#so many fun little details to catch on every rewatch!
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Alright, here we go
First and foremost I want to talk about what flying bark's animation has meant to me.
In a world where every day I see 2d animation being rejected for cheaper 3d and puppet animation at every turn, Monkie Kid's animation was the one of the first things that gave me hope for the future of 2D animation. I can't tell you how long I've been wanting a 2D animated show, growing up I wanted one so desperately, I craved good animation amongst the stiff 3D and flat storytelling, so when I got it, when Monkie Kid happened, I was so unbelievably happy. It was everything I wanted in a show, gorgeous animation, excellent voice actors, romance free and friendly to my desperate friendship-craving, romance-overstimulated brain and written in a way I enjoyed so much. I struggle to describe exactly how much I’ve adored everything this show has been up until this point. It truly is a masterpiece.
Monkie kid has kept me company during the lowest and roughest points in my life. I got to such a bad place mentally but Monkie Kid’s fast-paced, snappy, detailed, colourful bright animation brought light into my darkest mental times and not only helped me stay connected with people but kept me creating even when I wanted nothing more than to lay on the floor and never move again. I'm aware most of the flying bark team is active on the bird app and none of them are gonna see this most likely but I still just wanted to say thank you. Thank you so much for animating this show, thank you so much for giving it your all. Thank you so much for giving me something I’ve always wanted so perfectly. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for keeping me company at my lowest, thank you for sharing your joy of animation so I could catch some of those rays of sunlight and feel a little of that joy too. Thank you for your positivity and good vibes, thank you.
I know so many people have gotten inspiration from flying bark and I have to add myself to the infinite list. My art has improved so much thanks to their inspiration. My style has developed, I’ve had so much fun, I’ve written some of my favorite works ever based off of expressions that the characters make alone. My last amv I made because I was so grateful for the animation that we'd gotten up to that point. I wanted to showcase, to thank, to appreciate. I didn’t know it would be a goodbye. Words can't describe all that flying bark's animation and even their storyboards have done for me. When nothing could make me happy, monkie kid wormed its way into my brain and somehow kept me in one piece. I know that wouldn’t have been possible without the animation that left me at the edge of my seat, breathless and laughing over how incredible it really was every single time. Every new clip, every new episode I’d pause and rewatch again, I’d rewatch over and over, I’d take screenshots of every goofy background character, I’d screenshot every expression I could, I’d go through episodes frame-by-frame, literally one at a time for hours on end just so i could catch every detail, I’d open my eyes wider and wider to try and take in every bit I could in a way I’ve never been able to do before because there is nothing else out there like monkie kid. There was nothing as fun and as joyful as every single frame that flying bark gave us. And I am going to miss that so much.
The fact that season 4 was a sendoff is so heartbreaking to me, it's hard to describe how devastated I feel knowing something that kept hold of my hand when I was facing hard hard things in my life is suddenly gone. I don’t know how to ever express how important this show has been to me, it’s kept me going and helped me get to a place where I could breathe again. It’s connected me with some of the greatest people I know. It’s given me incredible experiences, introduced me to what animation could be and I can’t lie and say it doesn’t hurt having to say goodbye so suddenly.
I know this isn’t the end of Monkie Kid as a show. I know season 5 is still coming. And I also know Monkie Kid has lost a huge part of what made it unique and special, a huge part of its heart and soul. Without flying bark it feels like half the show is missing and although I hope I can still support the show, no one can deny the cavern-sized hole that is left by flying bark’s absence in it. The animation team has such an incredibly positive atmosphere around them that just absolutely radiates from the things they create. I am going to miss that so desperately in monkie kid. I’m going to support every other show flying bark works on, I’m still going to love their animation wherever it goes, but I am going to miss it in monkie kid like nothing else I’ve ever missed.
