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boysplanetrecaps · 1 year

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Boys Planet Recap, Episode 7 part 3 - Rush Hour

This recap will cover the Rush Hour rehearsal and performance from Ep 7! People have said they were looking forward to my thoughts on this, so I thought I’d go ahead and put this part up by itself rather than paired with another team. Here we go!

Huta introduces the next song and out comes team Rush Hour.

Left to right: Ma Jing Xiang, Hiroto, Takuto, Ricky, and Oh Sungmin

I’ll remind you that our commuters are:

Trainee name (rank) Star Level test /Challenge 1 /age final star level

Ricky (12) Kick It - G /Back Door - G /18 ⭐⭐

Takuto (15) Instead Of... /Danger - G /15 ⭐

Hiroto (21) Conduct Zero /Very Nice - G /20 ⭐⭐

Ma Jing Xiang (32) Reveal /Very Nice - G /19 🚫

Oh Sung Min (34) Bloom Bloom /Love Me Right - K /21 ⭐⭐⭐

They introduce themselves as “Awesome Hour.” There is clearly a very loud cheer after Ricky introduces himself, but it is also very clearly cut off by the editing. Ma Jing Xiang’s intro is actually cut off a split second before he finishes saying his name, and the conspiracy theorist in me says they cut off his cheer, too. They pan the audience and we see signs for Ricky, Oh Sung Min, Ma Jing Xiang, and Hiroto -- I think I see more signs for MJX than for anyone else, but that’s just what I see.

Huta asks Sungmin, “Did you have any difficulties leading the team?”

There’s a long pause. In the judging room on the space station, vocal judge Onestar says “This team was all over the place.” Solji says, “They should work as a team,” and I’m already on edge.

I’ll remind you that when we first saw this team rehearsing in episode 6, there was already some bullshit going on. Takuto was having a hard time with the choreo, which happens. But Oh Sungmin was insisting that everyone stay together while Takuto practiced the same line over and over, and the editing tried to make it seem like both Ma Jing Xiang and Ricky were both selfish jerks for wanting to work ahead a bit. I’m not convinced, but we heard from Sungmin and Hiroto talking about how they need better teamwork.

We get a flashback to the song selection day, to something we didn’t see the first time, and find out that as Ricky approached the Rush Hour team, the sign fell down.

This whole moment is such a multi-layered metaphor for the way this show works. MNET is trying to present this as if Ricky is a bad luck omen, or as if the sign falling off the wall is symbolic of the troubles the team would have. And yet, the truth is that the signs were poorly applied to the wall, because MNET is cheap and shitty and lazy, and the sign falling had nothing whatsoever to do with these trainees. So the metaphor here isn’t that Ricky is a bad luck omen; the metaphor is that the sign is cheap the way that MNET is cheap. The metaphor is that MNET blaming the trainees for their own sign falling down symbolizes the way they for trainees to do emotionally difficult things and then blame them for their emotional response. The metaphor is that MNET blaming a set design failure on a Chinese trainee is symbolic of how they blame everything on Chinese trainees. The metaphor is that MNET sucks as bad as this set sucks.

(I put the preceding in its own post because I felt so passionate about it. Anyway.)

I think the bigger news is how happy MJX is to see Ricky.

Aww! We barely know either of these trainees, so I had no idea that they were friendly. He’s so happy! It’s so cute. (Me in the future knows that this will turn out to be important later, too, though when I screen capped this I had no idea.)

So, we cut to a day or two later. The trainees are in a rehearsal room. MJX is practicing the dance while listening to headphones. Ricky has an idea for a new thing they could do with the choreo, and suggests it to Hiroto. I think Hiroto has a hard time understanding him, and Oh Sungmin isn’t there, and Takuto isn’t helpful, so Ricky tries to ask MJX to help him demonstrate his idea.

MJX basically refuses even to take out his headphones at first, and then when pushed to it, says that they don’t have enough time, and it’s more important to practice the choreography than it is to make changes to it.

Ricky interviews that he didn’t understand MJX’s perspective, because at that point it was D-6 and in Ricky’s view, they DID have time to make changes. MJX then interviews that they didn’t have time, because in his view, they didn’t. Then Oh Sungmin interview that he finds them both inconsiderate.

Sigh. This is like one of those “Am I the asshole?” posts on reddit, and I want to vote, “NAH” -- no assholes here.

Ricky is a strong dancer and has a lot of cool ideas, and besides, part of what the trainees are demonstrating in this battle is their choreography skills. The upcoming elimination probably isn’t that scary to him --- he knows he has a solid fan base and is likely to make it, so he’s not stressed out. He knows intellectually that MJX and Sungmin aren’t in that position, but it’s probably too much for him to stay constantly focused on. Also, he probably assumes that if their team wins the position battle, the extra votes will help save them too, so he’d better make their performance as cool as possible! He just wants to share what he’s good at with his teammates, like a gift… Why shouldn’t they utilize his skills, if he has them?

Meanwhile, from MJX’s perspective, changing the choreography all the time is making a difficult situation even worse. He’s not a strong dancer, and I assume he’s terrified of being scolded by the psychopath dance teachers. He also, presumably, doesn’t want to put on a bad performance that gets mocked online. And of course, he doesn’t want to go home, but he’s ranked 32 and things don’t look good for him. He probably resents Ricky a little bit, subconsciously -- Ricky is a good dancer, Ricky is super popular, Ricky speaks Korean better than he does (though MJX speaks it decently), and Ricky is ALWAYS trying to change the choreo. MJX is stressed out and ready to snap, and Ricky is just piling on more stress. Yeah, the level to which he’s angry isn’t great. But it’s understandable, if you get me. He’s scared, and fear often can manifest as anger.

Meanwhile, what Sungmin sees is bickering and time-wasting while he’s trying to lead. Chinese culture is really different from his, and even their normal interactions probably seem brash and rude to him -- not saying that he’s racist, just saying that it’s hard to NOT view people through the lens of what you’re used to in your own culture. Also, Sungmin is already so stressed out trying to get Takuto on track with the dance, and meanwhile he himself is actually the lowest ranked on the team and probably scared of going home. He’s down to his last nerve, and they’re getting on it.

Yes, it would be great if they could say to themselves and each other, “Wow, the stress is getting to me. I’m sorry. Let’s try to find a compromise.” I think a leader like formerly blue-haired Park Hanbin or Mr. Sexy Kim Jiwoong could, each in his own way, resolve this -- Hanbin by keeping control from the first minute, and Jiwoong by using his emotional intelligence to get everyone talking honestly about how they’re feeling and encouraging compromise. (Though Jiwoong would haaaaaaaaaaate being in this situation.)

But Oh Sungmin isn’t quite up to the challenge, and it’s a lot to ask from these stressed out teenagers that they exert that kind of control over their emotional responses. We see Sungmin trying to smooth things over by reminding them of their common goal. But things have already gone too far, and they need a bigger intervention than that.

That night, Takuto -- who has a little set of plushie letters spelling his name in English, and has his official red and white pjs still on his bed -- is getting pretty upset.

Remember, he’s 15 -- to him, having the hyungs all fighting probably feels like when your mom and dad fight. They’re also taller than him, and he doesn’t understand their language very well. And meanwhile, the dancing is already really really difficult for him. He’s got to be near collapse.

The next day, MJX is still really prickly and difficult to work with again. He won’t budge an inch, even when Sungmin tries to offer a compromise. There’s a bit in the choreo where Ricky is supposed to playfully push MJX out of the way, and MJX is saying that he “knows” that Ricky will push him really hard later on -- something he can’t know, because it’s in the future. In other words, he’s irrational. It’s not easy to watch.

The formerly blue-hared Park Hanbin, who has been sharing a rehearsal room with them (why can’t each team have its own room???) has noticed, and interviews, “The Rush Hour team can’t communicate with each other. To be honest, I don’t think they’re willing to do it.”

I think Hanbin is on to something there. I mean, maybe I’m wrong, but I theorize that for MJX, it’s easier to stay angry, because while you’re angry, you have a shield up. As long as he’s blaming Ricky for making things difficult, he’s not thinking as much about how poor his own skills are. Sitting down and having a talk, a real talk, would involve admitting how scared he is and how sad he is and how envious he probably is. It’s not something he really wants to do. Angry is safe. Don’t get me wrong - he’s acting like a complete jerk. It’s just that I can understand why and empathize with him anyway, because I’ve been in his shoes. I think we all have.

Takuto starts to cry out of frustration and probably hopelessness, and Sungmin tries to comfort him (Sungmin speaks a bit of Japanese to him, which is sweet). MJX doesn’t acknowledge what’s going on -- he just wants to keep going. Oh Sungmin tries to have an actual group conversation, but MJX says, “Sungmin-hyung, You don’t have to explain, we just have to practice.” He’s quite close to Sungmin as he says it, and tensions feel high. Hiroto tries to say that if they don’t resolve the situation, it’ll keep happening, but MJX isn’t listening. He’s found an emotional level to be on that feels safe and he’s going to stay there. Finally, Sungmin has to walk away to calm down. I noticed that MJX immediately pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket and begins practicing his rap the second that Sungmin is just a few steps away. You can feel the anxiety vibrating out of MJX, but that doesn’t help Sungmin, who is hiding in a stairwell and trying not to cry.

Time passes, and now it’s day D-1 -- dress rehearsal. What have the the boys been doing for three days? We’re left to assume that they’ve been in this exact same tense state the whole time, and if so, that’s awful. I guess they’ve just been running rehearsals with MJX in this emotional state the whole time.

They perform their dress rehearsal -- we don’t see much of it -- and when they’re done, the judges say, “it’s not fun because you’re not having fun.” Presumably they’d have other feedback, but we don’t hear any of it. The storyline isn’t about whether Hiroto is pronouncing Korean correctly or not, or whether Ricky wrote a fun rap or not, or whether Takuto did the dance well or not, or whether Oh Sungmin looks cute up on stage or not. It’s about how MJX is a jerk, and so the only feedback we hear is the feedback that pertains to that.

That night, they have a meeting in the dorm room. (We can see that a few of them are wearing their official pajamas.) Oh Sungmin says, “I left my group (T01) to be here, and I feel like my life is in danger -- if I don’t make it here, I can’t be an idol.” I don’t know if that’s true, Sungmin -- you’re signed to WakeOne. But anyway.

Hiroto says, in essence, “Me too, this is my third shot, and I feel like it’s my last chance.” And MNET isn’t doing you any favors, either, Hiroto-kun. Ganbatte kudasai, Hiroto-kun!

MJX says, “I don’t want this to prevent us from giving a good performance, either. I’ll trust everyone and keep going.” I still feel tension radiating from him, but I can see he’s trying to take it down a notch.

Ricky says, “I’m so, so, sorry.”

It’s interesting that we don’t see MJX apologize -- I feel like he would have? He’d have to, right? But MNET doesn’t show it.

MJX and Ricky give each other an awkward hug, which seems to be initiated more by MJX than by Ricky, and there’s some awkward laughter. MJX interviews that they said what they needed to say to one another -- it's easier for him to forgive the others than I think it is for them to forgive him, I think. Also, I think he and Ricky really are friends, so their arguing, while uncomfortable to everyone else, probably felt "safe" to them -- they knew they'd make up sooner or later.

The meeting probably helped, but I think it was like shoving stuff into drawers and saying you've cleaned. Just like how you have to get all the junk out from under your bed if you're really, really going to clean, I think they needed to have a real knock-down drag out FIGHT, with full on yelling even, if necessary, get it all out, and then talk it out. But I think they were all kind of scared to go there, and sometimes it's easier to just make up than it is to talk it out.

Anyway.

It’s D-day, and they huddle backstage. Sungmin says, “it doesn’t matter what our process was -- we just need to have fun. I love you all.” Ricky says, “I love you all” too, and they do a “hana-dul-set, FIGHTING!”

So, that brings us to the performance. And before we get there, I’ll just say my final thoughts on all of this squabbling. As I said above, no one here is an irredeemable asshole. This is a group of extremely stressed out young men. They’re put in a situation in which they are competing with each other constantly, and yet are expected to get along with each other perfectly. They’re supposed to put on a team performance, and yet they will be ranked afterward, with the best team member winning extra points. It must be so stressful and draining. I know I couldn't do it!

Did MNET “evil edit” MJX? Well, yes and no. I mean, he did do those things, just as Lee Da Eul really did treat his team like they were his underlings. Those are things that happened. MNET “evil edited” them by… showing that. However, MNET created a situation in which power dynamics would be all out of whack, in which constant competition leaves everyone scared and constant rehearsal leaves everyone physically exhausted, and in which constant berating from psychopath judges leave everyone traumatized. In other words, my earlier statement holds: MNET makes trainees do emotionally difficult things and then blames them for their emotional response.

