought that he was, and it did hurt, but it was also a persona. The media had begun to portray him in such a way that he adapted to please them. He could become whatever anyone wanted to become.
You wanted him to be yours once again.
He wanted to be yours once again.
Tony Stark had become the womanizing playboy the media wanted him to be because that was how he had begun to be seen. He knew it was an act, even the women he was with knew it was an act. For the most part they worked for companies that Tony had dealings with, they'd go out with Tony not because they wanted to date him but because they were business dinners in disguise. Let the media think what they wanted, it was all a marketing ploy.
The only person Tony ever let see the real side of him was yourself.
Tony had regretted that break up for years. He'd convinced himself you were better off without him and had never tried to win you back. In fact he wasn't sure that you would even want him back with everything that he had said to you.
Yes he was pushing you away because he was afraid that you'd be used against him. Yes he was pushing you away because he didn't want someone taking you from him to be used like a bargaining chip. Yes he was pushing you away because he was afraid of doing something stupid and hurting you in such a way that you'd walk out of his life forever.
Yes he was pushing you away for a variety of reasons.
But he was really only pushing you away because he was in love with you and he was terrified to admit it. He was terrified of fucking up again, he was terrified that you wouldn't feel the same way. Tony Stark was a genius when it came to science and technology, but love, that was where he was clueless.
Countless times he had thought he was going to tell you. Countless moments where he could have said the words. Yet it never seemed to happen.
Now it seemed that this moment was one of those many.
There was a party last night, there usually was, and you had been there. He didn't remember much but he remembered that. He always remembered the parties that you would come to. The two of you had been drinking and he must have told you that you could stay the night because there you were the next morning making breakfast in his kitchen while wearing an old shirt and pair of sweatpants that he owned.
"Sorry if I woke you up, I got hungry and figured you'd be too. Also sorry for taking some of your clothes, I threw mine in your laundry because I didn't want to wear them again if they weren't clean"
"Keep them, you look a lot better wearing them than I do." He replied, taking a bite of toast you'd set on a plate.
You nodded, falling back into silence, focusing on not burning the food. Tony couldn't help but stare. There was something about this moment that Tony never wanted to lose. The simple act of seeing you when he woke up, of you being there, Tony knew. He'd stumbled through words for so long, stumbled for the right ones but there were never any right ones. No matter what he did or said, it was never going to be right.
Tony had been wasting so much time in his life never telling you how he felt about you.
He refused to waste any more time.
"I have to tell you something."
"Shoot" you spoke, transferring food from pan to plate.
"I'm sorry."
"For what"
"Years ago. I shouldn't have — If I could take it all back."
"Tony…"
"No. No I. I love you…I never stopped once. All these years. I wanted to tell you, I tried I promise. But I kept tripping on my words and I never knew what to say. An apology seemed too simple, you don't really like grand gestures. And I. I need you to know. I want your forgiveness"
In the time that he had spoken you'd walked to stand in front of him. You took your had and placed it against his cheek, he closed his eyes afraid of what he'd see in your own.
"Don't you know. You've already been forgiven"
"Why"
"Because I never stopped loving you Tony. You've always had my heart"
#locke writes#marvel#tony stark#marvel imagine#tony stark imagine#marvel fic#tony stark fic#marvel fanfic#tony stark fanfic#marvel oneshot#tony stark oneshot
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Sonic Movie Does A U-Turn - Quill’s Scribbles
Okay, so I’m actually writing a whole other Scribble about the Sonic the Hedgehog movie and about live action/CGI hybrid movies in general, which I’m hoping to have finished by tomorrow, but some news has come out and I know for a fact people are going to use it as a stick to try and beat me with even though it’s completely irrelevant to what I have to say, so I’m going to talk about it now.
So live action Sonic the Hedgehog is hideous. That’s pretty much an objective fact. He looks like something that came out of Andy Serkis’ arse after he ate the mo-cap dots and gave himself a stomach bug. Well apparently the fan and critical backlash has been so extreme that the director Jeff Fowler has gone on Twitter and vowed to change the design.