I do have some other thoughts regarding the new changes in monkie kid but I wanted to keep that separate from the actual farewell, so that’ll be it’s own post and I just want to end this by saying thanks for everything Flying Bark you’ve been a real one. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You’re already being missed so hard it hurts. Keep those good vibes and keep up what you’re doing. You all really are incredible and an inspiration to artists everywhere. We love this show because of the voice actors, because of the writers, because of the music but a great deal of people loved this show because of you. You’ve inspired a community of artists, you’ve inspired me. Thank you flying bark for everything you've given us, you gave it your all and I’m gonna carry the impact you left on me for the rest of my life.
LOVE YOU FLYING BARK. Here's to a bright future. Thanks for everything <3
#knox rambles#long post#monkie kid#flying bark#gods ima miss them#ive never cared about an animation studio so much in my LIFE#good people will do that to ya#face in hands bro#im a fundamentally different person because of these guys#ough#lego monkie kid#its gonna take me a bit to recover from this one bois
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Hello love 💜 I hope you have a fun and relaxing weekend ahead!
So for the record, I do WANT to watch Andor. I do! I’ve just found my capacity for new shows is incredibly low these days. HOWEVER! We do intend to catch up.
That being said, what are three things you would say to a casual Star Wars enjoyer to convince them to watch Andor before other things?
Hi Gem!! Right back at ya! 💜
And wow I feel like my time has come with this question. (I’ve been training for this lol careful what you wish for! Here’s an essay oops)
1. You don’t have to be a fan of Star Wars to enjoy Andor. You really don’t. You can sit down and watch this show having never seen any Star Wars and still understand everything happening on screen. This is a story that’s powerful and beautiful and relevant and it just so happens to take place in the Star Wars universe 🤷♀️
2. The production quality on this show is unreal. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched the show at this point and yet I still find something new to appreciate in every episode each time I rewatch, whether it’s a detail on a costume, or something hidden in the music, or a prop or piece of set. The amount of thought that has gone into every single element of Andor just blows my mind BUT even if that sort of stuff is not your jam (I recognize I nerd out a lot about this given my background in production design) you can still appreciate it as a casual viewer. The world that appears on screen feels incredibly grounded and real.
3. (I’m cheating a little here but:) the acting and the writing. There’s not a single bad actor on the show—and what I mean when I say that is that even the background characters, even the characters with a single line, are incredibly well done. In particular I really love the subtle choices found in a lot of Diego Luna’s performance but I’m kind of obsessed with the whole talented cast tbh. Okay okay and the WRITING. I know some people have found it to be slow but that take just really confuses me. This show builds like nothing I’ve ever watched or read before and it pays off in so many ways that you can enjoy as a single-view and done watcher. Or…if you’re like me you’ll watch it again and again pouring over every little detail 😅
The last thing I’ll say is: oh my god I feel you so much on the new show fatigue. In fact, when Andor first came out I literally had no interest. I was like okay great another Star Wars to go with another marvel to go with another etc etc. But I sat down to watch one episode and the rest is kind of history. It is hands down the best tv show I think I’ve ever watched and better than most movies these days imo.
Anyways! It’s fine I guess!! Pretty cool/decent and I’m Very Normal about it. (If you do decide to watch it, you have to let me know what you think ☺️)
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The Super Mario Bros. Movie: From the POV of a fangirl (Spoilers. Duh.)
So my friends asked for this and I adore that they actually care so I made it!
I needed at least a day to relax and collect my thoughts. I don’t normally do movie reviews as South Park is the only thing I talk about on here but Mario has taken over my life this year and it’s somewhat thanks to this movie! Again beware of spoilers! I have a lot to say, some good, some bad. But just know I warned you.
Just to give a little background, I’ve played Mario games since I was a kid, with my main two being Mario Kart Wii and New Super Mario Bros. on the DS. I’ve always enjoyed the games and I became an even bigger fan after playing Mario Odyssey (which to this day is my favorite Mario game… actually my favorite game of all time right behind Bully). I’ll admit I was worried the first time I heard about a movie, especially considering it was being made by Illumination. But after seeing the trailer I was HOOKED LIKE A FISH and reeled into the fanbase! I knew the promos and trailers would spoil a lot of the movie but there was nothing stopping me at that point.
