#it's really nothing like the story except for the couple of major plot points
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Hello friend. At first, I thought it was a joke that there's a Lego show that people love. I've seen you post about it a lot so I figure it's just one of those things that maybe a couple people really really love otherwise, whatever. But I just sat that clip of that characters death and it made me realize I know nothing about anything ever lol. What is the Lego show about? What do you love about it? I'm just super curious
Well. Okay. My embarrassment aside, I totally get it—it is a lego show, but it's my lego show and I'll gladly tell you about it!
(my apologies this got a little long)
*inhales cigarette* I remember starting to watch lmk (Lego Monkie Kid) and not expecting anything except some very pretty animation—it's just legos, right? And then it completely blindsided me. Then I did some digging and realized it's a modern retelling of Journey to the West (jttw—one of the great classic chinese novels), and that half of the whole reason this show exists is to retell a familiar tale to the modern age. That's how the show opens, and that's how s3 ends.
And, at the risk of sounding a little deranged, I'm going to say that the show being legos is thematically relevant. It legitimately adds to part of the story they're trying to tell—and the story Lego Monkie Kid is trying to tell is legitimately very solid. It's super good. They completely blew me out of the water with season 4.
So. The first special and s1 isn't anything too unique on a first watch through. The characters are charming and the show is very pretty, but it's nothing I'd write home about (though, 1x09 is very good—in my opinion—and 1x10, the season finale, builds plenty of intrigue).
But here's the thing: legitimately so much is set up in s1 and you don't even realize it, and it's STILL being re-contextualized well into s4.
So, then the s2 special happens right after s1, and it's like, alright! The plot seems to be going somewhere! We get introduced to a few more antagonists and the status quo from s1 is already somewhat disrupted. But then the last half of s2 comes around. And they're all bangers. 2x05 Minor Scale is GREAT. 2x06 is pure game motif. 2x07 gives us backstory and continues the main protags negative character arc. 2x08 is one of my favorites in the whole show. By this point you realize how consistent the character writing is if you've been paying attention. 2x09 is the beginning of the end. 2x10 ends the season on quite the cliff hanger, and it's like. HOLY SHIT. WHAT IS THIS ABSOLUTE GEM OF A SHOW.
s3 is lovely, and the end of the s3 special has one of my favorite scenes in anything. s4 is so ridiculously good. Lmk honestly has what I would consider to be god tier pacing. They have 10 minutes to achieve their goal, and by GOD are they going to do exactly that.
But like, what do I love about the show specifically?
The animation. The characters. The themes. I kid you not a major theme in s4 of the show is the fact that every single thing you do leads to pain. Being the hero or the villain, it doesn't matter—you cause suffering and destruction with every step you take. You hurt the people you care about. No, seriously. I'm not kidding. THAT'S one of the main focuses of s4, and oh boy is it a wild ride. You get used to legos crying. I am unironically expecting s5 of this show to be a tragedy.
I can not recommend it enough!
(If it's your thing that is! I TOTALLY get not being able to look past the legos, and the fast pacing isn't for everyone.)
Anyways, here's a bonus gif of Mei to end off!
#I think lmk's body count is like. 7 or 8 at this point? depending on who you consider dead?#I'm going to be honest I don't even see the fact that they're legos any more. They aren't legos to me. It's an art style. AN ART FORM#anyways this has been ''imp goes on a long rant about legos'' (like she does every day). you are welcome.#I really ought to dial it back on my tumblr blog#But that lmk s4 special really rocked my shit.#tdp s5 trailer came out yesterday#I'm just like. THEY'VE OVERLOADED MY SYSTEM AND IT'S SUMMER.#WHAT'S A NEURODIVERGENT BITCH TO DO. anyhow#thank you for asking my beloved mutual!#asks#lmk#lego monkie kid
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Lmao here, have the most ridiculously broad and all-encompassing writer ask ever to distract you:
How in the hell do you make a plot?
Jk, mostly. 😅 This is more a ramble than an ask I guess. I keep tinkering with the idea of actually writing A Story, but I just. I don't know. I get so bored so fast with the process of moving characters from Point A to Point B. I just want to stick people in a room and make them talk. (Or possibly make out, depending on the scenario.) Or I want to spend thousands of words just going on and on about a character's thoughts and emotions. That all works well for oneshot fanfics, but it's awful for doing longer fics or attempting something original. I just don't know how to make characters Go Places and Do Things and Have Goals. Which like...obviously you're not going to be able to magically solve that problem for me in a single post, but...any tips to get started that don't involve falling into the inescapable dungeon of Outlining?
Plot has always been an issue for me. Many moons ago, an agent told me that my book had a great voice but nothing actually happened in it: it was like one of those narrators you'd say you'd listen to read a phone book. Except, you know. Maybe it'd be nice if it wasn't a phone book.
I've had a tendency in the past to, ah...just have a series of things happen. Which is not actually a plot. It's a katamari ball. You can't just write things happening for several thousand words and then be like "ta-da!"
Well, I mean, you can. But it sure wasn't gettin' me an agent.
I'm getting better at this, I think, and structuring stories in general. Tiadane's book was the first book I got notes back from a CP that didn't basically say "the pacing and structure of this is fucked."
(Of course, I'm changing some of that anyway, but it's more incidental to other things I'm fixing than the major concern)
That said, it usually takes me a zero draft (first draft) to really figure out what the story is about and how to take it there. Every single ending for a story I had in mind before I got there has had to be ripped out. Every. Single. One. For ever novel I've ever edited. I'm so bad at getting to an ending I envisioned, because if I actually let the characters develop and change and the world build around them and the themes come through, where I wanted them to end up and the scenes I envisioned, is never really the culmination of how to do it.
A plot is really how a story develops. For me, this is generally character-based. For some people it's the world, for some people it's the actual events.
For a character story, the plot is basically what events are the catalyst that bring them to where they're going. How do they get there, and what happens to them to push them there? How did they react, and to what?
For a world story, the plot is generally focused on unfolding events around the world. I've seen this done with characters in different areas and or characters traveling, or even just in a kind of Epicenter. The plot will be how the world is changing, or how the world is being revealed to the reader, and what that means.
For a story of events, the plot is generally encircled around how things happen, who caused them and why, and what they do when they do happen, and what else they cause to happen.
I usually have a good strong start for about 10k words, and then the plot fizzles out as the initial concept I was running with has sort of been fulfilled and something needs to happen from it.
The way this happened in Tiadane's book was that he basically jumped into a goal, he completed the steps he set out to do, but it all went very wrong. And while he managed to get out of that disaster and take a breather, he had a couple choices: he could give up, or he could try something else to accomplish the goal (and what), or he could clean up the mess he accidentally made, etc.
Each of those would have been a very different Character, obviously. But what the important part of this character story was, was that he made a choice based on who he is as a character, but that he was the one reacting and doing something. There's characters stories about passive characters who don't do much, but they're not especially common because when a character isn't making choices (or perceived not to be), it gets really hard to reveal a character and the story doesn't go anywhere.
Sure, you could keep throwing things at them. But if those Various Things That Are Happening don't feel tied to something before (the character or other events), you have a string of events, not a nicely rising tide of story.
So it's not a matter of "things happening" but "which things going to happen to them after they did that?" and "what things are they going to do now?" and "what things are going to tell you what you want readers to know about the character?"
Sub character with world or events, as necessary.
Okay NOW I'm done, for now.
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I truly don’t understand people who think Byler is going to be canon. This is nothing against people who ship Byler, because I absolutely see what would draw people towards that ship.
But some people genuinely think it’s going to happen in season 5 and that’s what I can’t wrap my head around. Stranger Things is a show written by, as far as we know, two straight men. It’s a mainstream show and it’s target audience is everyone from teens to adults. A large portion of this audience is going to be straight.
The Duffer brothers are probably patting themselves on the back for their excellent queer rep. They have two whole queer characters in the main cast. I think there’s a decent chance Robin will end up with Vickie, in which case we have three characters who are confirmed gay and one gay couple ending up happily together. The Duffer brothers have been at least exploring the fact that Will could be gay since season 1, when Joyce said that Lonnie used to call him gay slurs. They committed to it in season 4, but also in a very subtle way. Queer audiences saw this coming years ago. I rewatched season 4 with my parents and had to explain to them that Will was crushing on Mike. (I straight-up said those words and they said, “you mean… he likes Eleven?”). Straight audiences are not picking up on some Will/Mike love story. And yes, I don’t think Mileven was super well-written in Season 4. But that’s a problem with the writing itself, not proof that the Duffer brothers don’t intend for Mileven to be endgame.
Also, Mike is arguably The Main Character. Especially with how he was framed in S1. Modern shows might make one (or several) main characters or series regulars queer to show how inclusive they are and appeal to queer audiences. But I truly don’t believe we’re at a point where you can make the main character queer without alienating straight audiences (especially if your fan base is not just younger people). Maybe that’s cynical of me, but I think people want to watch shows with queer representation but that aren’t Queer Shows. And that’s what Stranger Things would be if Byler happened, because both Will and Mike (two of the main leads) would be queer and together.
Even if the Duffer brothers wanted to make Byler happen from a creative perspective (which I seriously doubt), it would be a terribly marketing move. I just don't believe we live in a world (at least yet) where predominately straight audiences want to watch shows with large gay casts. (Of course there are exceptions, but I'm speaking in generalities). So while I totally think there's space for Byler in fan fiction and that it's a fascinating dynamic to explore, it bewilders me that people think it's going to happen for real. I think this comes from being in fandom spaces and/or interacting mostly with queer people.