Now this isn’t the first time a movie was changed in post production in response to audience feedback. After the critical failure of Batman V Superman, Warner Bros and DC hired an editing team that usually does movie trailers to recut the film Suicide Squad to make it more like Marvel, which of course resulted in the misogynistic technicolor shitshow we ended up with. (In other words, it’s exactly like a Marvel movie. OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!! I’M SO EDGY!). But Sonic feels significant because of the amount of backlash and the sheer size of the change the filmmakers are now having to implement. We’re not talking editing scenes or doing CGI touch ups. We’re talking a full remodelling of a very prominent CGI character. That’s going to take quite a bit of money and overtime to complete before the November release date.
So this is good news I guess. We’re getting a live action Sonic that’s closer to the iconic design from the games. That’s all well and good... but only if it’s worth the extra effort and let’s be brutally honest, it really doesn’t seem like it.
Sonic The Hedgehog Of The Opera is really just one problem in a sea of problems. You’ve all seen the trailer, right? Yes Sonic The Hedgehog Of Notre Dame is hideous, but what about all the other shit in the trailer? The unfunny jokes? The generic premise? The cringeworthy music choice? Jim Carrey being an obnoxious tool? A Sonic redesign isn’t going to change that. Those bits are still bad. Honestly I think this film is dead on arrival and it’s not really worth the effort fixing Sonic at this point. You only get to make one first impression and this was it. This is without a doubt one of the worst trailers I think I’ve ever seen and everyone involved in this movie, who worked on this movie or are even associated with this movie should be incredibly embarrassed by this. And that’s including Tim Miller.
Yeah! The director of Deadpool is the executive producer of this film! Not only that, he approved the design! In an interview with IGN, he said:
"It would be weird and it would feel like he was running around nude if he was some sort of otter-like thing. It was always, for us, fur, and we never considered anything different. It's part of what integrates him into the real world and makes him a real creature."
Tim... he’s wearing running shoes. I think the boat has sailed on the realism front, don’t you?
Apparently Sega and Sonic Team weren’t too happy with the design, particularly the eyes, and that’s really the main thing about all this that’s confusing me. How the fuck did this design get approved? Did no one on the production team or at the executive level say ‘hang on a minute, this looks a bit iffy’? Did no one at least question why they were making such a drastic change to such an iconic design? What about Sega? Why didn’t they put their foot down when they saw the initial design? It’s not like they’re powerless. They’re co-producing this thing. Guys... what the hell happened?
Now there’s a bit of a conspiracy theory going around suggesting that this is all a marketing ploy. That the trailer and Sonic design was deliberately shit in order to drum up publicity. I can see why people think that, but I very much doubt that’s the case. For one thing, it’s one hell of a gamble releasing a trailer that’s deliberately shit just to get people talking. Like I said, you only get to make one first impression. Even if and when they reveal the revamped look, they’re going to have a heck of a job winning people over again, especially those who weren’t really sold on this film to begin with. But also it doesn’t change the fact that the studios are going to have to spend time and money redesigning Sonic and implement the new design into already completed footage. There’s no way any studio would waste that much time and money on a concept they didn’t think was saleable. And that’s really the source of this whole conspiracy, isn’t it? People understandably can’t wrap their heads around the idea that the filmmakers legitimately thought that this design was good. It’s simply mind-boggling that anyone would approve such an obviously bad design, and yet wonders never cease.
So there’s a chance Sonic might actually look like Sonic in a few months time. That’s nice. But it doesn’t matter if the film isn’t good and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have my doubts. Based on that trailer, this looks set to be this generation’s Super Mario Bros movie, which is a shame because out of all the movie adaptations of video games we’ve had, Sonic is the one with the most potential to succeed. I think the premise would translate so well to the big screen. If only the film was being made by competent filmmakers.
Sigh. I don’t know. Fingers crossed, eh?
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Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
Wow! I can't believe I'm about to review a mainstream Disney release of all things on this blog. Eh! I make the rules and this thing is close enough to a high fantasy/martial arts film and who knows I may give a crack at Disney's Cruella later if the film strikes me the right way.
The Message
Set in the fictional land of Kumandra, Raya exists in a world where dragon lore is at the center of everything. Kumandra is a prosperous land that exists around a dragon shaped sea, and the different Kumandran tribes that live there are named after the part of the dragon they inhabit. Fang, Tail, etc, etc. It's no wonder that the Dragons are so revered in these cultures, as the prosperity that the world is now experiencing is due to the great sacrifice where the dragons gave their lives to create a magic jewel that keeps a horrible race of sprits called the Druun at bay.