And unlike most movies, I really enjoyed the months of hype leading up to it! I had so much fun over-analyzing the promos and discovering new fan artists… and read some incredible fanfics imma be honest. And of course catching up on all the games I missed out on as a kid! All this to say that as much as I enjoyed the movie, the outside effect of it was even better.
Now for the movie itself! Let me start off saying that it was clearly made with love. This wasn’t something made to market more games or advertise Nintendo. This was a thank you gift to the fans, new and old. They also went HARD with the promo! Being able to actually call Super Mario Bros. Plumbing? Genius.
The animation was beautiful. The attention to detail—like Bowser’s scales, the decor on Peach's crown and the highlights in the characters' eyes. So pretty. I also really loved how expressive every character was! It was so easy to tell what emotions they were feeling without the dialogue needed to express it. When y’all rewatch it, please pay attention to the beginning of the movie when Luigi finally gets his plate of food. His reaction is so freaking adorable and I wanna draw it. The action scenes were so fluid and Mario and Luigi’s bond was shown through touch alone. I loved that!
Don’t even get me started on the soundtrack. They really put their all into it and I recognized so many subtle melodies and themes that took me right back to playing the games! The end credits music legit made my friend cry, hehe yeah I’m calling you out. Even the few pop culture songs that were added were very well timed and not overused! Also the Plummer Rap from “Super Mario Brothers Super Show” was a brilliant start, even if I already listened to it a thousand times after it was released in the promo. That song even got me to check out the show itself. Only episode one though. Watching ghosts lick Bowser’s feet wasn’t it for me. Speaking of Bowser, his ballad to Peach was absolutely amazing. Wonderful performance from Jack Black and he even wrote it too! Please watch the end credits if you haven't, there’s MORE!
But I’d say my favorite part of the movie was the characterization. I know Miyamoto oversaw the whole thing but I’m still impressed with how accurate the characters’ personalities were. Luigi was perfectly anxious, Mario was protective and charismatic, Peach was agreeable and assertive and Bowser was tough yet insecure. The dynamics were also great! I loved how genuine Luigi and Mario’s bond was. I also enjoyed Mario and Peach's subtle flirting that never gets addressed in the end (which is exactly like the games, I seriously love it!). I’m also super glad that it showed a bit of Bowser and Kamek interaction. Although I would’ve loved them to explore their “father and son” bond. GIMME FOUND FAMILY DAMN IT. Oh yeah and Toad wasn’t annoying! He was definitely the comedic relief but they didn’t overdo it! Him and his huge kart was my favorite thing. He’s just a silly little guy.
They definitely made it their mission to absolutely fill the movie with references and it was much appreciated! My personal favorites being the game cube ringtone, blue shell, cheep cheeps and the environments as a whole. I enjoyed the appearances of side characters like Kamek, Spike and Pauline. But I was honestly hoping for a few more like Daisy, Rosalina, Toadette and JUNIOR AND KOOPALINGS, DANG IT! You’re telling me they put so much emphasis on Bowser's sentimental side but didn’t include him being a father??? (Yes I know the koopalings aren’t technically his kids but Junior is and I was really disappointed at the lack of his presence).
But that brings me to the few problems I did have with this movie. And they all stem from the runtime length. It was WAY too short. And not in the way of “omg I loved it so much I need more!” No. It actually needed to be longer. I even heard it was supposed to be but things were cut? The pacing was too fast and there wasn’t enough time for individual character arcs. Don’t get me wrong there were conflicts, but they were resolved almost as soon as they began.
I’m also disappointed in the lack of Luigi content once they left Brooklyn. He really was just put in a cage for most of it, which is what everyone was worried about. It was cool to see him confront his fears to save his brother in the end but it would’ve felt more emotional and deserved if we got to see his internal struggles during his capture. I really loved that hot air balloon scene where he recalls a childhood memory of him and Mario. That! That’s what I wanted more of! I know there wasn’t much he could do in a cage but I was really hoping he’d be involved in attempting to convince Bowser to not go through with his plans. Or maybe even a scene where he tries to encourage the others that were captured to work as a team to escape or something. Idk man, I’m sure they could’ve come up with something good if they were just GIVEN A LONGER RUN TIME. They could’ve done a lot with an extra 20 minutes. I promise for the animators sake I would’ve waited months longer for this movie. Or they could’ve cut the dog and eel scenes honestly.