The majority of the world isn't the fandom and also isn't queer. We're still years away from a time where a hugely successfully, mainstream money-maker like Stranger Things can make two of its main characters queer and in love.
I adore the world y'all are living in though. I don't think we're there -- but I hope some day we will be.
Addendum because I wrote this quickly: I also think Mike/Eleven are a really important relationship that is central to the show. That's not to say that Will and Mike aren't, because I do think they have one of the closest friendships on the show and that there's something special about their bond. But the show, from the beginning, has centered around Mike and El as the protagonists for the kids' generation. Their love for each other and trust in each other has been a huge characteristic of both Mike and El and a huge driving force for the plot. They haven't adequately set up a pivot from that central relationship, and I don't think they could do it in the final season without doing a disservice to the past four seasons, but especially to El, who is the center of this whole show.
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So. I like all your Wally x reader stories so far and you and some other writers have made me feel inspired again (I’ve been in a funk for a while. Last time I helped with writing or any writing was when riverdale came out). I just wanted to know since I love your plots and such. If I ask for some advice or if it is alright could I get some? I know you have your own writing. I just wanted to ask !
Advice... hmmm... I don't necessarily have that much advice to give other than things I like to do with my characters, so I guess it will mostly be character advice!
A little kinda explanation for a couple things I've seen repeatedly asked (mostly how I write so quick) that I feel kinda goes along with why I don't have a lot of advice is that I just spend the majority of my days rn daydreaming and drawing. So like... I probably come up with a million, heavily detailed characters and storylines in a day that I usually never get out into the world. Are these characters good? Idk. I think I just like having an outlet to share them, which is why I write so fast. Because of that, the majority of my stories aren't planned out beforehand, but I know that not everyone can do that. For me it is just that I am so used to it, I don't think about it anymore.
Anyways, onto the main (very messily explained) advice! It probably won't be that good, so you don't have to take it if you don't like it. Lol.
•If you are going to add something in, I recommend looking some stuff up about it. I usually like to write more about characters and their psychology, so I sometimes look up stuff like "Can hallucinations be impacted by this?" Or "What types of people do cults go after?" It might feel odd to look up such strange things, but I am pretty sure the majority of authors, both professional and those who do it as a hobby, look up random stuff that would be very weird. You could also just use an incognito tab while searching things. This is especially important when involving serious topics.
•I try to make my characters have some sort of rational thinking, but some have exceptions based on context. The only exception, so far, seems to be puppet Wally (at points), because he is meant to be a character in a children's show. Children's show characters, a lot of the time, seem very naive and innocent, to an understandable, cartoon-ish degree (because they are from a cartoon). It makes sense to make them an exception. A lot of the times, children's shows try to teach rational thinking, and since Wally apparently learns alongside the viewer a lot of the time, he wouldn't have the best rational thinking skills. But for human adults, like the reader, being able to use reason when thinking and making decisions would already be a learned skill. A big reason I try to think through a character's actions using reason is because, at least for me, a character doing something that seems unreasonable will pull me out of the story.
•The above piece of advice is basically for any trait I guess? Try to give your character a reason for skills or knowledge. Do they know how to use an axe? Maybe they work as a lumberjack, or were taught as a child and retained the skill. Do they have a fear of something, like dogs? Why do they fear dogs? Did they have a bad experience? Those sorts of things go a long way in making a character interesting, in my opinion.
•Making characters do reasonable things, especially in horror, is good and won't ruin the story if done right. This kinda goes alongside rational thinking. A lot of people think that if characters in horror do something reasonable, like call the police, it would make the story less fun. That isn't the case! You can still find ways to make it fun and exciting. Using the police example, you can build on the suspense of when the police will arrive, or, if you really don't want to use the police as part of the solution, make it so the police find nothing to make an investigation. That way, it gives a reason for your character to not trust them the next time calling the police is an option.
•I also try my best, when making x Readers, to make it as gender inclusive as possible. Of course, you don't have to if you don't feel comfortable writing gender neutral readers or only prefer to write for one gender of reader. Often I find a lot of x Readers that use a female reader (sometimes a male, more often paired with a female character), so it can be hard to find gender neutral ones. I think it is either more common in Welcome Home to write gender neutral readers or it might just be becoming more common in general, but I still think it is worth mentioning. It not only makes it more inclusive for LGBTQ+ audiences, but it allows for more people in general to relate to the reader and read your story without trouble.
•Also, don't be afraid to write character x character fanfiction! They aren't necessarily my cup of tea in fanfiction, but many people like them! Also, if you do intend to try to become a writer of your own, original stories, it might be good practice. Even just writing small interactions will help. Once you get more accustomed to it, your character interactions will become more believable, thus making the story more interesting.
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Im the hater anon omg i didnt mean to lead u astray but i haven't finished it i'm just over half done. i probably will finish just so i can coherently say why i don't like it bc rn my thoughts are all over the place but u hit all the major points im like nodding and taking notes rn. Its very shallow lore wise like its all overly complex exposition that barely effects the plot. I could write about this for 100 years but basically it was boring and i just feel like it has nothing to say like theres no purpose or message and i think speculative stuff should have SOME weight behind it idk. That paired w how the writing itself is like..not pretty or artful or anything………………….
And on top of that its not even actually funny. Instead of real jokes its just 100 million mcu quips awkwardly inserted so that no situation is ever treated genuinely or seriously or with depth. For example. My personal least favorite part beyond general quality so far is how often they bring up gideon being inappropriately horny… idk how else to word it.. Its one of her 3 personality traits. they mention her porn collection i swear every couple of pages. its played 4 jokes but like the rest of it its literally unfunny and feels so out of place. Like this is right when they just discovered an incinerated body → ”she looked troubled, which made Gideon sad, but she was also soaked right through to the skin, which made Gideon need a lie-down.” Its like if someone whose only point of reference was tiktok during that era where every vaguely masc woman got made fun of for being a quote hey mamas lesbian unquote tried to write a masc woman. Reading it as a masc lesbian myself is just sort of embarrassing idk if other ppl feel differently but it just feels overplayed and goofy.
Anyways… this is all very long and incoherent but thank u for complaining and vindicating me… i started reading it a couple days ago on a whim bc ive been seeing ppl talk abt it a lot lately and i was instantly SOOOOO disappointed. Part of it was definitely that i was expecting something very different because of how people talk about it but also its just like bad. Its insane. I also had no idea abt the roachpatrol thing so ummmmmm :(
hiiiiiiiiii omg so your suffering isn't even over yet my condolences.
the worldbuilding exposition industrial complex needs to end im so serious. I just had such a nice conversation with some writer friends about soft vs hard magic systems and world-building and how frustratingly common the assumption that more complex lore you dump the more sophisticated your story is at the moment. in reality many more sophisticated stories deliberately utilise abstraction and whimsy for thematic statements. v happy for brandon sanderson fans but again, a lot of those stories are basically like mystery novels except the magic is the mystery, whereas the speculative fiction authors who... actually speculate...are often using it as a tool to speculate about our own existence.
and the writing is so ugly like I've read a couple of chapters and I feel like i could get through a mid story if it's at least well written but it wasn't even inoffensive it was actively offputting like that prose was stinkyyyyyyyyy..... and the quips exactlyyy like who is laughing at none pizza with left beef anymore and the fact a lot of it isn't even the author being witty but just like. a reference to a meme? it's literally supposed to be like gritty but then everyone is memeing and quipping all the time how are you meant to take that seriously?
and okay the like sexualisation of Gideon had kind of been my suspicion but I hadn't read enough to make that claim for certain so. that's disappointing to have it confirmed. given that the author is a fem woman who calls herself a lesbian whilst being homestuck married to a guy, it really brings up some kind of discomfort in me to be using masc women that way and making a joke out of them and their sexuality and calling them himbos and shit like. it really doesn't seem like she actually knows any masc women??? and when that was a huge part of the marketing for the book it comes to feel exploitative.
one thing to be aware is that tor like. pushed it really hard marketing-wise for whatever reason. I guess they feel it symbolises a new era of sci-fi and like were using it as an outreach effort to engage the generation that mostly only reads fan fiction or whatever which I guess cheers if it achieves that. but the majority of negative reviews are specifically that it was nothing like what they expected it to be, because of the.... super gimmicky marketing.
the tagline being sword necromancer lesbians in space or something so lame 😭 and it really seems like the elements came first and the justification came second so it's never really explained why they use swords instead of more technologically advanced weapons (bc the answer is 'it sounds cool') or really why it needs to be in space at all (because the answer is 'it sounds cool'). even the necromancy is supposedly fairly tangential and ive seen people be underwhelmed how much actual lesbianism is involved too 💀
9mbut yeah the r0ach patr0l thing I wish people were more aware of because honestly above anything else, I've seen people who were fans and then found this out and felt super uncomfortable so I think people deserve to know what kind of background she has, and this is literally where she developed her writing and her name as a BNF so it's directly connected to her current career not just like a celebrity who tweeted something dumb when they were 14. like I think it's fair to take that into account + idk it's INTERESTING to me that she went from that to debuting with a masc lesbian whom she projects like comic hypersexuality onto it really is all much to think about truly
#ask#anon#I remember there was a bit that said smth like 'there was a sort of clanging sound' or something#and I just was like........................... has this not had any line editing stall#*at all#what do you mean SORT OF.#+ I feel like the author is that gross and is projecting it on butch women which like. category 5 fem woman moment#the homestuck het marriage is just so lame sorry im going to make fun of that#esp bc she used to also write the redacted redacted fanfic with that guy
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So The Owl House just had their main pairing kiss on screen in the latest episode. How is it a show under Disney can have their queer couple kiss but RT can't even confirm if Yang and Blake are actually together, much less kiss.
