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thegeminisage · 7 months

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star trek: the motion picture rewrite

star trek the motion picture was bad so i'm fixing it. here's how

problem #1: everybody got interesting setups and nobody got any payoffs.

problem #2: ilia and decker were just not that interesting (sorry ilia and decker) and they either needed to be more interesting or have less screen time or both.

problem #3: it took more than half the film for the enterprise to even leave earth. this seems like poor pacing, which the overall film also suffers from.

problem #4: those damn 20-minute cgi scenery sequences. enough is enough.

sorry in advance but this post won't make much sense if you haven't seen the first star trek movie, "star trek: the motion picture." i don't have the time or patience to re-explain the entire plot! the novelization also ties into this but i do explain some of that.

MAIN PLOT

it wasn't a GREAT plot but i'm keeping it mostly the same, except a few changes:

the enterprise leaves much earlier in the film. all the interpersonal drama can happen ON THE WAY to v'ger and it would make very little difference to the main script and series of events, but the reminds that they're only x hours away from interception would help keep things tense and moving along. also, it would get spock in here earlier. we went a LONG time without seeing him.

the engines can still fail at the outset and get fixed by spock, but it's kind of weird that he shows up out of nowhere. i would change this to kirk leaving him messages - and spock finally answering at the exact right moment (more on this in spock's section)

less of those long cgi sequences, obviously. the enterprise deserves all the fanfare in the world but we do have other stuff to do. maybe we can learn a little about v'ger through the ilia-probe in bits and pieces before we get there rather than learning all at once at the end - the book sort of did that and it was better. but i think we just need to cut them to allow time for a LITTLE more interpersonal drama - the balance of interpersonal stuff to plot stuff was WAY off, even after you consider how the tos episodes are somtimes

i don't think decker should fuck the probe.

the book and movie seem to disagree on whether the ilia-probe really "is" ilia or a very convincing copy. i think we would do better to leave it open, as scifi so often is, because both answers feel slightly wrong to me

kirk just taking the ship at the end and going "ok thattaway" was heartwarming but lacks any semblance of logic. rather than beaming down to debrief, though - in case they don't let him go back up - i'd like to see him doing a power move where the required personnel for his debrief come to HIM. and THEN when the dust clears he can go "thattaway"

CHARACTER ARC: KIRK

there's a lot more on this in the book than the movie, but kirk begins this story three years post his five year journey. in the movie he's framed as "washed up" but the book sometimes implies he's "damaged." starfleet offered him the promotion to admiral to keep him out of space because his was the first ship to come back relatively intact after a five-year and they're using him as a poster boy for their pro-space propaganda. (kirk wholly disagrees with "intact"; he lost a total of 94 crew members over those five years and objects strongly to his new legendary fame.) it's worth noting that bones begged him NOT to take the promotion and he and some other officers actually RESIGNED over it.

also, for the first year back on earth, starfleet totally just SENT HIM A WOMAN? to like keep him distracted and "happy." he got honeypotted into not going back out into space. how many planets have tried to trap people by making them happy? how many times has kirk refused to stay in such a place because it leaves him nothing to strive for? and then, irony of horrific ironies, he was trapped on earth. he doesn't realize this woman was basically sent to pacify him until the very beginning of the film/book. anyway, this woman's name is lori, she's gonna matter just a little bit later. after she left, kirk got pushed into a desk job he was utterly fucking miserable in. he notes that it was the only time he ever ignored bones's advice and he suffered greatly for it.

when the "intruder" (v'ger, obvs) is revealed to be approaching earth (via brain implants? stupid, let's just switch to everyone seeing it on TV), kirk, for totally normal reasons, jumps at the chance to take the enterprise away from decker ostensibly because he's got more experience but also because (the book gets into this) he feels like he's been jerked around on a string for the last three years by the admirals (specifically he names nogura to give us a face but they were all in on it) and also that he's totally dead inside. he has to guilt trip bordering on BLACKMAIL nogura into letting him back aboard (ie bringing up the fact that he placated kirk with a woman and sweet promises instead of like...actually caring about his PTSD). we're keeping that part because it's sexy and fun.

the question the movie seems to be asking is, "is jim kirk too old and feeble to captain the enterprise again?" i would like to posit instead we go with "is jim kirk too DAMAGED to captain the enterprise again?" they really put him through the wringer in season 3 in particular and that total nervous breakdown from the romulan espionage episode was supposed to have been REAL before they changed it, so i'm sticking it in that three year timeskip instead. in the book, jim fucks up several times - can't figure out his seatbelt, gets lost, and notably fails to be able to save his former honeypot lori and his new vulcan first officer (off-brand spock) during a transport malfunction - they get rearranged horrifically and then die right in front of him. rather than frame this as jim being old and out of practice i'd like to frame it around the totally untreated PTSD of space and his five-year finally catching up to him.

the book ALSO gets into how jim feels more at home in space, how being away from it gives him physical symptoms almost like withdrawal, and how he felt he has been brought back from the dead and out of a miserable, meaningless life when stepping aboard for the first time. IMPORTANT FOR LATER.

at the same time though i think we might greatly benefit from mixed feelings - perhaps JIM HIMSELF has wondered if he was too damaged to get back out there - if, after everything, part of him wasn't a little hesitant to go back out into the unknown and risk putting himself through the kind of hell he got put through in some of those later tos episodes. maybe he wanted the captaincy to prove it to himself, yes, but also it was something he was determined to do (even though part of him was a little worried about doing it) because he thought he was the only one that COULD. there's a hidden element in this film of facing one's fears to benefit emotionally, so it would be important to squeeze something like this in, even if it's only in hints or light implications.

the ultimate answer to jim's question of course is that he ISN'T too damaged to be back out in space, especially not if spock and bones and the others are out there with him. but to get into that we have to move to...

CHARACTER ARC: DECKER AND ILIA

i'm putting these 2 together because (sorry) i don't care very much. side characters in trek are always supposed to just highlight the main characters anyway, right? again, i'm so sorry. anyway so. in the movie and especially the book, ilia is pretty constantly sexualized - deltan females and their pheromones or whatever - and she has very little personality. decker is mostly just mad (justifiably) that kirk stole his job after 18 months of prep and sad that ilia got zapped, but we feel neither of these things very strongly. the movie doesn't even MENTION decker's father killing himself in space* which is a huge waste of potential when you consider the name of the game re: kirk's arc, at least in the book, is PTSD.

*matt decker, will decker's father, is the captain from doomsday machine (consider this a spoiler warning): when a giant machine showed up and engaged in battle with his ship, the constellation, he evacuated his crew to a nearby planet and stayed behind, planning to go down with the ship. unfortunately the machine was a planet-eater, and ate the planet his crew was on, so his crew all died while he listened to them beg him for help, and he later tried to suicide bomb the machine with the enterprise and then later one of its shuttles, which tragically ended in his mostly-pointless death. kirk did at least use the idea to suicide bomb the machine with the damaged constellation and have himself beamed out just in time though, and he had the record made that matt decker died in the line of duty, omitting some of his shadier actions so as not to stain his memory or whatever.

ANYWAY, i think the only way to make decker and ilia interesting is to foil them with kirk and spock. decker is who kirk was before his five-year: smart, capable, ready to take on anything and chomping at the bit to get out there and bite off as much as he can chew and then some. also, he's emotionally distant from women because of his status as captain/his need to not be tied down so he can explore space.

ILIA on the other hand is more like spock - she has limited telepathic abilities, she is othered and sometimes sexualized by the people around her because of her VULCAN BIOLOGY sorry because of her race, and she has a passion for learning and pursuits of intellect. and also a semi-formal telepathic link with decker - they had met before, and were preparing to bond (the way a vulcan might), and then decker more or less got cold feet and left her at the altar because his own passion for being in space left him unable to commit. but she WENT AFTER HIM (important for later) and wound up as the enterprise navigator.

for decker, instead of showing kirk up once near the beginning, apologizing, and gradually learning to get along with him, i think i'd like him to be showing kirk up a lot - being subtly snide when kirk can't work his seatbelt, for example. this film has no real antagonist aside from an incomprehensible alien entity, but we could bring a little humanity to it by having decker justifiably resent not only being confronted with ilia again but also having his captaincy snatched away from him after EIGHTEEN. MONTHS. of prep. that's some serious bullshit.

but, while decker IS younger and more familiar with the enterprise's redesign, while he's had more recent space hours and suffers from none of kirk's PTSD, what he lacks is experience - this was the whole basis of kirk taking the fucking ship to begin with, and the movie as it is kind of totally invalidates that plot point. to that end, near the end of the film when they're in v'ger, i would make a bigger deal out of kirk knowing better than to perform the scan - because that's what got the klingons killed (when v'ger interpreted their scan as hostile). decker, shaken, realizes his own hasty decision would have resulted in all of them dying horrifically, and rather than kirk grudgingly respecting decker first, we get it the other way around - decker grudgingly respecting kirk, and kirk returning that respect after decker stops being an asshole. this does the job of helping the AUDIENCE respect kirk after spending so much time wondering if he was indeed too washed up and damaged to do the job, and it helps to begin to warm us up to decker too.

also, it would be fun to have decker overhear bones arguing with kirk or spock or even talking to chapel or something, to know that kirk was thought too washed up EVEN BY THE ADMIRALS (who decker does respect bc he doesn't know better yet), and then for decker to realize later kirk got jerked around - and maybe realize, once he begins to see kirk as a person instead of an obstacle, that something like that might be in his own future even if he succeeds in almost every possible way, as kirk had. we might even use this to get into decker's dad basically killing himself after losing his crew - it can go other ways than right for captains. it can also go so, so, so wrong. (this would require some exposition, though, since we can't expect everyone to have both seen the episode and remember the details.)

another moment that wasn't used to its full potential is when decker basically has to honeypot the ilia probe - this is extremely difficult on him emotionally, and kirk knows all about the perils of emotionally difficult honeypot missions (sorry that i'm linking to this twice). i think decker realizing kirk has done this same kind of thing like a zillion times and that's part of what led to his breakdown gives him respect not just for KIRK but for the position of captain itself - he would have no choice but to do this to protect 500 lives, if it were him. you don't get to tap out when you're captain. and this is good for kirk too, because in sympathizing with decker (and the horrific situation of having to honeypot the image of his dead lover) he can learn to sympathize with himself, and forgive himself for being at less than his best during his own worst moments - some of them during the five-year, some of them after, when he felt weak and without purpose. it also gives him the job of connecting the audience to decker - through him, through thinking of decker as a younger version of him, we can forgive decker for being an asshole earlier and sympathize with his pain. and he becomes someone we root for.

as for ilia - i think she should have gotten to yell at decker rather than passively act like he wasn't even there and hide her pain. her pain at being left behind and betrayed and having to find her own way could mirror spock's (more on this in a sec) but it could also mirror v'ger and its abandonment issues, even though she was abandoned by a boyfriend and not god. there's only so much you can do with truly misogynistic writing but she could've been likable!! her sitch and spock's are the same and she gets to complain while he refuses! even one iota of a personality would have helped so much.

ALSO, on that point, at least one conversation between her and spock would have done a lot to make her more interesting too, because then she would be adjacent to him. spock, too, left his home planet to chase after a space captain he was in um a relationship with, and that bit of kinship ("your answers are not here") could lead to a bonding moment - i think spock would respect what she's doing and that would lend her a lot of credit in the eyes of the audience. much like v'ger, much like spock, ilia has left her home to find out who she is, and part of that answer lies within emotion, within the people she loves: in this case, decker. i would also, if we HAVE to fridge her (DO WE?? more on this in the ending section), choose to have her take a blow meant for decker - her last act being one of love, because the film IS ultimately about love's importance, even in spite of all the pain it also causes (see: decker in his grief).

which leads us to...

CHARACTER ARC: BONES

we have to have a brief interlude here for bones. unfortunately, bones in this movie is little more than an extremely loveable afterthought. while fixing his ENTIRE deal is out of the scope of this tumblr post, what i WOULD do is give him more screentime by having both his AND spock's lives upended by the same event: kirk, the Main Character(tm), choosing to take the admiral stripes and "abandon" them.

i think theres enough evidence in tos to argue the case that bones places a lot of importance on jim and spock's lives - he claims to hate space, but he never resigns, and he finds meaning in taking care of them, even if (to my own interpretation), he can sometimes feel like a third wheel to their legendary "friendship" (so legendary that it's historically important both in-universe and in real life). when kirk agrees to "retire" and let starfleet make him their poster boy because he has PTSD and burnout, bones CANONICALLY objects to what starfleet is trying to do to him so strongly that he literally resigns. again, kirk notes in the book that "retiring" is the only time he ever ignored bones's advice and he came regret it deeply. so kirk needs bones back - in the book, he says outright he needs bones back because he, gaslit, cannot trust himself to be making solid calls emotionally, and he wants bones to call him out if he steps out of line.

for fun, i think bones should be a little more pissed about being "drafted" and like genuinely grumpy rather than fond and gruff - at least, until kirk apologizes. he tells bones all about being yanked around by the admirals and being honeypotted and how much he regretted not listening to his advice...and the gaslighting, not bones's medical expertise, is why kirk feels he needs bones now - why all of earth needs him, because this is a mission to save the entire planet. i think bones LOVES to be needed and especially by jim and/or spock, and he of course has a natural desire to caretake, so after the apology he could soften up to "gruff." he found meaning in what he was doing on earth, but he finds meaning in this too, and kirk telling him that of COURSE he can leave if he wants solidifies his decision to stay, even at the end of the film when the immediate threat has passed. put simply: he loves kirk and spock, and, like them, he wants the three of them to stay together, even though they previously broke his heart.

i think also that once spock comes aboard this gives bones a second job, which is to poke holes in spock's outward unemotional demeanor, which he genuinely is doing from a place of love (since it was bones who said the release of emotions is healthy). instead of standing around and being a lovable and nostalgic set piece, this would give him an actual purpose and an arc, even if his arc (healing spock via negging, healing jim via not gaslighting people) is holding up the other characters.

and speaking of spock...