And as much as I appreciated them showing Bowser’s sentimental side (seriously it was one of the things I was hoping for the most). I really wish they could’ve done something with it other than just comedy. Don’t get me wrong, Bowser was so cute trying to woo Peach. He made me smile till my face hurt. But it’s clear he’s really lonely and rejected, and they could’ve done something a little deeper with that. When he told Mario that he ruined his chance to “finally be happy” the whole theater went “awww”. In the end he could’ve learned love from his subjects or his FAMILY. Sorry I’m still pretty peeved about that. Even something as simple as him befriending Luigi would’ve been a really nice touch but I guess I ask for too much. But nope they just shrunk him, put him in a jar and left him like that. Even main antagonists deserve good endings at times. I was kinda hoping they’d pull a “Lego Batman Movie” and force him to see that he’s hurting his kingdom in the process of his pursuit and he’d need to help in order to get everyone back home. Kinda corny I know but Lego Batman managed to do it with Joker in a way that wasn’t OOC. I was just missing the complexity. Still, I can’t complain about Bowser getting the shit beaten out of him and the classic tail spin move. I’ll admit I’ve always found Bowser’s defeats hilarious in the games. Please look up the ending of Bowsers Fury if you haven’t played it. I laughed for hours. I’m sorry Bowser but your pain is my gain at times. Also the large group of people who sat behind us had the exact same opinions, which felt validating. THEY ALSO WANTED JUNIOR DAMN IT!
The merging between the two worlds at the end was pretty unexpected. I honestly think they added that in there so that Mario and Luigi could see their family again. But the concept of them being thrown into a magical world and not knowing how to get back home brings so much mystery and excitement. Kind of like how it felt watching The Owl House and Amphibia. But I appreciate that it’s implied they now live in the mushroom kingdom and can probably visit their family from time to time. Now that I think of it… going back to Luigi… why on earth would he want to stay?? He was sent straight to hell the moment he got there and was put in a cage for the rest of the movie and almost died a gruesome death. If Luigi had more screen time where he befriended someone, ANYONE, it would’ve given him an incentive to actually stay, other than just sticking with Mario.
Overall I’d say the movie did what it was set out to do. Which was to give fans a fun, nostalgic adventure. I’m not too sure if one would enjoy it if they’ve never played a single Mario game. It went hard on the animation and soundtrack, the voice actors did a good job (especially Jack Black and Charlie Day. Hell, even Chris Pratt did a good job). It wasn’t perfect. It was definitely too rushed for my taste and I would’ve appreciated it if they had slowed things down a bit. Luigi is currently my favorite character, so naturally I’m disappointed we couldn’t get more of him. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll enjoy it more on the rewatch.
I suppose I should format this like my South Park reviews for the sake of consistency.
So that means it’s time for the ratings!
Things I liked:
• Bowser. Every moment he was on screen made me happy. I love him so much.
• The characters' personalities were spot on!
• The facial expressions and character designs. Very pretty movie to look at fr!
Things I disliked:
• Too fast paced. Needed room to breathe.
• Kept asking “where’s Luigi?”
• A general lack of my favorite trope “found family” when they easily could’ve used it with Bowser
Should I do ship of the day too? Eh, may as well. Congratulations Bowuigi! That damn trailer spawned a bunch of y’all even though the ship is a decade old. Hope y’all didn’t go into the movie expecting too much. It’s alright, we’ll get ‘em next time boys.
Final rating:
8/10
A good movie that was loyal to the games but the wait for it was better. I’m gonna go play Mario Galaxy now.