The jewel is protected by the Heart tribe, particularly the lineage of the Heart chieftain. Raya is the heir to this immense responsibility. Her father the current guardian of the jewel is an idealistic sort and believes that the Kumandran people can be united, however the other tribes have their own interests and biases, even about the Heart people who they believe are using the power of the jewel to unfairly benefit themselves. Raya is an apt disciple of her fathers ideals but unfortunately this leads to her falling for a ploy by the people of Fang to steal the Jewel, when she 'befreinds' the Fang Princess Namaari.
A battle ensues over the jewel that ends up shattering the macguffin of power, and releasing the Druun back into Kumandra. The Druun now unleashed upon the world begin to create a ruin. Transfroming anyone they come into contact with into stone. Raya's father saves her before being petrified himself.
As we fast forward Raya has become a cynical adult bent on finding the last dragon of legend in hopes that she can defeat the Druun, and return the world to the way it was, abandoning her hopes that the Kumandran tribes can ever be united. It should come as no suprise then that Raya does in fact discover the Last Dragon, Sisu. Sisu is a fun loving, comedic, and hyper energetic creatuer with a love for humanity and trusting nature that is at odds with Raya's trauma and cynicism, it also doesn't help that her special power is "swimming".
As they journey across the Dragon shaped land of Kumandra, they gain friends and face foes. Raya holding onto her hurt and refusing to trust the other peoples they meet enough to think that maybe Sisu is a Sacred being who is important to their cultures as well. It is this lack of trust that eventually leads to tragedy for Raya.
At this point I'm going to uncharacteristically avoid spoilers. Raya is left with the fall out of her distrust and must either turn to her survivor nature and endure this world the way it is, or put her trust in those that have wronged her and bravely and boldly take a leap of faithful expectation that a better world is possible. It's a Disney movie, so I'm sure you know where this goes, but I'm not going to give you the specifics. It's pretty sweet and powerful.
The Benediction
Best Creature Design: Tuk Tuk: Available at Target
I can't lie. I work on the road and I have to use the bathroom all over town if I need to. My secret for finding the cleanest place to go is to generally avoid gas stations and rest areas when I can help it and to hit up grocery stores and book stores etc. as often as possible. My favorite is a local target, the bathrooms are generally less in demand than a gas station, much cleaner, AND at target they usually have a starbucks so I can also grab some joe. All that said, I have seen these absolutely massive Tuk Tuk toys in the toy section and I'm going to buy them for all the kids that I know. I just think he's a fun creature. Im not a big enough fan of Raya to justify having this basketball sized toy in my collection, but I think that kids will love having a giant armadillo bear monster to pal around with.
Best Character: Dragon's Heart
Sisu is an endearing figure and her offbeat but kind nature reminds me exactly of my favorite kind of people to meet in the wild. It's hard to be a lover and not a fighter. It's hard to be so understanding. It is an archetype that we see all over any media with a semi-spiritual message and I don't think we've seen it with quite the comedic edge as Sisu. Aang from Avatar comes close, but his light hearted attitude is certainly on par with Sisu, his comedic sensibilities are decidedly less "on". It also kind of says something that I forget that I'm talking about a dragon here.
Worst Aspect: Rayatar the Last Water Dragon
Alright, this might be a hot take but. Avatar: The Last Air Bender did it better. I can't call it parallel thinking as Raya came out almost a decade after Avatar. The two are playing off of very basic heroes journey style narratives that have existed in human story telling for longer than either show so it's completely unfair to claim that Raya was "ripping off" Avatar, BUT it's also a bit naïve to think that Disney wasn't banking on familiarity to move some product. Disney usually goes after public domain properties and fairy tales we are all vaguely familiar with and that's no accident. There's a clear pattern that people gravitate toward the familiar, it's why franchises won't just die. It's why they can repackage all their animated films into mediocre live action form and sell you the exact same movie over and over again. Even if the plot of Raya didn't have similarities to Avatar, which it does, the marketing certainly was attempting to banking on the beloved animated series.