CHARACTER ARC: SPOCK

post five-year, spock goes back to vulcan to undergo the kolinahr, a ritual meant to purge all remaining emotion from vulcans. he does this because he detests his human half and the many weaknesses and challenges it brings him etc etc but i also would like it if he does this because kirk retires - he has no logical, ready-made excuse to be around kirk and bones anymore, and just like kirk, he truly felt at home on the enterprise, where people valued him for his skill and what he could do rather than what he was (or wasn't). (this sentiment from spock is semi-canonical - it's in william shatner's tarsus iv novel, collision course.) kirk and bones are both an important part of his support system and it is crumbling without any way to save it - of COURSE he chooses not to feel emotion rather than face that pain. every human being ever has wished at some point or another they could numb themselves rather than hurt, and spock is half human, too. (that said, i would also not complain if kohlinahr was spock's way to escape the trauma of what the five-year did to HIM, making him feel emotions differently than what he believed was acceptable, changing him fundamentally as a person, and kirk only agreed to resign because space wasn't worth it without spock aka because he got dumped, but this is a minor detail.)

while on vulcan, kirk, equally adrift, sends him messages (this does admittedly make more sense if kirk only resigned because spock did) - but spock is potentially kind of mad at him (if kirk resigned first) and also trying not to feel anything, so he ignores those and goes out into the desert to get rid of all his gross icky feelings. when the masters read his mind and see that jim accidentally contacted him telepathically (which...girl WHAT was that all about did they bond fr during amok time) and that "his answer is not here," he reads or listens to all the messages at once (maybe including the deleted one spock prime had from aos...ouch), gets emotional (or resists, but it's a near thing), and realizes that if he can't purge kirk from his mind he has to at least find out why. the last message can be about the intruder (v'ger) and their fucked up engines, spock can feel reluctant concern and race to the rescue.

spock is initially very very cold to his old shipmates because he is trying to hold onto his logic and not allow the emotion back in his mind, but absolutely nobody is having this. like in the movie, kirk and bones drag him away to the lounge to interrogate him (he should admit to feeling kirk telepathically here just as he did in the book - i don't know that i'd go into the whole bond business in this movie because that's just writing fanfiction and is also a lot of exposition but i would never deny fanfic writers their fodder).

later, after talking with ilia, who did a brave thing (in spock's eyes, anyway, because he is terrified of what HE'S doing) by chasing down her man to give him an earful, spock is troubled, which prompts bones to start going IS THAT AN EMOTION I SEE MR SPOCK? (and make him more troubled). i think spock grieves ilia's death in his own way because of how much like him she is, or was. all of this culminates in his choice to attempt to mind-meld with v'ger, in the end - if he isn't a human and isn't a vulcan, WHAT is he? if he can't live with the emotion and he can't purge it, what is he supposed to do? if he dies in the mindmeld so be it, but at least he will have been useful - iirc, i think it was roddenberry or leonard nimoy who said that was always a primary motivation of his.

of course, AFTER the mindmeld, he does indeed realize that logic is pointless without emotion, and that he's been adrift not BECAUSE of his emotions but because of his refusal to deal with them and his refusal to feel. so spock, too, will decide to stay at the end of the film.

side bar on the scene where spock cries for v'ger: it's kind of dumb because v'ger is so unknowable. i think spock crying could be a bigger deal - maybe with happiness, as he holds jim's hand, or maybe when he thinks they're all gonna die (kirk says when he sees spock crying "it's not for us" but like what if it was though). i'd prefer him to cry after he finishes laughing post mindmeld of course but either instance could work.

and finally...

THE ENDING

i don't mind the ending in its plot - that v'ger really was just looking for its creator, as a child looks for its parent - but i really want the question of whether or not the probe IS ILIA to remain open. if you make an exact copy of a person that truly believes it is the original, is it? if it's indistinguishable from who ilia used to be even to itself, is it ilia? i like leaving this open because i DON'T like fridging her, but i also think it stretches believability to have this machine magically extract a consciousness and put it in a robot when we had a whole episode of s1 revolve around this exact same plot twist (is chapel's now-android fiance really still her fiance just because he thinks he is?)

it should be spock's idea to have a human join with v'ger - it was the joining with humans that ultimately led to HIS feeling emotions he was unable to ignore, which ultimately led to his understanding and acceptance of emotion and its value in general. spock would see the ilia probe as still being ilia, but in distress, as he was when he came aboard the enterprise, as v'ger is now. and he knows what fixed him (holding jim's hand lol sorry i mean accepting his emotions) and what would fix her.

and then of course decker does join with her - volunteers, insists even. i think he takes the chance on optimism and hope - something kirk lost along the way due to various traumas - but also because this film is about the importance of love, and he can't bear to live without his, even in facsimile. it's partially a sacrifice too though - decker's life and body as he knows it in exchange for the earth's safety - because that's what kirk would have done, what he HAS done. he did learn from kirk after all.

and kirk learns from him too - decker, who by now will know about the awful years the brass put kirk through prior to the start of the film, would tell kirk to give 'em hell, like it's something that can actually be done, because at his heart he's an optimist, and that's something kirk sorely needs emotionally at this low point in his life. a very gen-z-saving0the-millennials moment. (apologies to both gen z and millennials.)

so after the dust has settled, kirk, who has just saved earth, can basically ask for anything he wants, and what he wants is not to get sent out to pasture again. so that leads into him refusing to leave the ship and letting the admirals and everyone else who wants to debrief him come to HIM instead of him going down - he finally has back what he needed, which was simply control and agency over his own life, and his loved ones - since spock and bones decided to stay aboard. i would have liked some challenging action moment prior to the ending with the ilia-probe and decker included, a moment to highlight that kirk has still got it (kind of like his badass moment in the deadly years where he saves the ship in .2 seconds once they cure his dementia). but insisting that they see v'ger directly and not deal with its probe is okay too.

FINALLY, after we've established that kirk is In Control again and not just like, stealing a starship, we can do his scene where he begins a new five-year mission, and when directing sulu, says, "out there - thattaway."

THEMES

HOPEFULLY this ties together the various themes and foils in everybody's arc - the main ones being the importance of dealing with emotions, even painful ones, the importance of love, and the question "who am i?" - the theme of seeking answers

kirk wants to know who he is - is he still a starship captain who braved the unknown and returned alive? he tried to numb himself (or rather starfleet tried to numb him) after his five-year mission with a woman and a desk job and it didn't help - he had to risk getting back out there to do himself any good at all.

spock asks if he is a vulcan or a human, and seeks to answer the question by purging emotion, but must answer it by accepting the emotion instead - and he learns this from v'ger, who is asking the same question and cannot answer it without emotion anymore than spock could. spock is and always will be both vulcan AND human and no amount of resistance on his part can change that.

bones feels adrift without loved ones to take care of - who is HE if kirk won't even listen to his advice not to "retire" - and of course he is someone who takes care of others. which is a little sad because it's not a deeper arc, but it sort of rhymes with his whole deal in tos and there ARE five other movies. there's also a little bit in there about being willing to try again after your heart's been broken, which is also something kirk and spock are struggling with, to have the trio's arc rhyming with each other.

decker asking who he is - is he a real captain or a psycho case like his dad and kirk, is he someone who could have been ilia's husband - and ilia wondering if she is someone who could have been his wife, and later the PROBE wondering if it's truly ilia or not. MORE questions that have to be answered by overcoming fear of emotional pain - decker takes the chance and joins with her to answer both his own question, and the probe's - and, of course, v'ger's.

THIS CONCLUDES. my movie rewrite. i am so glad to have gotten it off my chest, which is the main reason i wrote it, but i don't think it's terribly popular...so if you actually read this whole thing you're a rock star. okay BYE!!!

#liz makes stuff #liz's star trek stuff #liz's meta #star trek #star trek the motion picture #star trek: the motion picture #star trek tmp #personal #star trek blogging #WHEW. that too so long. barely finished in time. wrath of khan SOON!!!#tmp lb #tmp #st ep edits

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rendy-a · 1 year

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Cooking with Floyd

This is my last cooking event story. I hope you’ve enjoyed some of these. I’m not totally satisfied with the ending but its time to move on! I’m already getting househusband brainrot for some upcoming pieces. So, without further ado, here it is!

The halls of Night Raven College can be a dangerous place for a magicless student like you. You know that you must keep a certain level of awareness about you as you walk those hallowed halls to avoid the dangerous students you call classmates. Occasionally, even you forget your caution. Today, you pass by the listing of grades and see a cluster of students pushing to find out their placement among the ranks. It had been sometime since the antics of the first semester and the situation at Octavinelle but posting day still gives you an ominous feeling. You shake your head, as if to push the memory of everything that had happened back then aside and turn to walk away.

“Eh, Shrimpy?” you hear at your shoulder. You cringe slightly at the familiar voice; this is what comes of being distracted in the halls. “Oh, hi Floyd,” you say as you try to move away. The tall eel easily prevents your retreat by saddling up to your side and draping an arm across your shoulders. “Um, can I help you?” you ask tentatively. Floyd allows a wide grin to cross his face. “See Shrimpy, that’s what I like about you. I haven’t even told you what I want, and you’ve already agreed to help me.” You realize you’ve made a critical error. “Since you are so eager, I’m going to let you be my assistant. I’ll be over tonight, don’t keep me waiting, Shrimpy.” When he releases your shoulder, you scurry away and book it to class. You wonder to yourself, what just happened?

It's late at night and you are breathing a sigh of relief that Floyd seems to have had one of his infamous mood swings and forgotten all about…whatever it was that he wanted you for. You gave yourself a big stretch and a satisfied yawn. All’s well that ends well, you suppose. You decide to head up to bed early for once. Like a B rated horror movie, as soon as you turn your head, Floyd is there. “Ahhhh!” you scream. Floyd looks mildly interested in your reaction. “What’s going on Shrimpy? This some land-dweller thing?” You are about to go off on him when you remember his is a dangerous…well you aren’t exactly sure. Mafia henchman? Deranged psychopath? Anyway, not someone you want to mess with.

“Ah, Floyd,” you start carefully, “it’s so late. What are you doing here?” He gives you a quizzical expression. “Shrimpy, I told you I’d be over. I have to work at the Lounge after class, so of course I’m coming over after that,” he finishes in a tone that says ‘obviously.’ You give him a narrow-eyed look and finally ask, “So, what’s this all about? What am I supposed to be helping you with?”

Of all the things you could have imagined, baking cupcakes was not one of them. When Floyd explains he has been working on the perfect cupcake recipe but can’t quite get the secret ingredient right, you just stare back at him unbelievingly. Finally, you hazard to ask, “Just what is the secret ingredient?” He rolls his eyes at you and responds, “If I told you that, it wouldn’t be a secret!” Ok, so much for that. You decide the best thing to do is just to power through the baking and get him out of your dorm as soon as possible.

It’s an hour as you mix and bake your cupcakes. Floyd’s recipe is simple and small, it only ends up baking one large cupcake each. You aren’t sure about the so-called secret ingredient as Floyd seems to follow the recipe exactly. “Ok, so there you go. One super-secret special cupcake,” you state as you finish frosting your own cupcake. “Guess you can be going now?” you finish hopefully. Floyd frowns at you. “Nah Shrimpy, I can tell this isn’t right.” He picks up his cupcake and tosses it in the trash as your mouth falls open. “What are you doing Floyd? Don’t waste food!” You dive and pull the cupcake quickly from the trash. Sorry Grim but we both know you eat rocks from the floor so (5 second rule), this will still make a treat for you later. You look at him reproachfully. “Don’t worry Shrimpy, I’ll come back again tomorrow, and we’ll try again.” Again. Tomorrow. No! “What? Why? Are you sure, wouldn’t it just be better to buy a cupcake?” you finish in a flurry. Floyd gives you a narrow look. “Tomorrow.” Then he is gone into the night.

You spend the day dreading the night and, sure enough, soon after the closing time of Mostro Lounge, Floyd shows up at your dorm. You ask him what is on the agenda for this time, and he indicates you’ll be making the same recipe. You frown at that. If the recipe wasn’t good enough yesterday, what makes him think it will be different today? You decide to pay closer attention to Floyd’s cooking, to see if you can figure out what the so-called secret ingredient is that isn’t coming out right. The sooner he bakes the perfect cupcake, the sooner he is gone from your life, after all. You are disturbed to notice that Floyd doesn’t really pay much attention to the recipe at all but instead spends an alarming amount of time observing you. And as for a secret ingredient, there doesn’t appear to be one; he follows the recipe exactly.

“Say Floyd,” you ask hesitantly, “if you think the cupcake needs a secret ingredient, don’t you have to add something that isn’t in the recipe?” He looks at you. “It doesn’t work like that Shrimpy. When its right, I’ll know and that is all there is to it.” He comes to your side, looming over you and examining your cupcakes. “Nope! Not right at all!” he declares with a frown. He picks up his cupcake and moves to throw it out again but, upon hearing your sharp intake of breath, tosses it on the counter instead. “Guess I’ll see you again tomorrow Shrimpy.” Then he turns on his heel and saunters away towards the front door. Tomorrow, great.

You are walking to class, lamenting your terrible luck, when you round the corner and realize it is about to get even worse. A couple of Savanahclaw students are lounging in the hall with a bored expression on their faces. You know that they’ll see you as easy entertainment if you can’t make a quick escape and…too late. A pair of claw-studded hands land on either shoulder and give you a shove. You stumble forward into the pack of grinning beastmen where the biggest coyote boy grabs you by the collar. “Well, well, well. What do we have here? A juicy bit of prey?” the seeming pack leader sneers. “What do you think boys? Should we play with our food or go straight to the meal?”

You expected to hear laughing agreement at the taunt, but it was strangely silent. Your lead tormentor seems to notice the unusual reaction as well and loosens his grip on you to turn around. Standing with a deceptive level of calmness in the center of the pack of students is Floyd. His eyes are dangerously cold when he says, “Shrimpy, you look like you aren’t having a good time. Do you need help?” You almost laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Was he seriously asking you this? “I’m not sure they don’t intend to actually eat me so, yeah, I wouldn’t mind some help right about now,” you say. Floyd’s expression shifts from cold to downright menacing. “You hear that, small fry? Shrimpy doesn’t want to play with you. So why don’t you scram before I get angry for real.” Floyd’s reputation is enough to make the pack rethink their plans. As they scurry off, you wonder what this favor is going to cost you.

“Thanks, so what do I owe,” you start before Floyd cuts you off. “Not now Shrimpy, or you’ll be late to class.” You look up at the clock on the wall with startlement and realize you’ll have to run to make it now. Floyd shoves your dropped books into your arms and gives you a small push off. It’s all the encouragement you need to run off to class. The answers you want will have to wait for the night.

