Gonna be totally honest, I don't get how anyone can feel actual dislike towards Thirteenth and series 11-12. Indifference, yes, hatred/dislike? Why?

Edit: aaaand this got long, like most of my DW rants. Settle in, grab a cup of tea, a... Handful of dirt.

I just rewatched Praxeus and Can You Hear Me (12x06-07) and they're so interesting? So refreshing?

Edit: I'm mostly talking about Praxeus here because that's the aspect I want to develop, but Can You Hear Me is also very interesting to discuss in regards to another aspect of the show, less meta and more narrative. We'll get back to this later. Maybe.

First, Segun Akinola's score is beautiful. I already talked about it in another one of my posts (that I'm not going to look up now otherwise I'll be up til dawn), but it's subtler than Murray Gold's, but still very present and atmospheric. It's melancholic, and metallic, and ethereal, very 2020s, which totally suits Thirteenth. She's very paradoxical, Thirteenth, she's both very present and very distant, exactly like the music that surrounds her. I feel like this gif below, from Praxeus, describes rather well the feelings Akinola's music incite. The sort of wonder and nostalgic anxiousness at the beauty, force and fragility of planet Earth.

Secondly, the storylines in general are so much more... I wanna say heavy, but not in a negative or literal way. Heavy, as in, they get you to places in your psyche that you hadn't considered before, or in a long time. Which is something that Doctor Who has always done, by the way. But the feeling I get from having watched 2 episodes of Eleventh, one of Twelfth and 2 of Thirteenth in 3 days, is that previous narratives don't want to be too explicit about what they're about.

I'll explain. Praxeus talks about pollution, of the planet and of our own health. Other DW episodes have talked about that theme (though I cant think of one right now), but always in a manner that lets the viewer be reassured/distracted by the scifi elements. Praxeus is direct, and real. And I know what the critics are, "it's so preachy, it's so paranoid, bla bla". But... It's not? It's the actual reality? And what is science-fiction if not putting in the light our reality? What is Doctor Who if not a show about humans and Earth, at its core? And yes, maybe it's much more direct than before, but I invite you to look around you, look at the 21st century, look at these first years of the 2020s. The time for subtlety and gentleness is long gone, direct action, direct call to what must be corrected is what's needed.

And that's the strength of Doctor Who, I think, its adaptability to its time.

So last month I started watching I'm in Love with the Villainess.

I'll be honest, I wasn’t too sure about this show going into it. I ultimately didn't like the last Yuri Isekai series I watched (The Magical Revolution), and I've gotten fatigued over yuri adaptations never being finished after getting a one season anime adaptation.

I won't lie that I enjoyed it right away. I do not like the opening music (I skip the OP every episode, which is incredibly rare for me) and I was initially put off by Rae & Claire's actions in episode 1. But I stuck with it, was really surprised by episode 3 directly addressing Rae being a lesbian and touching on the struggles of being queer and dealing with homophobia, and by episode 5 I was so impatient to learn what happened next that I bought the 1st Light Novel.

Well, it took me about a week to burn through the first 2 volumes of the LN and the Revolution storyline and honestly I was blown away. It touched on topics I never would've expected when I started the show last month. The depictions of the struggles faced by queer people were already hitting close to home, but then the 2nd volume blindsided me by touching on gender dysphoria and there were moments that brought me to tears.

Since I assume the anime is only going to be 12-13 episodes, I sincerely hope that Wataoshi gets a 2nd season to adapt the entirely of the Revolution Arc, but I won't get my hopes up. Like I said earlier, most Yuri adaptations never get more than a season, and I would be shocked if a 2nd season was greenlit that would tackle the queer issues present in the 2nd volume of the light novel.

(Seriously, if angry hets and bigots were freaking out over the conversation about Rae being a lesbian in episode 3, they will lose their fucking minds over some of the stuff later on in the series.)

If they do make a 2nd season and adapt it without punting on the queer issues, I could definitely see I'm in Love with the Villainess being among my favorite anime. I wasn't expecting the first 2 volumes to be a self-contained story, and since I was so satisfied with the ending, I'm not in a hurry to start reading the 3rd volume (and I've heard mixed things about the 2nd part of the story).

In the meantime I've started reading the manga adaptation and I'm rewatching episodes of the anime to catch foreshadowing I missed. My wife is officially complaining that I'm almost as obsessed with it as I was G-Witch 😅

Rewatching old favourite crime dramas...

I just finished rewatching Vera up to Series 9, am in the middle of a rewatch of Death in Paradise and have started rewatching Wallander as well and am having some thoughts so I'd thought I'd write a post instead of just stewing in these thoughts.

Vera

I love her, your honour.

I love Vera, I love the location and how it's so beautifully shot, I love the slightly gothic edge to the mysteries. Most memorable episodes for me are "The Crow Trap" and "The Deer Hunters". It holds up really well too - sometimes I'll rewatch a crime drama that I once loved and find myself getting increasingly intolerant of the way it deploys certain tropes, like the tortured brooding lead detective with anger issues and/or a tragic backstory or "internal investigations are bad actually" or "it's fine for the lead detective to lose his temper and almost murder someone" which spoiled Waking the Dead and The Inspector Lynley Mysteries for me (the latter in the final seasons, mostly). Vera lacks most of that kind of drama. Vera is, in a way, a tortured, brooding detective but it never takes over the story.

One thing I did pick up on is that while I don't really have any preference for Aiden or Joe as Vera's offsider, I do miss the way that Joe's character opened up different storylines. We don't get nearly as much about Aiden's family and home life as we do about Joe's, and we got more about Vera's past and private life with Joe, like the subplots about her half-sister and her angina. I do feel cheated that Joe's exit happened off-screen, between series, but apparently he's coming back in Series 13?

(n.b. I finished at Series 9 because I don't have Series 10 on DVD, I started Series 11 but it was a bit too fresh in my mind and Series 12 isn't out on DVD yet.)

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Death In Paradise

This isn't the first rewatch of the show I've done (the early seasons I've rewatched multiple times, they're very familiar and I can remember whodunnit) but I haven't watched any of the newer seasons since Series 8, except for a couple of episodes (I watched the one with Sam West and the one where Camille came back). I'm halfway through Series 9 at the moment so officially this is no longer a rewatch but a first-time watch.

It's interesting to see how my opinions have changed. I still think the show was strongest in relation to its core concept in Series 1 and 2. You can really tell the way they were planning the show to unfold had they managed to hold onto Ben Miller as Richard and Sara Martins as Camille, and I do really like that version of the show. But they didn't and the show had to change and that's fine. I used to be very fond of Humphrey but I found him painful in the rewatch - he hits my second-hand embarrassment squick much too hard and his unrequited love for Camille was... ah, not good? I was glad to see him go, tbh. Perhaps because of that, I appreciated Jack a whole lot more - I previously felt he didn't really have much of a character beyond "rambling Irishman" but that is really unfair. I just watched his last episode and I'm very sad to see him - I also felt his ending felt a bit... contrary to the character and the way he threw himself into island life, becoming part of the community in a way neither Richard and Humphrey never did. Neville seems a bit of a return to Richard, in that he doesn't want to be on the island, except by making him have so many medical issues, it really feels like that yeah, he really shouldn't be there.