…peaches, peaches, peaches peaches peaches 🎶
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2023 Movie Journey #7: Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania
ant-man and the wasp: quantumania. wow, these titles just keep getting longer, huh. pretty soon they’re going to be listing every character in the name.
i saw this one in the theater, and saved the following as a note while i was waiting for it to start:
omg, i wondered why they recast cassie in the third movie with an actress that's much more prominent, featured in everything from big little lies to detective pikachu. and then very helpfully, while i'm waiting here, one of their pre-movie features was a game with the actress who will be starring soon in are you there god, it's me margaret...and she is the same actress who originally played cassie!! i didn't know that. so now I wonder if she had a scheduling conflict, rather than just getting replaced. that would be better imo since the actress who took over the role is great but i liked the original too and i don’t like when an actress is dumped from the role she originated for reasons like ‘we need somebody more well-known now that the role is more important’
gosh, i have a lot to say about this one i think. i always intended to watch the ant-man movies because they seemed fun, but it was the release of this one that got me to finally, actually do so. by the time it was coming out and jonathan majors was going to be the new antagonist and i was a huge fan of his (all things that weren’t true a couple of years ago) i was really happy to be able to catch up on the others and then see this one in the theater. and it was a great time. spoilers ahead.
ETA: i wrote this whole review, and saw this movie twice in theaters, only days before the news broke about jonathan majors being arrested. i have big, complicated feelings now about what he’s accused of and the consequences he’s faced versus how so many white men have been treated when they face similar accusations; about how it changed my opinion of him and destroyed my desire to see him in creed iii; about how talented an actor i still think he is and how much it sucks that people can be both talented and behave in ways that horrify me when i don’t even know them; how he was the beating heart of lovecraft country and i’d never seen a black man in a TV drama get to be that before, especially when surrounded by such a scene-stealing, strong cast; and how i may never be able to watch that series again, the same way i doubt i’ll ever rewatch this movie. but i reviewed this movie not knowing any of that yet, so my thoughts about him were true for that moment, and i’m leaving them in like a time capsule for my own experience.
it was NOT what i was expecting, though, so that made the first part of the movie really hard for me to get through--i was probably at least a third of the way in before i started enjoying it. there was just a ton of worldbuilding and what felt like a huge genre shift, from the action-comedy (with a hint of scifi) of the first two to suddenly a lot of scifi-fantasy. i couldn’t help being reminded of star wars, and how much the details of the whole ‘alien world’ part of it bore me, when i just want to watch carrie fisher exist. here, i was thrilled to see michelle pfeiffer have a much bigger role, but i didn’t need it to be happening inside a world we didn’t previously know existed in the ant-man universe, one where even the ants that had originally been the point were absent during all that worldbuilding.
however, i felt like the setup did pay off enough in the end that i enjoyed it, and i don’t think it would bother me so much in a rewatch. part of what had me so off-balance in the beginning is that each movie occurs inside the larger mcu with a huge time gap between ant-man installments, so they expect you to know what happened offscreen (they include minimal descriptions, but it can still be confusing as a standalone viewer) and the offscreen happenings create real effects on the story you’re jumping into. for example, knowing that the snap happened at the end of the last movie (and even knowing vaguely what the snap was) didn’t stop me from wondering what cassie’s life was like while the others were gone. was she raised by her mom, or were all the adults in her life vanished? if so, what happened then? i know i could try to look that up with mcu research but i wish instead it had been more directly a part of the movie since she was a more central character this time--or that there had been an ant-man movie that fit between this one and ant-man and the wasp, somehow.
but anyway, this movie was very clearly setting up a new antagonist, which they did by further developing the backstory of michelle pfeiffer’s time in the quantum realm. once i got into it, i enjoyed it a ton, because it meant a ton of screentime where she was working opposite jonathan majors, and all of those scenes felt like gifts just for me--they’re both so unbelievably talented and they’re also actors who can do such great dramatic work, it was hard for me to wrap my mind around them being in this marvel movie with all its action and cgi and creatures.
the family dynamics in this one were also important, and we got great interactions between the two couples, but it really did feel quite different than the first two movies, and i think that’s why--the ultimate focus of the story was kang, the new villain, even when it came to how scott’s burglar talents would be called into action. his sudden existence drove the action. i feel like my opinion was backed up by the very end of the movie, too, when the movie flashed a closing card like the first two had. that was one of my favorite little parts of the sequel, when the closing card added a question mark because the snap had left scott stranded and we would have to wait to see if he returned. but whereas the other ones ended with ‘ant-man will return’...this one ended with ‘kang will return.’