That night, you are not taken by surprise when Floyd arrives. In fact, you’ve been waiting for him; anxious to hear the price of your sudden rescue. Floyd raises an eyebrow when you open the door for him. “What’s up Shrimpy? You aren’t usually this excited to see me.” You sigh, “End the suspense, just tell me what I owe you for earlier.” He looks at you for a moment. “Nothing. You asked for help, so I helped.” You scoff at him, “If you were so eager to assist, then why’d you make me ask for help first?” He frowns at you before answering in a low voice that sends chills down your spine. “I didn’t want to assume. People are always jumping to conclusions about Jade and me, I am careful to not do the same to other people. Especially not ones I like.” He then shoulders past you into the dorm.

You stand with the door open for a moment, looking out into the darkening night in shock. Of all the scenarios you had envisioned, that wasn’t one of them. A cold breeze brings you back to yourself and you quietly shut the door and head tentatively to the kitchen. Floyd is silently setting up his cooking area while setting your ingredient portions aside. It looks like awkward baking is still on for tonight. You walk slowly to the counter and look at the things he’s set there for you, tapping your finger against the spoon absentmindedly. “I didn’t mean it like that,” you finally say. “I just thought it was obvious that I wasn’t going to handle that myself.” Floyd looks over at you, “I dunno, maybe you don’t give yourself enough credit. You beat Azul, didn’t you? You were cleaver enough to foil our plans, weren’t you? Who am I to say that you couldn’t escape from a puny school of fish like them?” You feel oddly complimented by his assessment of your meager battle skills. You feel your lips tweak up into something that is almost a smile before settling back into your normal stoic expression. Then, you reach for your first ingredient to begin tonight’s task.

You both finish your cupcakes in a pensive silence, each seeming to have a lot on your mind. Unsurprisingly, the cupcakes of today’s session do not pass Floyd’s inspection and he departs, as usual. You lay in bed later that night thinking about the day’s events; the bizarre amount of faith Floyd has in your abilities and your own preconceptions about him. Finally, you had to admit that he was right; you had assumed a great deal about Floyd without really trying to get to know him at all. Even though he hadn’t asked it of you, you decide that tomorrow, you’ll pay him back in your own way by trying to get to know the genuine Floyd. No assumptions.

You had prepared yourself to weather the chaos that surrounded Floyd but what you hadn’t prepared yourself for was how fun you’d find it. When your nightly baking session started, you were determined to not shut Floyd down but hear out all of his crazy ideas and musings. He is surprisingly observant and picks up on it right away and it spurs him on to requesting increasingly crazy things. He gets a laugh out of suggesting you take a break to run and do something crazy. Finally, you decide, why not? No one is saying you were behind the water balloon ambush on the freshman of Pomefiore…but that is mainly because there are no security cameras on that side of the dorm and Floyd is particularly stealthy.

When you return to Ramshackle, nearly doubled over with laughter, you find your cupcakes a total mess. Grim must have been by in your absence. Floyd gives you a shrug and you improvise to complete this day’s batch. Hot cocoa mixed into vanilla batter makes a passable chocolate cake. You laugh as you give Floyd this pronouncement only to find him studying you carefully as you eat your still warm cupcake. He tilts his head quizzically as he watches you eat. After a time, you give a nervous laugh and ask him, “So what’s the decision on today’s lot? Is chaos and hot cocoa your secret ingredient?” He takes a long time in answering and you started to wonder if chaos can actually be the mystery ingredient. The longer the silence as Floyd seems to consider, the higher your eyebrows raise, until you are looking back at him in a state of extreme surprise. That seems to decide him. “Nah, it’s not quite right yet. You keep this one Shrimpy.” Then he pushes himself off the counter and heads toward the door, whistling a merry tune as he goes. The cupcake wasn’t right but you both seemed to have had a great night.

You were surprised to find yourself happily humming as the hour of your meeting with Floyd approaches. Now that you aren’t so intimidated by him, you find yourself curious to know more about him and life in the Coral Sea. When he finally arrives, you are practically bouncing along behind him on your way to the kitchen. You even play gracious host today, taking his jacket and setting it on the lounge sofa; telling him it will be more comfortable in the hot kitchen without it. For his part, Floyd also seems to be in a rare cooperative mood. When you hesitantly ask him about his life in the sea, he seems more than eager to share stories with you. He tells you about some of the escapades he got into with Jade and Azul in school, their adventure with going on land for the first time and you end the night trading stories about your families back home.

“Do you ever miss it?” you ask him suddenly. He looks at you with a soft smile, “Home, you mean?” Then he gives a hum as he considers. “Not really,” he says finally. You look at him surprised. “Not at all?” He gives a small laugh, “Home is nice and all but I’m not going to have as interesting a time down there as I am up here. Plus, I wouldn’t have met people like Shrimpy if I’d have stayed at home. So yeah, I’m not at all sad to be here instead of there.” You think that Floyd has a gift for making complicated situations seem simple. Still, you admire his outlook; he has decided to enjoy the surface and doesn’t look back on the sea with regret. You wish you could live your life the same way.

When the time comes for the nightly judgement, you aren’t at all sad to hear the cupcake doesn’t pass muster. You give a small shrug and say to Floyd, “Guess I’ll be seeing you tomorrow then.” He gives you a wink in response before heading out the back door, heading toward the main campus. You pull the wrapper off your cupcake and take a bite as you head back into the lounge. He may be a great conversationalist, but he really is no judge of baked goods. After all this practice, your cupcake is phenomenal, if you do say so yourself. Just when you are about to congratulate yourself on a successful night, you pass by the sofa and see Floyd’s jacket sitting there forgotten.

You pick it up and head to look out the window. For a moment, you consider running after him to return it before realizing how ridiculous that is. You’ve been chased down by him before, you know how fast those long legs carry him. He’ll be long gone my now. Well, at least you know he has a high cold resistance, being from the Coral Sea. He’ll be fine, you decide and carry the jacket up to your room instead. You fold it nicely and set it on the chair by your bed; you’ll give it back to him tomorrow.

Sleep eludes you. You’ve been tossing and turning all night but each time you get slightly sleepy, you think about your conversations with Floyd. By the time you finish laughing again at some joke he told you or thinking about his mer stories, you find you are no longer sleepy. You give a big sigh; it’s going to be a long night. For what feels like the millionth time, you flop over and try to close your eyes but it’s no use. You allow them to creep open and gaze at the folded jacket, just an arm’s reach from your face and allow your thoughts to creep in. You wonder if he made it home ok... Maybe he got cold after all… You wonder if he noticed the missing jacket; if he knows where he left it... You wonder if his jacket smells like him. ‘Whoa, where did that one come from?’ you ask yourself in mild alarm. Its not like you have a crush on him, right? Right?

For being alone in a quiet room, you suddenly feel like there is too much going on. You waive your hands in front of your face to try to clear your thoughts. ‘It doesn’t matter what you think of Floyd. It’s just you alone right now and that is all that matters,’ you say to yourself. You turn your head back to the jacket. Does it smell like him? Finally, you can’t take it anymore and decide to pull the jacket off the chair and find out, just so you can get past this and go to sleep. It smells like cooked seafood from being in the lounge, cut grass from being outside, a little hint of ink (you guess it is from napping on his class notes but haven’t entirely ruled out fighting with Azul) and below it all, is a subtle scent like sea water that you think is all him. You catch yourself smiling and know that yes, you have somehow fallen for Floyd Leech.

You wake in the morning, hugging a pillow that is wrapped in Floyd’s jacket. It was your genius idea that finally helped lure you to sleep last night. You feel pretty sure this crosses a line into cringe territory, so you resolve to never mention this to anyone, especially not Floyd. Then you sit up in bed and nicely fold the jacket to return to him later. After breakfast, you hurry to the second year’s corridor, hoping to catch Floyd before the first class and return the jacket. You easily spot him among the sea of shorter students; his teal hair like a beacon for you to navigate by. You tentatively weave through the second-year students to reach his side and give his sleave a tug. When he turns to you with surprise, you know you’ve made and error. This isn’t Floyd at all but his twin Jade.

Jade pears at you curiously before zeroing in on the jacket bundled in your arms. A grin crosses his face as he lifts a hand to his chin. “Octavinelle colors. Prefect, are you planning a transfer?” You stumble out a negative, planning to apologize and leave as quickly as possible. “You are spending a lot of time with Floyd lately.” Jade says with a pensive look. “He seems happier lately. Do I have you to thank for that?”

You gape at him, working at what to say in response when you feel an arm drape over your shoulder. “So that is where that went. Thanks for bringing it back, Shrimpy.” You sigh in relief as Floyd appears at your side, just in time to save you from more awkward questions from Jade. The twins share a look and appear to have some non-verbal conversation carried out by facial expression alone. Finally Jade chuckles and says, “I better head to class. Thank you, prefect, for taking care of my brother.” He gives you one final knowing smile before departing.

Class is to start soon, and the halls are emptying out. You gasp as you realize you are wasting precious time and quickly turn to face Floyd. “AH! Here is your jacket. I forgot to give it back to you last night. Sorry about that!” you say quickly. Floyd smiles lazily and takes the jacket and drapes it over his shoulder. Then he pauses and turns to look more closely at the jacket. You nervously wonder if something is wrong – did you get the jacket dirty? After a moment, Floyd’s smile widens and he remarks, “I’ll see you tonight, ok Shrimpy.” Then he heads off to class. “Ok,” you call after him weakly, wondering what it was he’d noticed about the jacket that you’d missed.

The atmosphere tonight is new. Cooking with the boy you like just hits differently. You try to be cool but even you notice the difference. You smile at him over nothing, laugh a little too loud at his jokes and find your eyes resting on him an embarrassing long amount of time. So far though, he hasn’t said anything about it. You hope he is as oblivious to your attraction as he seems. It’s one thing to crush on Floyd but another entirely to admit it to him. The baking continues with both of you in a great mood.

You flourish your finished cupcake and say “Tada! Tenth time is the charm, or something like that. Right?” He smiles back at you and replies, “Yeah, this is it. It finally turned out right.” You are so startled that you nearly drop your cupcake. What? After all this time? Why now, only after you got to enjoy his company so much? “You’ve got to be kidding me. We’ve been making this same recipe for days and it’s always the same.” You peer questioningly at your cupcake, seemingly the same as each day before. “Really, what is the deal with this cupcake stuff?” He gives you a smug smile and tells you all about it. “I read it in a book on land-dwellers. When you have someone you like, you bake them a homemade treat and give it to them when you confess.” You are shocked by this declaration, both because it is so unexpectedly silly and because it means he likes someone. “Oh…I see,” you say, deflating slightly, “Well, what was all that about secret ingredients then?” He smiles softly, “The book says you need to make it with love. It’s my first land-dweller confession, so I want to make sure it’s right.”

It was sort of adorable, you thought, to have someone with such a scary reputation put so much effort into baking a cupcake with love. You give him a forced and awkward smile and wish him luck with his confession. “I’m sure they will love it, you worked so hard on it, after all.” Floyd tilts his head at you and tosses his cupcake in the sink. “Nah.” Your mouth falls open in shock, what just happened? “I don’t understand,” you say as you look at the discarded cupcake with confusion, “You just told me you were going to use that to confess. If you through it away, what was the point?”

“You don’t get it Shrimpy, I don’t want to MAKE a confession, I want to RECEIVE one. It was all in the book and when I read it, I knew that was what I wanted. Your land-dweller customs are so interesting.” Floyd said with a smile. You don’t immediately reply, trying to wrap your head around this sudden piece of information. “So, you want someone to confess to you. But who…?” He approaches you slowly, “We had fun today, didn’t we? And you like spending time with me, don’t you? And you must have even worn my jacket to make it smell so much like you.” You can feel the heat in your face building at every statement; he had noticed far too much. “So, what’s the problem Shrimpy?” Then the whole entirety of the situation hits you. “So, wait, you are saying that this whole thing was just so that I could fall for you because you needed a confession cupcake baked with love? Right from the beginning, this was always your plan?” He smiles in a predatory way. “Eels are very patient hunters. I know how to wait for the time to be right. I’ve liked you since you beat Azul’s overblot, but I knew you didn’t like me back. Now, hmm. Well…” He slides your cupcake over to you. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this. You’re not going to keep me waiting now, are you Shrimpy?” You shyly pick up your cupcake. He was many things; spontaneous, moody, observant, silly and most importantly the boy you liked. No, you won’t keep him waiting any longer. “Floyd, I have something I’d like to ask you.”

#50 follower event #floyd leech #floyd x reader #floyd leech x reader #twst #twisted wonderland #twst wonderland

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thatgirlfluxwoman · 3 months

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your bio says you like Wednesday

wednesday is not only the greatest betrayal in television history but the most maddeningly trite, disturbingly vapid, and internally confused ideological train wreck I've ever had the deeply sorrowful displeasure of allowing to pass through my corneas may god have mercy on burton or whoever else was responsible while someone slapped his brand name on it, and on all of us who are fated to live in a world where something so culturally, socially, politically, and artistically noxious as this Mary-sue-lead, transparently TikTok-targeted, phone-worshipping, vaguely bigoted, backfired virtue-signaling, fake leftist capitalist "my immortal"-esque fanfic earns a second season through what I can only be explained as manufactured consent. something must be done about Netflix's Wednesday. This thing is a condescending insult, especially to young people, the socially conscious, and members of marginalized and "'"outcast"'" groups (LiKe GoThS & ppL who CAN cONTroL BEEEEES) who genuinely suffer from what this thing hollowly masturbates to while looking us dead in the eyes and saying "yeah, you like that, don't you?" It is a Gatling gun of random buzzwords and empty references to social issues, grotesquely and impotently disguised and screaming "I'm commentary!" before pissing its pants, squealing like a pig, and at its most coherent offering nothing more than to demonize mental illness and make any marginalized identity out to be a mavonnaise-stained Hot Topic hoodie through Wiseau-ian dialogue, inappropriate "grittiness" for its source material and Harry Potter setting, and incessant hackery. I am shitting. I am pissing. I am standing over a warm bubble bath cradling a toaster and sobbing, chanting g-d's secret name and praying that there is indeed a hell so I can be eternally punished for having given this moral abomination one fraction of a fraction of a cent also it's not a good Addams family adaptation anyway let me know your thoughts in the poll below

/ref

What. My guys I just liked the show- Uhhh...good for you ya don't like it? Not sure why you complaining to me... Uh...Ok. It's not a show everyones gonna like. I just liked it... It was too long to read. I'm not trying to be rude. Sorry. It's just uh....Why? I get it. Wednesday wasn' ass good as all the other addams family. But I personally enjoyed it. I don't realy into like...movie critic things. I just watch a show and see if I like it. Are you this to every Wednesday enjoyer? Well uh... they got something interesting in their inbox

Crazy part is: I'm not even in the fandom anymore. I just...I liked it. I actually. If ya look through my posts I'm uh...I'm a roleplayer. I roleplay in the TADC (amazing digital circus) Fandom. Most of my posts are...unrelated to Wednesday. So nothing to worry aboout? Good you got your own opinions. People can have opinions. I respect that. And I respect people don't like the show. That's totally fine. The only question is: What does a underaged teenager have to do with this? I'm like...13 my guy. WHAT?? I just hyperfixate on things...It's normal for me...I'm getting diognosed for ADHD soon... I just had a hyperfixation on it a while back...