So, what’s the solution? Well, for starters, I think it would be good if MNET gave the boys a few more days to rehearse, which would lead to decreased stress AND better performances. That’s win win! I think they need to provide more access to translators -- they could start by installing google translate in those tablets the boys have. I also think that it wouldn’t hurt to have some sort of guidance available from the staff -- counselors, mediators, something like that. Even just a sort of “dorm mother” who is there to look after especially the younger members -- if there was someone watching over the 15 years olds, there would be less pressure on the 18 year olds. And the upper management really has to reconsider what is acceptable and what isn’t acceptable when it comes to the judges’ behavior. I have friends who do theater, and they tell me that being a sociopathic asshole is “normal” from dance teachers, but it shouldn’t be.

Ultimately, though, a show like this is going to do this. Any real pressure on MNET to improve conditions will probably have to come from the Korean population, not from us Global fans. I console myself in knowing that I’ll support these trainees on their stages to come.

The performance

If you’re curious as to what they actually say in their raps, I found these lyrics. Lyrics that were in English and didn’t need translation are in green. Note that the first line of Ricky’s rap was already in the original song.

Ricky:

Yo I’ve been walking on the street yo From UN Village to Hangangjin Station, Ladies know my name, Mr. young and rich ya, Pop champagne take a chill, feel my feel, everyone get out of the way

MJX:

People ask me to look at my reflection in the cold mirror from a few years ago, Man in the mirror, now it shines, my natural flow, You gotta get some to the top, child you’re doing well

Sungmin

Now I’m feeling like a funky boy dance like this, Everyone follow me, look carefully, even if I rap. I’ll go to a higher place than others

Takuto:

Even if I’m not confident, the star protects me, it’s dark to me, there’s no future, I’m still very young, still I’m worried about the challenge, so I’m going to watch Toyonaga Takuto.

(much later in the song)

Hiroto:

I’m a homebody, but on stage, I show and prove, Once you see me, you can’t forget me, We living live in busy planet, Sooner or later we’ll be filling up in our name

My Take

I wish I’d thought to watch the performance on Youtube before I watched all the behind-the-scenes stuff, because I’m sure it colored my view. But really, I think it came out ok. The song and general choreo style are both so high energy that even a remotely decent performance of it will be fun to watch. I don’t think I would have picked up on their backstage tension just by watching this.

MJX is bubbly and fun on stage, and did a surprisingly decent job at both rapping and dancing compared to what we’ve seen in the past from him. I think he may have actually been the best rapper on the team, which is a wild statement to make, but, yeah, I think so. He looked like he was having fun, too.

Oh Sungmin’s rap was surprisingly basic for a native speaker, but I actually liked his flow despite that, and despite the fact that he is a vocalist, not a rapper. He was ranked pretty low and probably got pushed out of the song he wanted. He has a lot of charm on stage -- this might be the first time that I’ve really seen what he can do on stage this way, because he was so overshadowed in Love Me Right.

Speaking of first times, I think this is the first time I really got it why people like Ricky so much. He looked a lot more comfortable on this stage than I’ve seen him in the past, and he owned that center position even when he was on the side of the stage. Also, he’s really a master of looking super serious and then dropping a smile that catches you by surprise. I still think he’s a bit stiff, but it’s hard to do choreography in time with others when you’re taller than them. Also, he makes that microphone disappear into the sub-ether after he uses it. I’ve watched that part like 10 times and I can’t figure out where he puts it! That’s some stage trickery right there. No matter whether he makes it to the top 9 or not, the Yuehua group that will debut out of this show will be stacked!

Hiroto’s a cutie pie. His rapping wasn’t anything to write home about, but I think his Korean is still pretty shaky and it must be tough. His little dance solo at about 1:53 was a lot of fun and perfectly in line with the feeling of the song -- I wonder if he choreographed it?

I know Takuto is trying his best, but his dancing is weak it looks almost half-hearted, and throws off the syncing for the group as a whole. You can see some of the adjustments the team made for him -- they gave him a microphone to hold while he rapped, to give him something to do with his hands (it was pretty funny when he held the mic out while he said the last word and it was super obvious the mic wasn’t on). They also gave him a little mini dance solo in which he did the main repeating dance move, just by himself. They also let him do his one big move, that back flip he also did in his star level test, and he landed it much better this time than he did the first time. I really hope he doesn’t pass through this next elimination round, since it is clear to me at least that there are more deserving trainees here, but I’ve come around to liking him. He’s a genuine, hard working, well-intentioned kid, and while he is obviously not ready to debut, who knows, in a few years he might be.

The editing

There’s a lot of focus on how handsome Ricky and MJX are, and how cute Takuto is. Predictably, Sungmin and Hiroto are largely neglected. We see Takuto’s flip several times, but there’s no focus on Hiroto’s dance break, for example.

Afterward, the judges talk about how the team didn’t look like they were having fun on stage, and I really think that their opinion was colored by knowing the back story. They also say that they think Hiroto has had bad luck -- which, yeah, I don’t know if it’s luck exactly that happened to Hiroto.

The voting

Ricky takes the win with 745 votes, and we see a real genuine smile from him, not a stage smirk, and it’s very charming.

Oh Sungmin can’t quite bring himself to smile about it, though -- he worked so hard and is probably not going to see much reward for it. But you’re WakeOne, lovey! You’ll redebut with Kim TaeRae and Park Hanbin and Anthonny and Haruto and it’ll be ok… I hope.

We find out that Takuto came in last with 569 votes. That’s a decent tally, though, for him. He interviews, in Korean, that he was a little bit sad, but satisfied because he did everything he could. He’s learned an insane amount in a short period of time and really defied my first impression of him.

In an interview, Oh Sungmin responds to a question that must have been something like, “how did it feel to perform together?”

He says, “It just felt like were performing together. A lot of things happened, but I’m glad we’re done with it.” After a brief pause he adds, “I think we did well.”

Yeah, there’s still a lot of resentment there. Really, I feel bad for everyone on this team. This was just sort of a clusterfuck.

And that's it for this recap! I'll pick up later with my thoughts on Limousine and whatever song is after that!

#Ricky #Takuto #Hiroto #Ma Jing Xiang #Oh Sungmin #Oh Sung Min #t01 #to1 jermone #boys planet #boys planet recap #boysplanet999 #boysplanet #boys planet 999 #rush hour

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ignoranxed · 9 months

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because i am so done w losing my thoughts over the very chaotic only friends eps imma put them down here and contribute my 0.0002 cents to the OF meta

here are my stray thoughts post ep4

1. the power dynamic between boston & top: the past two eps have been sooooo layered w this but i loveee the ending of the lift scene in ep4 for the very specific reason that top is TERRIFIED of boston. the second boston turns his back to top, you can see top’s face literally melting into a scared, breathless, child-like expression, almost as if he was holding so tightly onto every last bit of courage possible to make boston feel like he could see right through him but he was actually praying ton doesn’t see through himself. like ofc there’s the whole being subjected to non-consensual sexual advances for the umpteenth time by ton and recovering from that experience thingy, but i am not able to shake away the thought that top FEARS boston.

since ep1 we see that top and ton consistently try to assert power over the other in the most petty yet desperate ways, to say the least (case in point: top’s forced eye roll in the ep1 bathroom scene & ton’s tone & choice of words in ep2 shower scene. this scene by itself too, actually. if i’ve missed anything else plss lmk!!). initially, i kinda brushed it off as part of the hookup culture depicted and the whole idea of top being “top-tier” (as in for ton he feels this need to stake claim on the most coveted & for top he feels the need to maintain his “wanted yet unattainable” rep) but post ep3&4 i am so convinced that there is something more sinister about their relationship that gives ton power over top. i just know this man’s so fucked over by boston and is still reeling from it.

2. we’re most definitely going to get a mewray: call me delulu but my man went from “it’s your life. not my concern” & “isn’t it already good for you if you quit” to “if you quit using drugs, i’ll sleep with you” in under 10 seconds. this mew bitch is gonna lose his shit and make everyone else lose their own at some point and all of the evidence i have for this could be a whole other post.

3. friend-group dynamic: this has been a nagging question for me and i saw a few other posts on this (hidden agenda has taken over my tumblr the past couple weeks so OF took a sad backseat ://) but my point basically being, why have ray, mew, cheum & ton remained friends? what’s keeping their friendship going? we know it’s a min of 2 years that they’ve all been friends for i think, but i just can’t wrap my head around why do 3 people who very often can barely stand each other, choose to do everything together? saving cheum on this cause she’s just the token lesbian who loves everyone so far. they study together, they work together, they party together, they don’t seem to have any other actual friends they hang out with so what’s keeping them tied? and why?

this ep def gave a lot more clarity on mew and ray’s friendship but my question is still not answered.

4. the SKAM colours are back!! i’m sorry but this just makes me super excited :))))))

that’s it for now and more stray thoughts will be updated as and when convenient upon arrival.

i haven’t read enough of the recent OF meta so if any of my thoughts seem repetitive or overdone, pls be kind :))

as a baby bl fan, reading meta makes my whole bl watching experience exponentially better and this is me contributing to that in my little way. okay that’s it thx xx bye

#ignorants #baby bl fan writes meta #losing my mind truly #ofts top #ofts boston #ofts mew #ofts ray #only friends the series #ofts #forcebook #firstkhao #neomark

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teachlong · 2 years

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Growing up macklemore intro guitar

#GROWING UP MACKLEMORE INTRO GUITAR FULL#

Rudimental is an eclectic quartet of musicians known for a catchy blend of fast-paced dance music and soulful vocals from a rotating cast of guest singers. “But then my record label says, ‘It’s not right for your project, maybe you should give it to Rudimental.’ I played it for the guys and they’re like, ‘Yep, we’ll take that.’” “When you're working at Abbey Road Studios, you've gotta bring ya Mum.”“I wrote the song for myself, really,” he says. One of them was “These Days,” a rollicking kiss-off anthem for faithless lovers that shifts mid-song to a lament about the difficulty of finding human connection in the big city. In 2017, he started work on a full-length album and released a handful of polished singles. In 2016, he released a second EP, Badman, further refining his soul-meets-chamber-music sound. He performed on an album by the English singer-songwriter George Ezra. Since signing with Atlantic, Caplen has been on a tear. “I realized everything sounds a little better with a bit of strings on it. It’s way cheaper than getting the proper guys in,” he jokes. As a singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, Caplen says he’s hands on in the studio, right down to the string tracks. That recording caught the attention of Atlantic Records, who signed him a year later.

#GROWING UP MACKLEMORE INTRO GUITAR FULL#

He wasn’t yet working in music full time, but he was on his way.Ĭaplen spent the next two years recording more mash-ups and working on a self-produced four-song EP, Epiphany, which he released in 2014 under the name D/C. “I played it as my end-of-semester project, and my friends were like, ‘Put it up online!’” Three months later, Caplen had a manager. “I made this makeshift studio in my house by Market of Choice, and I recorded this thing,” Caplen recalls. It’s an energetic composition, resonant with strings and Caplen’s baritone voice. His first post was his final project for Leonard’s electronic music production class: a medley of music by four established artists-SBTRKT, Kid Cudi, Labrinth, and No Doubt-with his own vocals accompanied by rich layers of cello, hand claps, and instrument tapping. He started a Twitter account and a YouTube channel. When he returned to Portland for senior year, he was ready to start building his identity as an artist. He’s worth keeping around.’”Īfter completing his junior year, Caplen spent the summer interning at a London record company and writing songs. He told the powers that be, ‘Nah, he’s just in his basement recording and writing songs. “At one point, I was in danger of losing my music scholarship, because I was having trouble getting to orchestra. He’s deserving of all his success.”Ĭaplen credits Leonard as a major influence on his music and career. “He writes great hooks, really memorable melodies, and good lyrics. “The music business is very often not a meritocracy, but Dan’s got the goods,” Leonard says. But he also worked on producing his own music under the tutelage of music instructor Jeff Leonard, a bass player and composer who directs the college’s electronic music program. “During the flight on the way over, I thought I was going to Maine.”Īt Lewis & Clark, Caplen majored in psychology and played in the college orchestra and jazz ensemble. “I didn’t actually know where Portland was,” he jokes. It will cost less to go there than it will to university here,” Caplen says. “I thought, you know what, I’ll just go over there. He applied to Lewis & Clark at the urging of a family friend who attended the school in the 1980s. It seemed like an impossible dream.” That Caplen’s dream is becoming reality is no accident-it’s the result of years of hard work, dating back to his college years and before.Ĭaplen was born in England and grew up in Hong Kong and Kent, studying piano and cello on his own time and vocal music at St. “I never thought anyone could make money out of music. “I thought I was going to be working in a bank or something,” Caplen says. But to hear him tell it, he never expected to find a career in music. Caplen is, suddenly, a notable presence in British pop. The video for the song has been viewed more than 130 million times on YouTube. singles chart for 11 weeks, peaking at No. As of mid-April, the track had been near the top of the U.K. The 26-year-old wrote and contributed vocals to “These Days,” a hit for the British drum and bass group Rudimental. This spring, in the streets of London, the voice of Dan Caplen BA ’12 proved inescapable. (Robin Little/Redferns, Getty images)Dan Caplen BA ’12 For two young alumni, one of the keys has been to take their unique musical sounds abroad ―to the U.K. If you Google “tips for breaking into the music business,” you’ll instantly garner millions of hits. Dan Caplen BA ’12 and Ian Hooper BA ’08 create chart-topping hits abroad.ĭan Caplen BA ’12 performs live at O2 Academy Brixton in London on April 6, 2018.