and i can understand why, since scott was left feeling uneasy about kang’s death but otherwise his life--and therefore his story--was neatly tied up. even if they bring him back for other mcu appearances, there’s no part of this movie that requires a next ant-man installment. which further points to how much of this film was an extended setup for kang to move on to other mcu battles, even though i think they fit it all into scott and hope’s families and lives and overall development well enough.
there is one question i found myself left with after seeing this, that may have been explained in the movie--it was such a long movie with so much happening, i might have just forgot that they addressed it. but scott was stranded in the quantum realm for years after the snap. even though he was stranded for less years than michelle pfeiffer, i wonder why he never discovered any hint of the other worlds she roamed through? was it just that his suit tech kept him in one layer of that space, and she had moved through so many of them, she ended up in a place he couldn’t get to? did he just stay put and try not to move for five years and thus wouldn’t have seen anything? another thing i could probably research but won’t, lol.
overall, i don’t think the ant-man world was necessarily improved by being moved to space (even if they call it the quantum realm)--but for me personally, that was heavily outweighed by my enjoyment of michelle pfeiffer and jonathan majors getting to fill the spaces they were in like the talents they are, and the rest of the characters and cast being just as great as always. living so intensely in this world for a couple of days really left an impression on me, but it was a super fun impression and i’m glad i visited.
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Sketches of my primary research!!
had loads to work with thanks to my little vlogs! I want to show some things that I saw often and talk about them cos its cool!
firstly I saw so many birds! lots lot murmuration (groups moving in unison) they were more or less everywhere, regardless of where i was. its been one of those things that won't you see them you can't unsee them. birds everywhere now. I had a video of a crow flying on and off of a spar sign so I drew that frame by frame. really beautiful to see how every little piece moves when they take off, I had to rewatch all of these videos over and over while editing so they're slightly engrained in my brain but also it means I've been able to really look at them and the details of everyday things. birds were so interesting with this frame of mind. the way a robin bops around vs a crow is like a little stalker.
secondly I saw so much human movement. this example is from my friend getting stuck in an alleyway because of her umbrella. it was a really windy day when I took this so I got the nice detail of the flow scarf. I got a lot of videos like this one, my friends bodies being weird, like jumping or falling (had loads of them not all postable though unfortunately). Just made me look at things like walking, dancing and bouncing around, more than usual. its strange paying attention to the way people just move unconsciously because then I stated thinking about the way I move! that was not fun let me tell you.
thirdly so much transport. used a bus eireann bus for this example, a picture I took while also on a bus! bus-ception! I had loads of examples to choose from of cars, bikes, buses, trains etc. even when the area was quiet, when I was in limerick there would be cars everywhere , constantly going. its interesting since they move as w whole form but when you really look at them , its just the wheels. I've Never been mad into cars before (outside of fast and furious movies) so this is when I started noticing the aesthetic details. also accidentally made eye contact with lots of drivers and got some insight into the people in the cars. the moving people. where were they going? what kind of journey are they having? what are they listening to on the radio, if they even are !? I have lots of questions no answers.
fourth was animals. So lots and lots and lots of dogs during this collecting. so many dogs it was brilliant. I love dogs. loads of other animals too though ! it was easier to get videos of my animals though and those are cats and dogs. thinking about how all us animals are made of muscle and bone and ligaments but are all moving in such different ways ? the dog in this example is a dog who walks around near my friends house, we don't know his name but he follows her everywhere. he walks in little strides, kind of like a gentle old man. has a harness on but we've never seen him with a leash. wonder what his movements are like when my friends not there , where does he go when there's no one to follow around ?