Was that in the final episode (minus some additional content I've been hearing about)? Because that seems to be the go-to trend nowadays: build up a relationship, but wait until the final hour to confirm it. Which, to be very clear, I don't mean as a criticism of TOH. Beyond the fact that I haven't watched it for myself yet (I know, I know), everyone working at Disney is fighting tooth-and-nail for any scrap of representation, often taking such compromises — they can't kiss, but they can hold hands; there will be a wedding, but it won't air in this country; we'll confirm it, but only when the show is cancelled/ending, etc. — over getting nothing at all. Plus, from what I've heard second-hand, TOH apparently does a fantastic job with their relationship, even with such obvious, external difficulties. The point being that, as you say, anon, if creators can manage this under the thumb of such homophobic corporations... the originally independent webseries who, it seems, only entertained the idea of a queer couple because the fans wanted it should absolutely be doing better. Like, way better.
Not to continually gush about OFMD in my RWBY asks, but even more than getting one queer kiss from a Disney cartoon, shows like OFMD emphasize, for me, how much better RWBY could be doing. Here's a nonbinary character! Here's a gay character! Here's another gay character! They're having unambiguous sex in this episode! They might be poly based on how they respond to a particular conversation! Even if they're not they're super chill about expressing their sexuality in various ways! Here's a repressed queer chihuahua man who will theoretically work through the homophobia he's internalized due to toxic masculinity! Here's another gay man who didn't realize he was gay until the end of the season! Here's a fourth gay man! They kiss!! Even though we only get ten episodes at 20-30 minutes each!
Meanwhile, RWBY is like... what if we wrote eight years of content... and the first kinda queer character is a background dude who's maybe gay... and the next was going to be an actual gay guy except we decided not to do that because he dies as soon as he's introduced... and then the lesbian is an obsessive radical out to murder her crush's parents and then disappears from the story after a two-second redemption... and there's a very cute queer couple who hold hands, but they're minor characters who are only around for half a season... and there's a bunch of intense queer coding for these two dudes (one of whom is a fan fave), but it's totally not our fault because the animators made them wink and flirt without our consent... and then one dies in a horrific fashion, but you can't call it bury your gays because they were never gay haha gotcha... and the main ship that's helping to keep this webseries afloat gets to—wait for it—blush and sometimes, SOMETIMES, touch their foreheads together, but they're not together-together yet, just wait for it! Hm? What do you mean we confirmed two main straight couples already? 😗
Meanwhile me, having just watched a ship full of queer pirates live their best lives while the story still makes time for numerous unrelated plots:
I know I often give RWBY the benefit of the doubt because I do believe strongly that almost any story can turn itself around — not fix what came before, but still improve going forward — but I do really believe that the beginning of Volume Nine will have a huge impact on how Blake/Yang is received by the fanbase for the rest of the story's run. If we get a kiss (or some other kind of confirmation), then I believe that the majority of viewers will be lenient in regards to the arc overall. People will forget how long these Volumes felt in real-time, more and more fans who come into the community will get to binge RWBY and never having to wait on that confirmation, plenty of posts will pop up reassuring others that it had to happen this way because this was the right time for them to get together, it's more proof of RT's amazing storytelling... and basically most non-RWDE folks will be pleased. Which is good!
However, if we miss out on a confirmation the concept of, "It just needs to be the right time" looses its persuasive power and we'll be left asking when the hell we can expect to see them get together if it's not after a post-assumed death reunion. The very end of the story, perhaps? Honestly, I can easily see RT crafting a scenario in which the emotional punch of the void is lost before Blake and Yang ever find each other again. Blake could wake up and immediately go, "Oh, well I haven't died. Therefore Yang shouldn't be dead either. I'm no longer freaking out about this!" and Yang might be worried about her teammates, but she never saw them "die" like they did with her, likewise creating a, "I'm sure everything will be fine," reaction. Toss in the amount of time it might take for them to reach one another on the island (time to cool down, not do anything impulsive based on high emotions) and the fact that RWBY is really bad at emotional followups to begin with (Weiss and Winter don't need to resolve their differences, Jacques is killed off by Ironwood, Qrow doesn't care about killing him anymore, Ruby barely reacts to Yang falling, etc.) and I can EASILY picture a reunion where it's just another forehead touch like after the whale separation. You know, despite the fact that the fandom will be screaming about you thought Yang was dead, Blake, how is this not the perfect time to admit your feelings?
Not to reduce a show to its shipping, but Blake/Yang is such a huge part of the RWBY community that if RT fucks that up even more, it may well tank the show's popularity in a way the bad writing hasn't managed to. We might get a kiss in Volume 9. More likely we might get it at the very end of the run. Worst case scenario is if something happens and RWBY doesn't finish, or — heaven forbid — they bow out of making the relationship canonical at all, and we're left with, at best, some panel announcement where they reassure everyone that of course they're in love... we just didn't get the chance to show you that for whatever nonsense reason PR has helped us come up with. Not having gotten anything by now isn't good, but not getting anything by mid Volume 9 will be even worse imo. It's a now or never kind of deal.
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My criticisms of RWBY rn under the cut.
I'm going to focus on volumes 4 and beyond. HBomberguy did an amazing job on the issues with volumes 1-3, and I agree with all his points. I'm mostly going to be discussing plot and the handling of queer relationships.
First, the plot. It's like Miles and Kerry finally decided on the story they wanted to tell... 4 volumes in. So, to catch the viewers up, they spend massive amounts of time on exposition dumps that just grind the pace of the story to a halt. RWBY does have cool ideas in it, it just... Cannot communicate them in the way necessary to actually tell a compelling story. I believe it was V6 with the giant lore dump about Salem and Ozpin/Ozma. Now, don't get me wrong: there are times in a story where someone will have to explain a plot element to someone else. Nothing wrong with that. But the absolutely hamfisted way the story was handled makes it bad. The constant exposition dumps got to be exhausting.
Penny is another major issue. You're telling me you killed her off, brought her back, very explicitly made her human, only to kill her off again? That's... Stupid. No other way to put it. I was fine with Penny returning! I was happy about it, actually! I thought the concept of an android taking on the powers of a Maiden was a super interesting idea. What makes a person human? What makes them have a soul? If Penny, as an android, is basically immortal, is the Winter Maiden's power permanently protected, in a way? Could she pass it on without dying? How would this affect her relationship with Winter, who was supposed to inherit the Maiden's power? But nope. Miles and Kerry wanted to kill her off again for really, what is no reason (except making viewers sad. But deaths need to be motivated...). If you wanted Winter to be the Maiden so badly, just make her the Maiden in the first place. The Penny plot with it ended up being really dumb.
Fairgame was another problem. I didn't personally ship it, but it was being pretty strongly hinted at, and I don't blame MLM for feeling betrayed by the way it ended -- again, very stupidly. The fight that killed Clover made absolutely no sense, and his death felt wasteful. I'm not MLM so I don't have as much to say, and others can make the criticism better than I can. Just wanted to touch on it.
And... The Bees. They're still dancing around each other, and at this point, yeah, it's queerbait. I would have disagreed before Vol9, but... It's ridiculous at this point how Miles and Kerry are dragging it out. "But it's slow burn!!!" That ship sailed a long time ago. Either make it explicit that Blake and Yang are together, quit having them dance around the notion, or drop it. It's especially egregious because it feels like Miles and Kerry are like, "Look at this ~progressive queer relationship~ in our story!!" without actually doing the work necessary. You can make Jaune's sister wlw (and name her after Sappho for more sweet, sweet Progressive Points!) but you can't explicitly state that Blake and Yang are a couple? It's cowardly.
And the new plot in the Everafter isn't very good either. We've never heard of this story about Alex before in the show. It feels like another plot point that got randomly added without a ton of thought. It could've been such an easy fix, too. Blake and Ruby both enjoy reading. Just have one of them reading the story in an earlier volume, and have another character comment "oh, I read that as a kid, too!" Boom. Now, you've got an actual through-line! But I just can't be invested in the story as it stands. I don't know who Alex is. I don't know why her story matters, even when RWBY is insisting it does matter. The gimmick with fairy tales/folk tales/etc is wearing thin, and I'm tired.
I really did enjoy RWBY, but in its current state, I have fallen out of love with it. I hope it gets better, because the fans deserve better.
#millie says#again this is just my opinion and i am not trying to say people can't enjoy the show#throwing that disclaimer out there bc i just know someone will try and twist my words
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top 5 fics you’ve written that challenged you the most?
Oooh what a good question! I'm so sorry for my insanely long answer...
These are in no order, just sort of as I'm seeing them in my AO3 page
In Their Nature (Joncella, canon divergent, AU where the Targs won) - I love love love this version of them, it's been really fun to imagine how their different circumstances would change parts of their personality etc. but where I find writing the bits between them incredibly easy, the larger political landscape is a bit out of my depth.
To Brave the Seasons (Robbcella, canon divergent, AU where Myrcella becomes Robb's hostage) - Similar reason to above, plus the fact that for this one I'm very tempted to have a not happy ending, which is something I've never done and imagining the reception of that makes it difficult to get motivation to write it.
Dancing on the Strings (Robbcella + Jonsa & Gendrya, modern AU) - This one haunts me to this day, to the extent that I'd love to delete it but have yet to do so. It was a struggle both pacing-wise & structurally, and really showed me just how much I prefer writing Robbcella to other couples. What started as a sort of ensemble fic, very quickly devolved into a Myrcella/Robbcella centric one, and due to how much I enjoyed writing the personal bits and those unfolding dynamics, I lost sight of the larger story so that by the time the major 'plot' points came in it felt very convoluted and unnecessary. I should have just let it go, let the fic be what it was and taken that plot point into a new one, but we live and learn!