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Have been pondering how awesome it'd be if the next Death in Paradise detective is in the model of Vera.

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Wallander

I needed something to watch in the space where I normally watched Vera and I remembered how I was going to try and watch some things in Swedish in effort to help myself learn Swedish better (I'm doing the Duolingo course, it's not going well), and well, this isn't in Swedish but it's set in Sweden so it might just do for now. I went... slightly insane* over it in my first and only watch but I thought I was safe now.

Yeah, well that happened again.

The thing I really like about it is Tom Hiddleston's face the way in which it spends a fair amount time of the affects of coming face-to-face with violent, brutal crime. How intensely Wallander feels everything, how involved he gets, and how all of that just means he's held at a remove from his family, friends and co-workers. He has this remarkable empathy that keeps him cut off from them.

It's also beautifully shot and I'm obsessed with the title credits.

Parts of it hold up fairly well - I feel "Faceless Killers" is still very pertinent to today, though I suspect there would a bit less... "both sidesing" within the main cast. Parts of it do not hold up well, like "One Step Behind" which, uh, is kinda extremely transphobic in a way that does not refute the transphobia.

The language and accent choices throw me occasionally in this rewatch. I think what they ended up going for is the translation trope/convention where the characters are not actually speaking English but are actually speaking Swedish, we just hear them in English, and a similar logic applies with the British vs. Swedish accents. When we see text, it's in Swedish, not English, which tends to confirm my hypothesis. Given the unlikelihood of the BBC doing the series in Swedish and the perils of getting the cast to put on an accent (no one wants to accidentally invoke the Swedish Chef in a brooding crime drama), I think this "they're speaking Swedish, we just hear it as English" thing works pretty well. But there still moments where it pulls me out of the story because the dialogue sounds so terribly British.

Random note: the cast of the first episode is like, full of pretty damn famous people? Obviously, there's Kenneth Branagh and a pre-Loki Tom Hiddleston as series regulars. Plus there's Nicholas Hoult and Rebecca Ferguson in guest roles. There's also a lot of people who are the sort of people you know for turning up in British TV shows, like Sarah Smart and Sophie Stanton (who, most memorably for me, was Falstaff and Caliban in the Donmar Warehouse's Henry IV and The Tempest).

Also, this reflection from when I first watched the show is still true. I thought I was over my Hiddleston phase but he's so fucking pretty in this show. It's distracting. It's literally sir, sir, sir, I am trying to watch Kenneth Branagh have a mental breakdown while solving crime in Sweden here. Take your cheekbones and go somewhere else.

Which he does at the end of Series 2 and then I miss him. Obviously, it doesn't impact the series that much - I enjoyed Series 3 and 4, his character isn't important to the story and isn't that interesting. But I liked the dynamics of the team and I dislike losing that (we also lose Lisa at the same time, and Ann-Britt only sticks around for a bit longer before she's gone too). I'm sad we lose that. I'm also a depraved whump lover and frankly think it was a wasted opportunity. Send Magnus off horribly (as Ann-Britt and Svedberg were sent off) and let Wallander writhe and wallow around in the guilt and grief. Also, I am completely shallow and didn't really want Hiddleston to take his cheekbones and go.

* I, uh, may have written an 87k word thing that's 3/4 whumpy fanfic and 1/4 origfic because it was November and I was doing NaNoWriMo and I was too hyped up to research and too scared to commit fully to the fanfic. I've reread and I feel like it holds up ok. I think the Kurt voice is good, as is the "gets too invested without being able to show it" thing. I am experiencing the urge to turn it into proper fanfic. I need to see how S2 ends and S3 begins but it could even work well as a "and that's where Magnus went" fic. But I don't think there's a fandom for the show outside of the migratory Hiddleston smut fandom.

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That last point is one of those things with British crime dramas. It's quite common for some of the regular cast to leave between series and you might get a throwaway line about why they're no longer there but there's no proper send-off, no real resolution for the character, and sometimes there's no explanation. It happened in Vera, Death in Paradise, Wallander, Waking the Dead, and probably more than I just can't think of. I understand why it happens but it does make for frustrating storytelling.

The most egregious is Joe leaving Vera - he was the most important character after her! We were invested in his relationship with his family! The relationship between him and Vera was so paramount to the series! And he just disappears between series and his departure explained in a line about a "big promotion". Sure, this ties up one of the parts of his storyline quickly but there's no scene to say goodbye to him, no sense of closure. He's just gone.

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Both Vera and Wallander are based on novels by Ann Cleeves and Henning Mankell. I've read a few novels of both series (and Cleeves's Shetland series) and I have to say... I feel the TV series really elevate them. With Wallander, maybe it's a case of a bad translation or something else but it seemed to lack something - perhaps the prose felt too simplistic or too blunt? With Cleeves, I think it's a case of has all the right elements, just doesn't have the ability to take it to the next level... I find I enjoy her novels more when I haven't seen their TV adaptation or are significantly different, but they're still not novels that I have to read. I wish the Shetland series had stuck with adapting Cleeves' novels because I'm obsessed with their first/second series (it was released as one series in Australia) which were based on the Cleeves novels, and I feel like the Shetland novels that weren't adapted would make excellent TV.

There are also four Death In Paradise spin-off novels that feature Richard - I've only read two of them and only really remember the first, which was OK - not great, not as fun as the show but still fun. It's nice to get more Richard but it comes with a trade off: Camille, Dwayne and Fidel play much, much, much smaller roles than they do in the TV series.

My rewatch of Hilda season 3

It has been an hour since I finished my rewatch of season 3. And what's amazing, I finished it about 4 minutes before it struck 12 am in my area. if you don't count the extra credits after the original or something. It was 11:56 pm when I was looking at my phone.

Anyway, it's also Christmas today. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you who read this. Or if you're a Hilda fan, Happy Sonstansil if you want to say that.

Again, I'm not spoiling anything huge. But I want to mention this information. The fact that Luke Pearson and Andy Coyle said that there were 6 more episodes planned for this season. But it was shortened to 8 episodes. And I agree with many that I would've liked it if was the usual 13 episodes we got like we did with season 1 and 2.

But to be honest with you all. After my rewatch, even with it being shortened than the previous seasons. I legit think season 3 is an excellent season that is brings an emotional closure to the series. I agree with Andy that we were incredibly lucky to have that third season be even made. And while I do think it being short was fine with me. It still saddens me we didn't get more of the extra episodes we should've gotten.

And I'll admit, I'm sorry I didn't get this out right away. But compared to my reaction last time. The first time I finished season 3...I essentially broke down crying. But this time around, I guess you can say I was happier? More so, I was pacing around in the kitchen, thinking about a lot of stuff. Wondering if I should do a retrospective on the series. And that seems like development for me that the first time I finished it, I was heartbroken. But now, I feel like maybe I've accepted it this time around. Unless the feeling returns, but I felt much better this time around.