#Growing up macklemore intro guitar

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queercore-curriculum · 3 years

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Love in a Time of Hardship: An Anthology of Zolf Smith/Oscar Wilde Fanfiction

Binding, cover design, and layout by me. Bound with hand-dyed variegated linen thread using a variation on a long stitch binding I designed myself. Here’s what’s inside:

At Your Convenience by @holoxam

A really lovely, intimate post-campaign fic in which Zolf and Wilde are in a QPR and don’t need to talk about it, thank you very much. I love this fic, it’s such a wonderful little slice of life and captures their dynamic so perfectly.

Would You Cast Me to the Wayside by lily_rainn

An incredibly thoughtful and humane depiction of Zolf and Wilde negotiating the beginning of their relationship. Neither of them have the vocabulary to fully understand what’s happening, but they’re trying so hard because they care so much about each other, and it’s just great.

The most dangerous thing is to love by @makesometime

An ancient Greek gods AU that’s just unbelievably good. makesometime seamlessly weaves Greek mythology into the RQG world all while not just maintaining perfect characterization, but actually elevating these characters to match the beautiful world she created.

Wake up by @makesometime

Zolf waiting for Wilde to wake up post-ep.177. This was the first RQG fic I ever read, and it’s very, very special to me. Zolf is so painfully tender and anxious, and it makes my heart ache every time.

Inevitable by Miri1984 / @icescrabblerjerky

“Post 177 Zolf and Wilde have sex and feelings,” really the most succinct way of putting it. Such an intense distillation of all my feelings about Zoscar!

What We Worship by Miri1984 / @icescrabblerjerky

AU where Wilde dies in the airship crash and doesn’t get better. Really wonderful worldbuilding for the RQG-universe afterlife, and so beautifully written and poignant.

The Right Questions by @newsbypostcard

Just two complicated and emotionally-repressed dudes negotiating their relationship after one of them rescues the other from death. Fuck, the characterization in this fic is so good. A prime example of why fic is so often better than canon.

Small Intimacies by @newsbypostcard

Zolf and Wilde go to bed and have a conversation. That’s it, that’s the fic, and it’s the single greatest “mortifying ordeal of being known” fic I have ever read. It's the kind of story I dream about finding, one that teaches me more about characters I love and illustrates exactly why they mean so much to me. A perfect fic, easily one of my favorite fics of all time.

Until We Meet Again by @queercore-curriculum

Zolf and Wilde cross paths after Zolf leaves Prague and while Wilde is still on the run from La Gourmand. Eh, I feel weird reccing my own fic, but I’m pretty proud of this one, actually.

Warm and Dry by @queercore-curriculum

Café AU where baker!Zolf teaches writer!Wilde how to bake bread. I had a lot of fun writing this, and if I can get my shit together I’ll finish writing the extended version, Coriander.

find your feet by @starstrung

Zolf and Wilde hide their relationship from Earhart aboard the Vengeance. I. LOVE. THIS. FIC. starstrung writes one of my all-time favorite Wildes, and this is an absolute delight to read. Zolf and Wilde often live in dark, angsty places, but this is just so joyful and fun and hot while still staying so true to character. I promise this fic will make your day brighter.

love is a sacrament by @starstrung

An 18-month time gap fic that’s just fucking perfect. Feat. an extra guarded Wilde (again, one of my all-time favorites) and an extra tender Zolf, and it’s so, so, so wonderful.

Woven Up by tuesdaycoming

A deep dive into Zolf’s backstory and his layers upon layers of grief. This fic just blew me away, brilliant worldbuilding and an absolute masterclass in showing-not-telling.

Absolutely Unlike Harrison Campbell by ZaliaChimera / @zalia

Zolf is bored and propositions Wilde to pass the time. This fic is very hot, but I also found it incredibly moving. ZaliaChimera takes a really unflinching look at these two very emotionally-repressed dudes that don’t particularly like one another and shows a different kind of intimacy than we often see in fic, one that’s a little rough around the edges and brutally honest.

Look, I may need to make a second Zoscar anthology, and another anthology of RQG mixed-bag ships--the RQG fandom is just so fucking talented. If you have any recs of your own, please send them my way!

More pics below the cut!

My Rusty Quill ficbinding shelf :D

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h2bakugou · 3 years

Note

Yes yes yes yesyesyesyesyes ok!! So then can I request present mic? Doing anything??? No I’m kidding I do actually have a prompt. I was thinking abt mic’s radio show and specifically, if he had an s/o who wrote music. Bc u know he would help them produce it and then play it nonstop on air aaaaaa

a/n: yes!! present mic love!! i love him so much i swear! <3 he has my heart dkdkmn this is such a cute request please- i apologize for the late posting!!

summary: you're an ambitious, gleeful, songbird at heart, and though you're quirkless, you've captivated the heart of the music-loving, radio show hosting, loud, sweetheart, present mic!

key: (y/n) - your name / (f/n) - first name / (l/n) - last name / (e/c) - eye color / (h/c) - hair color / (y/q) - your quirk

warnings: swearing, fluff

word count: 1.3k

;cut for length;

»»————-　★　————-««

You started as an intern. A beaming smile on your lips most days, always happy to be in the studio with Mic when he was teaching you the ins and outs of radio hosting.

You'd majored in music business, the end goal in mind of writing and releasing your own music, though most of your plans had fallen through, the only opportunity to get you back on your feet after college being this deal you couldn't pass up.

Co-hosting with Present Mic on his own radio show.

The offer had actually been given to you by one of your superiors at the studio you worked at, having seen your optimism when it came to writing music and your love of music in general.

They wished you good luck and would always welcome you back if things didn't go so well. But you kept your head up high and marched into that studio ready to take on the world alongside the loud blonde.

And down the line, three years later, you were surprised to say the least.

"Your coffee as usual." Hizashi sets down the patriotic blue U.A. thermos sent out to the teachers at the beginning of the year. Since you'd practically moved in 'unofficially' with Mic, unofficially because you weren't technically allowed to stay due to the fact you didn't work for the school, rather employed by Mic himself in his private studio, but you were the tiny exception since you did technically work in the school.

"Thanks! Hey, I was wondering if you could check this new thing I've been working on and give me some criticism, it's just a rough draft, the lyrics just kind of came to me after a shot or two at Vlad's birthday party the other night." You giggled as you tossed him the flash drive containing your latest project, the sensitive information contained on the tiny disc landing in the palm of your boyfriend's hands.

"Another song? You're blessing my ears so early in the morning. I'm dreaming! Pinch me!" He teases. Mic's been the biggest supporter of your music since he overheard the pipes you had.

You'd had that kind of night the second week of your internship, battling the oncoming hangover after drinking with your cool new pro-hero teacher friends, your thoughts turning to lyrics as you worked in the studio, the only light being the small lamp on the side Mic kept when he worked late too.

He'd forgotten his room keys in the studio again, something you realized he did often and as he stopped by to pick them back up, that's when he heard you. You sounded so angelic, almost as if you were some sort of angel.

At first, he thought maybe it was just a recording or some sort of dare he say, Melodyne filter while you were messing around in the mic at night.

But you weren't. Your authentic voice shell-shocked him, and he sort of listened to you the entire night until you nearly pissed your pants turning around and seeing him.

“Yeah, it’s nothing special really-” You’re back to reality as Mic quickly has his headphones over his ears, a large grin on his lips as he listens, his fingers tapping away to the beat already.

You work on other tasks, filtering through requests and putting them in the queue while Mic listens to your song, his heart pounding. You were so talented and he’d wish you’d give yourself a bit more credit. You have what it takes to make it big, and he’d support you every step of the way.

“You know with this and the other tracks you have, you’d have enough to push out an EP. All you need is a bit of marketing and producing, and I’d be more than willing to help!” Mic smiles, wheeling over to you, pressing an encouraging peck to your cheek.

“It sounds great, but who would wanna listen to what I write?” You giggle, toggling an advertisement as you glance over at the blonde.

“How about this, You let me help you, I’ll spread the trial around here at work and if it gets good reviews, we publish.” Hizashi is nothing short of persuasive, and for the rest of the week he has you in his studio, adding layer after layer, fine-tuning and weeding out bits of the collection of songs you’d written until you have an EP.

Long nights fueled by coffee, water, and tea, and takeout eventually land you with the very first copy of your own EP.

In your hands, it’s palpable. It’s real. It doesn’t have any cover art, or a title, let alone who sang it, but Mic hands you a sharpie and you feel this fire coursing through your veins.

You feel more than accomplished.

You scribble some title down that you’d work on later and messily sign your name for Mic to make copies and then throughout the next week, you’ve got dozens of messages flooding your inbox telling you to drop it on some streaming platforms.

And the following night Mic is consoling your tears as you hit your first 100 streams.

“I’m so proud of you.” He coos, kissing your cheeks, wiping your tears away with his kisses, patting you on the head.

“You’re so cheesy.” You tease him.

“Says you! You named an entire song after me.” Mic huffs, crossing his arms over his chest.

“What if ‘my beloved’ was about Marty?” You giggle. Marty, the sparkly, beautiful, elegant, beta-fish you’d adopted as the studio mascot swam around in his tank, decked out with super cool aquatic music themed stuff.

“You wouldn’t dare!” Mic laughs, his long blonde hair sweeping over his shoulders.

“Your hair always looks so nice down.” You snuggle into him, your fingers twisting around the ends. Hizashi shakes his head and stares down at you.

“And you’re as radiant as ever, my love.” Hizashi pulls you into him, snuggling his head into your neck, placing a gentle kiss to your skin as he holds you near to him.

“Do you sing, ‘Zashi?” You ask quietly.

“No comment.” Mic giggles, his laughs tickling your skin.

“Would you work on a song with me?” You ask sweetly.

“I would love to.”

Callers chime in every so often for requests, since Mic loves to annoy the listeners by playing your EP track by track almost daily. You have to knock some sense into him telling him that there’s a quota to fill and while you love how he supports you, you’ve got them stuck in your head too.

And when you play them every so often, your heart warms when someone requests one of yours to play. Even more so, when your songs rise to much more notable fame, you’re working on your own album, with the lovely producing of Mic, and it even features a lovely duet between the two of you.

In fact, something you’d found out with having so many connections to pros, was the amount of hidden talent.

You’d requested a song with Kyoka Jiro, the beautiful voice you’d heard at the school festival had belonged to her and you’d been wanting to work with her since she also shared a love for music, and though she was young, she seemed rather happy to sing, even if she might’ve been shy about it first.

An unlikely duo might’ve come from a dare, Hawks. While he was rather against the idea at first, his voice was smooth and mellow, and it clashed with yours perfectly for some sort of sappy anti-romantic love song. Whatever the case, it made charts.

But Mic continued to be your biggest supporter, no matter how or if you got big. You’d always find your way back into his arms, messing around with him on the radio show, and dodging paparazzi whenever you two left campus.

»»————-　★　————-««

masterlist

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nikkiwriteswords · 3 years

Note

Hi! I would love to hear your thoughts/predictions/hopes for s3, now that we got the episode titles :D

Hey Nora!! Let me go grab my tua theory hat real quick. Spoiler alert, it looks exactly like the umbrella hat on the 3 right here:

Full disclosure, I've only got like a pinky toe in the tua fandom right now, but I'm still going to see what BS I can spin from these titles.

1. MEET THE FAMILY. The description on imdb is "The siblings get to know some more of the 43 children in an alternate timeline." So, I think this is pretty self-explanatory. Netflix likes to start things off with a bang, so s3 of TUA will probably be no different: we'll probably get a vague flashforward/flash-sideways to a "what if" scenario that will make sense by the last few episodes, and the rest of the episode will be sowing seeds for the s3 plot. The big question is, what family are we meeting? I think this episode will revolve around themes of family (no-brainer) and redefining the relationships between our Umbrella siblings in light of the season 2 finale, as well as their new Sparrow 'replacements'. To that end, initial Sparrow sibling parallels will be presented and subsequently complicated in this first episode. I also predict we'll see varying reactions to this alternate Reginald, as the Umbrella siblings are thrust into an outsider perspective that follows on from season 2.

2. WORLD'S BIGGEST BALL OF TWINE. This is going to be a multi-layered metaphor. I can feel it. It will no doubt refer to the plot that's about to unfold (is it an outside threat to both parties - the Umbrellas and Sparrows - from, say, the Commission, or is it more to do with the two rival Academies?), but I wonder if it also refers to the Wizard of Oz type scenario the Umbrella siblings find themselves in: they aren’t in Kansas anymore. (But you know what is in Kansas? The world's current biggest ball of twine.) Also kind of want to see Klaus knitting again in this ep - perhaps as a way to subtly re-address his ongoing addiction issues, especially now Ben is gone.