#most confusing ask I have ever gotten.#ok #Glad you don't like it #I uh....don't really care for the matter...sorry dude

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will80sbyers · 1 year

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id love to draw more byler kisses but i and a couple other artists i’ve spoken to (i mean it was a couple months ago now ah) got kinda nervous to draw that back when some part of the fandom were ‘cancelling’ people over the smallest stuff or making up assumptions off of ~vibes~ that aren’t even true. it made it discouraging for smaller artists bc of course we want to explore the romance but sometimes more than a little peck on the lips is needed, or feels more right. like as an artist you want to evoke emotion, and you can’t do that holding back just bc some people can’t handle some characters growing up? most of us just want to draw the deeper level of love we’ll be getting in s5 anyway. i know it shouldn’t matter/we can post what we want etc but especially on twitter people were soo extreme about anything other than basic content. idk if I’m explaining right, but are romantic kisses (not crazy passionate lol) something the fandom wants to see, not just cute little ones? maybe it’s better now idk, this post made me happy to see tbh 😅

Oh I definitely want to see the romantic kisses, the real big kiss and even it being passionate (not in a crazy way) because that's how you get the intensity of the relationships in romance for me personally at least

and don't get me wrong, I absolutely love them just holding hands too or doing cute relationships stuff but kisses are part of the majority of relationships, that is an experience most people and couples have in life, obviously not all and I'm NOT saying that who doesn't do it doesn't love equally, but it's just a different expression that should be represented too along with all the others!

but I get it, you should do what you want obviously and if you don't want to deal with that part of the fandom it's totally valid!!! I'm sorry you had to experience that in the fandom :(

I think people must stop to associate simple kissing with sex, like, NO ONE is asking for more explicit art of byler because they are too young for that to be okay obviously, and no one wants to see that!!!! but a kiss is just a kiss

and I personally want to say that people CANCELLING people because they draw a couple in a ship only kissing are completely out of reality, a kiss is there to express affection and love not always to get to more intimate parts of the relationship

Teenagers kiss in movies constantly, it's an expression of love, and it doesn't have to be leading to sex EVER, unless they want it to in their private moment that we are definitely not interested in seeing!!!

if you seriously think that kissing someone can only lead you to sleep with them you have a distorted view of affection, maybe because someone made you think it should but it absolutely does not have to lead to more intimate things!!! ( Never do anything that you don't feel comfortable doing, if you're ok with kissing it means that you're ok with kissing, anything MORE than that should be discussed between the people involved. )

How are artists supposed to give us cute content and cute art about the ship if you start cancelling everybody even when they did nothing wrong...?

and also how are we supposed to take "cancelling" seriously anyway, if the situation is really this? shouldn't that be reserved for when people do something that's really harmful to others??? implying that who wants to see a kiss between two people in love in a story is a pedo is insane and completely out of reality... they are 15 not 10, it's perfectly normal and healthy for them to be kissing?????

and it's also stupid because the whole world is watching it happen constantly on TV, movies, books... and why is this a problem only for byler???? only the mlm couple has to be under scrutiny for this? interesting, I wonder why!

I WONDER if maybe people are sexualizing mlm ships more than they should and subconsciously thinking that people want to see them do more even when all they are asking is just a NORMAL healthy thing like a kiss... because of that, because they have that

gay = sexual

in automatic response!!!

THAT is harmful to real queer people around the world.

Examine yourself when you have thoughts like that, because that is rooted in homophobia or lesbiphobia...

also remember that real people often do have sex and teenagers are sexual beings, that doesn't mean that it should be depicted explicitly in the media or that it's any adults business what they do or don't, but it's not ok to want to just hide completely that part of reality and it's also DANGEROUS.

Teenagers MUST get safe and healthy sexual EDUCATION in a safe environment, from doctors and teachers because they will want to do that anyway and it's important to inform them about these things so that they can protect themselves from catching diseases, ending up pregnant when they are too young for it or being forced against their will to do something or not respect someone's consent because no one taught them about respecting it and they learned about sex from the porn industry that is rather violent in almost every video 😕

but going back to this specific situation and byler... this is also weird because IN the show we had Mike and El making out when they were even younger than Mike and Will now! That could have really been avoided but it also doesn't mean that the writers are pedophiles for writing them kissing when they are in a relationship, that's just writing reality, they are in their first relationship and they want to kiss, the Duffers were extremely respectful in their depiction of a part of reality because of their ages obviously... you should go to complain to people that are actually doing weird suff in this industry like the writer of Euphoria for example 😐

being RESPECTFUL is the same thing that artists do here when they handle byler, they stay respectful but still capture a moment of reality... it's just drawing their first kiss that it's a symbol of them confessing their romantic feelings, it is not meant to be anything more than that!!!

#byler #will byers #mike wheeler #ask #stop cancelling people for stupid stuff #take it seriously for when we actually have harmful individuals in the fandoms!

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syrips · 8 months

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hello im gonna pin this post

hello my name is Syrips, im a super duper simp and simp/self-insert enabler for others who love strahd or any cos/ravenloft/fictional characters

im 28, but i sometimes say im thirty as a vague response because its easier and faster to say (or safer to say to strangers)

i think i am autistic but i am currently only self-diagnosed; i plan to tell my doctors once i compile a binder of reasons why i think im autistic based on noted events in my childhood, behavior, and my reflected perspective on things in pages of charts and text which is a totally neurotypical thing to do

im genderfluid and i am fine with any and all pronouns (different people may use different/changing/fluid pronouns on me, i am completely fine with this)

im polyamorous and pansexual/panromantic, i gush over games that have polyamory/pan options!!

i have huge CoS/Ravenloft spoilers so please, PLEASe do not enter unless you are fine with being spoiled with all kinds of content. i also wont explain what is or isnt 'canon' because, well, some things may be canon for one person, while potential/not-canon for another, so i really cannot confirm or deny it myself.. ask your DM for confirmation! (and for my players who are here, hehe, goodluck figuring it out!)

i do music, art, crafting, and streaming sometimes, here is my linktree: https://linktr.ee/syrips

please 'ask'/message/send me any and all of your curse of strahd and/or ravenloft works of art! this can include these and more!:

playlists

moodboards

art/portfolio/link to your art or artblog

pages of your OC/PC/dnd lore (both player and DM welcome)

campaign/session notes and storytime

canon and potential-/home-/head-canon dumps

narrations/imagines/ao3/google docs/fanfic/fic writings

cool crafts!!

i crave it more than strahd craves blood, please and thank you!

you can also send me stuff and let me know if you want me to gush/simp over it, provide advice, or simply acknowledge it (publicly or privately)! let me know in advance cuz i dont want to make you uncomfortable with what you share

i have no limits on triggering fictional content, just make sure to tw it properly if it is sensitive content for others

my Ask thingy is always open, i may ramble alot if i get passionate enough though so be warned! hehe

ok goodbye ill edit or change this whenever idk

Edit Entry 1 - 11th Moon, 2023

for context, keita/raze (he/him) is my irl partner. he's been a simp for alucard (castlevania) longer than i've begun simping for strahd. i only discovered this years into the relationship when we watched castlevania (where i expected to be a bigger simp for castlevania), and instead HE made high pitch simping noises as alucard appeared on the screen and i was like -sus eyes- wait a GOSH DARN MINUTE-. also, keita has a thing for necks. i shrugged it off when he first told me, but years later i started simping for strahd and now i look back at that moment like 'hm. odd.-'. anyways, i mostly started dating him because he sounds like a kermit the frog southern guy who goes 'howdy howdy' and he says 'i should be golden' unironically and i think thats pretty funny

i tag stuff as #making a keita tag so when keita presses this he can see all the stuff that he likes so that i can organize stuff and incase he ever decides to poke around my blog and use this tag search within my blog

Edit Entry 2 and 3 - 12th Moon, 2023

syrips OC/PC list (loosely alphabetical)

Other People's Adored OC/PC list (loosely alphabetical)

#syrips pc #will edit as needed

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callmewrinkles3 · 9 months

Note

#ciwyw is my all time favourite fic on this site! I have read and re-read it so many times and each time I find something new to appreciate and each time I am totally blown away by your creativity and story telling. Thank you for sharing Dan & Em’s (and Blake’s & Charlie’s & Lulu’s) stories with us! The social posts and timelines and all the extra content are cherries on the top of a delicious literary masterpiece!

Anyway, would love to see what you come up with from these prompts:

5. Can you hear me?

30. Let’s burn it down.

Much love.

You are the sweetest! Thank you so much for the sweet words. We really love knowing that you enjoy the story.

Also for this one we didn't include n.30 because we already used it on another prompt, but there you have number 5!

September 2025

As soon as Dan signed the contract for the AlphaTauri seat they had to plan it all out. They knew it was going to be so, so hard on the road with one baby, two would be impossible. So the plans were made and deadlines set, and those plans included no more kids until Dan was retired. Or at the very least the summer break in 2026. But best laid plans.

Em knew nearly immediately. She couldn’t explain how, she couldn’t verbalise it to anyone, but she knew that she was pregnant. It felt exactly like the last two times, especially when she’d realised that she was pregnant with Lulu. The problem was that she had no idea how to tell Dan that they had to change all of their plans. He was supposed to be racing until 2026 with her and Lulu by his side, and then they were going home. That’s when they were going to have more babies because they wanted Lulu to have at least one sibling.

It wasn’t supposed to be a year earlier, and Em had no idea what to do. More importantly, she had no idea how she was going to tell Dan. She didn’t know if she could even wait until she had a pregnancy test in her hand. That involved leaving the apartment, buying one in the Boots down the road, coming back and taking it. And it also involved lying to Dan’s face when he was just in the living room playing with Lulu and she couldn’t. She just couldn’t.

So instead she took a deep breath and decided to leave the bedroom to go to her husband and toddler.

“Mama!” The first thing she heard was Lulu’s excited voice, hands reaching out like always to grab Em and pull her to sit down on the floor. How could she say no to her favourite little face?

“Mama’s finally here so I’m not relevant anymore, hey?” Dan joked, making her laugh when they both knew that Lulu was a Daddy’s girl through and through.

“You know that’s not right. We’re both your girls.” It was the perfect moment of sitting in Dan’s lap with his arms around her, Lulu clambering in to sit on Em’s and get cuddles from her parents. Em loved every second of it. She loved being wrapped in her husband’s arms while they got to hold their beautiful, active, brilliant daughter. It was the perfection that made Em terrified of ruining it, but they promised. No secrets.

“Hey love? I need to tell you something.”

“Everything ok?”

“Yeah. I think so. I just…I think I’m pregnant.”

Emmy could see her husband’s jaw drop in slow motion. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen him react like this. They’d been there before when Dan was the one who realised first that she was pregnant with Lulu, but she could see the way his brain was trying to process the information and the idea of a second baby. As the silence dragged on Em began to freak out, especially how he was just staring at her but not saying anything at all. He was never silent, never quiet for more than a few seconds, especially not at home. Em always said that the reason he snored was because he couldn’t be silent even while sleeping. Even with the noise and how he was always talking she wouldn’t change her husband for the world, except for right now when she wished he’d say something to her.

“Dan? Babe? Can you hear me?”

“Daddee!” It was Lulu’s hand on his cheek and her call that made Dan react, Lulu holding Ony up asking him to play with her and her favourite teddy. He grinned at her as he pulled her in.

“Just a second, Love,” he replied to Lulu, pressing kisses to her curly hair as he kept his eyes fixed with Em. “Emmy, are we having another baby?”

The sparkle and happy smirk from the first time they got confirmation that they were going to be parents spread across his face, and that was all Em needed to know that it was going to be more than fine. Whatever they had to do would be worth it for their babies.