I will admit, I still did tear up/cry at that "Memory" part and I'm not spoiling that.

Will admit, I'll never forget my experience watching season 3 for the first time. First time watching something is always special. But back to the point, season 3 is still pretty excellent. Everything about it still oozes brilliance with its animation, writing, voice acting, and many other things. Even if some things could've been dealt with better. But I still appreciate the end result.

Also, I legit think Ryan Carlson legit outdid himself this time around. Season 3 probably has the best score in all the series. Also, the sound design is insane because I mentioned this already. I swear, my volume was only at 18. But I swear, it's so loud that I feel like I'm in an IMAX theater. Or simply a movie theater, but I'm going with the IMAX option because dang, the sound design is some powerful stuff.

And to be honest, when I was pacing around. I was really thinking what my favorite season is of this show. And I don't want to choose favorites for some stupid reason because I love them all. Even though I had wondered about picking season 3 because similar to how I feel about season 2. It was so nice to finally get season 3. Seeing all these characters again, but just how this season goes. And I feel like if we had those extra episodes. This season would likely be my favorite.

I also wanted to talk about something concerning the fandom. The ones that were...a bit negative I could say. With opinions I can understand. Mainly the idea some folks didn't like the idea that this season was more serialized than the other two seasons.

To be honest, I heavily disagree with someone's notion that season 3 was underwhelming, forgettable, and disappointing. I felt the opposite because after watching this show for five years. Even with a shorter season. The crew managed to deliver a satisfying final season. And I'll admit, while chapters 3 and 4 were fun and nice in their own right. I actually didn't mind season 3 being more serialized this time around. Especially with what the focus was on.

And there's also parts of the fandom or...I don't want to sound mean. But to the people who have an issue with certain reveals this season. I totally understand if you don't like season 3 for some of the decisions they make in this. How this may...mess up your AU's or something. But these days, I'm usually all for a creator going with their vision of a show or a movie. If this is how Luke Pearson wanted for season 3, then I will respect his decision. And I honestly loved his direction for season 3. Also, I think if we had more episodes, I think maybe things could've been more cleared up. That's what I hoped the other episodes could've been. Maybe episodes on the Marra, Trylla, Erik and whoever else. Mainly epilogues to certain characters we saw in the finale.

It's almost an Owl House season 3 situation. But in other words, I really don't mind teen Hilda. I don't mind Anders, and I don't mind some of the reveals in season 3. And along with the fact what the themes and story they were telling in season 3. I appreciate what they were doing. Even though I question if my opinions should be considered valid because I don't own any of the books or that's a whole other thing.

I want to finish this soon. But I want to mention two things. You know when I said chapter 2 and even chapter 8. I was getting Silent Hill vibes from certain scenes. I didn't say this the first time. But chapter 6, I think saying Resident Evil vibes or so is the best way to describe how scary that episode is.

And you know what? There are certain characters the Hilda fandom hates. Erik, the Committee of Three, Trylla and even Anders. There are some others. But you know...despite my issues with those characters, season 3 introduced I hate. While I could say the Spider-Frog/Frog-Spider, but no despite how I feel about that character.

The Fairy Entity...that is a character that I would straight up become Bayformers Optimus Prime and be like "Time to find out" to this character. If you've watched season 3, or you know personally, you'll understand why I'm saying this. Screw that character, yet I'm likely overreacting.

Anyway, it's been two hours now. I should post this now.

I also have BtVS inscribed on the inside of my very soul, and have had so for over half of my life by now (I started watching when I was 11). What's your favorite season, and are there any rants you'd like to unleash?

Yesss, Buffy is peak soul inscribing media. I couldn't imagine it hitting me the same at 11, but everyone is different, so I started watching it when I was 15 (despite being recommended it at 12-13 and me balking at it, but I wouldn't have it any other way because I don't think it would have resonated the same with me had I started earlier) and then I finished it when I was 18, (I may have drawn it out indefinitely for a while because I never wanted it to end), so in a way it kind of felt like I was growing up along with the characters, when they were 16, I was 16, when they were graduating, I was graduating, and when they were feeling out of place after high school, I was in the same boat, and etc. etc. and it just, it became such an integral part of me. Load bearing media.

Oh my you may have just unsealed the hellmouth with those questions. I think I'll put a readmore for this because I will ramble forever if left unchecked:

My favourite season is a tossup between 3 and 5 because I think they both exhibit peak Buffy in every way, such a good balance of humour, emotional drama and just overall storytelling and character growth, especially in their finales because their finales were like real finales, you know? They had the sense of being an ending you could find closure in. Season 3 of course has some of my favourite happier scenes of the whole show, I'm going to be cliché and point out the class protector award and Angel showing up at prom, and everyone joining in at the battle against the mayor, it is so beautifully cheesy in so many aspects. And I'm going to sound cheesy as well by saying that class protector award scene specifically, is legitimately the first time I understood tears of joy. Buffy literally unlocked in me a range of emotions I hadn't even experienced before. And her speech to Angel in Amends, I think about that every other day. It really holds a special place in my heart to the point where I even quoted the mayor's graduation speech in my own graduation speech, the way it aligned with events in my own life, it just sticks out to me. Not to mention the fact I'm a huge sucker for Oz's character, but hey.

Season 5 then of course, Ben is Glory is priceless, the villain arc is definitely one of the strongest of the show to me, though maybe I'm biased as it's sandwiched between season 4's and season 6's villains, but I don't know. Then Buffy's final words to Dawn in The Gift is just another one of those constantly on my mind quotes that makes me lose it. I can't really articulate very well why I think season 5 is one of the best, but you know, it just is?? It really brings together all the strongest and most classic aspects of the previous seasons and delivers the cleanest/tightest/most organized arc of the series. Should I even bring up The Body?? While I don't consider it one of my favourite episodes, I do consider it one of the best portrayals of grief I have ever seen in any piece of media ever, I was crying the ENTIRE episode, and Anya's speech about fruit punch and all, it haunts me, truly haunts me in how real it is. So while I usually tend to name season 3 my tentative favourite based solely on choice memories, I think season 5 is technically probably the better season?

I'd also give a shoutout to season 2, Passion especially due to the fact it also made me cry for about half an episode, like legitimate sobbing cries, not just misty eyed here. And the whole Angelus storyline in general, devastating. Not to mention this season had the introduction of both Oz and Spike, and Dru, there's such iconic setups in this season, such iconic lines and scenes, though can I truly in good conscience name any season with Ted and Bad Eggs in it as my favourite? Just kidding. On rewatch, I actually found a startling amount of interesting possible foreshadowing in both those episodes just by the way, but anyway. Uh, I think season 2 is also one of Buffy's best, but I still felt really young when watching it, so certain main plot points relying heavily on sex and sexual metaphors were still a little out of my personal wheelhouse. It also feels a little disjointed in quality at times. But strong overall, and the season I try to tempt people with when failing to win them over to watch the show.