3. POCKET FULL OF LIGHTNING. This probably has to do with powers. Sparrow powers, Umbrella powers. There'll be a lot of new flexes in this season, so who this refers to is anyone's guess.

4. KUGELBLITZ. Here's where it starts to get interesting, because this title carries forward the subject of lightning from the last one. According to a very quick internet search, kugelblitz literally means "ball lightning" in German, and refers to both a) a glorified WW2 tank designed to take out aircraft (a certified Big Boi), and b) a theoretical black hole made from light/radiation rather than matter. So this is absolutely going to be a new, unseen power - probably from the Sparrows. Hopefully from Christopher because a cube executing a move named after a sphere just makes me chuckle. Ah, fun with shapes... But in addition, this power is probably going to pack a huge, debilitating punch to whatever narrative is underway at this point in the plot. I'll bet money that whoever wields this power is the tank character in their party or they are after this at least.

5. KINDEST CUT. This throws me back to the barber shop meta, I'm not gunna lie. Someone's going to get hurt, either physically or emotionally, and it's going to be the lesser of two evils. If it's a follow through on the barber metaphor, then Reggie will be the one to orchestrate it. Or, in a surprise twist, will he be the one gTetting hurt or being silenced? (Remember that cutthroat allegory that chases the siblings through the first season, particularly Allison and Klaus. It was about becoming voiceless.) 6.MARIGOLD. Big shout out to this post for spreading the word on the marigold symbolism. I'm pretty sure this will be Reginald backstory, which ties in with the creation of the Umbrella Academy. Also, because I'm a sucker for flower symbolism and reading into things, consider that marigolds:

a) fall into two families, the calendula which means "little clock" and the tagetes, which is named after the Etruscan prophet Tages. The Etruscans believed heavily in predestination - some events are set in stone, and cannot be changed. (Consider the way the apocalypse seems to always come for one set of siblings...) b) are named as such colloquially because they were offered in place of money to the Virgin Mary. (More divine imagery, and reference to a pure mother figure...) They are Mary’s gold. So maybe it’s a reference to Reginald’s wife, which would fit with the flashback scene we see in 1x10. c) are a flower of duality. They have strong connections with the sun and resurrection, yet the marigold is thought to be a flower of grief because it blooms in autumn. Again, think about that flashback in the first season. At the end of the world and a wife dying, there was the promise of rebirth. d) It's also a very common flower. Remember, there's actually 43 siblings out there. We've only met 14.

Also Netflix loves to do this thing around the halfway point (usually episode 5/6) in a season they're producing. They'll switch up the narrative with a twist or turn that provides a new perspective. 7.AUF WEIDERSEHEN. Once again, a German connection. And, obviously, a goodbye. Considering the last season focused on Kennedy, are we going to get some earlier Cold War time-travel shenanigans? Or maybe WW2? I think Blackman has said something about the Berlin Wall, which is interesting. A country divided... Umbrellas and Sparrows allegory? But as an aside, I'm also kinda lowkey hoping it's a nod to Auf Weidersehen, Pet. If you don't know the show, here's the wiki summary for the first season:

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet is a British comedy-drama television programme about seven British construction workers who leave the United Kingdom to search for employment overseas. They find work on a German building site in Düsseldorf but despite promises of hostel accommodation, are forced to live in a small hut that reminds them of a World War II POW camp. The rest of the series is driven by the interactions and growing friendships between the various characters.

In episode seven, three of the “Magnificent Seven” visit an intercontinental hotel. Just saying. If s3 was to go this route, my money would be on Luther, Diego and Five getting up to shenanigans in this one. I miss 125 shenanigans.😢

8.WEDDING AT THE END OF THE WORLD. Honestly, I’m holding out hope that one of our fave siblings gets married. I feel like that’s a trap though... Actually I feel like it might actually be a trap. As in, this is when the rising action really kicks it up a notch. But also remember the title of 1x01: We Only See Each Other At Weddings and Funerals. Maybe the siblings get split up, possibly in episode 3/4, and they’re trying to reunite through episodes 5-7. Also thinking about hotels and apocalypses... There’s something very fatalistic about these titles so far. I have a feeling that the B-plot or the subtext is going to reveal a lot more about Reginald’s history and the destruction of his world.

9. SIX BELLS. This makes me think of church bells, which is some nice continuity with the wedding of the last title. But church bells are rung for all sorts of reasons - as a call to worship, or in celebration or mourning, or to tell the time. (Thinking back to those marigolds suddenly.) But why six? Now I’m thinking of bell ringing (change ringing), and the way different bells have different cord lengths to control the time of their chimes. It’s a highly mathematical process. Will this episode be Five’s time to shine? Will he coordinate his siblings through a large attack? 10. OBLIVION. Does anything even need to be said about this one? Hotel Oblivion baby ✌✌ Any further theorising would require more knowledge of the coming plot tbh.

Edit: I wrote most of this at 2am, so I’ve just tidied it up a little. Thank you for the ask, Nora! This was fun to think about.

#nikkiwrites #tua meta #tua s3 meta #aka i shake a magic 8-ball and see what comes up #tua season 3 #nikkianswers #softforklave #tua s3 spoilers #the umbrella academy #spoilers

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teresa-moyocoyotzin · 3 years

Text

short recap of my thoughts on 5x09

okay so i was gonna rewatch the whole episode and do a blow-by-blow reaction post but i’m not sure i’ll have time and i kinda wanna focus on watching my fave scenes from the show before tonight. also, everyone else’s reaction posts p. much sum up my thoughts lol

nonetheless, i just wanted to give my main takeaways on the episode a week later, in case anyone cares where i’m at going into the finale! gonna go over the things i liked first, anyone who wants to just remain positive and not see any salty takes might wanna just stick to reading the first part b/c i definitely rant a bit at the end lmao. we’re still having a fun time tho 😂

THINGS I LOVED

- i mean... i think we know LOL

- obviously. i loved james and teresa’s i love you scenes, and kisses, and OOF THAT SEX SCENE. if someone had told me we were gonna get that scene back in like 2017??? i probably would have started literally floating. i totally respect that people had very specific ideas of what they wanted out of those scenes and could have different feelings about it but NOT ME BABES I AM ECSTATIC!!! i did go into the episode with a ~feeling~ that we were gonna get at least one ILY in the episode, and i just had a feeling it would be james, or at least that he would say it first. i’ve already explained in my meta about the scenes why i think it makes sense that he said it first and why i love it that he did, so i won’t go into that here. but i went in having really no expectations for it other than that it was gonna happen! i was debating about whether it would happen really casually while they’re talking, or in like a big action scene, or really dramatic or what, and what i would prefer, and i came to the conclusion that i would love it no matter what lol, but i was really into the idea of james just. fucking. saying it. while they’re just talking about something really casually. so therefore i was pretty happy with it when we got sort of a mix! they’re talking about teresa’s insane death trap of a plan so there’s that drama of “i don’t want to lose you esp. not before saying ILY” kinda thing, but it’s also just. so simple and sure! and then teresa’s i love you is like the perfect scene for me where one character is super focused on something else (in this case, trying to protect the woman he loves! agh!) and the other is just like.. i love you!!!! SO GOOD

- let’s see, what the hell else happened in this ep?

- oh okay i really liked james and teresa’s vibes this episode, they were so focused on each other and had this very ride-or-die feeling about them like they knew that each of their plans was increasingly stupid and desperate and might not even get them where they wanna go, but they were IN IT TOGETHER no matter what 😭i wish we had gotten a callback to that line but at this point, i’m p. sure they Know they’re in it together, and we do too. so it’s okay. i love that teresa still asks his input and considers his opinions even if she does her own thing anyways haha

- oh on that note, i LOVED the moment where their plans to kill Kostya aren’t working and Teresa says something like “If I can meet with him in person, I can kill him myself” and James just has this LOOK that just is the epitome of the “I am in love with a women who is DESIGNED TO STRESS ME OUT” meme lol, it made me giggle, v classic QOTS moment

- oh and of course, I LOVED that scene with devon and james at the end!!!!!!!! i was also confused about how james was showing all his emotions in that scene esp. since he tries to be stoic about his feelings for Teresa around Devon, but now that i’ve read a few people’s thoughts about, it i’m fully on board w the theory that james and teresa already knew this was coming, b/c they’re smart, and b/c james knows devon wouldn’t have let him walk away to save Teresa at the beginning of the season without motivation (like having him in place to kill her when she’s no longer useful to the CIA) and THEREFORE james was sort of “overacting” to make it believable to devon (and the audience lol) that he didn’t know this was coming, didn’t want to do it, but felt like he had to, rather than the fact that they were already plotting a fake death. that makes a lot of sense to me and makes me really love all the layers to that scene. it does give me a little bit of hope that the finale ~teresa’s not really dead~ reveal will be at least a little well executed and not just shoved in at the very end. we shall see though!

- alright i think that’s what i loved about the episode, if u don’t wanna hear me bitching about the little things then u should probably stop here!! just have to get out some of my saltiness lol

THINGS I WAS ANNOYED ABOUT

- i’m just gonna get it out of the way, yes, i too was supremely annoyed at the amount of KA and Pote take suburbia; it was all 1000% predictable down to the raccoon and the cookies, and the point could have been accomplished in exactly 1 scene, maybe 2, certainly not like 10 or however many we got. whatever. ugh.

- okay. OKAY. chicho. we need to talk about chicho. i for one, am not mad that he called pote, my boy was stressed. I AM HOWEVER, mad at the writers for making pote come back after saying he trusted chicho to take care of teresa now. like. it totally devalued THE WHOLE THING!! imo, pote shoulda stayed his ass at home where we had to watch him settle all episode, and chicho should have gotten THE HERO MOMENT HE DESERVED (esp. cuz he’s on first name basis w teresa now??) which ALSO WOULD HAVE MADE THE SCENE WHERE TERESA GIVES CHICHO THE DISTILLERY AND THE BAR SO! MUCH! MORE! MEANINGFUL!!!!! or just made it make sense at all? like .... i’m just so confused by that whole plotline like what was the point? chicho does nothing but call pote and gets T’s whole legacy in NOLA?

- and don’t even get me started on how it makes ZERO sense that pote would have had to charge in at the last minute to save teresa when JAMES THE SNIPER W AMAZING AIM WHO IS LITERALLY. IN LOVE WITH HER. is standing outside like. ur telling me james and chicho (who again, is supposed to be her #2 after james now) just stood there like “oh hey pote yeah you go ahead we’ll wait here good luck” like WHAT also.. how did pote get past all the guards that made james stay outside? are we meant to believe pote is that sneaky? y’all. it just. doesn’t make sense. this whole plot situation maddens me more than anythings tbh UGH JUST MAKE IT MAKE SENSE

- oksana’s daughter..... what’s her name again? idk b/c we only MET HER THIS WEEK....okay this amuses me but i’m also annoyed b/c like. there were so many other women who could have taken that spot in the opening sequence... Lil T, Castel, hell even Isabela??? Like idk how they could have done it but they put so much effort into her plot in the first seasons that i really thought she was gonna end up w/ Teresa in the end.. idk that would have been kind cool, Camila’s two “daughters” eventually working their way out of the life together..again idk how they could have realistically done it but i really do wish it had been someone we met before. if it had to be someone new this season, they could have introduced her earlier instead of one of the seemingly dozens of random guys we knew for 1 episode before they died... like.. give her some depth please. is she even gonna be in the finale? honestly she better be after making us listen to pote welcome her into the family... like the family u were supposed to leave so u could have an actual baby pote? the family that’s literally dispersing as we speak? also.. since when did pote love oksana so much anyways? also...... just.. if teresa’s gonna have some sort of daughter figure or whatever she’s supposed to be, wouldn’t it make sense to have her be the one to give the big welcome to the family speech? idk y’all..... i’m amused but also baffled at the sheer lack of planning behind this. did no one realize they needed someone for the opening scene until like. halfway thru the season? did they plan to have it be castel but they couldn’t get her for filming (hence all the weird castel plots?) INQUIRING MINDS WOULD LIKE TO KNOW. it’s whatever tho lol

- i just hope that what’s-her-name gets a lil bit of plot in the finale esp. since otherwise it might just be pote running around being pissy (i don’t actually think that haha but i am a lil nervous that teresa won’t come back until the last few mins and i’ll have to spend all episode looking at boaz and devon and pote and KA.. i haven’t looked at any spoilers tho so i’m still hopeful! i will probably make a post about my hopes going into the finale a lil later, both realistic and unrealistic :)

#ik it's all been said before but i just had to get my feelings out before i could move on to the finale #the finale!!! wow.. crazy shit y'all #qots #queen of the south #jeresa #qots 5x09

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c-is-for-circinate · 4 years

Text

Post-ep 106 reaction

I have many disparate thoughts tonight, and as usual I’m sure I’ll be more coherent tomorrow if I remember to post at all, but here are some things I’m thinking right now:

Someday, SOMEDAY, I am going to put together the essay I’ve been sitting on for ages about Critical Role (and d&d in general) and how it impacts the dynamics of religion to turn gods into actual people who you can have individual person-like relationships with. It is far too late for that tonight, but I am SAYING IT NOW because fuck, it’s coming.