When Raya was first coming out i saw a lot of people claiming that the fashions and character designs were copying Avatar and guys, that's kind of racist. Both shows are creating fantasy worlds with heavy influences from East and South Asian cultures. There's going to be some things that to a white American eye look pretty homogenous, although I'm sure with a little education are in fact very distinct. So as far as the "look", my only gripe is with the Logo.
Now, all that said. If you do want a show where an American animation company created a lore heavy fantasy world that draws heavy inspiration from Asian history and folklore, where a group of special spiritual individuals were wiped out but one remains and is the only hope of uniting a world populated by nations of people with very basic easy to remember names like "fire, and fang, and heart, and earth", where the chosen one is a goofy pacifist who uses the power of love and spiritual values to pull an impossible victory out of their butt at the last minute, but it still makes you cry and want to be a better person, then I have good news for you. You're spoiled for choice, I'm not gonna say Raya "copied" Avatar, BUT ... Avatar did do that particular story better. It may be a bit unfair, as Avatar had three seasons to do so and Raya had like an hour and a half.
Best Weapon: Shifty Sword
I just like Ranma's sword. I'm gonna use this category when I see an extra cool weapon. Oh man! When I review Flying Guillotine am I really going to have to talk about how bad ass the flying gullotine is?
Rayas weapons is actually not a sword at all but is called the Jade Dragon Keris. A Keris is an asymetrical indonesian dagger, and no it doesn't turn into a whip like in the movie, but it is cool that hers does that. The animators really do some creative things with that.
Summary
Raya is unfortunately shaping up to be one of Disney's forgettable features. I think that's a shame as it's stronger in my opinion than many of the recent films that have come out. But as is the case when Disney does a lot of it's more 'action/adventure' films, audiences seem to largely ignore them. Here's to you Treasure Planet. The good news is those movies do have the most passionate and interesting fans. The appeal is more focused than it is broad, and that's okay. As pointed out above, don't expect Raya to give you anything new, but if this is your kind of story then I'm sure you'll be happy to add it to your collection. There's room enough for lots of these.
Overall Grade: C
#raya and the last dragon#dragon#martial arts#disney#fantasy#animation#animated#2d animation#raya#C#Overall Grade C#Grade: C#(C)#2021#2020s#20s
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of friction and bone
(summer writing experiments = rough drafts and monotone narration !! woopdy fucking doo)
prologue
words : 1520 | genre : angst, i guess?? a bit of gore later | pairing : reader / Jeon Jeongguk
An exhibition of worsts in an alleyway, where most bad deals are struck. That's how most pathetic stories start. Cursed by all-knowing eyes, Y/N finds herself deeper into a whirlpool of deceit and uncertainty, both concepts too familiar and foreign. Blessed by slaughter hands and the inane desire to protect, Jeongguk never knew he'd start playing fair for a girl fumbling for her bloodied tarot cards. Her words can shape tragedies, and his shape rhapsodies.
Nothing pleasant comes out of alleyways, especially a deal struck for symbiosis. A warning beforehand would've sufficed. It just so happens that ending up dealing with your own swindled cards was a definite feasibility.
The heart of foul play started with a defect in the sunlight, still asleep even when colors already stirred in the sky. The sun was nowhere to be seen among silhouettes of the structured rotting that was the town, as if afraid to be cursed at by its locals when it takes too early a peek.
Fringes ordinarily cater to troubled life and remorseless mischief, and this town was no different. The streets a nervous system, it shoots rapids, stretches truths, silent in activity but very much inclined to prodding til others bleed, til there's fun out of it.
Though an ungodly hour, comfort drew near. People are squinting themselves farther from sainthood. In other words, they're good for nothings in their primes, all looking for a bad time to make things worthwhile. Farther from peace, banter close to butchery ensues at the witching hour stalls. Watching the early unrest are the scattered patches of kindling fire on cold asphalt, and you walk through it all, inhaling the mandatory gray sea mist that shrouds the overall worship of offense. Such sight has grown on you, selfishly cradling the definition of home and laying it next to you when it shouldn’t.
Accompanying your light footsteps are the songs of dirty work, proving the art of turbulence to be made solely in disdain.