#call it what you want fic #ciwyw drabble

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lorillee · 10 months

Note

btw can you tell me about how that cat is an incel

AAAHGH i typed out this whole thing and then tumblr screwed it up and deleted everything. wailing and gnashing of teeth. but thats okay. ill explain it again. anyways to any of my 5 remaining warriors mutuals if you see this post and i got something wrong i apologize to be honest its been like a decade since ive read the books that encompass this whole mess. anyways. ive provided a helpful relationship map to give you some visualization and keep these people straight

ok. so tldr. sort of. actually not really but whatever. so basically brambleclaw is a special prophecy boy who gets a dream from the dead ancestors being like "ok you need to go 🚶💼🚗 on this journey 😤💥😎 and do some stuff 😌✨🌠" and brambleclaw is like "ok got it boss 🫡" and goes on his journey to do some stuff. its not relevant to the love drama. squirrelflight invites herself along and they end up becoming friends and later start dating. at some point after this brambleclaw starts striking up a relationship with his half-brother and squirrelflight is Not A Fan partially because his half-brother is Kinda Shady and partially because shes suspicious because of his dad, who is also brambleclaw's dad, who really sucked as a person.

so squirrelflight tells brambleclaw that he needs to stop hanging out with his half-brother, and brambleclaw gets mad and accuses her of suspecting him purely based on their dad (and if she doesnt trust the half-brother because of his dad, what does that say about their relationship etc etc). so they get into a whole fight about it and its a drama and they break up. in the aftermath squirrelflight starts hanging out with ashfur who is Just Some Guy and they start dating. meanwhile leafpool gets a dream from the dead ancestors thats like "ok so get this 👀🤯💥 squirrelflight and brambleclaw 😳👫💖 are like . totally destined to be together forever 😌✨🌠" and leafpool is like "ok got it boss 🫡" and tells squirrelflight. squirrelflight is like omg for real???? and tells brambleclaw and they get back together. ashfur fades into irrelevancy.

shortly before this, however. leafpool breaks off her illegal relationship (illegal because 1) shes a priestess and cant get married or have kids and 2) because the guy shes dating is from a rival clan) but later finds out - oops ! - shes pregnant. unfortunately this is now. a problem. in the meanwhile squirrelflight gets a dream from the dead ancestors thats like "okkkkk so like 😳😭😔 sorry to break this to you but ummmm 🤯💀🧍‍♂️ youre infertile 😌✨🌠" leafpool asks squirrelflight to take her babies and pretend that they are hers and brambleclaws and squirrelflight is like "got it boss 🫡". so squirrelflight lies to 1) the clan 2) the babies and 3) brambleclaw that they are hers and brambleclaw's children. no way thisll go wrong right 😎👍

so things go normally for a few years and everything is fine. then one day theres a huge storm after a drought or something i think and the entire forest catches on fire. squirrelflight is trying to get the kids out (they are adults now) and its a problem but hey look! ashfurs here to help! oh- oh wait whats . whats he doing ummmm. so basically ashfur says something to the extent of "you ruined my life i hate you so much im going to kill your kids in front of you to make you understand how i felt every single day" completely unprompted and squirrelflight is like "um. uhhhh ok well have fun with that because theyre not even my kids 👍" <- clearly last ditch effort to get ashfur to leave and ashfur is like "wait what for real? um. well okay bye then" and leaves.

one of the kids who is a massive stickler for The Warrior Code has 57 moments in a row though because she has just been alerted to the fact that she is an Illegal Baby and Should Not Exist and murders ashfur to prevent him from revealing the truth about them but then ends up having a Mental Illness Moment and tells everybody about leafpools illegal relationship babies at the monthly gathering of all the clans and runs off into a cave and fakes her death kind of. its a whole thing

#lorillee.txt #ask #cartoonrival #also i want you to know that the dead ancestors lied to squirrelflight about her being infertile #and then later get mad at her for taking the kits and lying to everybody about it #dont ask me how this makes any sense at all. it doesnt. starclan sucks #lorillee.png #<- also. i guess

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oldcoyote · 3 months

Text

thetimesinbetween replied to your post:

(1) please feel free to utterly disregard any/all of this!

(2) i saw this and my heart & soul squeezed because that fucking SUCKS, that breaks my heart, and i want to. like. stuff you in a burlap sack and throw you over my shoulder and take off running. GET OLDCOYOTE OUTTA THERE <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

(3) your brain might be straight-up, like, panicking/sabotaging your happiness in hopes of re-establishing whatever emotional state it has decided is safe. (the vibe: “oh, you’re feeling HAPPY? don’t you know it’s NOT SAFE to be happy? if you’re HAPPY, what NEXT? if you’re HAPPY, then you’re CAPABLE, you’ll have to DO [SOME SCARY THING]. AND you’ll have to do [WHATEVER] and in order to do [THAT THING], you’ll have to BE VULNERABLE.” and so on and so on.)

(4) to be clear, i could absolutely be wrong about this!!! it’s your brain!!! *my* brain loves to do this shit and in my opinion IT IS THE FUCKING WORST.

(5) ok i am currently in a DBT skills group. (this is where me and like 8 other people who are also Severely Struggling and #mentallyill all get together and learn from our 2 intrepid and deeply gay instructors how the fuck to cope, in practical ways, with being alive. and perhaps even. like. build lives we enjoy.) anyway, so, in this group, i learned about a (frankly sort of mindblowing) mechanism called “opposite action.” which is basically a way to decrease the intensity of an emotion.

important caveat: opposite action only really works when (a) you yourself WANT to decrease the intensity of the emotion in the first place, (b) the emotion in question isn’t, like, totally aligned with reality in the first place OR, even if it is aligned with reality, acting on it still wouldn’t help you. (like, imagine this sort of thing: ’ugh it totally makes sense that i feel this way, and it totally makes sense that feeling this way makes me want to do X, but doing X is really REALLY not gonna help me right now, fuuuUUUUUCK.’)

wow. i am not an expert. this is hard to explain. i looked for youtube videos on this for like. half an hour minimum. and they all sucked. YIKES. ✌️sdfsas;kjsasdfs. so, if you are fascinated and/or this seems useful, here is a uhhh fuckin pdf full of charts and bulleted lists: static1.squarespace.com…

if you start on p. 251 of the PDF (“Overview: Changing Emotional Responses”), that should actually properly explain what i’m talking about. I wish I could beam knowledge that I have directly into your brain bc opposite action is very cool actually, and i have done it multiple times and found it helpful, but i am literally linking you to a textbook rn i am so sorry lmao. again please feel free to ignore this :’) <3 <3

(6) in conclusion, absolutely fuck anything sabotaging your joy. you were HAPPY!!! you LOVED doing this thing!!! i want to be like, “i bet you are not stupid actually and also i remember liking your writing, way back when, and i bet it is not bad so THERE,” but like. that doesn’t even matter!!! you could write and then never reread it and never share it, and if it made you enjoy being alive, that’s already Everything.

loving something you are doing while you are doing it…that’s the juicy fucking meat of life!!!!! i am glad you had that & i hope you will have it again & i trust that you will. and just generally i’m rooting for you <3 okay goodnight <3 /end

bless you for all of this, and for the link, i will absolutely check it out and see if it works for me! it sounds SUPER useful and god might be exactly what i need because these emotions are Not Serving Me at all and i want them taken out and shot fjkdls i just want to feel like i used to feel about all this but i don't think that will come until i can write, and publish, and have people read it and be like This Is Not Awful Actually but in order to get there i have to be brave enough to put it out there and I am NOT right now i am a snivelling mess

anything that can help me get out of the snivelling mess stage is more than welcome <3 and beyond that, just, thank you so much for taking the time to say all this it made my day and makes me feel so much better already

#thetimesinbetween #replies

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cartoon-buffoon · 25 days

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Recently saw a post relating to Oswald the lucky rabbit being a male wife and in the tags the person mentions a fic and a gripe they had about it and OMFG I'M SO SCARED ITS TALKING ABOUT MY FIC AND I'VE BEEN STRESSING ABOUT THIS SO MUCH, in the tags they talk about and —I don't want to name names here— in the post the tags mentioned Oswald calling Ortensia "babe" and "babygirl" and this person did not like it which granted: FAIR! YOU'RE TOTALLY OK NOT TOO! But in a specific wholesome fic of mine that is related to Ortensia being too scared to tell Oswald she's pregnant (wanna note it contains mention of sex but I actively steer it back into the sfw wholesome direction) anyways: in my fic Oswald does kinda use those pet names as you can see:

And I'd like to note my reasoning for writing this was because I was rewatching the two Oswald Disney Land parade songs on loop, in which there's a song called "Baby take a bow" focusing on Oswald introducing Ortensia to the public

This is why I had Oswald use those pet names in my fic because this entire song is called "baby take a bow" and has Oswald call Ortensia baby. Now I'm aware something like this shouldn't be used as definite proof of a character having a certain trait yet I still decided to add it. Too me I characterize Oswald as a coward with rather expressive emotions and he just puts on false bravado to try and be a cool ladies man yet he's absolutely not and the only reason why he gets anywhere is because that false confidence combined with his luck and that's what allows him to succeed. In my fic he's also an absolute romantic for his wife and does all this stuff for her out of his love he has for her. He also calls her his "queen" yet that's more or less a pun on both Epic Mickey where she's a literal queen and the fact that female cats are called queens. Still some explanation is needed to me to justify my writing choice.

On the off chance this reaches the person that was talking about my fic: SORRY! SORRY! You're totally ok to dislike my work yet I just feel the need to explain myself and I hoped you enjoyed up until I wrote Oswald saying those pet names.

Now on the ALSO off chance this reaches that person and they WEREN'T talking about my fic and I'm being a dumb overthinker: SORRY! This post was made outta my own fear and need to clarify my stupid writing decisions.

Either way: sorry, sorry so much

#oswald the lucky rabbit #ortensia the cat #fanfiction #i'm so sorry #like deeply sorry #ignore this if you weren't talking about my fic #I've been stressing out about this

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ancient-remnants-of-love · 2 years

Text

“bren i love you but you still confuse your left and right”

this is so bad but idc imma post it anyways

brendan brisson x reader

(jock bf x academic reader)

not proof read

you had met brendan brisson through peer tutoring. you were majoring in athletic training with a minor in biology. he came in needing help with his biology 151 course after failing his first exam. you knew he was on the hockey team and they could not play with any type of failing grade. so he reached out to you and you had agreed to meet him once as week as his scheduled allowed. you were sitting in the library waiting for him, working on a paper for my psychology class. it was about falling in love and what the brain looks like as a person falls in love, not that you could relate. suddenly you heard someone come up to the chair across from me and you look up and see him sit down. you smile warmly at brendan. right away you notice how cute he is and immediately feel way more shy. ‘youre y/n im assuming” brendan says. you nod and say “hi brendan you can call me y/n/n” and he say “call me bren or briss, all my friends do, and i can tell we are gonna be good friends” with a smirk on his face. you blush and turn away. “are you ready to get started?” you ask shyly. he nods and pulls up the information he doesn't understand. we quickly get to work, you explain it to him as simple as you can and he seems to be getting it. you only get through one unit of the chapter before an alarm goes off on his phone. “oh shit,” he says, quickly throwing all his stuff in his blue and yellow backpack, “i gotta get to practice but same time next week?” you smile again at him and say “yes same place too.” a week passes uneventfully and once again you're in the library waiting for him, at the same table you were last week. once again he comes in like a tornado, with his backpack half unzipped and the messiest hair but it looks oh so good on him. you smile at him and say “hi bren, how are you?” he looks at you and smiles and says without taking a single breathe “hi y/n/n how are you im good practice has been brutal, but we are winning our games but estapa needs to learn how to stay out of the sin bin, and bordy got a new tatttoo and ive been studying more and..” “bren take a breath” you laugh at how excited he is and how much he rambles. “sorry sorry i was just excited to see you,” he says, much calmer now. “have i told you that you are like really pretty?” he blurts out after you guys have been studying for like an hour. “bren stop youre making me blush, you say “but thank you, you are quite pretty yourself.” he looks at you with a funny look on his face, “you think im pretty” he asks and you smile and nod, a little confused. suddenly his lips are on yours and you manage to kiss him back after getting over the inital shock. when he finally pulls away he looks a little embarrassed “sorry i just really wanted to kiss you, do you wanna come over and met my friends after, its ok if you dont, you totally dont have to but we are jsut chilling at bordy’s house, hes my best friend, and most of my teammates will be there..” you giggle and look at the rambling boy in front of you. “of course i wanna meet your friends bren,” you assure him and the smile he gives you makes your heart melt. “also,” he says nervous once again, “do you maybe wanna go on a date” “yes bren i would love to go on a date with you”

5 months later

the last 5 months have been the best 5 months of your life. saying yes to that date with brendan brisson was one of the greatest decisions of your life. he came to your dorm to pick you up and when you looked out your peephole he had flowers in his hand and you quickly opened the door and gave him a huge hug. the smile of his face grew and he greeted you “hey pretty girl, these are for you,” you smile at him and take them, placing them onto your counter with a mental note to put them in a vase later. “thanks bren, they are beautiful,” you say, smiling at the sweetest boy standing in your doorway. you quickly grab your coat and lock your door. bren grabs your hand and you walk out the building. “where are we going” you ask him, taking in the outfit he is wearing. “a picnic, watching the sunset and listening to taylor swift” he says, looking shy now, wondering if you were expecting something else. but you stop dead in your tracks and jump into his arms, brendan wasnt expecting this but thankfully catches you. you kiss him and tell him that a sunset picnic while listening to taylor swift is your dream date and how did he know. quite sheepishly he says he talked to your best friend and she mentioned how much you loved sunsets and taylor swift. he has to stop by his place first and grab the food and blanket, and then your guys are on your way to the local park. he sets up the blanket and the food, and pulls you against his chest. you relax against him and enjoy listening to him talk about his day and he smiles when you tell him all about yours. soon, the sun starts to set and he stands up and asks you to dance. he starts to play “love story” (taylors version) and you gasp when he takes your hand and pulls you close. “brendan brisson, i didnt take you for a swiftie.” you tease him and he smiles at you, and says “forever and always, pretty girl” as you two dance well past the sunsetting, his taylor swift playlist playing softly into the background, you have never felt more at home with someone and you thank your lucky stars you said yes to tutoring him. as you come outta your daydream, you look over at bren who is taking a nap after his class while your studying for your last final. you go back to work, typing and making flash card for about an hour when suddenly you feel arms wrap around you and bren placing a kiss on your cheek. “hi bren, how was your nap?” you ask the still sleepy boy, who mumbles “ok, would have been better with you cuddling me” “bren i gotta study for this and once i take it tomorrow morning you can have all the cuddles in the world” “ok, do you need help studying?” you cant help but laugh “bren, baby i love you but you still confuse your left and right.” bren pouts but he knows that you are right and you kiss the pout right off his face. looking at him with his bed head, wearing nothing but some umich sweats you cant help but wonder how you managed to be with such a pretty boy with the sweetest soul. after taking your final the next day, and getting a 90% you make your way to your dorm and open your door to find brendan sitting on your bed. “cuddle time?” he asks with the most adorable smile on his face. “yes bren cuddle time” you say and crawl into bed where yall stay for the majority of the day. once again you are so glad you decided to say yes to tutoring bren. all of your friends and his dont understand how you, someone going to school to get a doctorate, would be with someone who once asks you very seriously “do you think 20 chickens would be able to kill a lion? but your relationship makes perfect sense. you keep him grounded and his check and he brought you out of your shell, taking you to the hockey house and introducing you to all his friends. bordy had even convinced you to get a tattoo, though it was a small one it meant a lot to you. you had gotten a mirrorball in reference to your favorite taylor swift song. but the best part out of all these memories you had were that bren was by your side, because he was your lover and you were his.