fifth is hands, I loved looking at hands honestly. they're so funky and have so many small minute movements. peoples hands are constantly moving I've noticed, for everything. mental reasons like anxiety, glee, fear, anger , nerves all make people move their hands. but physical reasons do too like an itch, heat, cold, greeting, grabbing a door last minute, catching a friend drink as it falls. so many movements and im so delighted to have caught some on camera. there's something very wholesome about watching humans be humans and that has spring forward. seeing holding hands, dancing together , head pats and high fives etc. I remember from biology that the hand has so many bones it it , and so many points of connection even when just looking at the fingers. when using hands as a language , there's so much you can say
6th (ill combine them) man made moments of movement. like the flag and the tire swing. both were only so active because of the windy day it was when I filmed. the tire swing called out to me because it was such a cool little frozen moment in time , like a time capsule! got me thinking about the motion of swinging, of kids waiting for turns, of plaits and pigtails swishing in the wind while u swing around to unfathomable (to little you) heights. the flag being there , means it was erected, many hands moved it from place to place, all the materials came from somewhere. how many hands touched the pole ? how many since it's been put up? the fabric in the wind is gorgeous, the light material got picked up so easily by the wind . other examples of this
fifth plants. they were boogying around all the time, when movement happened near them, when weather conditions changed, in response to animals interacting with. grass in the wind was my example here , grass is so cool and lightweight and moveable I loved watching it bend directions. lots of trees got recorded as well, sometimes the whole thing billowing around , sometimes just a few twigs
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tour troubles | jjk
genre: fluff, angst
rating: G (no swearing or sexual content)
pairing: Jungkook x reader
theme: idol!au, boyfriend!au, one-shot
word count: 1.8k
warnings: none
Synopsis: When surprising your boyfriend Jungkook on tour doesn’t quite go as you planned, it’s up to you now to help cheer him up.
banner by me!
--♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡--
After a grueling 6 months apart, you were more than happy to be in MetLife Stadium watching your boyfriend live out his dreams on stage. The Map of the Soul Tour was no joke; Jungkook was practicing all day and performing all night, and combined with your final exam season passing by it left little time for you to talk to each other.
Finally wrapping up the school year, you got in touch with Jimin to see if he could help you plan a surprise visit for Jungkook on one of their final tour stops.
All of the members had become like family to you, but it's no secret that aside from Jungkook you are closest with Jimin. He was like the older brother you never had, and you always ran to him whenever you needed relationship advice or a good hug.
As you watched Jungkook on stage you noticed his smile falter sometimes as he would be slightly out of position or dance off beat. You could only pick this out because you had spent hours in the practice room dancing with Jungkook.
You and Jungkook had come together because of your shared love for dance. He had first asked you out inside a very sweaty-scented Big Hit practice room, almost half of your dates ended with some form of dancing, and whenever one of you was frustrated you could always find the other teary-eyed, lying on the marley floor of a dance studio. You had always been there to whisper words of encouragement in his ear when he was feeling down, and you wished nothing more than for her voice to reach the stage at the moment.
Soon enough, the concert came to an end and you were flashing her pass to the backstage security guard to get to see the boys. Despite your uneasy feeling watching the concert, you couldn't ease the butterflies in your stomach at seeing your boyfriend for the first time in months.
Ever since you had planned this, you spent your nights imagining exactly how Jungkook would react: whether he would hug and kiss you first, stay frozen on the spot in shock, or start crying right away.
As you stepped into the Big Hit dressing room, you were instantly greeted with several smiling faces.
I didn't take you long to do a head count and realize that there were only 6 boys standing in front of you, and that your boyfriend was nowhere to be found.
Making eye contact with Jimin, you saw the softness in his eyes as he motioned for you to come closer so he could explain.
“He’s not feeling well Y/N, and none of us can get him to talk about it. We’re so worried. I swear I’ve only gotten like 2 words out of him tonight, and I even tried to make a nutella sandwich for him to cheer him up. I’m sorry this isn’t what you had planned, but can you talk to him please? For us?”
You took a deep breath before pulling back the curtain divider in the dressing room. Your nerves catching up to you, you considered just turning around and telling the boys you would surprise him at their next concert instead.