Then just a couple comments about the other seasons: Season 1, I do find it dates itself, and hasn't found its groove yet. Upon first watching the opening episodes, I was skeptical about the show and kind of looked at my sister like, really, you watched this whole thing? But then about midway through, I was saying the opening spiel and tearing through it on my Christmas break, but I also find it so hard to get any one else into the show based off season 1 because I'm like I gotta, I gotta warn you about the mantis, but I swear it gets better, I swear it'll make you cry, why did they put the mantis there, why so early, why did they want to scare my friends away from this show. Anyway.

Season 4 let's jump to, I find it suffers from following season 3, a consequence of its finale like ending making it hard to pick up again with the new beginning in college for Buffy. The broken class protector award is kind of symbolic of them breaking what they built in those 1st 3 seasons, she's back to no one knowing what she does for her classmates as the slayer, back to being on the bottom and having to find herself again, which honestly is accurate to life out of high school, which is probably why it's also riding the scale of... not all that fun to watch as it hits close to home. But season 4 is also riddled with a very flimsy villain arc, unused potential in the Initiative, and just a generally unstructured feeling that also doesn't help. Though it does give us such gems as Hush and Restless (I wear the cheese), it's just a very underwhelming/unmemorable season overall.

Meanwhile, I find 6 has similar issues with the unstructured story and villain arcs being shared, and the following of a finale that was extremely strong and.... final, leaving it a chore to try to pick back up again. And so I am in the category of referring to it as season sucks or season sex as I've seen online. Because I personally find it's too gritty, too real, it tears the characters down and rips away all that made them so interesting in seasons 3 and 5, tears away the closure we were given and reopens what once was a healing wound before rubbing salt in it by taking away the delicate balance between humour and drama and opting for just straight drama, which is not what Buffy really is... In s6, the big bad is life and while previous seasons had this fact layered in monsters and metaphors, six strips a lot of that away and shows you that open wound. I think while this can be seen as a deliberate move and a strength to the story it was trying to get across, with the consequences of Buffy dealing with the depression of returning from the dead and being ripped away from Heaven, from an audience standpoint, it was not fun to watch as a whole. It made me tear up but not in a "damn that's good storytelling" way or "this tragedy will imprint itself on my brain forever" way, just in a hollow, "wow, that was depressing" way. Though 6 also has some of the best episodes of the show, me being cliché again here by saying Once More With Feeling is possibly the best episode of the series and the only successful full musical episode of any show I've seen to date with catchy original songs, that I unironically listen to casually and bought the CD for now even years later, that fit the characters so perfectly in style and that each are relevant to the plot and over arching storyline, literally no one is doing it like the Buffy musical episode does it. It's not just a one off shoehorned in concept, it is integral in itself and moves their stories forward. I just, I have a lot of feelings about Once More With Feeling. I also have feelings about the yellow crayon speech, but season 6 mainly just makes me sad and angry, which I think was the intent, but I can not like the intent as well.

At last, 7, I don't have all that much to say about 7 surprisingly. I categorize it the same way I do 4 and 6 really, in that it has a lot more "real" and kind of just generally hollow/sad feeling episodes with cynical and character retcon-y ideas that make it somewhat less enjoyable. Along with annoying new characters and old characters acting antagonistic towards Buffy not doing it any favours. While I remember liking it more than 6 vaguely, I can't actually tell you an episode in this season that stuck out very much to me, though I can tell you Spike's blue sweater and messy hair is a look™. And let's go cliché and state my appreciation for the cookie dough speech and the "I am the thing that monsters have nightmares about" line. I do think The First is an interesting villain however, I liked their first appearance in s3.

I will spare you any major rants on other things or we'd be here for literal ages, but I will leave you with some random other comments on different things, the first being Riley. I actually don't mind him as a character until they start with the storyline of the jealousy and him going to the vampire drinking places, I think he was a decent boyfriend for Buffy, who just suffered from following Angel as the love interest, which is understandable, I mean Angel was Angel and I still miss him, but I don't think Riley deserves all the hate. Same goes for Dawn, I've seen Dawn labelled the most annoying Buffyverse character like a million times, and yeah she can get on your nerves sometimes, but considering the circumstances of how she came to be, of what she is, I think people should cut her some slack. I mean, 1st, she's 14, but 2nd, she's not, she is a ball of mystical energy made into the shape of the fabricated memories of a 14 year old and she has just found out her entire life is a lie, made up memories for a made up being who didn't exist mere months before, her world is crashing around her, how does one cope with the realization and knowledge that they are not a "real person?" I think she's entitled to a *little* acting out, even if I don't care that much for her character, she is, again like Riley, not nearly as bad as everyone says. (If we're talking real most annoying Buffyverse characters, don't even get me started on Connor.)

Another rant topic would be me being annoyed when people reduce the show down to a hollow shipping war of Bangel or Spuffy or just the romantic aspects when there is so much more to explore of the themes in this series that I wouldn't be able to shut up for months. Nothing against shipping, of course, or having fun with it, I have my preferences in that department as well, but while Buffy's relationships are an important aspect to the series, defining her by *just* those relationships does a grave disservice to what the series is about in general. I won't go into much detail on that though now because I've held you hostage long enough.

Uuuhhh, I highly doubt anyone is still reading my rambles by this point, if you got this far, congrats, gold star. I haven't said much of substance for my rants, but believe me if given a day or week or so to collect my thoughts, you'd be getting essay length analyses of half the episodes and themes and everything in this series, starting with its impeccable understanding of psychology and especially its understanding of grief in the way no other show I've seen has ever accomplished, as well as the above forementioned balance of humour/drama/action/heart that I have yet to see successfully replicated anywhere else as well, though have seen cheap imitations fall short of.

Oh oh on that note I would also love to rant some day about how I think no other media that has compared itself to Buffy has an actual understanding of what made Buffy so good in the first place, they think they can just slap a coat of cheap humour on a female protagonist who fights monsters and call it a day, but THEY DON'T GET IT. They don't get the emotion, the depth. Everything I've seen that has deigned to call itself similar to Buffy has been hollow and empty, ripping off superficial aspects and ignoring the true heart of it all and it just it makes me want to scream and give the writers a whole lecture and crash course in Buffyverse.

In conclusion. I am physically restraining myself from rambling more. How about you, what's your favourite season? Do you have any rants??

If you get this, answer with 3 random facts about yourself and send it to the last 7 blogs in your notifications, anonymously or not! Let's get to know the person behind the blog :D

Thanks for the ask Jay! A lot of the blogs in my notifs are FNAF fans from a post I made about the movie last month so I'm not sure if that's the target audience haha, but I'll try to find some writeblr/fanfic authors within my fandoms to send this to...maybe XD

To the people finding my blog for the first time, hi, I'm Lin! More info on my main fandoms, current available works, and whatnot are on my blog's introduction post. My asks are always open!