I think I’m finally on board with Beau and Yasha. I’ve fluttered between vaguely interested and vaguely disappointed for such a long time, not because I don’t adore both Yasha and Beau and their interactions with one another, but because in some ways it just felt so very... “these are the two lesbians, they are the Only Two Lesbians In The Main Cast, of course they’re endgame,” and that bothers me as both a queer lady and as a storyteller. Tonight’s glorious awkwardness aside, though (and fuck that awkwardness was glorious), I’m having some real feelings about the fundamental attractiveness of someone being attracted to you. Pining for someone unattainable is romantic, of course, but it gets old, and grown-ups learn how to get over it sooner or later. Pining for someone who might be unattainable but might not be, well, that’s complicated, and that can go on for ages, but the longer a situation like that goes on, the more it becomes something you don’t expect or even really want to be resolved. If you really thought it could work, you’d say something. And there’s a lot of emotion that goes into wishing something could work, and hoping maybe it could, and wanting-but-not-daring, and complicated layers of self esteem, etc etc etc, but-- Look, you can pine for the perfect unattainable maybe-straight girl who you’ll never have to negotiate an actual relationship with forever, but sometimes right in front of you there’s somebody who actually looks back when you look. And that looking back is worth so much. It means so much. It’s worth choosing to look at someone who looks at you back. That’s a love story I’m here for.

Partway through the episode I was thinking about my meta for tonight, and I was thinking about Beau and Yasha, and it occurred to me to wonder just why the fuck there’s shipping discourse everywhere you look in CR fandom these days. I know it’s always been around, but it’s felt so virulent lately, and I wondered why, and then I came up with a theory for part of it. I think it’s been really easy to focus on ships lately because the characters are mostly at a point in their own personal journeys where a lot of their other, intense and non-romantic development has...not ended, and not even gone away, but reached a natural plateau for the moment. The war between the Empire and the Dynasty is over, and the Mighty Nein made it happen. Holy shit, right? It meant so much, and it cost so much, and it forced them to make decisions and grow and choose sides and stick to things in ways they never had before, and it was so much all the time. And meanwhile in the background, Fjord kicked a patron to the side and got a new goddess, and Veth battled alcoholism and lost and won and lost and then also got her fucking body and family back, and Beau faced her father and Caleb faced Trent and Caduceus found his family and Yasha lost herself and then found herself and then had to face what she found. It’s been so much, for so long. And now it’s not, really, any more. Sure, they all still have issues--but those issues are for the moment avoidable. Caduceus’s family is safe and his duty is discharged and he doesn’t have to deal with the reasons why he didn’t go home with them if he just keeps not going home. Veth doesn’t know how to be a mother and a wife and an adventurer, but hey, she’s on Rumblecusp now, right? It’s the same for (ALMOST) all of them: personal growth has been exhausting and they are Not Worrying About It right now. Which leaves room for character analysis to head in a more romantic direction. And yes, it is super fucking pertinent that the one character who is drowning in the very throes of intense personal arc stuff is Jester--the object not just of various party members’ affection, but of 95% of shipping vitriol that’s been thrown around lately. She’s the one person who is too busy dealing with or trying not to deal with her own shit to have time for romance right now, and she’s the center of everyone’s focus--of course it’s a mess. And like, I think about “no romance before level 10!”, and I think about how these characters have grown and changed, and I think this particular plateau is pertinent not just because it’s a resting place for these character arcs, but also because of where these characters have gotten to. Right now, finally, finally, the M9 have each collectively and individually figured out so much about who they are. They know themselves, what they want and care about and will stand for, so much better than they did at the beginning of the campaign. What they don’t know yet, and the question they’re all vaguely avoiding and feeling their way around the edges of trying to answer, is what happens next? And romance is part of that. Falling in love is about saying I want, which most of the M9 have just barely grown into being able to admit. Actual romance and relationships are in a sense about saying I can have. Not just the wanting, but the getting. Making choices, going after things, making plans for the future--that’s all inherent in the situation. And those are the things the M9, without a clear direction or goal in sight, are set up to start really tackling next. Which puts them in a position where romance is an obvious and focal part of character interactions. Both for themselves, and for us as audience.

At some point, I need to do some serious thinking about Beau and Caducues, and about when and where we see Beau actually asking for things. She asks him for things: tea, more tea, food, caretaking things, but she doesn’t whine at him for healing spells like she’ll whine at him for caffeine, just offer a general “I mean, if anyone wants to do some healing” to the group. It’s interesting. I’m interested. I think I’d need to backwtch some episodes to decide what I think. (But also: Caduceus gives Beau things, readily and sometimes even more than the others. He gives her Tongues and Holy Weapon. And what does that mean, for him?)

I know there was more but that has hit the limit of what I can do at 1:30 AM. Thank you, all, and have a good night.

#CR spoilers #critical role #episode 106

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ask-whitepearl-and-steven · 4 years

Text

Alright alright alright

You’ve all been asking for it, so here it is!

This will be (edit: HELLA) long and obviously spoiler-y, so everything is under a cut.

Are you ready?

Before we get to it, I want to mention that for the sake of keeping things organized, I will NOT be talking about my AU (@ask-whitepearl-and-steven) in this post. I want to just analyze the show as a viewer and a fan first. I’ll make a seperate post for AU-thoughts a bit later.

Without further ado:

EP 1: LITTLE HOMESCHOOL

This is a great way to open up the episode and show the changes through the lens of someone who has been a bit out of it for a while (we are all Cherry Quartz, fresh from the hiatus, aren’t we?) but I’m sorry, this post still takes the cake:

Okay, okay, back to the program.

“That used to be a loaded question...“

Right off the bat, Steven is SO much more confident about saying that he’s... HIMSELF! What a good feeling. I’m very proud of our boy.

I love the name “Gemglyph” for the gem language! I’ll need to know who wrote these, though. And who the heck drew the diamonds? Hopefully it was BP.

And I’m not the first one to point this out, but MORE ANIME REFERENCES!

Which can be seen as either a reference to the Chill Low-Fi Hiphop Beats to Study To OR Whisper of the Heart.

And absolutely no one cares but something that caught my eye is the fact that they have an EARTH FLAG at Little Homeschool! How cool is that!

Earth 4ever!!!

Off-note - I love how INVESTED they are in this conversation Pearl is having with Holo-Pearl.

Peak entertainment.

I love Professor Amethyst and I love the random human who snuck in to apparently take lessons on Not Giving A Single Shit About Anything, Ever.

And here we FINALLY are in the FUTURE

Where we FINALLY get Jasper as a functioning character

And

She’s

SO DRAMATIC, I LOVE HER.

This is literally SO funny like she... she was just... laying on top of her house... under a blanket..... FOr WHAT? To stand up dramatically and throw it off when Steven inevitably paid a visit?

Is that just what she dOES?

“It’s FINE I don’t need any HELP, I’m FUNCTIONING, I’m just having a SELF CARE DAY OK”

Also I’m sorry but

Jasper: “It took forever to yank those puny green earthlings out of the ground.”

Steven: “You mean grass...?“

THIS. RIGHT HERE. is peak Jasper.

It’s also curious how INVESTED Steven is in this:

“I’m TRYING to give you [a purpose]!“

Why are you... trying to do that, though? Isn’t the whole idea for gems to surpass their ‘purpose’ and just kinda... do whatever? Isn’t Jasper just kinda... doing whatever?

I mean, sure, it’s not useful to anyone, but she seems relatively happy. Aside from. You know. The whole laying on rocks under blankets until she’s disturbed thing and-- okay, you’re right, maybe an intervention would be healthy.

I’m not gonna talk at length about the rest of the episode - although I think it’s really good, I don’t know what I can say about it that hasn’t already been said. Jasper is definitely poking Steven’s buttons and rephrasing a LOT of what WHITE has said to Pink: “You surround yourself with inferior gems because it makes you feel better.”

And Steven REACTS to this. The taunt WORKS.

And yes, he gains some extra powers for it, but something tells me this AIN’T the only thing he will get. It feels like a two-edged sword. Like it’ll be his own downfall somehow....... maybe at the end of the series.

Ashes to ashes.... hole to hole.

And oh wow I thought they were gonna bond but LMAO

“Consider your fight back there your first and ONLY lesson.“

Basically:

I love you Jasper.

EP 2: GUIDANCE

I LOVE YOU AMETHYST.

sHE’S doing SO much and she’s SO good at it!! Look at her!! Organizing stuff!!!!

RUBIES IN SUNGLASSES. IN SQUARE SUNGLASSES.

I need 20.

And I also need 20 of Larimar because holy shit that’s hilarious.

Larimar: “I want to hear the human screams forever.”

Steven: “Okay that’s kinda troubling.”

I love the reference to Monsters Inc here and I love the callback at the end of the episode when Larimar switches to Human Laughter to get her fill of that particular erm... need.

And honestly the ensuing chaos is equally predictable and entertaining.

I’m SO glad to know that Rubies are just... Like That and that actually Navy is not a deviation from the norm but rather a different flavor of the chaotic energy all Rubies naturally seem to possess.

Amethyst is also super relatable:

“Ah yes, the fool comes crawling back. Come to beg for forgiveness, have you?”

In fact, the episode’s WHOLe HUMOUR is just very much My Brand

“Sometimes you save all the people but the rollercoaster still crashes into the ocean...... and that’s okay.”

Including the Running Gag that is Onion. Who... does not appear to have aged. At all. And that’s okay.

EP 3: ROSE BUDS

Okay where do I even begin with this one. Um.

I have to openly admit that I spent the majority of this episode wheezing with laughter. Let’s start with the Zoomans:

Who are CLEARLY STILL SUPER SALTY AT GREG ABOUT REJECTING THEM??? Which is hilarious.

And also this paradise is fascinating in and of itself.

But the next scene is basically where I started losing my shit.

Okay, okay, alright so. Uh. I have... a few questions.

Like Why. WHY. Does she look. SO MUCH like Rose?

Clearly Rose Quartz differ in coloring and etc. But She literally looks. Like THE Rose. VERY explicitly.

So here’s several options here:

1) Pink made Rose Quartz way before any of the Rebellion happened and Pearl just basically pigeonholed her into THIS specific Rose Quartz appearance because she (???) had a crush? Or somehow saw this specific Rose, thought ‘hot, i can make my sympathetic Diamond wear this exact costume and that would be EXCELLENT fanservice for ME’

2) Pink didn’t have any Rose Quartz until the Rebellion, and thereafter quickly decided ‘I need these gems as an alibi, so we’re just gonna make them” and she and Pearl basically inclubated Rose Quartz like a pokemon trainer hatching for a Shiny until they got one that looked Exactly Like That.

3) There was no Thinking involved because this is Pink we’re talking about, and it was all just a huge coincidence for the sake of this Very Hilariously Uncomfortable Episode.

While we ruminate on that, let’s look at some Relatable Reactions.

And here we have the holy trinity of “I have just seen the clone of my deceased parent/parental figure/lover.”

Featuring: Bonus ‘I’m Almost Over It’ Pearl

Also, I need y’all to make this into a meme:

For example:

Anyway, alright, alright.

That relatable feel when your (hot) dead lesbian lover’s clone asks you if you’re okay after another one of the (less hot?) clones offers you a whole ass stick of butter to eat.

And then you and your friends all hide in the bathroom to talk about your feelings:

Okay, the rest of the episode gives me FEELINGS and I love how hard Steven is trying, so I’ll just close it off with:

I LOVE THEM. Unironically, they are EVERYTHING I had hoped Rose Quartz would be. They’re SO MUCH like Rose herself - did she model her personality after them? Or are they just like her because she WAS like that, and they’re made from her essence? WHO KNOWS?! They’re adorable!

And the conflict between them and Steven is honestly so gooD! I don’t know if it’s completely relatable but I’m glad they ended up talking it out.

I wonder if we’ll ever see Her again... you know who I’m talkin’ about.

Her....

I’m madly in love with Rose, ok, I don’t need a callout post. Just leave me be.

EP 4: VOLLEYBALL

Alright, alright, alright.

OKAy,.... It’s fine. It’s FINE. I’m fINE.

Confirmed: 8000 years. That’s. UH. A LOT? That puts our timelines quite a ways back. We kind of estimated as much, but still, it’s so jarring to think about. And PP is VERY casual about it.

She’s also VERY casual about the injury.

“This is all Pink Diamond!”

It doesn’t seem like it bothers her to talk about it at all. She’s not even trying to keep it a secret. So I’m almost wondering - was there a connection to her being taken by White and the injury at all or not?

She came to Steven to get healed - she clearly wants it gone. At the time she was injured, did Pink not even attempt to heal the injury?

Follow up question: If she DID care, why didn’t she try to heal it?

Follow up to the follow up: Was it because she didn’t know she could? Or did she simply not have the time to (White removed her before she could)?