You are part of this human exhibition of worsts – the normalcy of your bloodied cape and tarot cards, grime smeared limbs, hands' fidgeting in impatience for a spectacle, and the general chaos that is your outfit, are nothing to be proud of nor worried about. The only thing worthwhile is your mouth's weariness from feigning detachment, keeping you annoyed and awake despite the lack of proper sleep.
The game has been playing you by its strings for weeks, but never had it reached this dangerous point. One ultimatum grew out of proportion after another, and none of them did you satisfy. None of your clients heard what they wanted, which was a shit of an ordeal, taking into account that your gift is indeed looking into the hypothetical future.
What they don't know is besides foreseeing, there's another polarity to your gift, which is diagnosing. The moment your lips weave a destiny, the future stops being just simple notions – like every banal ability in fiction, whatever you say becomes reality. Whether you asked permission from the gods or not, there's a platter of futures to choose from, and you personally see to it that you handpick adversity.
It's only a matter of time and a problem in readiness. You were a lesser monster to them, because fate is served in rows of possibility even before your resolve wakes the fortune-sucking leeches in them. Suppose it made you sick of stringing life on a bait for the others to dig into. Still, you're passionate about the idea of clairvoyance, yet have a distaste for the act of putting it into illustration, and that says something.
Hiding from daylight could be the price to intruding on fate's craft, of fucking up everyone it can. Or the price to making good use of deceit for a living. At this point, anything could take a bite out of you as recompense. Anyone could scrape their dignity and money back from your skin.
* * * trust is a word you believe in, and you now hold onto a boy with a knife under his petticoat, a product of trust mocking you. * * *
Yoongi advised that the boy was the best to take up, considering the risky affairs you brought yourself into and the reluctance of his unit to be of service to a small girl. You needed a goddamn escort to go through the night without getting unnecessary attention from the disheartened and enraged yesterdays.
A single package needs to be delivered safely. As simple as that. The worst best must've been dared say as a conjecture to steer clear of you, because his description of a loyal menace seems far from yours. Yoongi should have bigger problems to deal with, or else he's gonna get a healthy dose of jinx to look forward to.
The bloke must've reached a rock bottom of some sorts to accept Yoongi's recommendation and to seriously judge your offer. He hasn't spoken a word since he showed up with his burnt insignia of a placid crow on the sleeve of his coat, which could've been mistaken for a mere dark blotch from afar. If you weren't acutely aware of the 3 am scene showing a boy walking with coolheaded grace – you'd be out in the open gamble, ready for taking.
His fingers swiftly brushed over the crow patch, the mark of Yoongi's crew - the Dregs, in a natural gesture to confirm. Then his hands retreated almost instantly. You took a quick assessment: his other movements were oddly casual. Tongue in cheek, distant gaze, head cocked to the side, but arms stiff with hands reinstated at his back. He had an acceptable build and a passable height. Should there be a need to hound, he'd accomplish.
After a raise of brows, he said no more and followed you head into the dark, keeping a respectable distance that didn't scream "I'm her bodyguard and she's most likely a person of value, come on, attack us!"
If he accepted the job without having reservations. he could be unaware of your tales, that, or he paid no heed to the silly, middle-school superstitious gossip.
When you turn to an empty street, you slow your movement so he'd catch up.
"Hey, um, we've been walking for half an hour now. Care to tell me your name?"
You already knew his name, but if he were to join you in your entanglement of misadventres, it ought to be that you earn his name rightfully.
"Jeongguk." A single word is spared, then he resumes to surveying the area nonchalantly.
Your lips purse with his condensed answer. It wouldn't hurt to speak more than a word. It wouldn't hurt to answer questions that insist a single word for an answer, either.
He - now you could freely call Jeongguk, fixed his adamant eyes on studying the empty street, another glance towards you unafforded. Possibly a polite suggestion that you shut up, because he's working.
The street was like any other, only less alive. A long bar of asphalt, an orchestra of crickets with the faint hustle and bustle, an array of absent houses with roofs cooked red, and a flickering streetlight at the end.