The Arrangement (Jonsa, modern AU) - This is one where the story itself was really straight forward, but where I really had to struggle my way through it. It showed me how much I do not enjoy writing Jonsa (the disconnect between how feral they make me as a canon couple vs my desire to write a modern AU or often even read a modern AU is actually baffling, I think the only thing I can say is that I am genuinely so tied to who these characters ARE that writing lesser versions of them without the circumstances that make their dynamic so interesting and delicious to me is unappealing. I love them too much). It is so interesting to me that it is my most popular (I think by a pretty wide margin) because I can't express how much I phoned this one in. To me, there's absolutely no life in the writing, except maybe when Robbcella comes to visit - funny, that.
Nothing's Shining, Shining Like it Should (Robbcella, modern AU) - It is hilarious to me that total this fic is less than 15,000 words, because it challenged me more than ones that are like ten times that. Angst etc. really challenges me though particularly in fanfic and particularly in Robbcella, so this one was definitely a challenge.
This list also ignores the many fics I found so challenging that I deleted, but here we are!
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Personal Review (08/07/22)
Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell
Why am I reviewing this book?
This book has been on my shelf for a while (I bought back when it was a B&N pick of the month around a year ago), and I decided to read it for Pride. I did like it, and there were a couple things I really wanted to talk about.
Plot 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
The Iskat Empire has always kept power through political marriages, so when one of those unions falls apart right before treaties are set to be resigned, action must be taken. Jainan, representative of Thea, is hastily engaged to the irresponsible Prince Kiem after the death of his husband, Prince Taam. However, although Taam died in an accident, there might be more to the incident than meets the eye.
In terms of science fiction, my favorite subgenre is space opera, which this definitely falls into. This story could actually work in any genre because it is very character rather than plot-focused. On one hand that means the plot is engaging and versatile, on the other it means the worldbuilding is a little lackluster and doesn't really add anything. While I was never confused, this universe outside of what was immediately important to the plot is a mystery to me.
The plot itself was good enough to keep me reading if very conventional for this genre. Luckily, that's not why I was reading this book. The romance also functioned as a significant part of the plot, which I thoroughly enjoyed and will discuss in the next section.
Characters 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
To say that I picked up this book for anything other than a gay, arranged-marriage trope romance would be a lie. Long story short, it delivered.
Looking at this book and the basic set-up of the characters, it would normally be pretty easy to guess how their relationship would play out. A happy-go-lucky, cheerful prince and a serious, no-nonsense ambassador? It seems too easy, but I really liked the twist put on their relationship. Neither Kiem nor Jainan fell into a completely stereotypical character archetype, and I loved the way their relationship developed. It was slow and felt genuine. The issue I run into with a lot of romance is the fast progression, but this took its time for a proper slowburn. Even in a standalone, I was never under the impression that this story could benefit from an extra book or anything like that; it was perfectly contained and all the romantic and character development was complete by the end.
I will mention that the side characters were rather one-dimensional. This is a result of Jainan and Kiem being rather isolated except for each other for the most part. I'm willing to look past the neglect of the side characters because it was a lack of opportunity rather than missed opportunities.
Writing Style 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
As is the case most of the time when I give writing style a 7, the writing was good but nothing particularly stood out. I liked how emotions were described, though I wish there had been more detail with locations and people, especially how they fit into the imperial hierarchy.
The pacing was nice like I mentioned with the romance. This was a very well-contained standalone. I wasn't left with the feeling that there were loose threads, and it fit the length of the book nicely.
Meaning 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
One thing I really appreciated about this book was how it dealt with abuse and trauma from that. I'm going to be deliberately vague about this because the way it is slowly but surely revealed in the book is done very well. A major character has a past of domestic abuse, and the way their struggle with it is written and the way the other characters help them towards recovery is well-executed.
Overall 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
While I don't think this book is anything new, I just had fun reading it. The plot was enough to keep things from slowing down too much, and the romance was very sweet and honestly had me grinning at points. The writing wasn't anything special, but it was well-paced. The story also dealt with some heavy topics in a way that was both tasteful and didn't drag down the more lighthearted style of this book. Overall, a very enjoyable read.
The Author
Everina Maxwell: British, Winter's Orbit is her debut but the companion, Ocean's Echo, comes out later this year
The Reviewer
My name is Wonderose; I try to post a review every week, and I do themed recommendations every once in a while. I take suggestions! Check out my about me post for more!
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noughts & crosses, malorie blackman
released 2001
read: 23 september 2023 – 01 october 2023
i... did not expect to be writing a review like this about one of my favourite childhood books, much less one by celebrated british author malorie blackman, who i'd read so many books of (both through the school curriculum and my own exploration).
i read this back when i was part of the target audience, probably around my pre-teen/early teenage years. i believe i read two or three of the four books (i had a horrible habit of leaving series unfinished back then, even if i was enjoying it). i was so excited when the show was announced and then released (although i didn't end up continuing past the first couple of episodes). i thought this was THE book, one of the most profound things i'd ever read. so, years down the line, now in my mid-20s, i was hyped to reread it - because although i'm older, i still enjoy and see merit in a lot of the books that captivated me in my youth. so why, why did i dislike this book so much?
i was struck by how many things just didn't work. firstly, the premise/plot; a dystopian reimagining of our world where black people - Crosses - are deemed superior to white people - noughts. interesting, right? there are a lot of thought-provoking discussions you could start with an idea like that. except, malorie blackman decided not to start any of them. instead she wrote what was essentially a direct retelling of historical race relations and the civil rights movement, except with the races switched up. (there's literally a chapter that's just a retelling of the little rock nine.) not a single new thing was brought to the table. i'm sitting here wondering what was the merit of this book? what did it add to the discussion? what did it teach readers?
the pacing of the plot was also pretty poor. malorie blackman loooooves a time jump. nothing wrong with that, but many of hers seemed to be used to gloss over what felt like very important events in the characters' lives and it didn't make much sense.
the writing, i felt, needed a better sense of direction. i couldn't figure out who, or rather what age, this was being written for. the book deals with some incredibly heavy topics (suicide, domestic violence, alcoholism, public executions, rape, abortion, and also stopped juuuust short of a sex scene), many of them written fairly graphically. at the same time, some of the writing felt so juvenile. it's like, are you expecting 11 year olds or 16 year olds to read your book, because it feels like you're gearing towards both and it's not working tonally. it was so clunky and, particularly in the first half of the book, felt like it constantly beat the reader over the head with "racism bad and stupid, don't you agree?" it felt like malorie blackman threw every big topic she could think of and just threw it on the page to create more drama and more emotion, but it ended up feeling overdone, unbelievable, and melodramatic.
one of the main focuses is on the romance that develops between the two main characters, sephy and callum, and honestly i didn't like it much at all. their relationship is not healthy, yet is written in a way that we're supposed to root for them to be together even after some very major bad things happen. it made me view the characters as immature at best, and pathetic at worst (the latter moreso as the characters age to the point where they really should be acting with more sense. there's also a very blazé approach to consent in this book, which is troubling considering that this is marketed towards a young audience who likely doesn't have the critical thinking required to question it?
it's just interesting to me that malorie blackman has said how the death of stephen lawrence heavily pushed her to write this book, because i just don't know why. why was this book the result? it was incredibly shallow and i can't understand how such a monumental event shaped this story.
i don't want to put too much on malorie blackman because i always loved her books and i do believe she's contributed a lot through her stories but this just wasn't it. i also struggled with what to rate this because i did like it when i was younger, but not so much now. still, i continue to read a decent amount of children's books because i genuinely think they should be written with a quality that makes them enjoyable for all, and i've found that with other books - just not with this one. i'm going with 1.5* rounded up. i have her biography on my reading list and i'm looking forward to getting around to it, but as for the rest of the noughts & crosses series, i have no desire to read any more of it. sorry.
rating: ⭐️⭐️
#noughts and crosses#malorie blackman#2023 reads#2 stars#fiction#race#book review#booklr#bookblr#bookworm
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So about Endwalker...
Spoilers about literally the entire plot of Endwalker below. Fair warning that this is a relatively negative review of the expansion (though I did like it overall). If you want to have a discussion about what I've said then I'm all for it, and I'll even accept valid criticisms about my interpretation, but please don't "you just don't get it" me. I do get it, I like the expansion. Just giving it a bad grade in execution in a way that personally bothers me.
I love FFXIV with all my heart and I think Endwalker was a great expansion but idk, there's something about the way it's presented that does not play nicely with my emotional state.
I think it's because like.... You've created a universe where canonically every single civilization across all of history except for this one Earth-analogue, without fail, has either been fought to extinction, or, more commonly brought up, have chosen to kill their entire planet out of despair/ennui/apathy. This is a game where you on Ethyris are the only source of life in the known universe because everyone else has either been killed or killed themselves, because happiness was so universally unattainable that they decided they would rather go extinct.
And like, I am not ignorant that the point of the expansion was about hope in the face of despair, about perseverance and that hard times are worth it because there is joy at the end of it.
But, in my opinion, the game does not at all do a good enough job conveying the "but" of the nihilism. Like, sorry, countless civilizations through eons chose to kill themselves and left you alone in the universe to live and die and live and die until you die for good either by your own hand, another's, or nature... and you think your group of friends saying "but they were wrong tho :/" makes up for that???
I am a very nihilism-prone person, and I understand I do not have the mindset of the majority of this game's players. But my experience playing this game was having to see with my own eyes the near-inevitability and futility of trying to find joy in an uncaring universe.... and then solving the problem by killing one bird girl.