When Steven goes pink, she gasps - but makes no further comment. It’s presumably because she’s seen this happen before. She doesn’t try to move away, weirdly enough - she asks him if everything is alright. Perhaps the context is too different for it to be triggering for her. Perhaps there’s more layers to it? HMMM.

What follows is, perhaps, the SALTIEST we’ve seen Pearl since Greg rolled around.

“Did you come to compete?”

This is doubly curious to me because Crewniverse has previously explicitly stated that Pearl was NOT in love with Pink Diamond. She was in love with Rose. So if this is true, why would Pearl care about her place as Pink’s Pearl? She is supposed to be past all that, isn’t she?

And yet as time goes on, the salinity grows exponentially. Alright, you two, I know you’re Pearls but tone it down with the sass.

(Also, I’m sorry but I will NEVER call her Volleyball. That’s all. Bye.)

Also it’s worth noting that... PP is clearly VERY much in love with Pink.

This is, perhaps, where the lack of a grudge plays into it. She’s completely enamoured.

Moreover, she’s VERY casual about how she talks here. This isn’t exactly how one talks of their Diamond. This is how people talk about their romantic partners. She calls Pink silly, calls her ‘funny’. That’s not exactly a term of respect - it’s way more intimate than that.

Also, did anyone else notice how, although CG Pearl’s gem is usually shaded in teal, it’s in Pink in this episode? VEEEERY subtle, Crew.

Also, we can’t quite see Pink Pearl’s expression fully here because her working eye isn’t visible, which makes it hard to get a read on things like

“I’m older than you.“ Is she just saying it casually? Or is she fully aware that she’s poking fun at CG Pearl?

HI SHELL. ISN’T IT FUNNY HOW YOUR VOICE AND YOUR NAME ARE A SUBTLE NOD TO PORTAL, WHICH IS FORESHADOWING HOW BADLY THIS IS GONNA END.

Meanwhile, Pearl continues to be in character.

“No need to be overly... attached.”

And this has nothing to do with anything but

she cute

Aaaand now it’s creepy again.

The rest of this is super important so let’s get to it:

“Oh, no. Pink did this.”

“What did you say?”

“It’s a funny story, really. Once, Pink got tired of asking Yellow and Blue for her own colony, so she went straight to White. Of course, White told her she wasn’t fit to run one... and well! That set her off.”

“Set her off? What are you talking about?”

“You remember how she was! With her destructive powers, throwing tantrums left and right! She had a scream that could crack the walls. She didn’t mean to hurt me! (giggle) I just happened to be standing too close to her that time and--”

And then Steven interrupts.

We get more CG Pearl arguing for how wrong this image of Pink is to her. What CG Pearl knew was a totally different (or, well, same, but VERY changed) Pink.

But what we have to prove our point is Steven himself. He rolls into the EXACT same state as Pink presumably did - and begins to over-use his powers.

(This isn’t the first time we have seen him use this attack.)

The reactions from the Pearls are telling - this is clearly not Pink Pearl’s first rodeo with this type of Mood.

And it’s important to note that Steven clearly didn’t direct any attack AT them. He simply yelled - and the whole dang place literally started to crack. There’s weight to the argument that possibly, Pink really DIDN’T mean to hurt her Pearl - that she was just collateral damage.

Which doesn’t make it any better, obviously. Even if Pink had no direct intention of hurting her Pearl (and there are theories that Pink purposefully hit or threw Pink Pearl or somehow physically acted directly to damage her, which I was skeptical of) the result of it is still the same.

If you raise your voice and yell, even if you’re just yelling because YOU are hurt/have feelings, you might still hurt the people around you. If you throw a tantrum, even if your direct goal was just to let off some steam without aiming to harm anyone, whoever gets in your way is still the victim.

And this is all very much On Brand for Pink’s timeline as we know it. We already knew this about her - we KNEW she tended to throw tantrums (like in the flashback on Jungle Moon) and that she was childish. The fact that she accidentally hurt her Pearl in the process because she had no self-control at that period in her life comes as no surprise.

(Although it’s important to mention that perhaps hurting her own Pearl WAS the breaking point during which she finally realized how her emotional outbursts could have negative consequences on those around her.)

And this is a very beautiful message - even if Pink Pearl still doesn’t want to blame Pink for what was done to her (”But... she didn’t mean to!”) Pearl brings the point of it back around to her (”But you were still hurt!”) The point isn’t the person who did the hurting - the focus is on the victim and how they were affected.

And the rest, I daresay, is history.

I like the fact that they managed to still bring it back around to the main message:

It isn’t about just “Pink was bad”. It’s about how she did bad things. And there were multiple sides to her - multiple stages. And the Pearls who knew her knew different sides of her - the side that didn’t know how to be a good person, who was selfish and childish and unrestrained... and the side that was, arguable, too restrained. Who hated her own past, her own character and her own mistakes so much that she would rather bury them and keep secrets from everyone.

And neither of those things were good, and neither were healthy, but they are a GREAT contrast to a GREAT character arc that is, arguably, still being unearthed. And we have so much more context for it all now.

I, for one, can’t wait to see and discover more of Pink through Pink Pearl - no matter how ugly that side of her might be. I think it gives great perspective to her later growth.

And if you ship the Pearls.. .well, I get why.

Personally I’m not interested in it that way. Call me unromantic - I don’t think their relationship NEEDS to be shippy in order to be satisfyingly deep. I love the idea of them having a deep bond over this - a shared past, a shared experience, and gaining confidence through one another.

Cheers and thanks for listening!

#steven universe future #steven universe: future #steven universe future spoilers #su:f spoilers #suf spoilers #su spoilers #steven universe spoilers #spoiler warning #pink pearl #volleyball

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chalkrevelations · 3 years

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WELL. Episode 3 of Word of Honor.

First of all: If you are NEW or JUST VISITING, this is a re-watch, so there are SPOILERS not just for this ep, but for the ENTIRE SHOW. A lot of them, actually. Scroll away and come back later if you haven’t seen all 36.5 eps and want to watch it unspoiled.

So, this ep feels a little disjointed. I don’t think it actually is, not in the way the back nine are a speedrun where the writing starts to feel like it’s thisclose to coming off the rails, but it feels like it, in that we’re now getting a double handful of threads thrust at us that are only just starting to be woven together into a plot, and it’s the kind of hot mess that any fiberwork looks like before the pattern starts to show itself, particularly when you’re using 15 different color threads from jump. There’s generally a major theme or issue or overriding concept that stands out to me in each ep that, you may have noticed, gets primacy of place in these reactions, but honestly, y’all, I really struggled to figure out what that might be for this episode, because a lot of this, on re-watch, strikes me as groundwork for later developments. Wen Kexing gives us an “as you know, Bob” speech about the Amory and the Glazed Armor, we meet approx. 3.2K new characters, and I feel sort of like I should start keeping a chart of who’s supposed to have a piece of the Glazed Armor and who actually does have a piece of the Glazed Armor, but it’s already so confusing that it might be too late.*

ANYWAY, on re-watch, I can absolutely see the value of spending Eps 1 & 2 on introducing us to Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing and getting us pulled into their orbit, because then we have scenes we’re already invested in to maintain our interest as the background politics begin to frustratingly play out with a bunch of people we don’t know or have any investment in yet. I mean, y’all. I forgot just what an ill-tempered gremlin ZZS was in these early eps. He is so fk’n put out that these people will not let him drink himself to death in the gutter in peace! Or, you know, in occasional Nightly Nails Torment. And the exasperation from both ZZS and Chengling over WKX’s antics – both of their faces are priceless in the scene when they discover he’s the one who’s bought out all the rooms at the inn. I literally lol’d. Again. Even knowing it was coming. All of this interaction is so delightful. This is actually the ep that provoked my very first WoH keysmash flailing Tumblr post and inaugurated the “wen kexing’s thirst is practically a third character” tag. I guess the biggest throughline for this ep is that we can continue to see how everything changes when we know about their previous relationship – things like WKX’s insistence that they have a “deep bond through fate” take on additional layers of meaning rather than just sounding like some dude who’s trying to pick you up at last call. Interesting that ZZS describes WKX at one point during their push-pull conversational dance as “like a wretched soul that keeps haunting around.” You mean, like a GHOST? Like a Ghost Valley ghost? Like the almost forgotten memory of a past life ghost? ZZS wants to know why WKX keeps following him around, and it would be nice if WKX would just come clean, but that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?

ZZS, re: Chengling: I do my best to ensure what was entrusted to me.

WKX: :makes (already! in ep 3!) yet another in a series of bad decisions not to say anything about the fact that he, himself, was in fact entrusted to ZZS:

Show: Here’s the first of many helpings of heartache to come. EAT IT. EAT IT ALL.

(Me: Well, here’s another AU idea: What would the course of this relationship be like if WKX flat-out asked ZZS what ZZS’s relationship to Four Seasons Manor was, and bare-faced claimed sanctuary as long-lost shidi Zhen Yan at this point? Because I bet there are plenty of ways that could actually go wrong. Not to mention the deliciousness of just watching them navigate a relationship shift that sudden. I feel like, at this point, WKX would have to be actively confrontational about it, would have to throw it in ZZS’s face – it would need to be something he did in the heat of anger, in order to have this pushed out past all of his fears. Like, you say that, but where were you when I needed you? Also, you think so, well what if your responsibility actually turned out to be the TERRIFYING GHOST VALLEY MASTER, what then, huh? And ZZS, still pretty actively suicidal over all of his failures, having to deal with what’s now being presented as YET ANOTHER FAILURE.)

Also, the theme of “knowing” (zhiji, the one I know) is starting to slide in sideways – we’re seeing a lot of back and forth between them asking about seeing the other’s “true face.” WKX says that he’ll tell ZZS what he (WKX) wants from him once he gets to see ZZS’s true face (LIES, it’s going to take a lot longer than that). ZZS asks to see WKX’s figurative true face, and WKX looks kind of sad and contemplative as he warns that it may be unappealing or terrifying. So, you know, we’re starting to poke at all the softest, most tender places and the issues that are going to stab me repeatedly in the heart for the rest of the show. We’re also already seeing the way Xiao Chu just layered in references throughout the script when she wrote it that call back to each other – it’s like almost any line of dialogue references three other lines of dialogue (and that’s without even getting into all of the literary references that I’m missing because I don’t have cultural context). You get things like WKX’s little speech right at the end that it’s hard to tell a ghost from a human, which on its face might be referring to the two “ghosts” that were coming for Chengling that he took care of and act as an admonishment to ZZS not to be so quick to assume they’re actually from Ghost Valley, but it also refers to WKX, himself, and specifically lays the groundwork (“someone wearing a ghost mask is not necessarily a ghost”) for his conversation in a later ep with ZZS when he asks if ZZS thinks he’s a good person, and also calls back (“someone who looks human may not be human”) to the line from earlier in this ep, itself, when WKX tells ZZS that perhaps WKX’s true face is terrifying. And so we get a nicely little wrapped package of the dichotomy of WKX and his issues. (As a somewhat related aside, A-Xiang’s little face when Zhou Zishu says all of the ghosts of Ghost Valley are full of evil (at 6:55). D: This reaction is obviously for herself, but also may be the first time she acts as proxy for Wen Kexing, as well.)

What else, what else?

So, nobody has a good opinion of the jianghu. WKX is going to be constantly all, “You killed my father, jianghu, prepare to die,” but ZZS also goes off about how it’s just about greed, hatred and ignorance, and yeah, I guess he’d have a pretty bad impression of it, when Prince Jin and Tian Chuang seemed like a better option than the pressure he was facing, trying to keep Siji Manor Sect alive back in the day. We talk a lot about WKX’s childhood trauma, because it’s so awful and right in our faces, but I don’t know how much we actually talk about the fact that ZZS was a teenager not much older than Chengling when he inherited a sect and tried desperately to keep it from being torn apart by the rest of the jianghu. I think we see some bitterness come out in the first few episodes – frankly, in this ep, he doesn’t seem to make much of a distinction between Ghost Valley and the rest of the jianghu. Also interesting that the metaphor he uses about the jianghu’s and Ghost Valley’s greed for the treasures of the Armory is “reaping without sowing,” given what we find out is actually in there in Ep 36.

We see our metaphor of light get pulled out again – this throughline strikes me as more like beads on a string than a thread, at this point, but maybe I’ll notice it more on this second time through … Anyway, WKX’s comment at 9:11 that it’s almost dawn is notable. Indeed, but is it because your plan is beginning to work and you can see the destruction of Ghost Valley and the jianghu coming down the pike, or is it because you’ve found your shixiong?

I notice WKX has color-coordinated ZZS and Chengling in the robes he bought for them, has already grouped them together, marked them as belonging to each other – he’s already subtly treating them as each other’s family. The show, with a particular lack of subtlety, also will have ZZS there to wake up Chengling from nightmares later in the end of the ep, as Chengling calls out for his dad in his sleep.