Something I don't talk about too often here, but one of my pastimes every now and then is crocheting! I really enjoy it, and it helps me watch TV, movies and videos. It's an artform that takes a lot of patience, as with drawing and writing, but the end product is worth messing around with the projects to get it right! XD

My unofficial first anime is the 4Kids Sonic X dub. My siblings, a pair of my cousins that are practically sisters to me, and I grew up religiously on that dub! Must have watched it a dozen times over the years... XD But as far as an actual anime fandom (aka one that isn't based off of a video game like Pokemon), the first one I got into was Fairy Tail per my late dad's recommendation. I was about 12-13, and at the time episodes were only dubbed episode up to Ep. 213 (I'm a dub viewer most of the time, sue me), so I only watched up to episode 200. I'd love to go back and finish it some time, because I think it only goes up to 265 episodes if I remember correctly, but furthest I get on most attempts to rewatch is around the time Gajeel and Wendy join the guild.

I'm an unreasonably huge fan of ensemble casts! If you didn't know, a lot of my main fandoms and series typically have 4 or more main characters in some way (MLP, Monster High, FNAF (sorta), Sonic, etc.). Most of the time ensemble casts shift the prominence of certain characters in the cast instead of spreading screen time evenly across its main cast (Stranger Things & TOH come to mind), but when it's done right and there's a reason to love something about all of the main characters, I can't get enough of it!

I'm gonna tag @onefaintrobin to do this too -- go share random facts about you!!!

I am crying while typing this. Thots on bad buddy ep 10

.

1) going through the tags is a game of russian roulette. We're either gonna get tooth rotting inkpa fluff or we're gonna di£🤓

2) fuck you Pat's dad. You disgusting piece of excuse for a human being. Pat raised himself to be a man. You're not even one. How dare you inflict that weight on a child?

3) Pran's mum. You bitch. You did the same thing to pran that my mum did to me. And my feelings to you are the same. I empathize. But i will never forgive.Nor should Pran.

4) school. Both of them are such saps. I thought seeing liddol pat running with the guitar that's somehow seems bigger than him , with his cheeks bouncing ,and eyes lost, was gonna be the most heartbreaking scene in today's episode.

5) It was not. I had to sit through the scene in the supermarket where Pran pushes Pat away , then Pran being fuckin scared in his own house, of his own mother and then i had to see pran sobbing in pat's arms at the terrace. I am not okay. Not at all.

6) everything was fine in the beginning. Everything. They were messing around. Openly. Loudly. For the entire world to see. But that's not the entire world is it? It's... Just like how queer people have their own spaces where they can be loud and free and happy as much as they want , but in reality that's only a corner of the world that they have to make for themselves , while everywhere else it's like having a gun to your head.

7) they're still playing the game.

8) paof you ☀️ of a 🐩, you did it. Did tou ask gmmtv to look the other way when you shot inkpa scenes or did you tell them they were just friends? I can't believe.🤓For the life of me. 🤓 That we got a confession scene🤓 in the dark room🤓✌🏽

9) oh and another heartbreaking moment. 🤓Was when the employee who has no relationship at all to pran offered to go with him to his house because he could see how much in pain he was. He could see the weight on those shoulders and how it ceased to be when pran was with pat. Pran's mother is never seeing the gates of heaven.That nasty Bit*h

10) when pa and pat were getting dinner together , i knew that pat was going to let her talk first. How to flesh out your character to the audience clearly 101 , paof's masterclass

11) wai , hate you but boi you do catch on fast. Now redeem yourself and also *hem hem * relieve yourself in some engineering guy's arms yeah?

12) drake baby , you've never done anything wrong in your life, i know this, and i love you. Please act more and more.

13) ink * eyes on fire * whenever wai comes within 10 ft of pa.

14) pa you're a dumbass but you're ink's dumbass so it's okay. I love you .

15) there's many many things that were lovely to the point of me craving for a pair of hands( or several) to hold me while i watched. When pat said pran smelled good. When Pran watched him with that smile while he was yelling to everyone how much he loved him. The dimpled smile that plays around Pran's lips when he looks at his dumbass bf.

16) "are you friends?" "We aren't friends"

And ,

🍭I don't remember anything else , if i do I'll add them , though prolly not.

🍭There's a reason that though I'm sure this series has high rewatch value , i don't rewatch the episodes. I want to suffer all the pain and all the love altogether at once. I'll rewatch when it's finished and only when it's finished.

🍭 there's this scene in 'kabhi khushi kabhi gham' where jaya bachchan's character describes how amitabh brought a young shah rukh home and how he became her 'jaan'. Pran is like that to us paof. You brought him to me , he's our *praan* now. Please don't hurt him😭💔

My Top 10 Ships of 2020

It's been a weird year but I've seen other people doing this. Plus this year I've been way more into gen fics (love a bit of found family especially in clone wars and marvel) than anything shippy. So I genuinely don't know what imma put on here aside from two ships for sure. Sorry this post is super long idk how to do the below the cut thing and I've had this app for 5 years...

10) Viktor Nikiforov and Yuuri Katsuki - Yuri!!! On Ice

It was a real toss up between this, supercorp, kanera and wolfstar cos they're all very integral ships to my fan heart but this son because of the Yuri on Ice fandom's rebirth this year. I've never stopped shipping this, never stopped reading fanfic of them for any extended period of time, they're still my most bookmarked ship on ao3 (although I think now star wars - all media types may have overtaken them for fandom). They were one of the first things I watched where the queer ship I loved became canon and I can't wait for the film (and hopefully someday a season 2). Heck I even made my mum watch Yuri on Ice with me so I think that says it all.

9) Edelgard Von Hresvelg and female Byleth - Fire Emblem: Three Houses

My first fire emblem game was fates when I was like 14 (and finally gay awake lol). I was so disappointed that I had to be with a guy character because the only female option was kinda creepy and also I wouldn't get the character of kana. So when three houses came out I was so happy because finally there were beautiful incredible female characters my female byleth could romance (I'm so sorry mlm you deserved so much more than you got). I got the game as soon as it came out (had to search a lot of shops let me tell you) and started on black eagles. I was actually kinda disappointed back in 2019. I didn't like the explore the monastery bit (still find it kinda tedious) and the battle mechanics weren't quite the same as fates (no pairing up?! Aka my main battle technique for protecting the weaker units). So I got like 20 hours in and put it down. Came back to it in lockdown and finally finished it! I'm so proud of myself I virtually never finish games. And I fully fell in love with the useless lesbian edelgard in the process. When I started back playing in 2020 I was like eh I wish I'd picked a different character to romance (like shes an emperor that's morally very shady) but then the romance stuff started with edelgard and I fell the heck in love.