#brendan brisson #brendan brisson imagine

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starsunfirelight · 4 months

Text

Ok so

I was too scared to post this before, but I think I'm going to do it now:

inspiration to finally post this:

youtube

a channel I watch all the time at the end of the year/when I remember/when it gets recommended to me lol

finally validated my opinions, when I thought I was alone

then someone in the comments mentioned a different channel so I thought i'd check it out:

youtube

and things started making a lot of sense. it's like this one person had the common sense that I could feel was missing from seemingly everyone I interacted with (watch videos) on the internet.

So I watch this:

youtube

after another video, and it's one I'd been meaning to watch a lot sooner, but it's been in my watch later for a long time and I guess it just got buried and I forgot about it lol

I never really check the watch later playlist unless I'm really bored and it's something I remember

(I am 100% a Spooky girl by the way (though for a different- I guess not directly but I have the vibes and those are things that I would do if it wasn't for the fact that I can't for some reason (yes I see the hypocrisy here but trust me on this)) and have been aware of it this whole time and it's also the exact type of person that I really hate and I think the word for it for the general public is "poser") (which is way more accurate to what I am imo)

(but like I get where they're all coming from and hope that they can all move on and get a more happier life where they can commit :> not sure what (face expression in the form of an emoticon/emoji) to put here but oh well )

but anyways, here we go!

(copy and pasted from my notes app) (wrote in the style of a YouTube video (at least at first) bc I am not original or creative but I just wanted to have fun lol) (more like have fun complaining and it was really bothering me and I just had to get it out there somehow) (I legit listened to this song for like 3 days straight until I had memorized all of the lyrics before the song would finally leave my head. :[ ) (again with the face thing, wanted to indicate mildly sad but frustrated not disappointed)

thoughts from today:

(the sentiment is totally taken straight from the comment section of the above videos and her performance with the cake being all messed up on SNL recently)

oliv (sic) is good and bad at the same time, but she’s getting better :)

I got target audience hit so hard like wow

olivia needs to learn to “kill” what she doesn’t like and go all in on being herself, :) it’s already happenin :)

still totally hate her producer by the way, if not specifically for these songs

like Blake put 90's(? idk I forget exactly it's been a while since I went obsessively looking for every single reaction video to her new song to see if anyone out there had the same opinion as me, but more as a way to see what opinon I "should" be having which sounds insane, I know, but I can't/ok couldn't help it and now I realize this is just high school glorified 😔 (ok real last edit so far (haha take that edits later) this was something I only begun to notice starting from Casually Explained's video (found via a hasanabi clip on my recommended who I clicked on bc of QT(he's a podcast host with her and his takes are so bad they're funny but I only know found out (have a better idea of now that I grew up more) they're bad because of other streamers but anyways-) https://youtu.be/MspHbnfEGno?si=KiiMRDYPIc9TK-TF) (here's a link to the original full video: https://youtu.be/l4Ioj4BA6N0?si=gUQ3ZeoyZ3DcGXLy) and then this one https://youtu.be/pII6mLdNawk?si=EWSF_g8Pl0fLOXHG and finally make the connection here myself lol)) but anyways put those drums on the track as a backing and it sounded SO MUCH BETTER than the original

so like yeah she definitely has the spirit, she just needs to talk to the right people, trust and learn from them, and have more people say "no" to her.

like seriously, and then she'll be really good!

like I mean it, her tracks are SO CLOSE to being really good, and I can see the idea behind them, that it makes me a little mad

all it needs is just a little creativity, or at least someone who really knows what they are doing and how to best implement it

like people think the production on the 1989 vault tracks left something to be desired and started making their own mixes, and I think that's what people should do with some of olivia rodrigo's music too! ok but like pretty isn't pretty was pretty much perfect so don't mess with that one lol

and also why I think the live performances sometimes sound so much better than the recorded version lol

y'know what? that could be a solution right there!

If you're bad at mixing, just do it live! Then it's all better anyways lol

haha ok time to let you guys see what I wrote when this song came out lol

like I really didn't want to be "that person" who complained about the thing that every teenager loves right now, but now I see that my complaints were valid because it's just a matter of opinion, and it's not the reason I was so mad lol (ok maybe like 0.01% but like I've been through this before and didn't hate the thing that was popular, maybe I was jealous? idk but still my complaints were mostly not for that reason, let's say lol (was looking for 😥 but couldn't find it lol - me from later, still editing this by only adding comments as I think the original should be preserved as much as possible bc it's interesting to look back at ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) 😓😢😭💀👍🙂🐛✨ (man your recently used emojis really tell you a lot about your personality huh))

ok but anyways

here we go lol

the time is from when it was last edited on the notes app

August 3, 2023 at 18:10

hey guys! So, today we’re going to be talking about 4 time Grammy winning musician Olivia Rodrigo’s latest hit single, vampire. This song reached number #1 on the Billboard hot 100 last week, and that’s almost to be expected of an artist like her. It also took YouTube by storm, (since it was sponsored, in part, haha, though I doubt it wouldn’t have blown up anyways) and I’m pretty sure it’s really popular on TikTok as well. (though I wouldn’t know, because I spend all of my time on YouTube shorts instead, lol) Ok now, personally, I liked her last album Sour, so I was excited to see what new song she came up with next! So, curious to see what it was, I checked it out on the trending page and… suffice to say, I was a little disappointed. I mean, it had such good parts, and musically, it was nice and I could tell what she was trying to do, but I mean, lyrically, I just felt like it could be better. Like, I’ve heard Taylor Swift songs in the past, and even if you don’t like her style, you’ve gotta admit she’s really good at writing lyrics. Not only does she convey her thought with such vivid imagery and a poetic stricture, but the words sound really nice to listen to as well. I’m not an English major, so I can’t go into too much depth there, but I’m sure there’s a lot of videos out there that can explain what I mean here. And as a personal anecdote, my 7th grade class was given her lyrics to Red to analyze for an assignment lol. So I mean, there’s one frame of reference for you guys, haha. But getting back to Vampire, her lyrics on there just don’t feel the same. I know they aren’t supposed to, but in its place they should adopt her own style. But to me, it just feels a bit… idk childish? I know I’m not that much older than her, but still. (Turns out she was 19 when she wrote this, which makes so much sense now, and that’s basically still a kid lol.) Taylor and Demi Lovato have both written great lyrics when they were both around her age. But, Taylor is kind of a lyrical poet, and Demi probably had a lot of help, since I looked on the Genius page and it said the song I want to compare later was cowritten by Nikki Williams, who was 25 at the time. So it’s a bit unfair to compare, but we’ll see.

Musically, I maybe I just don’t get pop opera, but I think the transition from piano to full on pop song is cool, but feels a bit misplaced. Like, it sounds like a good idea in concept, but I don’t know if it translated well. (as maybe she or the producer might have hoped.) But aside from that, maybe it’s just me but I think she liked the bridge-like(? idk just guessing here based off of my own feeling) chorus a bit too much, that she ended up relying on it to make the song great. Don’t get me wrong— musically, it’s a great part, and she should definitely be proud of herself for coming up with it as she did, but do you really have to repeat it 3 times?? I can definitely say that that it’s the key defining highlight of the song, but when you repeat it so much, it sounds tiring and overused. Imo People don’t care if you repeat the chorus a lot, because the chorus is almost meant to be repeated, but I really think that it sounds a bit too same when it’s repeated in this context. The beginning too, now that I mention it. But hey, this part could just be my own personal preference, and that’s valid too, I guess, since it’s just my opinion lol.

And also, I heard someone say that the instrumental at the end left them wanting more, and I agree that it felt like it ended abruptly, and either it should have ended sooner, or maybe padded out a bit more? idk, but the ending just felt abrupt.

But I do have to say, I really liked the bridge part, and the rest of the song after. I just wish the whole song was good! I mean, imo they should have gone harder on the dramatic angle of it all, like maybe have her in black and white with red lipstick at the piano or something. Extend the craziness of her mind, even if she wasn’t? I don’t know haha, I don’t relate to the song, so this again this is probably just a personal preference. (lol Otto)

Especially the “girls your age know better” part was fire!!!! :)

Also, it sounds kind of like her previous songs, but that’s not really anything to worry about imo, because all artists are a bit privy to that, she said that’s what she was going for, in which case she nailed the “same but kinda different” kind of thing, and it’s not a bad thing imo.

But, I guess, now it’s time to look at the ;lyrics. (warning, I think some of it is childish and a bit cringe. if not, just hoping it could be better :(. )

Now, I know that writing good lyrics really doesn’t have to do with age, but more about your own maturity, and your maturity as a writer. I know it’s a bit unfair to compare as I made those comparisons before, but if you look into the lyrics a bit, hopefully you’ll start to see what I mean.

without further ado, here we go…

I ʜᴀᴛᴇ ᴛᴏ ɢɪᴠᴇ ᴛʜᴇ sᴀᴛɪsғᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ Asᴋɪɴɢ, “Hᴏᴡ ʏᴏᴜ’ʀᴇ ᴅᴏɪɴɢ ɴᴏᴡ?” “Hᴏᴡ’s ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴀsᴛʟᴇ ʙᴜɪʟᴛ ᴏғғ ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴘʀᴇᴛᴇɴᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴄᴀʀᴇ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ?” Jᴜsᴛ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛᴇᴅ Lᴏᴏᴋ ᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ, ᴄᴏᴏʟ ɢᴜʏ, ʏᴏᴜ ɢᴏᴛ ɪᴛ

Ok, so this isn’t too bad, (now after listening about 100 times I like the first 4 lines! :D) but “Lᴏᴏᴋ ᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ, ᴄᴏᴏʟ ɢᴜʏ, ʏᴏᴜ ɢᴏᴛ ɪᴛ” sounds a bit playful, if not childish. If she’s taking on a childish tone on purpose because she’s still very “naive” as she mentions later, then I have to commend her for her genius. But also, it might show up unintentionally, as she mentioned that this song just came out of her head one day after a bad experience, so as a child, this might be just how she thinks, and on the spot, this is what she thought of. It makes me kind of miffed, and it’s a bit hard to listen to, but you can’t really blame her at the end of the day. Plus it sounds kind of cool! :D lkokolololol <- me on no sleep

I sᴇᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴀʀᴛɪᴇs ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅɪᴀᴍᴏɴᴅs sᴏᴍᴇᴛɪᴍᴇs ᴡʜᴇɴ I ᴄʟᴏsᴇ ᴍʏ ᴇʏᴇs Sɪx ᴍᴏɴᴛʜs ᴏғ ᴛᴏʀᴛᴜʀᴇ ʏᴏᴜ sᴏʟᴅ ᴀs sᴏᴍᴇ ғᴏʀʙɪᴅᴅᴇɴ ᴘᴀʀᴀᴅɪsᴇ I ʟᴏᴠᴇᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛʀᴜʟʏ Yᴏᴜ ɢᴏᴛᴛᴀ ʟᴀᴜɢʜ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ sᴛᴜᴘɪᴅɪᴛʏ

Yo, can we take some time to take in the scenery? No? Ok, I guess that’s ok, and I’lll be in my own corner doing that I guess, lol :D (also comes up later, but that point it’s slow and I think it’s— you’ll find out later :))

Again, it’s fine, maybe trying a bit too hard, but the one thing that makes me mad is “stupidity”. It sounds so childish compared to the rest of the lyrics there, and I can’t think of a better lyric off of the top of my head, but I just know I wouldn’t use that word there— it gives me the ick, if you know what I mean.

it has real “they ask you how you are, and you just have to say you're fine when you're not really fine, but you just can't get into it, because they would never understand.” vibes lol.

here’s the chorus!! (though it feels like a bridge imo until the last two lines, but maybe that’s just the genre haha)

<3 love it sm omg !!! heart heart heart!!! :)

‘Cᴀᴜsᴇ I’ᴠᴇ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ sᴏᴍᴇ ʀᴇᴀʟ ʙɪɢ ᴍɪsᴛᴀᴋᴇs Bᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏʀsᴛ ᴏɴᴇ ʟᴏᴏᴋ ғɪɴᴇ I sʜᴏᴜʟᴅ’ᴠᴇ ᴋɴᴏᴡɴ ɪᴛ ᴡᴀs sᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇ Yᴏᴜ ᴏɴʟʏ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴀᴛ ɴɪɢʜᴛ

I ᴜsᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜɪɴᴋ I ᴡᴀs sᴍᴀʀᴛ Bᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ᴍᴇ ʟᴏᴏᴋ sᴏ ɴᴀɪ̈ᴠᴇ Tʜᴇ ᴡᴀʏ ʏᴏᴜ sᴏʟᴅ ᴍᴇ ғᴏʀ ᴘᴀʀᴛs As ʏᴏᴜ sᴜɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴛᴇᴇᴛʜ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴍᴇ Oʜ, ʙʟᴏᴏᴅsᴜᴄᴋᴇʀ, ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍ ᴄʀᴜsʜᴇʀ

Bʟᴇᴇᴅɪɴɢ ᴍᴇ ᴅʀʏ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴀ … ᴠᴀᴍᴘɪʀᴇ

mentions the theme at the end, yay! lol like it wasn’t present before haha

and here comes my theory that the management wanted this part to take off on TikTok all along, because it’s really good (musically imo) but didn’t really put as much attention on the rest? Like girl, I thought we were on the same page about hating songs only made for TikTok! really short, and only having one good part, like you can tell!

Like “If We Ever Broke Up” by Mae Stephens is the perfect _counter_ to this argument, because it got popular on TikTok and every part of that song is catchy and good, and I think the whole song is perfect. But then again, it’s also kind of short, but also I don’t think it needs to be longer, because then it’s overdone.

But maybe the way Vampire was written was just because it was difficult to come up with! Idk, but I think it could really be due to anything, and I can’t say for sure, I know that. But anyways, I think lyrically, it’s a bit weak. and the ending made me want to listen to it more, which is a TikTok move, but also just because the song has some really good parts in it, which is just because the song is nice and not a TikTok move I don’t think haha :)

Honestly, “‘Cᴀᴜsᴇ I’ᴠᴇ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ sᴏᴍᴇ ʀᴇᴀʟ ʙɪɢ ᴍɪsᴛᴀᴋᴇs” has kind of the same energy as “For one day, one day / I was really, really, really, really sad” by One Whole Day by Dixie D’Amelio. And she didn’t even write that song!

and so every time I hear that lyric, I get kind of cringe, it’s a bit sad. :( lol

but now I don’t mind after listening to it for like the 100th time lol

Moving on…

“Bᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏʀsᴛ ᴏɴᴇ ʟᴏᴏᴋ ғɪɴᴇ” this line is fine, and it would probably be fine among a sea of other lines that are better, but even still, it would be the weakest out of those lines, but satisfying nonetheless.