OK, Deng Kuan is the guy in charge of the Yueyang sect contingent that arrived in time to see the Mirror Lake chaos in Ep 2 and has taken charge of cleaning up the bodies in this ep. I actually overlooked him, pretty much, the first time around, but here, he’s already got Shen Shen yelling at him (in a completely ridiculous fashion) for not getting there in time to save the Mirror Lake Sect, so he’s just going to be a punching bag through the whole show, apparently. Shen Shen is wu-di, fifth (little) brother, and he refers to Chengling’s dad as si-ge, fourth (older) brother, so Shen Shen appears to be the youngest of the Five Lakes sworn brothers, leading me to believe that some of what makes him so insufferable through a lot of the show is baby brother syndrome. Also, Shen Shen and his group find the Soul Winding Threads of the Hanged Ghost … supposedly. I mean, the Hanged Ghost was the guy who we saw get got in Ep 1, soooooo …. (remember these Soul Winding Threads, btw).

*This got super long so I’m’a put this last bit under a cut, but I did try to start a running tally of who’s holding a piece of the Glazed Armor:

Each of the Five Lakes Alliance sects is supposed to have a piece of the Glazed Armor, yes? So, as of the end of Ep 3 (hierarchical bro-titles are from didi Shen Shen’s POV):

- Yueyang Sect, led by Gao Chong (da-ge) - presumably still has his

- Tai Hu Sect, led by Zhao Jing (er-ge) – presumably still has his

- Danyang Sect, led by Lu Taichong (san-ge, presumably) – apparently the sect has already been attacked off-screen (by “Ghost Valley?” and WHEN?), as we learn in Ep 3 that Lu-zongzhu has been killed and his remaining two tiny disciples have fled to the protection of Ao Laizi and Tai Shan Sect, one of the lesser sects, and are believed to have taken Danyang’s Glazed Armor with them. We learn this from Tao Hong, Lv Liu and Begger Gang Chief, but I notice that Gao Chong only mentions the Mirror Lake massacre as the precipitating event for the Hero’s Conference and total war on Ghost Valley – he doesn’t even mention Danyang Sect, so does Five Lakes not know about this yet?

- Mirror Lake Sect, led by Zhang Yusen (si-ge) – Zhang-zongzhu killed by “Ghost Valley” in Ep 2, Glazed Armor “missing” and speculated POST EP 2 to have been taken by Ghost Valley (but will turn up in a few eps, thanks to our little Goldbean)

- Dagu Shan Sect, led by Shen Shen (wu-di) – presumably still has his

And then we move to:

- Tai Shan Sect, led by Ao Laizi – in-world speculation is that he now has the Danyang Glazed Armor. We do see him near the end of the ep with the two tiny Danyang shidi, where he makes the intriguing comment that he’s going to follow their shifu’s last wishes and keep their Glazed Armor from falling into the hands of the Five Lakes Alliance, so what exactly was going on between San-ge and his sworn brothers at the time of his death? This group also is apparently being pursued by Shen Shen to get their Glazed Armor, and they make him sound awful. You need better PR, Shen Shen.

- Ghost Valley – POST EP 2, speculated to have taken the Mirror Lake Glazed Armor (FALSE)

NOTABLY, “Ghost Valley Master” set a lot of this chaos in motion in Ep 1 when he claimed that Hanged Ghost (who got got a scene earlier) had stolen HIS piece of the Glazed Armor, although he shouldn’t have a piece (supposedly) until after Ep 2, when he’s believed to have taken Mirror Lake’s. So, what piece would that be, exactly, Terrifying Ghost Valley Master? You wouldn’t be lying in pursuit of chaos would you? (Somewhere, WKX gasps theatrically behind his fan, and he doesn’t even know what motivated it, this time.)

#zhou zishu #wen kexing #gu xiang #zhang chengling #shen shen #deng kuan #word of honor #word of honor episode reax

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dingyuxi · 3 years

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#ShowYourProcess

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES: When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people (as many ppl as you want) with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

I was tagged by @haeyeongs for this cloy set ❤︎ thank you cami!

I’m tagging:

@gimme-a-chocolate for this set

@chaeunwoo for this set

@gominshi for this set

@baek1nho for this set

@mostlyfate for this set

@jaehwany for this set

@alienwlw for this set

@deokmis for this set

@kateknowsdramas for this set

(1) PLANNING

So first I had to search for the perfect quote. Quote searching will take me hours sometimes, unless it’s a set where I have a quote saved already and am inspired by it to make a set. I’ve started compiling quotes for that more recently, but back when I made this set I didn’t have any quotes saved so I had to hunt for one. I stumbled across @/fireandsteelofangels’ blog and loved their quotes, so that’s when I started combing through their writing. When I found the quote I liked I had to decide how to break up the quote. (I do this for any quotes gif I make) so I can figure out how many gifs (roughly) I will be aiming to make for the final gifset. (I usually make more than is necessary tho). In this case, the quote was pretty easy to break up since it was a series of quotes really.

Q: How does he love you? // A: With every atom of his existence

Q: How does he look at you? // A: Like his soul is screaming at him to be selfish

Q: How do you love him? // A: With hope

Q: How do you look at him? // A: With despair

Following that breakdown, I would get 4 gifs. I definitely also contemplated separating the “Q” and “A” parts of each section into different gifs, but ultimately decided the cohesiveness of the gifset was better when they were grouped.

Next I moved on to finding the actual scenes I wanted to include. I spent extra care on this gifset to actually try and match each section of the quote to the emotion displayed in the specific gif the text was meant to be placed on. Therefore it took me forever to scan through all the eps I’d watched to find the perfect scene that would convey the right emotion AND also look nice in the gif as a whole. For this I may pick up to 2-3 scenes to import to ps and test them to see which would look best overall in the set.

(2) CREATING

Once I’ve picked out the scenes and imported them all into photoshop I set about coloring. For this specific set I remember the first gif I colored was the first gif in the set:

And after that I tried to match the other colorings to this gif so that the set would look balanced. (Which I remember being quite difficult lol and that’s why I usually pick out several different scenes because different scenes look better together than others. Usually when I do that I first duplicate my coloring from the original gif and drag it onto my new gif to see what the effect is. Then I toggle off visibility of different layers to see which ones I’ll keep and which ones I’ll delete, along with which I can adjust. If it ends up there are very few keepable layers I will just start a new coloring from scratch because that’s often easier.

Once I’ve roughly decided which gifs will be my final ones I upload them onto Tumblr to see what the look like together and see if anything needs to be adjusted/rearranged.

In this case, here’s an example of some of the gifs where I had two versions to decide from. I ultimately decide with which one I want to keep by considering the following: a) which one looked better overall when the set was shown together. b) which one better conveyed the desired portion fo the quote. I weigh the two and then decide which to cut.

There were also scenes that didn’t make it to a final gif version, because the coloring wasn’t working out and I dropped it halfway while making them.

The gifs above show text, but in actuality I don’t work on the typography until the very end. (This includes deciding the order of the gifs and how they look on Tumblr first.) This way if I need to rearrange gifs I can do that and plan for what text will go on which gif without having to later rearrange the text as well (although this sounds ideal in theory, in practice there have still been cases where I ultimately do have to rearrange the text as well because I decided later on that a different order would look better). I save this draft and reference it when I’m adding the quote to each gif so that I know the order they’re supposed to go.

So once I've finalized the order, I move on the typography. I remember playing around with a LOT of different fonts before finding a combination that I liked. When I choose fonts there are a variety of factors I change when testing them out: font family, spacing, sizing, color, caps/non-caps. I’ll often have a bunch of different layers and toggle them on and off for what feels like forever comparing them until I find the one I like. (imagine being at the eye doctor and they ask you which lens is clearer but they look the same, yeah that's me toggling between different font settings.)

For this set I used the following combination of fonts // styling:

Poppins bold // faux bold, 9pt, #ffdfa6 and #ffffff (question)

Poppins light // 9pt, #ffffff (answer)

And since this was before I learned about how to use the VA type setting, I manually worked out the spacing by physically typing in spaces with my spacebar hahaha so yeah that was fun :D I remember I would test whether 2 spaces or 3 spaces or even 4 looked best. And then I would also decide where to break lines of the quote if necessary. So for example in the "how does he look at you” gif I chose to break the quote after “screaming at him”

Once I figure out the styling for the first gif I simply copy those text layers to each of my other gifs and adjust the wording from there so I don’t have to recreate the same thing again.

By this point we’re almost done! I load the gifs into Tumblr...but wait! I have other gifs I wanted to include. It was the hostage/kidnapping sequence at the end of the ep that inspired me to make the set after all. So I picked out the scenes I wanted, colored them (painstakingly to match the other gif colors), added them to my Tumblr draft and decided the effect was kinda flat with them being all colored. It was also harder to differentiate the timeline of the different scenes. Thus the black and white gifs were born. You think I jest but I have proof that I did indeed first attempt to have them all be colored:

So then I had to color the bw gifs again (yes, coloring is involved in bw gifs shockingly). Oh and here’s another one of the gifs that didn’t make the cut:

(3) POSTING

Now I add the finished gifs in order on a new draft, verify that everything looks good to go, slap on my caption, add my tags, save it *scrutinize it for another 10 mins* (and somehow still manage to miss typos for half my sets) and it’s posted into the void!

If you made it to the end of this *hugs to you*

#tag games #tagged #gifmaking tag #ps things

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alyblacklist · 3 years

Note

Hey !

Happy New year first of all ! I hope you and your family are safe!

So episode 3 is coming soon and I was wondering what kind of Keenler scenes do you think will there be in this episode?

Happy New Year to you as well, anon! We are fine, and thank you so much for the well wishes! I was certainly happy to kick 2020 to the curb.

As far as Keenler scenes, think and hope are not always the same thing, of course, but this ep was originally supposed to be the S7 finale so that in itself usually means big things (in general). Penned by the Jo(h)ns and Reiter, which also usually means big things (in general). Big things in general doesn’t *necessarily* mean big things for Keenler, but I’m encouraged by some of the recent interview quotes that big things are ahead for them, whether they happen in 8x03, 8x04 or deeper into S8.

Bokenkamp to the Wrap: “What’s even better is where this story goes. Trust me, that kiss between Ressler and Liz is the beginning of a really great story that’s been years in the making.”

Eisendrath to EW: “Yet with Ressler, what I hope people feel about that moment is that it only works because it was genuine. She was only able to disarm him because she was actually real in her emotions. That makes the moment, which is representative of the good and difficult situations they will find themselves moving forward during the season, one of genuine affection and deep feeling. But, in that moment, they are on opposite sides, [and] hopefully, a really fun dynamic for viewers.”

Bokenkamp to ET: “Seeing how they navigate this and these feelings and how that impacts the story of the truth that she's looking for, it's a big part of the story.”

Bokenkamp to The Wrap: “It’s interesting, after seven years I think that one of the most important people in Liz’s life is Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff). They really do care about each other — and, after all they’ve been through as partners, how could they not? That relationship is evolving and will continue to evolve this season. I don’t want to give anything away, but that relationship — it’s going to get… complicated very fast.”

I feel like 8x02 left Ressler and Liz in a pretty good place. They met up post-kiss with no overt hard feelings, he was still willing to help her despite the gun snatch, she clearly still trusts him. My gut tells me he’s not going to show up in that park while she’s still crying in the leaves (though part of me wishes he would). I feel like if we were going to get that scene we would have gotten it end of 8x02. But from the photo dangled on Twitter, it looks like she *might* be knock-knock-knocking on Ressler’s door in this episode. I know where I’d *like* that to lead in terms of their relationship becoming “complicated” but my shipper heart often wishes for things that may or may not happen.

I do think Ressler will be worried about her in the aftermath of Kat and Dom’s death. I also think the Task Force has little reason to continue to be at odds with Liz unless and until she does something more than she’s already done. They can gloss over the two deaths and sweep them under the rug with a slap on the wrist unless Liz directly starts attacking Reddington. But, again, this was supposed to be a season finale which usually means, as the Jo(h)ns like to put it, “big turns.” And we have behind the scenes of Red landing in the hospital (which I feel will more likely be due to a collapse than Liz actually shooting him despite the gun tease in the promo).

Bottom line - I think Ressler will remain an ally for Liz going forward rather than an adversary. I feel like they are setting up this season that way, with other parties, including Red, potentially trying to use those feelings to their advantage. Will we get a further step in their relationship in 8x03? I’d love that, and I’ll be hoping for it because I think it would add an additional layer to the overall plot of the season but who knows.

#anon #keenler #spoilers #8x03 #S8 spoilers

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everythingsinred · 3 years

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Let's Talk About NatsuMikan: The Anime (pt. 4)

The anime is a different species than the manga, something that frequently happens during the adaptation from page to screen. Since they’re so different, I’ll analyze them separately.

In the last few parts, we talked about NatsuMikan's story divergence in the anime, and how an even minor change can seem pretty significant with added context. Here, we'll be exploring just two episodes, but two episodes that are pretty layered and have plenty of stuff to analyze!