To me, this expansion felt like a bunch of "it gets better ❤️" -esque empty platitudes that do nothing to address the fact that the entire universe is fucking dead and you've just spent the last couple dozen hours speaking with their miserable husks, involuntarily resurrected by a malevolent being when all they want, and beg you for, is to not exist.
Like I seem to be in the minority on this based on conversations with friends but idk dude, I don't think we can just "uwu the power of friendship" our way out of that one! Especially when the aforementioned power of friendship is that all your friends (afayk in that moment) died to help you! Like wow! Awesome!
I just think if you're going to create something that posits questions like, "why go on in the face of tragedy?" "what gives life meaning when everything feels meaningless?" "how do you find joy?" .... you better provide damn good answers to those questions, and in a way that the player can understand and believe those answers more than the miserable view you just presented.
I really don't think EW did that, and the only reason I'm not absolutely fuming in frustration (despite how long this is, I'm really not, I just talk a lot) about it is, unironically, the Omicron tribe quests. A story of friendship between a lopporit and one of the dead husk-species as you slowly and with hard work start to spark hope in the other husk-species and show that even after losing everything and in the depths of their despair, the memory of like, a dessert that reminds them of their sacred mountain can start to rekindle that hope just a little bit.
That's what endwalker should have been. Not just a romp through misery and despair that gets solved once you show a bird girl hope by... beating her ass? And somehow that succeeding in reminding her of how she used to be. Because if you spend 95% of your time talking about the despair, then spend the last 5% implying the despair is misguided and wrong but not actually developing that in any meaningful way... I'm going to remember and side with the despair.
#did i write this after having a depression spiral from watching someone stream the last fight and cutscene? PERHAPS#but yeah i cannot deal w parts of this expansion#the tribe quests are the only reason i can spend time in ultima thule without feeling marginally worse afterwards#my text#god i haven't used this site in so long i forget my tags#maddy rants#cw depression#cw suicide
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On the whole I liked this, but for some reason it was taking me forever to plod through, so I switched to the audiobook halfway through to finish it up quickly.
So...Richelle Mead. I read a couple of her Vampire Academy books years ago, then recently read some of her Glittering Court series. And I enjoyed them to varying degrees, but...listen...she's always writing something problematic (student/teacher sex in VA and women literally auctioning themselves off to men in GC), but this book takes the cake so far. The problem this time is the racism. The main character meets her love interest for the first time at a bar and keeps staring at him because he looks "exotic." So he turns to her and says, "I bet you're wondering what race I am, aren't you?" So...that happened. Then there is a character in this book who is white but "looks Native American." So...he pretends to be Native American to pick up girls. He wears a fringe vest, says "how" - yes, really - and talks about the "Great Spirit" to impress women. And that is literally all he does. This character has no purpose in the book's plot whatsoever and you forget he's there until he pops up to be flamboyantly racist again. If he weren't in the book, the book would be unchanged. So...maybe someone like an editor should have suggested scrapping him...one would think.
ANYWAY. This book is more than a decade old and that's no excuse, but there was more to the story, fortunately!
The main character is a shaman. She has exceptional abilities when it comes to banishing otherworldly creatures from the plane of Earth, so that is her profession. I thought that was pretty cool. She comically exorcises a demon from a shoe first thing. She has magical tattoos that can help her contact Hecate and Persephone from Greek mythology, and those help her banish fae back to the fairy realm or send demons back to hell, whichever she wants to do. She also has three magical creatures assisting her, two of them bound to her service and one of them volunteering. She has a magic ring, daggers, guns, and athames. Fae cannot bear iron or anything made of a similar alloy, and other creatures cannot stand against silver, so she has some things made of each. And she has the very unique ability to travel between all three worlds (Earth, the fae realm, and the land of the dead). No shaman before her has possessed such unique capabilities. Gee, I wonder why.
A lot of predictable things occurred in the book, from the main character Eugenie's mysterious past to other major plot points. There were obvious hints along the way and nothing really surprised me, at least until the end. Then everything went crazy and some really clever plot twists came to light, that made me give this book 4 stars instead of 3.
Eugenie has two love interests and there are plenty of romance and spicy love scenes in the story for paranormal romance fans. One is the hot guy she met at the bar early in the story, and one is the fae King of the Autumn Court. Both of these relationships have some really interesting complexities. I liked them both but hot-guy-at-the-bar was Best Boy. For me, once a love interest is first introduced, I tend to pick him because he was first in line. lol Seriously, you can't make me like a character and then throw in some competition because my loyalties have already been aligned.
The fae in this book are referred to as the "gentry," and I loved that. It made them sound formal and fancy. lol
There were some really interesting plot elements. The main story kicks off when a guy contacts Eugenie for her usual services, dealing with otherworldly creatures, and tells her his sister was kidnapped by a fae king (who is awesome and was my favorite character). Okay, there were SO many twists involved in that plotline and I did not see any of them coming! That storyline runs up till the end of the book. It was ingenious. I think I would have enjoyed the story more if the focus had been more on that, maybe. It's not that I didn't like all the flirting going on, but sometimes it bogged down the story for me, even though romance is my favorite factor in any media.
What I really didn't like was the fact that, for reasons, all the otherworldly characters (even the "good guys") are trying to rape Eugenie. Every male character in the book wants a piece of her, and it was gross. And, adding to the problematic material, the girl that was kidnapped by the fae king is only 14 and he is also having sex with her. No. Just...no. At least it isn't graphically depicted but the story wouldn't have changed at all if that character had been at least 18 years of age. So...why do this...to a child...
There is a lot of focus on the magic system in this book, though I never really figured out why the gentry want to use bondage as a method of training magical skills. It's never really explained but there is a lot of tying-up, if you're into that. lol
The worldbuilding was interesting. I liked who could travel between worlds and how. There are a lot of interesting rules about that. And it was very interesting that the fae were originally from Earth, until anyone with magical abilities was banished to another realm. Part of the main plot revolves around a fae faction that wants to return to Earth and conquer, or at least make things the way they were with humans and the gentry coexisting once more. The gentry are fascinated with all things human, from pop culture references to food. That was a really interesting element.
This book on the whole was a mixed bag for me. The problematic material was REALLY problematic. But the plot worked out in ways that by the end of it that I have to say I can appreciate the complexity of the thing. I'm just not sure if I would read this again... I will continue the series. I bought all four books at a used book store and they might go right back there eventually, but that remains to be seen. I'm probably going to stick with the audiobooks from the library because things went so much faster that way for me.
#booklr#bookreview#book review#urban fantasy#paranormal romance#Richelle Mead#Storm Born#Dark Swan series
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Your Name AU
(because i’ve seen this movie a bajillion times and it makes me feel things and i am FEELING THINGS about zimbits rn)
(It probably won’t work, but i’m gonna make it work)
Bitty is a guy who is trying to peacefully spend his last summer before heading off to college in peace.
He spends his days working his part time job at his Aunt’s produce stand.
and Baking
and playing club hockey twice a week
Fairly peaceful
and...boring as hell
Until the dreams start
Jack has just started his third year at Samwell university
he’s still broken
still anxious
still the “golden boy” --even if he doesn’t feel like hes polished and shining
but he’s making do
and making friends
just a year or two left until
until what?
graduation? getting signed?
wasting away?
Jack doesn’t know. But he’s resigned to focus on hockey and let the rest of the world pass him by
Until the dreams start
Jack wakes up and it’s too hot
He shifts to get out of bed and finds that the covers he is tearing away from his body
are not his
or Shitty’s
or any of his roommates’
also. uh
those skinny legs and short shorts are not his
his hands look different too
and his face feels different
and the voice that calls to him from downstairs is not one he knows
huh
well
weird dream
hope it’s over soon
Bitty goes downstairs to eat the next day
His parents are both fairly silent
“I see you got over whatever mood you were in yesterday, young man”
“mood?”
“it doesn’t matter.”
That’s all he gets out of them
When he drives to the produce stand his cousins run up to him smiling
“I see that you actually remembered how to drive that thing”
“What?” says Bitty
“yesterday you were all over the place. almost knocked over the stand. if you were anyone else I’d think you were drunk”
“Aunt Judy figures you might have been possessed” the other cousin says
“With a fit of stupidity”
“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about” Bitty says
“It doesn’t matter. Just don’t ‘get lost’ or forget ‘how to drive stick’ again, Dicky” she says using finger quotes
Later in the day, Suzanne asks Bitty if he’s really feeling ok.
She was really worried about yesterday’s behavior
Bitty replies that , despite evidence on the contrary, he feels normal
They finish up some jars of jam and Bitty returns to his room for the night
There is where he finds it
Tucked under his pillow there is a note in scratchy handwriting
“Who are you?”
Bitty wakes up cold, in a bed that is too big for him
an alarm he doesn’t remember setting, or ever having, is blaring next to him
he looks to see the time
4:30 am
oh.
hell no
bitty gets up to unplug the dream alarm clock, and returns to sleep
Bitty wakes up 6 hours later with another man coming into bed with him
This man is naked
and moustached
one of those dreams? huh
never would he dream about this kind of guy though
because this guy doesn’t crawl into bed, like he thought
he wraps bitty in a burrito made out of comforters and yanks him onto the floor
“I know you needed to a break, but let the coaches know before you sleep through morning practice like that”
“practice?”
“yeah. and you’re lucky that I’m waking you up in time to go to your 11am.”
“but it’s summer”
naked moustache man just looks at him and rolls his eyes
“we’ll grab lunch after class”
“Wait!”
“What”
“...where is my class?”