* * * an interval : quietude. * * *
Not that the night was free of scattered vermin, only tonight was relatively lacking in interference. Even passing through the cloak and dagger market, none of the sellers shoved their merchandise in your face. All of which could be a good thing, that the probabilities seem to be in your favor today. Though later on you push that inkling out of your thoughts, not wanting to drive away the luck. Your own words don't work on you anyway, but it would be nice if he did talk a bit to ease your nerves.
A side job is a side job, one that you promised to fulfill. The package is an unadorned box sitting heavily in your left pocket, its weight creating a reputation for itself. It stirs something creeping in your chest, like a slow burn anticipating the undisclosed. Two things are unknown : the contents of the package and the next five minutes.
There are reasons for why things happen. A superior principle - none of it matters. The package implies otherwise, and the quiet dread says so. So does your fingers. They wound up fiddling with the edges of the tarot cards in the other pocket, sure to leave the impression of blood.
The tension is of your own doing and an independent burden. Everyone else are calmly entertaining their sins, while you're a quarter pissy, a quarter bored, a quarter nervous, and a quarter unsure.
Funny how you're a wuss when the talk is of your own the future; you can see it laid out in front of you. In just a hundred couple of to-be-sifted-through chapters though, unfortunately.
"I'm Y/N, but you probably already know that." He nods in reply.
* * * one thing certain about this tight-lipped obscurity : he's better in feigning detachment, more than you ever were. ***
Unbeknownst to you, a wraith closely watches the awkward exchange. Muted shallow breaths play somewhere above you, and Jeongguk alone catches its rhythm.
Someone smiles in knowing – there's a new participant to the game. Out of politeness, of course, the acceptance of the rookie comes a new ploy, made suited to their needs. Slaughter hands to undergo pruning heartstrings should be an interesting notion. A start to the well-known sickness that would do one well to know to never catch it - actually giving a fuck.
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ah, that fantastic feeling when 3 out of 3 of the books you pick up from the library turn out to range from “lowkey sexist” to “how is this level of sexist fuckery still marketable in this century”
-bloodsucking fiends: it’s been years since I read anything by christopher moore but I used to find it weird and funny at the time, so I picked up this one bc it was part of a trilogy of which I’d read the other books. was turned off by the lowkey sexist stereotypes about women and their relationships. looking back I can also see he’s always had the “bland white guy protagonist” syndrome. I just don’t click with his writing anymore, I think. I didn’t even finish it.
-tweet heart: picked this one only bc I thought a book in tweets and blog posts would be funny. it was predictable as hell, but that was the least of its problems. the typical “teenage girl in a love triangle with two boys” but with the much worse twist of “...who both turn out to be assholes but she still has to choose one bc that’s how it rolls isn’t it romantic”. she’s in love with boy1, who doesn’t even know she exists, so boy2, her best friend, pretends to be boy1 via twitter to cheer her up, for several weeks, which intensifies her crush. when he realises she may find out and hate him (even though now he knows she really likes him, and not boy1, of course!! because he has made her fall in love with his words, you see!! he outright says he’s the one she should like!!!), he convinces boy1 to act like it was him all along. so basically, both deceive and manipulate her. she at least does get to find out and be rightfully angry, but that’s all undone after she asks for space and boy2 keeps contacting her, and after her other friends (one of them the boy who suggested the ploy in the first place) tell her she should just get over the whole thing because boy2 is having a hard time with this too!!!! and she should be sympathetic to how he’s upset for having deceived her!! and she does!! and she dates him, and it’s super romantic!!! the Nice Guy™ syndrome is strong in this one. ew.
-dioses y amazonas: oh boy. oooh boy. this... is the worst of them all. it might even be the worst book I’ve ever seen (can’t assure it 100% because I was completely incapable of finishing it either. god). just. wowza. chose it because it was the only book on amazons I could find at the library (got a craving curiosity for amazons after seeing the wonder woman trailer, judge me), and I was darn excited to read it. that excitement went down the drain literally from page 3 onwards. it is all-around misogynistic crap. the book isn’t even really about the amazons, the protagonist is a dude, and the story revolves around him being the son of an amazon queen and his and his father’s encounters with the amazons. he lusts after his sister, an amazon whom he (of course) eventually hooks up with, she is younger, and gentler and more “feminine” than the other amazons, and she (of course)is not the only amazon to love him. the main antagonist is the biggest, hunkiest, most violent and “masculine” amazon. and the whole thing is a horribly written erotic fanfic. it is literally written like a porno, it has tons of male gaze (fun fact: the writer was 75 years old when the book was published. dude... at least as a writer, the guy is a straight up porn-obsessed, women-objectifying dirty old man), it constantly describes the amazons’ bodies in “sexy” detail and how horny the dude is for them (especially for his sister’s body. aw but don’t worry, he’s conflicted about his incestuous lust. sometimes). wow. W O W. and also it has a paragraph in which he describes how an amazon’s green eyes also look yellow and red at times. what? does the woman have traffic lights instead of irises? it’s honestly amazing how anything can be so bad. and get this: the autor is apparently a very prolific, renowned writer and book critic. has he taken a look at his own book???