Episode 18 vs. Chapter 21

The haunted house episode was pretty well-adapted in the anime. They did a good job of elongating the events and filling up the timespan of an episode while keeping the events interesting and suspenseful. I love the addition of Sumire and Jinno (especially with the discovery that he’s easily frightened). Jinno electrocuting the house and causing the electric problems makes a lot more sense than Iinchou passing out due to fear and coincidentally falling on the generator. In any case, the anime makes Natsume’s jealousy when Mikan clings to Ruka more clear.

The anime adds Natsume shielding Mikan from the wall when it falls, something that I always thought was cute, especially when Mikan reveals she had been awake but in shock and Natsume reacts with frustration. It further proves Ruka’s point from earlier in the episode that despite Natsume’s attitude, he is actually selfless. He will do selfless things and then act like they didn’t happen, like they didn’t bother him, etc., even if they resulted in something serious, like his leg being injured.

It just…. keeps me going.

Much of the events are the same but with minor tweaks, such as Natsume just seeing Mikan’s underwear instead of kicking her skirt up. The anime also has a much less suggestive scene for Iinchou and Ruka to walk in on. In the anime, Mikan is simply hanging over Natsume. Natsume is even flinching away from her. Leave room for Jesus.

The difference though.

The episode starts with the tea scene, as well, unlike in the chapter, and it concludes with Mikan discussing with Ruka her dream of seeing her grandfather again and becoming a strong alice. Ruka doesn’t share his dream, but we see a glimpse of it: living on a farm with many animals and Natsume, his best friend, and Mikan. There’s also more emphasis on the parallels between Natsume and Ruka’s friendship with Hotaru and Mikan. The manga does explore these similarities on its own time, but the anime jumps right in. No, they aren’t perfect mirrors of each other, but there are parallels. But Mikan and Ruka aren’t the only ones who have much in common. And just like Natsume and Mikan have a lot in common, so do Ruka and Hotaru, one of the sadly unexplored relationships in both the anime and the manga. But that’s not what this essay is about so we will move on ;-;

Episode 19 vs. Chapter 23 & 24

The next episode is the play one. There is more suspense leading up to the reveal of Ruka’s role in the Somatic play and more humorous additions to fill the episode. It adds Mikan scolding Natsume for being selfish when he refuses to dress as a cat for the play, giving him one more incentive in addition to “Narumi told him to” and “the kid is sad”. Just like in the manga, but with more emphasis, Mikan is the only girl unafraid to call Natsume cute and affectionately tease him for his outfit. In the anime, she giggles as she pokes his ears and it’s very cute. Naturally, in both versions, he reacts by flicking her forehead.

Mikan is a furry becau--

And Natsume is, in both versions, the one who volunteers Mikan for the role of the prince without really thinking about the consequences (because he’s an idiot). In the anime, he’s more spiteful, acting out of revenge for having to dress up as a cat. When she tries to refuse, it’s his turn to scold her, when he reminds her that everyone’s freaked out by the sticky balls and are in the same boat.

There’s consequent jealousy (because of course there is; Natsume is an idiot). Ruka and Mikan bond over their roles and forced situations and Natsume watches from afar, probably feeling nothing but regret because he’s the one that made it all happen. Ah… how poetic. There’s an added scene where Mikan and Sumire have a fight and Sumire’s character dies in a horrible explosion (that was funny but also kind of unnecessary). The almost-kiss is much more poetic in the anime, of course. Natsume throws an apple at Mikan to stop her from kissing Ruka for the play, and Hotaru is seen assisting him by switching off the lights, signaling an end to the show. The kid to whom Natsume is attached (and whose apple was stolen) is watching him with confusion and Natsume stares at his hand so there’s no confusion who interfered with the play.

In the manga, he throws some nondescript box thing (I never got exactly what it was so feel free to tell me if you do know), but the apple is much more dramatic. The play is Snow White, and the apple is what causes the princess to fall unconscious. It’s a symbol tied to evil, and depending on how much analysis we want to go into for just the folktale by itself, it is also tied to apples being related to the knowledge of good and evil, sowing seeds of discord, etc. Natsume throws an apple at Mikan to stop the kiss, because the story and the play is not as important to him. What caused the princess to fall unconscious is what could potentially--in play universe--keep her unconscious, because if she doesn’t get the kiss, she doesn’t wake up. But in a more Natsumikan sense, the apple sows potential seeds of discord between Natsume and Ruka. After all, after the play, Ruka knows who interfered. He knows why. He’s visibly upset about it, more sad than anything, and in the next episode there’s even more tension between Natsume and Ruka over Mikan.

The episode ends with Natsume still being jealous and Mikan and Ruka being embarrassed about what almost happened. However, Mikan and Ruka make up and decide to forget about it, and the kid takes Natsume’s hand and pulls him over to his friends. The episode concludes with them all being friends, even if there are undiscussed tensions bubbling between them all. Aww, how cute. The anime does a good job of making the love triangle seem equally balanced.

Summary

In this section, we only covered two episodes, though they were pretty interesting to discuss (also I can only put ten images in a post, I'm sorry). In these two eps, a new element is added to the story, the tension and jealousy between Natsume and Ruka, who both like the same girl and have trouble communicating with each other about it. When it comes to the anime, this tension will become very important in the next episode.

<- Previous Part Next Part ->

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fytheuntamed · 4 years

Note

I used to see WWX as sunshine incarnated and how it hurt me when I realized that it's mostly just fake and he's really not. I thought he was such a genuine person and when I realized that he hides so much of himself that he's not very genuine at all my heart broke a little and I needed to share my feelings. I still love him though, but it was a huge shock to me that everything I initially fell in love with was actually wrong. I hope this little ramble wasn't a bother.

Hello, anon! First off, you’re not bothering me at all; even if I can’t reply to all of them, I read and appreciate every ask I get. I’m sorry to hear you’re feeling a bit disillusioned with WWX; I know some would say he’s just a fictional character, but I think all of us here can attest to the power fictional characters have in impacting the lives of real people. Your ask made me think a lot about who WWX is, so I hope you don’t mind me sharing my own thoughts on the matter! Just a few disclaimers before I get into it: all analysis is based off of drama!WWX, as that is the adaption I know best, so keep this in mind as you read because I know his characterization varies a bit from adaption to adaption. WWX also happens to be my favorite character from the show, so this could will get long :’) I’m also going to continue on with the assumption that you’ve seen the show in its entirety!

I think one of the most important things to understand about people, fictional or real, is that we, like ogres, have layers. This is just what happens when you exist in a world where different settings with different people bring out different sides of us as dictated by societal norms. Does this make someone fake? I would say no, mainly because I think there’s a difference between acting “fake” and being fake. Anytime I speak on the phone with a stranger I automatically assume my “telephone voice,” which sounds quite different from my talking-with-friends-and-family-voice. I don’t leave such phone calls thinking to myself, “wow, I’m such a fake,” because I know that when speaking with strangers, being more polite than I would be around close friends and family is respectful. I think what it comes down to for me is, regardless of how I am presenting myself, am I staying true to my beliefs and values? This is why I think WWX is in fact very genuine, and I would also argue that it is his genuine nature (once revealed) that attracts LWJ to WWX.

Returning to the idea of people having layers, we must recognize that people are not static; we are constantly reacting to our settings and thus our moods fluctuate accordingly. WWX is sunshine incarnate, but he is also someone who has suffered a great deal over the course of his life. To expect him to smile no matter what is a cruel burden to impose on him, and I believe it is a burden he feels in canon. Because both Jiang Fengmian and Madam Yu impress upon WWX that he must keep Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng safe, that they are the priority, WWX feels compelled to smile and put on a strong facade so that he doesn’t crumble and fall apart, thus “failing” his adoptive parents and siblings. So while these smiles may simply be masks to hide his pain, thus not “real” smiles, they do not make WWX himself fake, but rather (imo) reinforce his genuine nature because his motives are genuine, even if his smiles may not always be.

There are also times when he smiles and acts extremely cocky in front of others, only for this facade to immediately fall away the moment he is alone/out of the public eye. One of my favorite examples of this is in episode 26 when he questions Jin Zixun about the whereabouts of Wen Ning. The entire time he is there, he exudes a cocky disregard for formality and the established hierarchy, even going so far as to say, “If I, Wei Wuxian, want to kill someone, who can stop me? Who would dare to stop me?!” Once he has the information he needs and turns to leave, however, we immediately see the cockiness fall from his face to be replaced by one of...remorse? I’ll let you guys decide for yourselves.

[gif credit]

I think it is worth noting that his facade fades once he looks at LWJ, because LWJ is one of the few people at this point in time who WWX respects, and whose opinion of WWX still holds value to WWX. And so again we see that WWX’s outward behavior does not seem to align with his inner feelings. Look at the situation that WWX is in, though. He is just one man, albeit a powerful one, going against the biggest, most powerful clans. If he shows an ounce of weakness, they’ll eat him alive. And so in order to stay true to his beliefs, WWX puts on a show. In episode 25 we also see WWX put on a show of shooting many arrows simultaneously while blindfolded. @cal3ris made an excellent post on here stating that WWX was not just doing this to show off, but that he was ensuring the temporary safety of the Wen prisoners by pulling off such a feat so as to ensure no other cultivator would attempt the challenge after him. In situations such as this one, it works in WWX’s favor that the vast majority of the cultivation world believes him to be nothing but a showoff with a big mouth. And of course, there is a part of WWX that does enjoy being in the spotlight! Especially if someone he wants to impress is watching~

At the beginning of the Gusu days flashback (ep 3), we see WWX before everything goes to hell. He’s constantly smiling, goofing around, and is a genuine gremlin of a lad. This is real! He’s a teenager in the flush of his youth, he’s with his beloved siblings, he’s smart and talented, the list goes on and on. For people who don’t know WWX, he comes off as a shallow person with no real depth who thinks of nothing but goofing around all day. For those who know WWX intimately, like Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng (though he’s less vocal about it), they know this is not the case. The point is, WWX doesn’t care what people think about him. He doesn’t care because he knows who he is and what he stands for. This is a huge part of who WWX is as a person: “I don’t care if they slander me, as long as I have a clear conscience.” It is also one of the defining things that connect Wangxian to one another, which brings me to the point of LWJ being someone whom WWX hates to deceive, because he greatly values LWJ’s good opinion of him. We see how much it pains WWX to put distance between himself and LWJ, but we also see that WWX is willing to do so if he believes it is for the best. In episode 20, after being reunited with Jiang Cheng and LWJ, we see WWX purposefully push LWJ away with cold precision. Once more he plays his role with practiced ease, but we see his mask fall as he watches LWJ walk away.

WWX goes from this:

[gif credit]

to this as soon as LWJ isn’t looking at him:

[gif credit]

Having just returned from the Burial Mounds, WWX is very unstable, both physically and mentally. For the past months that he’s spent in the Burial Mounds, survival has been his priority. We see this instability and the signs of PTSD manifest quite a bit throughout the Sunshot episodes. In episode 20 Jiang Cheng hugs WWX, who honestly seems at a loss as to how to respond. In episode 20 we see LWJ step towards WWX, who immediately steps back. We also see WWX shrink away from Nie Huaisang’s touch. This is incredibly telling because WWX is someone who likes physical touch and proximity. He’s constantly putting his arms around Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang and constantly puts himself in LWJ’s personal space (much to LWJ’s initial chagrin). I believe WWX’s behavior post Burial Mounds comes from a desire to protect himself from those around him as well as those around him from himself. [apt gifset here] Nothing about this WWX is fake to me. He is acting differently here because he is different. Trauma does not define a person, but it does change a person. Post Burial Mounds WWX is a different person, but he has not lost what makes him him, which is his strong commitment to his beliefs and morals. For WWX during this time, I don’t believe he has the emotional strength to relive his trauma to those closest to him, so he settles for brushing them off with excuses and yes, fake smiles. This also ties into WWX’s habit of internalizing his own struggles so as not to burden those around him. Hopefully at this point a clear pattern has revealed itself: no matter how WWX presents himself on the outside, he never compromises his beliefs.

After being resurrected in Mo Xuanyu’s body, we see a WWX who is far more reminiscent of the carefree teenager back in Gusu. We see WWX slowly heal from the traumas of his past life and we see him begin to smile again, not because he needs to, but because he can’t help it. We might be tempted to look at this WWX and think, “ah, this is the real him,” but I think this does a disservice to the complexity of his character. The point is, it’s all WWX. The pranks, the smiles that crinkle the corners of his eyes, the creativity, the cockiness, the way his laughter bursts out of his body at times and at other times comes out like a sigh or an afterthought, the way he looks out for the juniors, and both his quiet and loud rage are all what makes him who he is. Certain aspects may be muted at times, but that’s to be expected. WWX is by no means perfect, but I would say he is painfully genuine. Just think, would LWJ feel so strongly about him if he weren’t?

As I feared, this got way too long and I probably rambled and repeated myself and got off track, but it’s fine…..

#the untamed #wwx #wei wuxian #wei ying #ask #anon #Anonymous #does this count as meta? pretty sure it's just me blabbing about how valid wwx is lmao #also DUDE why is tumblr putting the read more in the ask and not where i want it???

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