8) Cory Matthews and Shawn Hunter (and Topanga Lawrence) - Boy Meets World

Disney+ was released in the UK this year and I finally got the opportunity to watch boy meets world in its best quality (aka not on YouTube). I watched it back when I was like 12 or 13 and it's such a nostalgic show for me. Watching it again I still absolutely adore it (and my bi ass was low-key crushing on Shawn especially in chick like me - I'm 18 btw and I got so scared for a sec but rider strong was 18 when chick like me came out so it's fine woah). And of course now I see the possibilities of the beautiful Cory and Shawn relationship like they were so bromance it was basically romance and throw in topanga it's the perfect ot3 (but I'm also fine with just Cory and Shawn or just Cory and Topanga). Read some good fanfic for them this year. My favourite was one about Shawn stealing makeup and stuff and exploring gender (need more fics like this I'm biiii).

7) Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes - Marvel Cinematic Universe

I rewatched all the MCU films this year too. And got really into Peter parker whump and irondad. Plus my eternal obsession with identity and relationship reveals of course led me from Spiderman identity reveals (and found family cuteness) to stucky coming out. Especially when it involves the internet and social media. Not my favourite ship but it's been significant to my year due to the sheer amount of marvel stuff I've read.

6) Satine Kryze and Obi Wan Kenobi - Star Wars

I rewatched clone wars in prep for season 7 and wow Satine's death was sad and sudden. She first appeared in S2 E13 I think and just the sheer sexual tension of their bickering. "The sarcasm of a soldier. The delusion of a dreamer." Just ugnnhhh my bi ass can't take much more of this. And Anakin just sipping his wine in the background grinning. And I fully believe korkie is a Kenobi.

5) Commander Cody and Obi Wan Kenobi - Star Wars

I am very much an Obi wan multishipper. I don't really have a favourite but I fully believe he was with satine and Quinlan in his life. I don't think be would've actually done anything with Cody because of the whole superior officer thing. And this probably isn't even my favourite Obi wan ship - that honour probably goes to quinobi or obitine. However the most popular ships in the fandom are codywan, quiobi and obikin. No offence to anyone who ships these they're just personally not to my taste, but I can't stand quiobi, and obikin I find only slightly more tolerable and I think that's just because there's so much obikin content so if I like the concept of a fic that happens to be obikin I'll read it. I'm just not a fan of the mentor/student relationships. So I generally favoured the codywan fics when there was shipping involved meaning I read a lot of them this year. Needed that nice fix it content post season 7.

4) Zuko and Katara - Avatar: the Last Airbender

Again I am a multishipper I have nothing against zukka it's cute. But I'm a zutara shipper first and foremost because when I first watched avatar I was like 13 and denying my gayness and gayness in general so I shipped the straight things and the straight things only. Most of these ships I stopped shipping - dramione, spuffy, some my little pony ones which we don't talk about. Zutara stayed. (I have nothing against any of the things I used to ship I just stopped shipping them so much/shipped new things more). I've continuously shipped zutara since I first watched avatar even if I didn't necessarily spend that much time on it it has always been here as one of my favourite ships. It has such good fanfic I swear including my favourite ever fanfic from any fandom - love thy enemy. Plus like the black games (reread this for the millionth time this year), a delicate subterfuge (which I read for the first time this year and damn it's so good) and so many more. With the avatar resurgence this year I haven't actually rewatched avatar aside from my normal random episode every now and then when I feel like it. But there's been a lot of avatar on my dash from people I follow getting into it and people I followed for avatar returning so naturally I returned to the fandom and read quite a lot of fanfic. I also read just a lot of avatar gen fics which were great at the whole found family thing I've been so obsessed with this year.

3) Catra and Adora - She Ra and the Princesses of Power

Catradora is canon! They kissed! What more is there to say. Arguably they should've been top but I never shipped them that much since I was always very much a multishipper when it came to she ra so yes I was very happy it became canon because we actually won for once but also I've never read much fanfic for them etc. But they are very much a dynamic I love and watching she ra all again in prep for season 5 I really enjoyed the build up of their relationship. The other two only go above because Buffy is my favourite show ever and damn there's some good fuffy fanfic and Aphra and Tolvan is both fresh in my mind and star wars owns me. Would love some catradora fic recs btw if anyone has them tho.

2) Buffy Summers and Faith Lehane - Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I didn't realise it was last year that I got super into them but according to my ao3 bookmarks it was lol. 2020 I swear it's lasted an eternity. I got into them about a month before lockdown (which feels like another lifetime). I've loved Buffy since I first watched it when I was 13. It's arguably still my favourite TV show. I've been through a lot of ships for Buffy - bangel to spuffy and now fuffy. I still think angel and her were a beautiful ship back in season 2 and especially in the angel episode I will remember you. But faith and Buffy had so much chemistry in season 3 - she would've been a fresh start for Buffy and the amount of fix it fics I read I swear. My favourite has to be one where they met in LA during Anne and how that changed everything feat Buffy's internal homophobia.

1) Cheili Lona Aphra and Magna Tolvan - Star Wars

I read Darth Vader (2015) and Doctor Aphra (2016) for the first time at the end of 2020 (got a comic subscription which has served me very well already I've nearly finished the star wars canon comics). Just to see canon queer ladies in star wars was so magical for me as a queer lady. I didn't think star wars would be so overt yet as to have a queer kiss in canon (even if it's in the comics) and especially not with the main character of arguably their main comic series. Now we just gotta hope that we'll get it in live action someday soon. They weren't the ship I consumed the most content of in 2020 but they were the highlight of my 2020 because star wars did that and I finally found out about it

Honourable mentions: Vivian and Elle - Legally Blonde, Candace and Vanessa - Phineas and Ferb, Stevie and Alex - Wizards of Waverly Place, Xander and Spike - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I actually don't ship this but damn some authors are good - this was the ship that made me realise I don't need to like a ship if the author is good enough to write it well), Eli Vanto and Mitth'raw'nuruodo - Star Wars (started reading the books last year but finished this year and only started with fanfic this year), Villanelle and Eve - Killing Eve, Kanan and Hera - Star Wars, Barriss and Ahsoka - Star Wars, Remus and Sirius - Harry Potter, Kara and Lena - Supergirl (let's hope this becomes canon next year!) (Those last four are ones I've shipped forever some of my og ships but nothing particularly big has happened for me this year with them so)

I got Disney+ this year so rewatched a fair few things from my youth and though hey my obsession with that character may have been a little gay.

I have literally no expectations for series 13 of Doctor Who. Doctor Who may be my favourite show, but I think that's mostly because I grew up with it being that way at this point. I'm not particularly excited or at least not like I have been in the past.

I cant even watch it as it airs either, and I don't know how I'm going to. I dont have a TV licence, so watching it on anything BBC is out of the picture - even BBC Iplayer.

I know they put episodes on YouTube, but does anyone know how long it takes them to do that? I don't really want to watch 6 weeks until the series has ended if I can help it. Or does anyone know how to watch it in the UK without a TV licence and the BBC?

If I can't watch it, I'll just rewatch the first 12 series and by the time I'm finished maybe the DVD will be out...

@buckupbuttercup tagged me to answer fanfic questions that look like they might give me an existential crisis but like in a fun way, let's go

(definitely not doing this while i should be working, shh)

1) how many works do you have on AO3?

69 (nice)

2) what’s your total ao3 word count?