#my post#book review#well kinda#'me getting angry over the sexist bullshit of these particular books' review would be more accurate#what.the.actual.fuck#what did we do as a society to deserve the third one jfc
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My views on Heteronormative Feminism are...problematic?
I didn’t used to think this way, I used to think men and women were morally equal, that generally both genders had the same conceptions for happiness. Having gone through almost 90% of my 20s, I can’t feel the same. I’m unable to feel the same. I’m totally numb to feminine experience because it garners no empathy of giving value to others intrinsically. While I think toxic femininity is a direct result of patriarchal norms, ultimately, feminism itself champions these negative traits rather than highlight them as repercussions of the patriarchy.
Women don’t find men attractive beyond what they can provide. Women don’t want men, they want the additional 22% average earnings a man makes to be taken away from the man they’re with and be given (most likely unearned) to them. Women don’t want sex with men, they’re driven by the biological need for sperm to reproduce to think they want men but are nurtured into thinking women are more attractive than men, thereby making it such that their attraction to any masculinity outside of a normative conception be nullified. Women don’t like men, the natural tendency for any pending issue in their lives is diverting blame to those in power instead of taking responsibility. Women don’t treat men as equals, men’s social opinions are automatically deemed lesser due to what male privilege provides (though female privilege affords basic things social instincts like interacting with children and acknowledging feelings) whilst adding toxic masculinity to the act of sex itself by assuming men are devoid of attachment oxytocin.
Women are Hobbesian, men are Lockean. I’m, of course, referring to state of nature theories here. Men’s desire to promote conflict and strife for the advance of power/status is a direct result of what the women said men desire and the perceived deficits women have of a men. Why are all the shortest dictators in history the most violent? Why is one of the largest postmodern marketing tropes about penis size (arguably eclipsing cup size)? Why do men prioritize their physical appearance (meathead culture) in a contrast where the feminine narrative is body positivity? Why don’t we talk about how men feel and why men (not just attempting) killing themselves at higher rates? A woman can rightfully feel fulfilled by simply being a parent, but a man has to be a good parent, professional, provider, lover, advisor, counselor, and source of emotional support all in one. It doesn’t matter what’s in a woman’s bank account to anyone, but it always matters what’s in a man’s bank account to a woman. A woman is a more attractive public figure because men flock to her, a man can’t fly through the roof in the same way because masculinity caps at normativity (hence why women pull more than 70% of the views on twitch/youtube while being less than 10% of the content base and having a generally lesser level of expertise in their target niche).
Our crossroads is heteronormative femininity gets every social advantage imaginable which systemic barriers remain in place in which men get punished for. Feminism shouldn’t be at the expense of men, any decent feminist should tell you this. Yet, frankly, it most often is. OnlyFans culture is the exploitation of men’s desirability complexes, the model itself doesn’t function when you ask women to pay to see men at that level of intimacy (and no, that has nothing to do with the wage gap). Women have a unique advantage of having the option to sell their body, labor, or mind; men can practically only sell their labor with a small possibility of their mind. The unavailability for a man to sell ones body professionally means while men “get paid more on average,” they will always have less opportunity because society will always pick a woman first. Heck, if we were to take the wage gap literally, it’s economically advantageous to pay equal work for 82% of its worth, meaning women have more opportunity to partake in occupational freedom holistically. Alimony and child support law is a relic of patriarchal norms all feminism ignores for its own benefit.