Jack wakes up the next day
and is dragged to the doctor to test for a possible concussion
“the things you were saying and doing yesterday were crazy”
“you skipped morning practice”
“After class you threw down your notes and said you’d never major in History”
“You baked seven as an apology for skipping morning practice”
“And then you dropped into fetal position in afternoon practice when Ollie was about to check you”
“And you took, i don’t know, 7000 selfies of yourself and called yourself handsome”
“have you ever taken a selfie before in your life?”
jack just shakes his head
“yeah. like i said you’re getting checked for a concussion”
Did I hit my head? , Jack asks
“no. but it can’t be” Shitty pauses “It wouldn’t be your other thing would it?”
I don’t think so he says.
Jack has never really had memory problems. and his anxiety and panic never particularly affected him in the way described
faintly, he recalls a young boy at one of his games right before the draft, voice broken as he says “Jack, don’t you remember me?”
it leaves his mind as quickly as it entered
because he had bigger problems to figure out
namely how he had new entries on the journal on his phone
it was a summary of all of the things that “Jack” did the previous day
“Thanks for a long day of being a Big Shot on campus, handsome!”
signed Eric
Eric??
Who the hell is Eric?
it happens again
Jack spends a day as bitty
and Bitty spends a day as Jack
and they wake up not remembering too much about what happens
the only thing that cements that it’s not just a weird dream is that
well...real life consequences
Jack becomes a lot more...spinny and less up for contact when he plays hockey
and ends up enjoying time with his teammates a lot more
and has a huge country dialect now
and one time someone came up to him speaking french and jack had no idea what was going on???
and he smiles sometimes???
and at the end of the day he’s almost always on his phone typing away
Bitty is able to kick ass into gear with hockey
but can’t bake worth shit
honestly, suzanne hasn’t seen anything of that quality since bitty was seven
AND he had to check a recipe
also, he’s started to bike to work
driving stick is impossible
he’s very serious on some days
he spends his evenings watching history documentaries and writing in a journal
Well. It seems like this is just gonna be life for a while, they both figure
best set up some rules
Bitty, as Jack, is NOT ALLOWED TO DITCH CLASSES
no use of the word y’all
no beyonce
no short shorts
don’t drop like a brick when someone comes to check you
seriously Eric it’s fine
Eric it’s my body that would get hurt don’t worry
also please don’t drink or use drugs in my body
it’s a long story but again
it’s my body
Jack-as-Bitty is asked to be polite to his friends and customers
and please never bake anything ever
don’t leave the house dressed like some weird clothing outlet exploded
if you yell at my teammates i swear to god, mr. zimmermann.
don’t disrespect senor bun
or anyone
stop frowning so much, even Coach has asked me about it and i don’t know what to say
don’t watch stuff on my netflix account. your history documentaries are messing up my recommendations
Despite the rules
They find ways to keep bothering each other
But also trying to make each other better
As captains of each others teams, both teams are able to benefit from their guidance
Bitty’s team gets a lot stronger technically
but kind of hate how much of a hardass Bitty is 3 times a week
The SMH is more in synch with each other than ever
and Bitty is able to help out a lot more
But Jack ends up having to put a lot of money in the sin bin for
‘acting off’
Jack is very upset to find a picture of himself in the swallow, sitting on the roof of the Haus shirtless and wearing short shorts chilling
like
what the fuck Eric
But they get a little routine down, and nothing changes except for minor nuisances
so whatever
It all works good until one day, while Jack and Suzanne are bonding over making jam, Suzanne looks Jack right in the eyes and says
“oh...you’re not my dicky. you’re dreaming aren’t you?”
Jack snaps awake in his bed
not Eric’s bed. His bed
Huh. weird.
He goes to check his phone and of course, there is a long journal entry left over from the day he didn’t get
It’s all mostly ok until he gets to the end
“It looks like your first big hockey game is tomorrow night! Be sure to have fun. Enjoy it!”
“There’s a comet tonight for me. I’ll take lots of pictures so that you can see it next time we ...do whatever we do”
Jack and the SMH win the game. and he actually tries to have fun. but the only person he wants to celebrate with is
well
he’s in georgia
bUT
Jack has a phone
He dials bitty’s cellphone number that has been saved in his contact
his heart is beating quite fast.
and then he hears
“We’re sorry. The number you have dialed is no longer in service”
Jack stops switching after that
He should be relieved. overjoyed
but he’s not
he doesn’t miss the humidity
or the dirt roads
or the bugs
but he does miss something
and he’s forgetting all about it
so he tries searching online for the town
the town he can’t remember the name of
he doesn’t want to forget, so he starts drawing sketches of what he remembers
they’re not bad
pretty darn good, even
Not as good as Lardo’s, but she’s still abroad
He tries to call Eric’s number a couple more times. He gets the same results
Jack can’t take it anymore
During the winter break, Jack flies down to Georgia for a weekend, rents a car, and drives himself in the general area he remembers the town
he stops locals and shows them sketches
“is there any town nearby that looks like this?”
they all respond in the negative
he does this for hours
the sun is starting to set when he resigns to give up
he pulls into a diner in the town he’s in, orders, and looks at his sketches again
maybe it’s possible that the town isn’t...even real?
it really could have just been his dreams
that is what he thinks when the server returns with some water
“Hey. that’s a pretty good picture of Godfrey”
“Godfrey?”
“Yeah. I grew up there.” he says looking a bit sad
“Can you tell me how to get there?”
The server pauses and gives Jack a mourned, but puzzled look “ it was about a 15 minute drive from here but-”
“it was?”
“you didn’t hear about what happened?”
Jack shakes his head.
“If you don’t mind,I’ll take you to it after you finish your dinner”
It’s all gone.
Oh God.
Everything from the small ice cream shop to the old creek where Bitty’s cousins would hang around
It’s all rubble
and mounds of dirt
Literal miles
Jack can’t breathe
he can’t
breathe
just breathe
just
breat--
#au#a shitty au#omgcp#check please#it's really nothing like the story except for the couple of major plot points#because honestly how could i bring in ancient forgotten japanese concepts into an american context#fic#wipitgood
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This is gonna be the first time I request from you and I hope you don't mind :))
An emergency request pls. So, i have this tendency of talkinga a lot, principally when its about something I really enjoy, one thing that is normal to happen when I talk too much is people interrupting me out of nowhere and never letting me finish, any time someone does that I just feel like crying honestly, and of course that happened today and no one seemed to notice. Could I have a scenario with Saiki where his partner normally suffers with that?
It's okay if you don't want to, have a great day :))
Hi of course you can!! Thank you for requesting!
Sorry about the long wait lmao I have a couple (like 10) of these in my inbox
CW BELOW THE CUT: Reader is ignored :(
𝐾𝑢𝑠𝑢𝑜 𝑆𝑎𝑖𝑘𝑖
Saiki had begun to notice how your demeanor changed quickly.
But he didn’t exactly know why.
Yes, he could read your mind and it could all be over. But he wants to try to be an “emotionally attached” boyfriend.
So he waited for you to come to him.
Except… that didn’t exactly happen.
Fortunately, you were both sitting at lunch together, friend groups merged.
Kaido and Nendo had found themselves talking to some of your friends about some nerdy movie they were all into.
Kuboyasu and Toritsuka had engaged in a board game with two more of your friends.
That just left you and your boyfriend.
While you were content with just talking to your lover, you had recently gotten something you were very excited about.
“Guys look!” You chimed, pulling the item out of your bag.
Everyone turned their attention towards you, eyes seemingly interested in the object.
When you held it up and displayed it with a proud look, they let out a few ad-libbed reactions.
“Yep! It’s something from my favorite show.” You cooed with a beaming smile.
From that point on, you began to explain the major plot points of your favorite show. Hitting every interesting fact about it.
Your face was simply lit like a Christmas tree as you enthusiastically explained every aspect.
“And then the main character had to-“
“Hey did anyone take Sensei’s quiz earlier? I totally got a 55!” Kaido chirped suddenly, resulting in laughter from the group.
You immediately snapped your mouth shut and sunk back into your seat, lazily prodding at your lunch.
Ah. This again.
The group was chattering away happily without you…
“Well? Then what happened?” Saiki asked in a monotone, resting his chin on his knuckles.
“Wh-“
“You never finished your synopsis.” The pinkette continued, “And you seem quite invested in it, so fill me in.”
“It doesn’t matter, Saiki.” You replied with a forced smile, “It’s just me blabbering like I always do.”
“Your passions aren’t blabbering. I want to know what else happens, since I might watch this show.”
You sigh and shake your head, “I promise it’s just me ranting about the show. Nothing you can’t look up on the internet on your own.” you mumbled out the last part and turned your face away from him.
“(Y/N), hey. Look at me,” Kusuo demanded, gently taking your hand.
You return his gaze with tear-pricked eyes. “What, Kusuo? They don’t even care about what I have to say. They don’t even know I’m crying right now, I bet you.”
“It doesn’t matter what they think; you have me. I will always be invested in the things you tell me. My life is pretty boring, so your little quips about things I don’t know about are my favorite thing about you.” Kusuo said softly, rubbing his thumb along the base of yours.
“Saiki-“
“So please, continue your story.” He said with a slight smile, “There’s no need to feel ashamed in sharing the things you love. Those things make you special, and I love to hear about them.”
You shook your head with a smile, wiping your teary eyes.
Soon your eyes returned to their prior sparkling form, finishing your rundown.
Saiki was actually entranced too!
At first he was just giving verbal reassurances. Your classic “yep.” “Yeah” and “uh-huh”s
But then? It switched to “No way.” “Wait seriously” *gasp*, “oh my god.”
He most definitely knew what you two were going to do for your next date.