180,173

3) how many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

nine fandoms: - the 100 (23) - 911 (16) - harry potter (10) - miraculous ladybug (6) - pokemon sword & shield (6) - gilmore girls (5) - brooklyn nine-nine (1) - percy jackson (1) - object & concept anthropomorphism (1)*

*this is what ao3 decided to label suez canal/ever given fics lmao

4) what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. if your cascade ocean-wave blues come (911) 2. don't want no other shade of blue but you (911) 3. the blues, and then purple-pink skies (911) 4. what you're looking for has been here the whole time (911) 5. when you wish upon a star (pokemon sword & shield)

5) what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

hmm well there's and it's like you can't breathe where i killed lily evans but tbh james is starting to heal by the end

so probably i can't breathe without you (but i have to) for that unrequited love goodness

6) what’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

i mean, the blues and then purple-pink skies has a real sappy proposal at the end, so there's that

in my eyes, my heart, my soul is also just... really fucking soft

7) do you write crossovers? if so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

i haven't ever done one but i probably would if an idea struck me tbh

8) do you write smut? if so what kind?

oh boy do i ever

i literally have a series on ao3 dedicated to just collecting my pwps in one place lol

for 911, which is what i'm currently writing in, so far i've only done a little bit in you look wonderful tonight, but i've got some ideas waiting to happen

9) do you respond to comments, why or why not?

no, i don't -- not because i don't appreciate them, because trust me, the serotonin i get from ao3 comments literally gets me through the day sometimes

but because my dumb brain is like "wait no if you start replying now you have to reply to every! single! one! because otherwise someone who commented on something eight years ago might see and think you hate them specifically" so it's easier to just... not

thanks, brain

10) have you ever received hate on a fic?

i mean... does this count lmao (no it doesn't)

11) have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of

12) have you ever had a fic translated?

also not that i know of

13) have you ever co-written a fic before?

no, and honestly i don't think i could, because i get weirdly particular about writing stuff (and also i think i would probably be annoying to work with tbh)

14) what’s your all time favorite ship?

i mean... usually whatever i'm focusing on is my favourite at the time, i don't know if i know how to put them in order???

(i do have a soft spot for percabeth though)

15) what’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

there's a miraculous ladybug social media AU that i started that was going to be really funny, but i fell into the ML fandom really quick and then fell out almost as quick and so i don't know if i can get the vibes back enough to finish it

maybe i'll rewatch the show once s4 finishes airing and it'll come back to me, who knows

16) what are your writing strengths?

i think i'm good at like, inserting little bits of humour into my narration to keep it engaging, and recently i think i've been getting better at imagery and metaphor

17) what are your writing weaknesses?

well first of all i'm not good at seeing longer projects through to the end lol

and in general my fics tend to be more vibes than plot, which is good sometimes but also... sometimes plot would be good

18) what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

i mean... is there a good reason for it? if yes, sure, if i can make sure it's accurate (linguistically, culturally, and also for the character). if not, why would i?

19) what was the first fandom you wrote for?

harry potter lmao i am a stereotypical millennial

20) what’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

you would make me choose amongst my children???

but uhhhh okay here is a gilmore girls pwp i like a lot lmao and this buddie fic is just. idiots to lovers in its purest form which i love a lot. and let's not forget vampire!buck, my beloved, more of whom is coming your way at uhhh some point in the not too distant future

tagging people still makes me anxious but uhh hey @ace-diaz you wanna do this? (and anyone else who sees it and wants to!)

Tumblr Writers Q&A Tag

Thanks for tagging me @make-me-imagine, I'm sorry it's taken this long for me to get around to things. 1. How many complete fics/oneshots do you have (that you have not published (yet))? None finished but not posted at the moment. 2. How many WIPS do you have right now? I have one permanently abandoned one-shot (but I haven't deleted it, who knows if I'll someday come back to it) and working on a major overhaul of my favorite story I've ever written- I think that counts as a WIP even though it's sort of written 3. Do you take writing requests or write original ideas, or both? I mostly do original ideas and writing challenges, but I am not opposed to taking requests in the future. (Once I actually have more time to write again.) 4. If you do take requests, how many do you currently have? As I said, no requests currently, but possibly in the future. 5. How many fandoms do you write for? One fandom comprises 90% of what I've written, then two smaller ones- so 3? But I'm considering others. 6. Are there any fandoms you wrote for in the past, that you no longer write for? No, but then again, I only started writing fan fiction last August. Not a lot of time to have a "past" with. 7. Do you write for ships, reader inserts, or other? I write mostly for reader inserts, but I've been kind of experimenting with a reader/OC hybrid situation where it's entirely first person narrating. I did write a entirely OC one-shot, but didn't care for it. 8. Niche fandoms/characters you write for? Unless you count Criminal Minds, none. 9. Do you read fics as well as write them? The last couple months I've been reading more than I write, as I haven't had time to write 10. What is your favorite genre (angst/fluff/whump/etc) to write for? I've tried, but I am physically incapable of writing anything that does not contain some form of fluff. For example, the "darker" fic I tried to write somehow morphed into a soulmates AU with a fluffy ending. 11. What is your favorite trope (to read and/or write)? My ideal to read is friends to lovers/idiots in love. To write, I've done rather well with established relationships, but I did especially love my one soulmates AU. 12. What do you do to get motivated to write? A couple of things. If it's something I haven't watched in a while, I rewatch. But also, once I have an idea of what's happening, I make a playlist for it. Sometimes it's focused towards a specific scene, sometimes it's a longer playlist that matches the entire story. 13. Is there a trope/genre you like to read, but not write? I love a good fantasy-based AU. I'm not creative enough to do something where I'd have to do full universe building 14. Any characters/fandoms you want to write for that are never requested? I don't quite take requests yet. 15. How long have you been writing fanfiction? Since August 2021. 16. Did you read fanfiction before you started writing? I started writing about a month or two after I started reading fan fiction. 17. Do you only post on tumblr, or other sites as well? (feel free to promote). I post everything on both tumblr and AO3 (cosplaying_witch) 18. What do you personally consider the word counts of "drabbles", "oneshots" and "fics" (+other?)? This is very difficult. I don't really go by word count for these definitions. For me, a drabble is a very short something that sort of flings you into a situation with no context. A oneshot is still short enough to have no chapters, just the story, but it also lets the story develop instead of dropping you in the middle; it also has no connections to other things you write like series. A fic is the longest, usually having chapters, though a really long one-shot or one that ties into another work (series) can also count. 19. Which do you prefer to write more? Headcanons, Drabbles, Oneshots/Fics, Multi-Chapter Stories, or other? I love writing multi-chapters. It gives me time to develop relationships (yes, I love a good slow-burn), but also gives me a way to "cut" around things I don't write well/don't want to actually write. I know, it's cheating, but I do it anyway 20. Are