I can’t find myself to be a moral agent force for good if my physiological need to reproduce is making me beholden to the desires of women. What women desire for my life is my suffering, to undermine my existence to the point of nothingness because I am a South Asian American man that can’t even normalize within his own hyperminority. I can’t think of a single woman in my whole life that looked at my welfare selflessly, not even my mother, sister, or aunt (S.A.W.), the three women in my life that are supposed to care more about me than any other women should even if I were to take a wife. At this point, I think it’s impossible. Not because of these ridiculously contrarian views I’m spouting, because I’m simply that repugnant to the feminine ire that I can no longer see myself as attractive to those I care about attracting. Don’t get me wrong, I have a general disdain for all of humanity, how it treats it medium of exchange (money) over the valuation of personhood (hence why people have been bought and sold from the beginning of time until now), but because women are in primary control of the social forces at play, women are primarily responsible for money coming over personhood. No one will like me, but because a woman’s perspective is just a kaleidoscope of social normativity, it especially won’t be a woman.
I don’t want a woman who hangs on my words and come away from this hating their own gender, but there’s a reason many empathize with the notion of a woman who prefers the company of men over women. Not because she finds them attractive, no-no-no, they’ve all been friendzoned, it’s because they’re less morally manipulative specimens in a social arena. There’s not a constant play for social advantage or social dominance. Whereas men show their pride by flexing more literally, women step on each other much more willingly to get ahead and feminine engagement becomes a status-chase (even if the status itself empathy/emotional quotient). Every woman, from a very young age, is taught they must always do one thing well: exploit a man for everything he’s worth but never show your appreciation for what he’s worth, otherwise, it’s a sign of weakness and submission. Maybe that’s why lots of men find submission attractive, they see it as genuine appreciation...when in reality it’s often an even greater social ploy because no self-respecting woman would ever submit to a man by choice, even if they are completely, profoundly, and utterly wrong. Feminine submission always comes as a tradeoff for something else, masculine submission is expected as a necessity for consent which ironically somehow makes the person less masculine (way to internalize toxic masculinty, btw).
It’s gotten to the point where simping has become so normalized, every single girl that ever shows an iota of interest in me is always trying to get something out of me before she’s placed any of herself to be committed. Women just expect $1,000+ to be handed to them for showing a physical interest in a man at all, not committing to be with the man in any capacity, mind you. Even then, for most women, it’s just not enough. It’s like they want every man to be destitute while creating the least amount of real pleasure on men possible. When they say “suck you dry,” they mean your wallet and bank account, not your prostate. They want all of us to die in our Mid-50′s of prostate cancer because of course they don’t actually want to have sex at all so they would rather see us die a slow and painful death than follow their base instincts to put out once in awhile. If I haven’t made this painfully clear already, I don’t hate women. I want to hate women because I recognize every foul way they treat me, but I have a physical inability to hate women because of my own heteronormativity. My core claim is every woman is demisexual and only a statistical blip isn’t completely asexual to me, so why should I seek out happiness by companionship with one? Every moment I’ve spent pursuing the experience of a woman has detracted from something comparatively more morally productive, but I’m bound to it because life is suffering. Exploitation is the worst possible way to dehumanize one’s experiences and women seek to actively do that in their romantic relationships on a diachronic basis.
I know how fucked my views are right now, and I’ll delete them and this post when a woman proves me wrong and restores my faith in femininity. A depersonalized proof has no bearing on my personal views because I have to live my truth (funny how men are often denied the ability to live their truth out of monetary constraints yet women will always have another to lean on). I have no faith in the woman I love the most to be able to retain strength in femininity and she’s the only one I’ve experienced to appreciate me intrinsically. Even as an exception to a lot of the general patterns, she remains steadfastly unwilling to act for my, and thereby our, welfare with those intentions, making her a rather pitiful exception to say my views are wrong. If women want to be seen as positive morality, they have to stop working within the realms of being a slave to the patriarchy. Actively breaking down those barriers, even when a gender stands nothing to benefit, is good on its own. Patriarchal norms, in fact, pinpoint my specific ethnic diaspora and gender as the most abhorrent in the world and actively seeks to exterminate me when I’m not properly segregated to the group I was born into.
I’m going to get so much hate for this if any woman deems worthy of even so much as a reply, I doubt it though.
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