—————♡︎✞♡︎✞♡︎✞♡︎✞♡︎✞♡︎✞♡︎✞♡︎✞♡︎✞♡︎—————
#Saiki k#the disastrous life of saiki k x reader#the disastrous life of saiki k.#saiki k x reader#kusuo saiki x reader#Saiki x reader#Saiki k comfort#Saiki x reader comfort#ducky’s emergency requests#emergency requests#the disastrous life of Saiki k emergency requests#Saiki k emergency requests#emergency
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c!Dream and the rules
(/dsmp /rp, all names refer to characters, not content creators)
I think one of the most striking parts of Exile is something that I rarely see talked about, and it’s Dream’s rules. Or rather, how his rules were made to be used as justification to hurt Tommy.
The thing about exile is that, outside of the initial rule of “Don’t go back to L’Manburg”, Dream never told Tommy the rules, yet constantly operated under the assumption that Tommy already knew them, and had accepted them. The rules also changed constantly, without Tommy ever being notified until he was already in trouble.
The second time Dream told Tommy to put his armor in the hole, he didn’t tell Tommy to do that right away. Instead, the conversation went like this (slightly edited to remove stammering and unrelated dialogue).
Dream: Do you have, uh… something you wanna put on the floor here?
Tommy: Yes. (drops two pieces of red concrete as Dream digs a hole) Dre-eam! You’re evil. You’re evil.
Dream: Anything else, Tommy?
Tommy: Nope!
Dream: Oh c’mon, I know there’s something else you wanna drop down here.
Tommy: (panicking slightly) No, there… (messages BBH “take this and run”, throws him the disc BBH had gifted him earlier) Um… I don’t reckon there is!
(pause)
Dream: Okay, are you suuuure?
Tommy: YES.
Dream: Alright… How ‘bout your armor, Tommy?
Tommy: Well, no, this is- I actually earned this myself.
Dream: I know you did!
Tommy: Leave me alone.
Dream: Just drop it in the hole, Tommy.
Tommy: Wh- no, NO, you can’t just come and demand things from me! I’ve been exiled, I’ve done your shit, what do you mean?!
Dream: (sing-song) Tommy…
Tommy: What?
(Dream hits Tommy with his axe, taking over half his health)
Tommy: (screams, drops his armor) OKAY OKAY OKAY OKAY OKAY OKAY OKAY!
The only rule Tommy was aware of at this time was that he wasn’t allowed to go back to L’Manburg. Dream had taken his armor the night before, but there was no indication that he expected Tommy to do this constantly. Taking his armor upon initially arriving at Logstedshire made some kind of sense, allowing Tommy to keep it would run the risk of him trying to fight his way back into L’Manburg. Taking his new, very shitty armor (seriously it was an iron chestplate and a pair of golden leggings he got from a ruined portal chest) made no sense at all, so the fact that Tommy was confused and refused to cooperate at first isn’t unexpected in the slightest.
And the thing is… Dream was aware of this fact. Throughout the conversation, he never really sounded annoyed, and was actively teasing Tommy at times. This isn’t a good thing btw, it’s a sign that he was fully aware that Tommy didn’t know what he wanted from him, and that that would create a situation where Dream could “put him in his place” as it were.
If you’re a parent, and your kid does something that’s not allowed, without knowing it’s not allowed, you don’t start off with a beating. You sit them down, calmly explain the rules to them and explain why those rules are there, then send them on their way with the knowledge that they shouldn't do it again.
This interaction wasn’t an instance of Tommy acting out and Dream correcting him. This interaction was a trap. Dream set Tommy up to fail by not telling him the rules beforehand, and when Tommy offered even the slightest bit of resistance and asked why he needed to drop his armor, Dream jumped straight to beating him. It’s a powerplay, plain and simple.
This is demonstrated again with the destruction of Logstedshire. Dream got pissed that Tommy disobeyed him by having hidden chests with gear under his house, and retaliated by destroying everything Tommy had built, destroying every item he’d collected, killing his pet and only foodsource, barring him from the Nether, banning everyone except himself from visiting, and telling him to start over from scratch after a whole lecture about how Tommy betrayed him.
Again, I wanna point out some specific lines from this lecture that illustrate my point very well.
Dream: You were lying to me! You were lying to me.
Tommy: No- Why was I lying?!
Dream: What do you mean, why were you lying?!
Tommy: I wasn’t hi- I wasn’t-
Dream: You hid things in a chest knowing they were things I wouldn’t want you to have! And you hid it in a way that way I would never find it!
Except Tommy didn’t know that. The contents of the stash were all items that Tommy had obtained previously without any issue (diamonds, emeralds, iron, ender pearls, some pickaxes, and some purely sentimental items like flowers, a jukebox, and pictures of Tubbo and L’Manburg). In fact, the vast majority of them came from Tommy’s aboveground storage, which Dream had full access to, and had looked through before!
Dream also never said Tommy wasn’t allowed to hide stuff, and there was nothing to suggest he didn’t want Tommy to keep secrets from him.
There’s been a theory floating around for a while that Dream knew about Tommy’s item stash beforehand, since it was a very strange place to dig a hole (like, right in front of the house in the center of Logstedshire itself, instead of out in the plains where the TNT wouldn’t damage any structures), and Tommy had previously forgotten to cover up the entrance ladder. While Dream hadn’t looked inside the house, he would’ve definitely heard Tommy place the block back.
If this theory is correct, then this was yet another trap. Dream knew Tommy had a hidden room, and instead of just saying “hey, I don’t want you to have a hidden stash, go put this back and fill in the room” (which would’ve still been bullshit btw), he went COMPLETELY ballistic, destroyed EVERYTHING Tommy had, and while doing it, kept admonishing Tommy for betraying him, said shit like “I thought we were friends”, and even accused him of preparing to attack Dream. Again, a powerplay.
Hell, even the exile conflict itself is this! Tommy was exiled for griefing the king’s property while being a high-ranking official in L’Manburg. Except Fundy, the then-president’s son, CONSTANTLY griefed Eret’s shit after the L’Manburg war, ranging from ripping down one of their towers to “shrink” it, filling another tower with water, and multiple elaborate plots to steal the throne from under their nose. But apparently, between all of that shit and the exile-conflict, the rules were silently changed, meaning Dream could exile Tommy for breaking a couple blocks and placing some rude signs in George’s house. Even the punishment itself was changed without warning, as Tommy went from being exiled from L’Manburg to exiled from “everywhere that’s ever been touched.”
...I was originally gonna make a different point here. I may put it in the reblogs, because I still think it’s very interesting. But, in the middle of writing this essay I had to stop because it was late, then I spent the entire next day packing up because I’m in the middle of a move. It's now the next evening, I'm sat in my new room, on my camping bed, I opened this doc because I pretty much forgot what I typed, I reread it, and then I realized… This isn’t an isolated series of events. This is a pattern for Dream.
Before Tommy first joined the server, there were only three set rules: no stealing, no griefing, and no killing people. Except by that point, those rules weren’t enforced at all. In fact, Dream broke all three at once at one point, by killing George and burning his diamond armor because he didn’t feel it was fair that George got to run around in full diamond when everyone else still had iron.
Tommy joined the server, and broke the rules like everyone else. He stole shit, broke shit, killed George for funsies… and he got exiled for it. Seriously, they dumped him in an empty snowfield for breaking rules that nobody had enforced for weeks. So technically, the Exile-arc isn’t even the first time something like this has happened to him!
During the events that would eventually spark the Disc War, Sapnap stole a bunch of Tommy’s items (including the only Netherite chestplate on the server at the time), and told him he’d only give the stuff back if Tommy helped him with a conflict he had with Ponk. Long story short, Dream tried to intervene and was killed by Tommy and Sapnap, and Dream stole Tommy’s discs to force him to apologize. He then kept the discs, and the Disc War followed. Sapnap, despite being the aggressor and arguably forcing Tommy to participate in the conflict, was never punished.
This proves not only that the rules can change whenever Dream feels like it, but that they’re arbitrarily enforced. Dream refuses to punish his friends for the same crimes he endlessly fucks over Tommy for.
L’Manburg was created in part because of the fact that the rules were unevenly enforced. Tommy, Wilbur, and later Tubbo were repeatedly killed, stolen from, imprisoned, and even held hostage for very minor crimes, while the people killing, imprisoning, kidnapping and stealing from them were able to do so without impunity.
This was also the point where Dream just started making up new rules; there was no rule against having governments on the server, or making a separate area where Dream’s rules wouldn’t apply, so Dream banned governments, and used this new rule as an excuse to kill them, take their items, and tear their land to shreds.
And that’s another thing: the punishments for breaking Dream’s rules are INCREDIBLY harsh.
Kill him non-canonically one time? Your most prized possessions will now be dangled over your head and used to hurt you for the next few months.
Make a country with different laws that doesn’t infringe on anyone’s territory, has no desire to expand, is explicitly pacifistic and open to trade negotiations? You’ll be forced to fight a war you’re in no way equipped to fight, you’ll be betrayed and murdered and have your land destroyed in front of your very eyes until you literally have no choice but to surrender.
Mildly vandalize the king’s house, which nobody else has ever been punished for? You’ll be dragged into court, exiled from your home, and subjected to weeks of abuse until you believe that all of your friends hate you and you actively want to kill yourself.
Hide some stuff in a secret chest? Your only shelter will be exploded, your pet/only food source will be killed, all your items will be destroyed, you’ll be banned from the Nether, and none of your friends will be allowed to come see you.
This is all such disproportionate retribution it’s ridiculous. It’s like punishing someone for speeding by blowing up their car with a ballistic missile.