there any stories you have discontinued? If so, why? I have a Loki x reader oneshot that has been permanently abandoned without ever leaving my WIP folder. Otherwise, no. I have problems letting things go once I start them. (Plus, I tend to write the entire thing before starting to post it) 21. What is one of your main "pet-peeves" as a writer on tumblr? Those who don't interact at all. Even just a like means the world to me. (Don't get me wrong, I understand that there isn't always time to do much more than like something, but you don't even have to scroll to the bottom of a post to like something.) 22. Do you write at a particular time of day? I used to write exclusively in the late morning/early afternoon. Now that I have a stupid full-time job, I make time to write in the morning before I leave or at night before going to sleep. (I don't write well on weekends, my mom is around and is very judgmental of fan fiction writers. I accidentally mentioned that I write once and was told that I'd end up giving it up "once I got a real job and didn't have as much time.") 23. Do you listen to music, ambiance/noise, etc. to write, or do you need silence? Music. Always music. Once I know where I'm going with a story, it actually gets its own playlist. 24. Do you outline your fics at all before writing? For my multi chapters, to a certain degree. Anything else, just the idea itself. Also, by outline I mean the absolute basics. In my last one, one chapter was outlined as "they go and get the thing done but something dangerous happens" and another was "she has a vision" 25. Do you post your writing as soon as you finish it, or do you schedule it to come out at a specific time/day? I love the idea of posting things at regular intervals, but I'm usually too excited to hold onto it. (Also, almost nothing goes up the same day I write it. I have a 3 edits/2 days rule where it has to go through 3 different rereads over at least two days before it gets posted. But once it makes it though that process, it goes up. I suppose that could be solved if I asked someone else to read through it for me, but I'm too anxious about my writing to trust it to others.)

So I've seen a couple of people doing a list of what they have been doing these quarantine times, so thought to do some of my own as well. Mostly because while I'm holding off just fine, most of my friends are going crazy and running out of things to do. I was normal until last week I got Lay Off at work and now I have extra time for everything. So here are a couple of my own suggestions and how I'm holding up.

1. Read Books. Even those you have already read, go back to it. Read that book you have been postponing.

2. Movies Marathon. Watch all those sagas, watch them in order now that there is a pause in movies. If they have series, add them too. You got suggestions? Add them below! Some ideas:

Star Wars

Harry Potter

Twilight

Pirates of the Caribbean

Predator

Marvel

DC

Jurassic Park

Terminator

Bad Boys

Toy Story

Matrix

Shrek

Star Trek

Lion King

Disney Movies

Saw

Purge

Indiana Jones

3. Clean your room. Throw away/Donate those things you don't need or use anymore. Check all those clothe if they still fit. Organize and redecorate. Change the layout. Organize drawers. If you haven't done it in a while, find out how you'd like to paint your room. Go a little bit more and go for your house.

3. Don't stop in your room, go to the kitchen, laundry room, etc.

4. Learn drawing, do some sketches, practice!

5. Watch Series. All those series in your Netflix List? Take some time to watch them. Got suggestions? Add them below!

6. Write a fanfic. Best way to spend time because your mind will keep giving you scenarios at some point.

7. Board games! Cards! Try doing a card house. Play with your family.

8. Play games online. Download apps. There is a bunch of games to play and one can test your typing skills and race against others. https://play.typeracer.com/

9. Spa Day! Treat yourself! Feel good! My resource has been Pinterest. And good thing is that you start looking for something and find somethinf else that calls your attention and its like "Oh I should check that later".

10. Play Stop with your friends either if its conference or video call. I did it through video call and it was a blast. For those of you who don't know Stop, it a game in which you do a table of several columns with the titles od Name, Last Name, thing, animal, place (country or city wise), food or fruit, color, and you may keep adding on. Do it your own! After the table, someone says "A" outloud and continues the rest of the alphabet in their mind. Someone else says stop and they have to say in which letter they were stopped at and said letter will be the one to use to fill the table.

11. Nails! I am a person that loves to try new designs and things with nails. Mix colors, find idea, try doing a theme based nail art on your favorite movie or series. If you like it? Upload it to give ideas to others! My current one is something easy for Pirates of the Caribbean. I watched the movies the other way and still got two left to get ideas. You don't need a whole nail kit. I started with toothpicks and broken pens.

12. Talk with friends. Just a quick passing by to see how they are doing.

13. GAMES! If you have a console, go ahead and play. Have fun. Meet people. Finish those levels. Start a new one. Start a new game. Do it!

14. Look for crafting ideas. You can do things with newspaper. Just with things that you have home. Youtube can help with this and just Google in general.

15. Find fun ways to do your hair! I am one that my hair is what they call "dead". If I curl it 20min after I got nothing. Find different hair styles to rock for when this is over!

16. Cook! I don't cook at all, mom either (at least not in a daily basis, more like 2 week basis), so I don't think a good outcome would work. But try it!

17. Play. With. Your. Pets! Give them love! Shower them. Train them. JUST LOVE THEM!

18. Learn a new language! I have Duolingo and it has been quite productive. I do it in a different way though. You have an unused notebook? Take it and put it to use. You know how Duolingo divides what you learn? Ex. Pronouns, past, present, basic, etc.? Divide your notebook like that. Write the word, write the translation in your language (or another language if you want to spice things up), and write how you hear it/would pronounce it. Go up the highest level in each or try to do them in the same level a.k.a. Pronouns level 3, Nouns level 3, etc.

19. Learn something new! So the University of Harvard has a page where they have small courses of different topics. Best of all? IT IS FREE! Take one and learn! I'm currently doing one of the Pyramids of Giza! Super interesting! Page to view them: https://online-learning.harvard.edu/catalog/FREE?page=4

20. Plan your next or first trip! I have one planned for London, Paris, Spain for November this year. I still have my hopes up cause I have planned this so well. I don't want to give it up, I'm in denial. So what I do is check the places to go. It doesn't have to be for this year, but plan it out! Check places to visit and plan your budget! I might open a blog for trips (honestly a little bit of everything) so I'll keep you updated but if you have any questions on planning, hit me up! I do it in a way that even mom's friends trust me to plan everything for them.

21. Call your relatives! At least those you get along with. Make sure they are alright. Even if you haven't called them in a while I'm sure they will love to hear you are doing okay!

22. From the newspapers take out the Sudokus, Crosswords, Word Finders, have fun!

23. Write your future goals! Reflect on them!

24. Exercise! But do it in a fun way! Walk the dog. Go to Youtube and check those Dance Central, Just Dance exercise routines with your favorite songs!

25. Plan your next plans! What upcoming events you want to go to when this is over? Write them in the calendar and check information and follow up!

26. Read Comics online! There a few sites that have them free, the old ones and some of the new. Look them up!

27. Learn new games!

28. Sleep!

29. You miss sports? Rewatch your favorite matches.

30. Funny videos on Youtube! I found with my manager Shark Puppet and we couldn't stop laughing so find funny videos to watch by yourself or with friends, family and coworkers!

If anyone wanta to add ideas or suggestions or comments do so! If I find more I'll add them as reblogs. ❤

Stay safe everyone! Stay Home! Have Fun! ❤