This song may be musically satisfying, but lyrically, it’s not. (edit, again, after listening to it about 100 times, I now don’t care about most of it but “dream crusher” still sounds cringe, but the go version probably isn’t.) I may not understand the pain, and I understand that in the middle of writing this song, she was probably thinking about her own emotional pain and not really caring about the lyrics, so I get why it’s like this, and I don’t mind one bit, because that’s her song. And, I mean, She probably wouldn’t have released it of she didn’t like it. haha, unless she was rushed? idk. probably not though!

But still, if you take that aspect away, it’s a bit hard to visualize, appearing weak at times, with a tell not show kind of approach, and at other times it feels like she’s trying too hard, giving the whole song an amateur kind of feel. But Sour wasn’t like this, and I just can’t get why. Like good 4 u had a lot of repetition too, but that was fine, because it felt like that part that was repeated was _meant_ to be repeated, and it was satisfying when it did. You knew what to expect, and it was a little predicable but that was fine. It was nice, even. But this song feels predictable in a kinda bad way, and I don’t really understand why. :(

Ok, back to looking at the lyrics, lol.

“I sʜᴏᴜʟᴅ’ᴠᴇ ᴋɴᴏᴡɴ ɪᴛ ᴡᴀs sᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇ Yᴏᴜ ᴏɴʟʏ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴀᴛ ɴɪɢʜᴛ”

These lines are fire, and I like them. :) Not trying too hard, but not too weak either. It’s great :)

“I ᴜsᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜɪɴᴋ I ᴡᴀs sᴍᴀʀᴛ Bᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ᴍᴇ ʟᴏᴏᴋ sᴏ ɴᴀɪ̈ᴠᴇ”

These lines make it sound like she still is very much naive, even if she didn’t mean it to sound that way. It’s also very her, especially in the way that she phrased it while singing, so I have to give her credit for that. Maybe this one is just a personal preference, for me lol Like maybe it rings true for her because it was and it’s just something that I’ve never thought about lol :)

Listening back, it sounds more like a facepalm than anything.

More lyrics…

“Tʜᴇ ᴡᴀʏ ʏᴏᴜ sᴏʟᴅ ᴍᴇ ғᴏʀ ᴘᴀʀᴛs As ʏᴏᴜ sᴜɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴛᴇᴇᴛʜ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴍᴇ”

Ok, this part just sounds like she is trying too hard, which just makes me sad :(

Like I get imagery, for imagery’s sake, and like she really wanted to make this work, but still, I believe you’ll find the right balance someday as you mature as an artist and a person! :D I believe in you!!! <3

“Oʜ, ʙʟᴏᴏᴅsᴜᴄᴋᴇʀ, ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍ ᴄʀᴜsʜᴇʀ”

“Bʟᴇᴇᴅɪɴɢ ᴍᴇ ᴅʀʏ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴀ … ᴠᴀᴍᴘɪʀᴇ”

I like this part, especially the rhythmic feel to it as the song speeds up later. I think the clean version is a bit silly though, and having the not clean version in the second line really delivers the impact. Though that same impact isn’t really felt for me in the first line, and “ʙʟᴏᴏᴅsᴜᴄᴋᴇʀ” had more impact than when she used the bad word I think trying to have an impact (but that could also be just because I don’t know the context of that word, or it just sounds weird coming from a child like her, not really understanding the power that that word holds, but still wants people to take her seriously and think of her as a person who uses that word like “I’m not the kid that you think I am”). Haha, at this point I think she has more impact when she writes from the heart and isn’t trying lol. But that could be totally untrue, but it would be funny lol.

“Aɴᴅ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏ ɢɪʀʟ I ᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴛᴀʟᴋᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ Tᴏʟᴅ ᴍᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴇʀᴇ ʙᴀᴅ, ʙᴀᴅ ɴᴇᴡs Yᴏᴜ ᴄᴀʟʟᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ᴄʀᴀᴢʏ Gᴏᴅ, I ʜᴀᴛᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀʏ I ᴄᴀʟʟᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ᴄʀᴀᴢʏ ᴛᴏᴏ Yᴏᴜ’ʀᴇ sᴏ ᴄᴏɴᴠɪɴᴄɪɴɢ”

This sounds like classic high school drama from one perspective, but like her friends really care about her, from another.

Musically, I wish it was more different than the opening, but I guess changing the beat kind of does that haha. It’s not bad, I guess. :0

“Hᴏᴡ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴇ ᴡɪᴛʜᴏᴜᴛ ғʟɪɴᴄʜɪɴɢ?”

What does this mean? Is this just there for the rhyme?

Like, if you’re only going for rhyme, I found this in the BuzzFeed article I was reading earlier of of curiosity “"Maybe then we could pretend / There's no gravity in the words we write / Maybe you didn't mean it / Maybe "blonde" was the only rhyme."” -Skin by Sabrina Carpenter

which I thought was way better lyrics than most of Olivia Rodrigo’s entire song Vampire. Just looking at the lyrics, and has nothing to do with their personal relationship, as I don’t really know about that.

But then again, maybe I was just too harsh, and this is just a reference to something that I don’t understand. Like I wouldn’t personally think about “flinching” when it comes to lying unless it was under a very specific context, but maybe that’s what Olivia Rodrigo is hinting at here, without explaining the whole story.

“(Hᴏᴡ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴇ? Hᴏᴡ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴇ? Hᴏᴡ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴇ?)”

Initially I thought Again, trying a bit too hard here, or maybe it didn’t really come across, but I like the idea that they were going for.

But after reanalyzing the line before this, it makes more sense in that context, and also explains why she would be really hurt here. Especially because she repeats the line a lot, maybe meaning that he lied multiple times and really hurt her to make her want to repeat that line that much.

“Oʜ, ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴀ ᴍᴇsᴍᴇʀɪᴢɪɴɢ, ᴘᴀʀᴀʟʏᴢɪɴɢ, ᴛʀᴀɢɪᴄ ʟɪᴛᴛʟᴇ ᴛʜʀɪʟʟ Cᴀɴ’ᴛ ғɪɢᴜʀᴇ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴊᴜsᴛ ʜᴏᴡ ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏ ɪᴛ Aɴᴅ Gᴏᴅ ᴋɴᴏᴡs I ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴡɪʟʟ Wᴇɴᴛ ғᴏʀ ᴍᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ɴᴏᴛ ʜᴇʀ ‘Cᴀᴜsᴇ ɢɪʀʟs ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴀɢᴇ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ʙᴇᴛᴛᴇʀ”

This part is nice, “Oʜ, ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴀ ᴍᴇsᴍᴇʀɪᴢɪɴɢ, ᴘᴀʀᴀʟʏᴢɪɴɢ, ᴛʀᴀɢɪᴄ ʟɪᴛᴛʟᴇ ᴛʜʀɪʟʟ” is kind of a lot to say at once, but I can respect it, it’s kind of like a emotion cake lol. “‘Cᴀᴜsᴇ ɢɪʀʟs ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴀɢᴇ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ʙᴇᴛᴛᴇʀ” :) those two last lines remind of her last album, and she does it so well here. :)

The bridge and chorus again sound epic with the increased tension from the instrumental :)

“Yᴏᴜ sᴀɪᴅ, “Iᴛ ᴡᴀs ᴛʀᴜᴇ ʟᴏᴠᴇ”, ʙᴜᴛ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅɴ’ᴛ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ʙᴇ ʜᴀʀᴅ? Yᴏᴜ ᴄᴀɴ’ᴛ ʟᴏᴠᴇ ᴀɴʏᴏɴᴇ, ‘ᴄᴀᴜsᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴍᴇᴀɴ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴅ ᴀ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛ I ᴛʀɪᴇᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴇʟᴘ ʏᴏᴜ ᴏᴜᴛ, ɴᴏᴡ I ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴀᴛ I ᴄᴀɴ’ᴛ ‘Cᴀᴜsᴇ ʜᴏᴡ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛʜɪɴᴋ’s ᴛʜᴇ ᴋɪɴᴅ ᴏғ ᴛʜɪɴɢ I’ʟʟ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀsᴛᴀɴᴅ”

Now this really feels like her old album, and I really like this part :)

It’s really good, maintains her style lol, and no notes from me here :)

this part emotion makes up for aaall of the lyrics haha :)

or maybe that’s the lyrics? rhythm? idk, I just like this part, haha :)

“Yᴏᴜ ᴄᴀɴ’ᴛ ʟᴏᴠᴇ ᴀɴʏᴏɴᴇ, ‘ᴄᴀᴜsᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴍᴇᴀɴ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴅ ᴀ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛ” especially goes hard, and she’s finally writing in a way that’s not only really good poetry but sounds good to hear! I’m so glad! But she doesn’t have to do this if she doesn’t have to, I just think it’s cool that she did it here, haha

At first I was like did you really have to repeat the iconic part a third time? or is it the chorus at this point? Or was it all along? (yes) :thinking: emoji, but after a while, it’s not that bad. It rocks! And only listening to the last part of the song is epic!!!!!! :D the leadup, however it was executed, was worth it, haha :)

Overall, this song is not bad, great at times, even, but I just wish it was better because I get frustrated at its potential, especially because it reminds me of other songs that are really great at times like Heart Attack by Demi Lovato, and I really love that song, and it makes me frustrated that this song isn’t that one :(. After the “‘Cᴀᴜsᴇ ʜᴏᴡ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛʜɪɴᴋ’s ᴛʜᴇ ᴋɪɴᴅ ᴏғ ᴛʜɪɴɢ I’ʟʟ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀsᴛᴀɴᴅ” I’d often go into the chorus from Heart Attack lol :).

But seriously, Like, I get your range is limited, and it’s all about holding in that tension and not letting it go until the line drops (you know the one), but would it kill mainstream music to not hover around the same three notes every time? I’ve noticed it was a problem since Halsey’s “Without Me”, where I really felt that, (editor me from now stepping in to say that I didn't think of this, I just held it in my brain from another youtube video that I had watched years ago but then thought I should "agree" with it without really knowing about what I really thought (based on actually listening to the music) myself lol but then again I did notice it a bit more after I had it pointed out to me, mostly in Halsey - Without Me and Katy Perry - Never Really Over but that last one kinda I had the thought myself a bit at first but then I watched another youtube video and they really pointed to it there as the "death of pop music" but maybe not necessarily with the repeating/range I think idk it was a long time ago and I also liked Paramore - Hard Times a lot at this time but anyways) but maybe it’s just a stylistic choice that I got frustrated by lol, and in general all music isn’t like that. idk about this to say any more.

alright, I think that’s all of my thoughts about this song. ok bye! have a good night/day! :)

Oh wait one more thing. I want to address stan culture, the thing that I wanted to make this video about the most. You see, if you’ve noticed, on the comment section of this song, in most places that I looked, it was hard to find a single comment that was even sightly negative. Now, this could just mean that it’s a good song, but given the complaints I just had that I talked about earlier, it was hard for me to believe that was the case. In fact, that was what kind of started this whole thing, lol. But then, as I looked a bit further on the reviews for the iTunes store, I saw that there were a few people that had the same complaints as I did. There were very few “nope”/“bad song”’s. You don’t like the song? Maybe you’re just not a fan of the genre as a whole, and that’s ok. It’s always (I think) ok to have an opinion. It’s too “copy and paste”? Not original, but still good? Yeah ok, but still, they didn’t comment on whether it was bad or good, and the others admitted it was still good. idk if it’s good to copy and paste or not, but it might e subconscious, and imo who cares (besides the record labels) (as long as you give credit) because it can end up with some really fun music out of it! :) The other comments said it was rushed and it sounded like an amateur. This is something that I kind of talked about in the section before, and if it’s true then I really hope she gets better! :) And a few people were like “meh”, essentially, and still though admitted it was good in some way. So, I guess most of the internet agrees it’s good, just some of us hoping for better.

Now, the really interesting part happened when I looked at another video by a different artist, for just another reason, not really related to this, just kind of happened to see it by chance. It was Taylor Swift’s Anti Hero lyric video, and in the comments, most of them were positive too. But, they were positive in a different way. Both positive, don’t worry :)

Taylor: I love the lyricism, even if you don’t like her you gotta admit it’s good, I relate heavily to this, and just generally pointing out a certain lyric that they like, with some fans just being a fan of the artist. But most people I think were there just () for the song.

Olivia: Kind of the same vibes, but more people liking “omg olivia you’re awesome I can’t believe you did this so proud of you!” which is great but also can lean towards stan behavior (:/), and also “I just love how she sings with emotion”. :) and occasionally “that one line hits really hard.” (hey, I said that too! glad we agree :)) (editor me here to say that I took those comments to heart and formed my own opinion after hearing theirs) But there were also people who were like “I really resonate with this song” “thank you for helping me get through a tough time” and feeling cathartic, which is really nice to see :’)

So, future fans, I advise you to be civil, and maybe not just blindly support your favorite artist because you like them as a person or like their past work. This is just a reminder, just because you like an artist, or even just one song by an artist, doesn’t mean you have to like every sing one of their songs, or go to great lengths to defend them of any wrong lol. You should personally not be responsible for the financial success of your favorite artist. Just tell your friends, but if they’re not into it, leave it alone, chill. If you like it, then you buy the song. If you like it, you listen to the song. that’s really it.

just be happy :)

just be you :)

it’s ok to have an opinion! even if it’s different from people that you love! (unless it’s a super serious important one that’s just mean or something, then hopefully you can try to respect others even if you don’t agree, and try to see other’s pov I hope again unless it’s really bad)

otherwise the world would be boring lol (I mean about having different opinions from one another)

also absolutely no hate to the teens and people that needed this song the most <3 hope you’re ok 😭👍

ohh maybe

(I feel a disconnect with this song) bc teens relate to this song and I’m not a teen anymore. ok, yeah, that explains a lot haha. :0 :)

I’ve always wanted to let the world “let teens be teens”, and give them a lot of love as they grow up, and it looks like it’s finally happening :)))

this song is addictive fs, at least it definitely is/was for me

also it’s funny how she was a fake celeb and now she’s a real internet celeb, and that’s funny lol

I don’t have to like this song, nor do I have to force other people to like it too.

teens like it. let em be.