So to sum up: Dream’s rules are arbitrarily enforced, and he can just straight up make them up on the spot if he feels like it. Sometimes, he won’t tell you a rule exists until you’ve already broken it, and you’re treated as if you broke it out of malice instead of genuine ignorance. And if you do break a rule, and he decides you have to be punished, it will always be a punishment so harsh it doesn’t even ATTEMPT to fit the crime.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty fucking corrupt and tyrannical to me.
When people say Tommy deserved exile, or made Dream spiral into villainy, or abused Dream somehow (seriously I’ve seen this take multiple times and every time it makes my brain melt) by breaking the rules, I would invite them to take a step back and ask themselves, why did that rule exist? Did Tommy know it existed? Was it enforced for everyone other than him as well? Does the punishment fit the crime?
Dream has a bad habit of making up rules, or enforcing old ones that were never enforced before, to punish those who threaten his power. None of the Dream Team were ever punished for anything, despite committing the same crimes as the L’Manburgians. That is, until they founded Mexican L’Manburg (i.e. went against Dream’s rule), at which point they were attacked by Dream and George was dethroned for “not being neutral enough.”
Tommy should’ve faced consequences for what he did. But those consequences should’ve come naturally, and been carried out by the people he hurt. Like, if Dream hadn’t intervened, griefing George’s house would’ve resulted in George griefing Tommy back in revenge. In fact, he DID do that, by turning Tommy’s entire house into granite and putting the Jump In The Cadillac picture on his front lawn.
These are natural, proportionate consequences. Exile was none of that. The Disc War was none of that. Everything that happened to L’Manburg was none of that.
Dream’s rules and how he enforces them are inherently corrupt and tyrannical. To pretend it’s anything but is disingenuous at best.
#dream smp#dsmp#dsmp analysis#c!dream#c!tommy#tommyinnit#dreamwastaken#i had a COMPLETELY different point that i wanted to make but then i thought about it and went w a i t#uhhh if you wanna hear my original point lemme know i guess#anyway c!dream is such an interesting character! i hate him!#little green bastard man#c!dream critical
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Top 10 BLs I watched in 2021
As the year comes to a close I’ve decided to take a look at all the BLs I watched in these past 12 months and determine my faves. Notice that it’s BLs I watched in 2021, not BLs released in 2021.
1. Manner of Death (Thailand, 2020)
Even though the majority of this aired in 2020, it wasn’t finished until January 2021 so it counts as a 2021 watch for me. God the theories we discussed after every episode, we all must’ve looked absolutely insane. Peak clown behaviour... Anyways, this is the direction I hope more BLs take in the future. Not necessarily crime/thriller (though that IS one of my favourites and I would not complain about more of that) but what I want to see is BL delving into a variety of genres. You could see how a more serious and mature approach really elevated MaxTul and their acting to a new level and I wish to see more CPs explore that in the future.
2. We Best Love (Taiwan, 2021)
I distinctly remember the moment I scrolled through WeTV and saw this being announced and thought “Oh well, this looks like a small passion project, might check it out.” Well... it IS a passion project but it definitely isn’t small anymore. I recently rewatched this and to be quite honest, the story is not the most amazing thing you’ll ever watch (shoutout to S2EP2 though, that shit was mental). But the reason why I can’t let go of this one is the actors. Apart from loving the supporting actors (Tian and Evan specifically), SamYu simply has me in a chokehold point blank. No other CP compares to them. And even though I‘m scared of what kind of drama plot will be introduced in S3 I absolutely cannot wait for it simply because of all the SamYu content we will get from the promo. Like… @schnaf and I have a wishlist for result entertainment of things we need them to do - and those moving cat ears that read your brain waves are on the very top of it.
3. Bad Buddy (Thailand, 2021)
Ok, I know this hasn’t finished airing yet but I think we can all agree that this deserves to be on here. I heavily doubt they will fuck up the ending so we’ll let it slide. Bad Buddy really looked at all the things a Thai BL can do wrong and then said “Hold my engineering diploma, we’ll show you how it’s done.” Like... it still uses a lot of typical tropes, nothing about the story is particularly groundbreaking or anything we haven’t seen yet. And still, it works so so well. I think Ohm and Nanon’s phenomenal acting contributes a big part to this. But also P’Aof just knows what he’s doing. As much as I praised MoD for exploring a new genre, Bad Buddy proves that you can take all the tried and true things, like a uni setting and an enemies to lovers plot, and still stand out from the crowd. ALSO: Possible/very likely GL side couple instead of randomly pairing up all the best friends? We love to see it!
4. Word of Honor (China, 2021)
After The Untamed we’ve all been waiting for the next big danmei. Is it as good as The Untamed? No. But nothing will ever be as good as The Untamed so that’s okay. I’ll admit I gave up on trying to understand the plot halfway through but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy this drama. Everyone involved really did the best they could do to bring this novel to life by toeing the line of censorship. And with that ending? What more can you wish for honestly, considering the circumstances. WoH, at its core, is a story about bad people and I do love me some villains! Starting from WKX and continuing with so many beloved side characters, a lot of which were badass women, I can’t help but love this show.
5. I Promised You the Moon (Thailand, 2021)
Okay, I’m not a big fan of second seasons when it comes to BL because more often than not we’ll be treated to a cheating plot and IPYTM is not an exception to this. However, ITSAY was already revolutionary in how it broke the mold of what highschool/uni BLs were supposed to look and be like. And this continues in IPYTM. The whole thing just feel so much more raw. A lot of Thai BLs are goofy and ridiculous and that’s okay, those are fun as well. But ITSAY and IPYTM feel more like reality. You can feel how BK and PP really put their all into this project and I hope this shows producers that there are many different ways to tackle BLs.
6. Don‘t Say No (Thailand, 2021)
For the same reason I tend to avoid second seasons I also tend to avoid established relationship plots. Until I watched Don’t Say No. It’s laughable how bad the trailer is compared to the actual show. In fact, it almost stopped me from watching this. Well, thank god I still did! I think LeoFiat are the couple with the best communication skills out of all the BLs I’ve watched so far. They have a very specific relationship dynamic that could definitely be interpreted as dom/sub but - and this is the thing - it’s healthy! Which is why I can’t believe the people who made Tharntype also made DSN. To me, it feels like the complete opposite. As for JaFirst: I hope they’ll get another series because they do have a lot of chemistry.
7. Couple of Mirrors (China, 2021)
Listen, I know I said BL but CoM deserves a spot on this list, period. I went into this knowing nothing and was positively surprised by the mature subject matter. Who doesn’t love a bit of murder, crime and intrigue? On top of that, our two mains were just way too cute! And just like with WoH, considering the censorship this drama went through we still got a lot of things that definitely hinted at more than just friendship. I also really loved the historical setting in the Republican Era and really want to see more of that. Thank god we’ll get season 2, right?
8. Be Loved In House: I Do (Taiwan, 2021)
Is the premise of this enemies to lovers plot ridiculous? Yes, but who even cares. What can I say? I’m a sucker for omg they were roommates! This was like a fun little snack: it didn’t feel too serious and god, did it have some ridiculous scenes. But sometimes, that’s all you need. Obviously, this wasn’t something that will stick with you forever, but that’s okay. The mains did a very solid job and we even got a bit of steamy action towards the end, so all in all I would definitely recommend this.
9. Together With Me (Thailand, 2017)
This is on the list simply for S1EP1 scene 1 alone. Like HELLO? I watched this after MoD so I already knew how MaxTul act with each other but still… insanity. Unfortunately, the trope of the jealous (ex-) girlfriend is heavy with this one but it also gave us one of THE BEST female side characters in all of BL: Queen Yiwha! We love, we stan, we ship her with Fai (yes, we’ll ignore Bad Romance for our sanity’s sake). Major point deduction for the creepy doctor though...
10. Why R U? (Thailand, 2020)
Half of this was great (Fightor) and half of this was boring (SaifahZon). Which is why I have to say I’m very glad Fightor ended up becoming the main couple at some point. Of course they had their ups and downs and some scenes were... questionable but in the end I did enjoy their story a lot.
-
Honorable mentions:
EP 9 & 10 of Y-Destiny (2021)
Kaengputh my beloved! There really wasn’t enough time in just these two episodes to tell their story so it all just felt a bit rushed but First and Toru made up for it with their phenomenal performance. I really hope these two will get their own series soon because their on-screen chemistry is INSANE.
Until We Meet Again (2019)
Okay, I’ll admit I skipped through most of this. It’s in honorable mentions because of WinTeam. No regrets.
My Engineer (2020)
Congrats for being the worst BL I’ve ever watched yet somehow still making me obsessed for like two weeks straight. This is the complete opposite of Bad Buddy. It looked at all the previous Thai BLs and said “I can do worse!” If it weren’t for the side pairings I would’ve dropped it. Filled to the brim with every bad BL trope you can think of it really cranks up the cringe-o-meter but then again it was all so ridiculous and trashy that it was funny. (Also, I will forever stay mad about how Ryan got the absolute worst dub in existence and then got kicked off the show.)
Kpop ship compilations
Listen, Kpop and BL are inseparably linked in my head forever now. From actor/idol friendships to idols starring in BLs themselves to Kpop fanfiction being adapted into BLs - there is no way I could ever separate these two. So including this just makes sense to me. Top ships I enjoyed this year were: Chanlix, Minsung, Jilix, Changjin (all Stray Kids), Woosan (Ateez), every possible BTS ship you can imagine but particularly Jikook, Sope, Hopekook and Yoonmin, and most recently Yeonbin (TXT).
#thai bl#bad buddy#we best love#manner of death#word of honor#mod#wbl#shl#blih#ipytm#dsn#com#twm#why r u
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