(ok editor me here, this is the part where I was jotting down random thoughts as I had them, kind of like a notebook lol)

y’know I like this song but I feel like it’s missing something…

I just feel like if she used jazz chords instead of the normal boring generic ones she’s already used before, it could be a much cooler song! Like driver’s license was meant to be generic, and the chords work well there, but this feels like it could use something more!!!!

Oh, ok, I see the Queen inspo now. (editor me, this was in response much later to reading a comment that said so lol, bc I didn't hear it at first lol)

Also explains why everyone likes it, haha xD

it’s like her own style combined with their’s

Like songs

Heart Attack

Some piano ballad - Queen, Taylor Swift

Senorita

Paramore

Avril Lavigne

Gothic/Victorian

Emo - the last two lines of the chorus

Birthday - Katy Perry

ABBA, duh!

Miley Cyrus

BTR (I think, probably just the vibes of the genre)\

Lewis Capaldi

used to ba a sad boy with (idk just lyrics) are jepson era

Without Me - Halsey ^

Pink

Linkin Park

it needs more 💖aesthetic 💓💝💘!!!! ❣️💝❤️‍🩹(couldn’t find the sparkles lol)

Piano Ballad/Queen

(editor me, this is where I pasted the original lyrics and jotted down some of my thoughts there lol, so it's kind of like a "behind the scenes" of the YouTube video lol)

(editor me, but also more of in the notebooks vein where it's what I "cut out" from the video lol to stay on topic/not make it too long winded but here I am writing about it here lol (gosh I really hated part of this song, and I still kinda do, and I'm not going to deny it/hide it anymore because that is what I feel is the right thing to do) (but like not going to bring it up when nobody asked lol, except I guess this could be different lol since _I_ asked and I can post whatever I want as long as I think it's ok and hopefully not being unfair/mean 😥))

(editor me here, also this was me desperately trying to find what this reminded me of, and I was struggling really hard here lol (still am kinda miffed about that, but I chose to accept it and move on after I calmed down caring about this song lol, who knows maybe I'll start looking again by listening to more songs about (I mean in!) that era, haha (*insert indescribable emotion here*) (by me rn at least, :/)))

(editor me from a little later, also went back and saw that I was trying to improve it, so I guess that these were my initial frustrations with the song, or might have been from either before or after or both from when I wrote the whole YouTube video

ok I definitely remember coming back and adding to the list OFTEN as I thought of more, plus I looked up the lyrics in the process of writing the YouTube video, so I guess it was after, after all :) (me being happy I figured it out, NOt being happy about the song >:( ok I'm not that mean (or am I? 🤨 sounds fun actually lol) but didn't want it to be the sad emoticon :( <- ok now I'm a bit sad about the situation, again not the song lol (I don't think? maybe? I mean I suppose since I did say I was a bit sad earlier and I think I still feel that way about the song plus it's a "sad" song so...) (ok stop writing now the sleepiness is really kicking in right about now) )

)

(editor me again, I know you said stop but this is the last one I think, yeah I definitely found the lyrics again and pasted them here _after_ I was done writing my whole video up there, just so I could analyze them in the way that I mentioned before lol)

(still editor me here yeah and I would re paste certain parts and they reminded me of things, as I saw fit) (mmhm yes I am aware I sound like a derange obsessed lunatic and that's because I kind of was) (editor me still, don't worry now I have a love hate kinda thinking towards her lol, and have grown up a bit and try really hard not to be like the fans here, y'know fandom rememberings and what not sheesh the name-shall-npt-be-mentioned fandom is like REally bad and is like this one but like is just BAD on a lot of levels, I think it's worse (than this) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a4yt5h5rRg like the problem is their behavior, not the content or I'd argue even the fans themselves, necessarily, the problem is when it goes too far 🙁 bit a bit more ^, like 😕 one side for both (the aforementioned side could be either, depends on the mood but both are ok ), slight frown :/)

(editior me, ok this is last now, please, yeah it's just me basically trying my best to improve the song, I think, or at least that's how the latest draft of all this reads to me anyways lol)

(still editor me, like at the time I didn't know if I wanted it this way because it was what I stereotypically "expected to hear", or just because it sounded cool (anyways it was still what _I_ expected to hear/would do, given the opportunity, I was really thinking of what would make me happy here, looking for outside influences on top of that + seeing if they match what I hear/the vibe I'm going for in my head like yes! no, maybe and all that))

Same, bit of Taylor Swift, especially in the chords

but also her own style I guess

Definitely her own style, or I just can’t tell what it’s copying (opera!!! :))

I ᴜsᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜɪɴᴋ I ᴡᴀs sᴍᴀʀᴛ Bᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ᴍᴇ ʟᴏᴏᴋ sᴏ ɴᴀɪ̈ᴠᴇ Tʜᴇ ᴡᴀʏ ʏᴏᴜ sᴏʟᴅ ᴍᴇ ғᴏʀ ᴘᴀʀᴛs As ʏᴏᴜ sᴜɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴛᴇᴇᴛʜ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴍᴇ

Paramore Oʜ, ʙʟᴏᴏᴅsᴜᴄᴋᴇʀ, ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍ ᴄʀᴜsʜᴇʀ

Avril Lavigne

Bʟᴇᴇᴅɪɴɢ ᴍᴇ ᴅʀʏ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴀ … ᴠᴀᴍᴘɪʀᴇ

Her style, more tension rising buildup in the instrumental, pop ->

This is something but can’t figure out what it is

“(Hᴏᴡ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴇ? Hᴏᴡ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴇ? Hᴏᴡ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪᴇ?)”

More emo? idk leading up towards a genre change (makes sense from a theatre perspective) (editor me, I had just heard a comment/maybe it was a (reaction?) video or both say that this was inspired by theatre and was like ohhh, that makes a lot of sense actually)

“Oʜ, ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴀ ᴍᴇsᴍᴇʀɪᴢɪɴɢ, ᴘᴀʀᴀʟʏᴢɪɴɢ, ᴛʀᴀɢɪᴄ ʟɪᴛᴛʟᴇ ᴛʜʀɪʟʟ Cᴀɴ’ᴛ ғɪɢᴜʀᴇ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴊᴜsᴛ ʜᴏᴡ ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏ ɪᴛ Aɴᴅ Gᴏᴅ ᴋɴᴏᴡs I ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴡɪʟʟ Wᴇɴᴛ ғᴏʀ ᴍᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ɴᴏᴛ ʜᴇʀ ‘Cᴀᴜsᴇ ɢɪʀʟs ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴀɢᴇ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ʙᴇᴛᴛᴇʀ” -add a sick drum line after this

Victorian/Gothic (imagine the background music and she’s running away) (or else if it’s positive it could pass as emo)

either way this part sounds cool, because of the way she sings it and builds the rising tension

‘Cᴀᴜsᴇ I’ᴠᴇ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ sᴏᴍᴇ ʀᴇᴀʟ ʙɪɢ ᴍɪsᴛᴀᴋᴇs Bᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏʀsᴛ ᴏɴᴇ ʟᴏᴏᴋ ғɪɴᴇ -> hit the minor key or the 2nd or the 5th or the 7th or sustained or whatever that chord is, like I said, makes the song cool! I sʜᴏᴜʟᴅ’ᴠᴇ ᴋɴᴏᴡɴ ɪᴛ ᴡᴀs sᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇ Yᴏᴜ ᴏɴʟʏ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴀᴛ ɴɪɢʜᴛ

Paramore Oʜ, ʙʟᴏᴏᴅsᴜᴄᴋᴇʀ, ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍ ᴄʀᴜsʜᴇʀ

Avril Lavigne

Bʟᴇᴇᴅɪɴɢ ᴍᴇ ᴅʀʏ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴀ … ᴠᴀᴍᴘɪʀᴇ -> country? for some reason? :)?

This is classic her style, I would say Taylor Swift but this is her style that’s inspired

“Yᴏᴜ sᴀɪᴅ, “Iᴛ ᴡᴀs ᴛʀᴜᴇ ʟᴏᴠᴇ”, ʙᴜᴛ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅɴ’ᴛ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ʙᴇ ʜᴀʀᴅ? Yᴏᴜ ᴄᴀɴ’ᴛ ʟᴏᴠᴇ ᴀɴʏᴏɴᴇ, ‘ᴄᴀᴜsᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴍᴇᴀɴ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴅ ᴀ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛ <- expect a run here for some reason, but then it’s cool but not her style? I ᴛʀɪᴇᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴇʟᴘ ʏᴏᴜ ᴏᴜᴛ, ɴᴏᴡ I ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴀᴛ I ᴄᴀɴ’ᴛ <- a darker sound? ‘Cᴀᴜsᴇ ʜᴏᴡ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛʜɪɴᴋ’s ᴛʜᴇ ᴋɪɴᴅ ᴏғ ᴛʜɪɴɢ I’ʟʟ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀsᴛᴀɴᴅ”

Now this is more pop/emo/her style, which is cool because it’s like the final act of the play, ABBA! :)

‘Cᴀᴜsᴇ I’ᴠᴇ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ sᴏᴍᴇ ʀᴇᴀʟ ʙɪɢ ᴍɪsᴛᴀᴋᴇs -> piano glissando, elton john, very dramatic Bᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏʀsᴛ ᴏɴᴇ ʟᴏᴏᴋ ғɪɴᴇ -> twist a crystal ball that’s dark blue as the protagonist runs away in fear I sʜᴏᴜʟᴅ’ᴠᴇ ᴋɴᴏᴡɴ ɪᴛ ᴡᴀs sᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇ Yᴏᴜ ᴏɴʟʏ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴀᴛ ɴɪɢʜᴛ

I ᴜsᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜɪɴᴋ I ᴡᴀs sᴍᴀʀᴛ Bᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ᴍᴇ ʟᴏᴏᴋ sᴏ ɴᴀɪ̈ᴠᴇ Tʜᴇ ᴡᴀʏ ʏᴏᴜ sᴏʟᴅ ᴍᴇ ғᴏʀ ᴘᴀʀᴛs -> sees shadow As ʏᴏᴜ sᴜɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴛᴇᴇᴛʜ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴍᴇ -> shadow

Paramore Oʜ, ʙʟᴏᴏᴅsᴜᴄᴋᴇʀ, ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍ ᴄʀᴜsʜᴇʀ

Avril Lavigne

Bʟᴇᴇᴅɪɴɢ ᴍᴇ ᴅʀʏ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴀ … ᴠᴀᴍᴘɪʀᴇ

end on cymbals + and a guitar

hmm “play”…. it sounds theatrical, I guess :)

Someone analyze this further please TT hands /\

https://youtu.be/PdTg-JT8FPM is pretty good :) but not complete, more could be said!!!

>hates song

>proceeds to listen to sing for 3 consecutive days

(now 4)

I appreciate the lyricism, it works wonderfully on the stage :) (red curtains emoji)

haha kool-aid is funny

“Lᴏᴏᴋ ᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ, ᴄᴏᴏʟ ɢᴜʏ, ʏᴏᴜ ɢᴏᴛ ɪᴛ”

“I ᴜsᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜɪɴᴋ I ᴡᴀs sᴍᴀʀᴛ Bᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ᴍᴇ ʟᴏᴏᴋ sᴏ ɴᴀɪ̈ᴠᴇ”

most of the song is just her being helpless(not really), sad, and most of all confused, but this really proves her innocence, and that she’s a good person, (editor me, clear projection here, if it just wasn't _me_ being naïve, if that wasn't already obvious lol) because maybe they would say the second lines, but they would never say the first line even as a joke if they were not a good person

mean TT

where’s the 2000’s drums at???

what on earth is rocky horror picture show

ok so the final genre is rock

it makes sense now, and is not in fact repetitive

paid(editor me, this was an autocorrect of p!atd though I don't think I saw the autocorrect until now ) vibes apparently -reaction video from a video with two people (editor me, I think it was one where they were old white dudes with a purple background who listened to mainly metal, but I could be wrong on this)

playlist is 2000’s indie (editor me, I was researching olivia's inspiration and she said her playlist was this lol or at least the comments did, lol)

its in minor

all of this could have been summed down to “I don’t like the new drummer”.

the parts that aren’t her sound like Selena Gomez :) Like, they could collaborate and it would be neat :)

I guess I don’t like the vocal technique because even if it wasn’t billie’s style I thought it sounded more mellow? idk

Lorde??? I guess, but don’t really see it much beyond the opening/structure of things (editor me, yeah, this was definitely a reaction to a comment and I see it now haha)

Songs that belong on a playlist

Vampire

Better Than Revenge

good 4 u

paid or something paramore???? idk just what was on the radio

oh, that one similar song, ok

enchanted to meet you

rolling in the deep? idk

mine tv

icona pop “i don’t care”

taylor swift look what you made me do (on spot/hits the spot/pinpoint accuracy)

tove lo

katy perry - teenage dream

needs more guitar

"the song was a tissue of threadbare clichés" -google for threadbare (editor me I think I miiiight have read this on a comment on apple iTunes reviews, because I definitely did not know that word before)

nice lol haha totally not this one amirite :) (ominous smile) (you should be concerned) (about me, not you) (thankfully) haha

ok I made a playlist on spotify ✨nuf said ✨💐🪷

this is tearing my soul away :D (never thought this was possible, so this is cool lol)

—the centrol theme is people sobbing in their songs—

also teenagers being teenagers, or at least music targeted towards them

why hate?

-emo

-billie eilith

-teenagers

-almost sampled but not quite

-the way words are pronounced

-straight up the production

-“cool” = cringe? (to adults? lol haha)

-maybe that last point is really it :)

-“look at me I’m important”

-fire this drummer

-also consider help for the producer

-overused, cliche, generic, boring <— this is it for sure, I think

-not enough out of the ordinary/expected

-make it stop pls

-imo the last part is better bc she has more confidence :)

-Olivia Rodrigo Vampire - Creativity Don't Pay Reaction I agree it’s trying too hard and going nowhere

-also on the fact that it appears that she’s trying to be edgy - “The swearing to me seems forced and unnecessary and trying to be edgy.” also see “I'm ancient so not the demographic it's aimed at.” “ I maintain that it's not particularly inspired songwriting or production in my opinion.”? “ it's an unfair comparison,” also true

no hate

-but she’s got a good spirit :)

#olivia rodrigo #vampire #Youtube

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