You had dealt with Jungkook being troubled and frustrated more times than you could count, but you were worried you had lost her touch after being apart from him for months.
Your mind also flew the other way. How many times has he felt like this after a concert and never told you? When he said "It was fun I'm just really tired now" after every concert was he truly feeling like this?
With that, you pushed forward because you knew that you had to be there to support Jungkook today, even if you couldn't be there for all the other times.
The sight that greeted you behind the curtain was not a pretty one.
Jungkook was staring blankly at the monitor in front of him, dark fringes of his hair matted against his sweaty forehead, tour hoodie zipped up completely with the hood on, and worst of all, his eyes were clearly puffy and swollen, with tinges of red coming through from underneath his makeup.
Jungkook barely even glanced your way as you sat down an ample distance away from Jungkook on the couch. It was clear from his lack of surprise at your appearance that one of the boys (probably Jimin) had probably told him about your surprise visit earlier in an effort to cheer him up after the concert, but even that could not get him out of this slump.
Of all the scenarios you came up with for how Jungkook would react to your surprise, somehow this one never crossed your mind.
You turned your focus to where Jungkook was staring - a TV monitor replaying video footage from tonight's concert. You watched as his eyebrows stayed furrowed as he glared disapprovingly at himself for making even the smallest of mistakes in the video, almost wincing as the TV monitor continued to play the footage.
"Do you want me to help point out things in the video?"
Jungkook didn’t even move a muscle.
You took the silence as a yes, and pulled a pen and the closest thing you could find to paper, a napkin, out of your purse to write on.
Working as a dance teacher had taught you more than a couple tricks about how to give constructive feedback, and you were a firm believer in the "give 2 compliments and then 1 thing to work on" approach. However, you knew the issue with Jungkook wasn't that he was truly bad at dancing, but rather that he was way too hard on himself for the smallest details that the audience wouldn't even notice - so she threw in a few more compliments than usual. Unsure of how Jungkook would react to seeing the list, you still threw some of those very nit-picky details on there, knowing that if he was still frustrated he would throw the list out all together if he thought you were just coddling him.
And so you both sat together in front of that grainy TV monitor, in complete silence aside from the sound of your pen scratching against the napkin.
June 10, 2020 MOTS:7 Tour Feedback Report for Jeon Jungkook ( by Y/N)
- match angle of arm placement in Black Swan Opening Choreo
- footwork on DNA ending choreo could be cleaned up
- the ARMY at the corner of the screen during Euphoria had the biggest smile when you looked at her. I think she’s gonna remember that moment for the rest of her life.
- I like the way you wink at the camera during So What! Gave me butterflies babe.
- could add more energy into the last Fake love chorus ( hot bod btw!!)
And the list kept going on and on as you diligently focused on the screen and writing notes, taking occasional glances at your silent boyfriend.
Upon glancing over your shoulder and seeing your list, Jungkook smiled at your thoughtful and sweet comments.
All of sudden, a wave of consciousness and realization washed over him.
He finally has the girl he loves in front of him again after months apart, and instead of cherishing his limited time with you he was spending it watching himself dance, which is what he had already spent the last 9 years of his life doing. Most of all, you never let your smile falter once in front of him, even though he knew you may be upset with his response to your surprise, and you went along with whatever he wanted to do - even if that meant watching a very very low-quality video of his performances on a loop.
Grabbing the napkin gently out of her hands and placing it on the table, Jungkook cupped your face and looked gently into your eyes.
"Thank you", he said softly, as if not wanting to startle you with his sudden character change.
In your head there was absolutely no need for Jungkook to be thanking her for anything she was doing. She knew dating an idol would have its challenges, and she made a promise to Jungkook that she would be by his side through it all, even if that included rewatching Euphoria on loop.
It was now your turn to sigh.
“There’s nothing to thank me for babe, it’s just me. I wanna be here for you when you’re like this - I didn’t just date you so I could be there to celebrate your Billboard #1s and daesang sweeps, I’m here for these moments too.”
Jungkook further eliminated the space between you both by wrapping his arms around you and pulling you into his chest. In that moment he realized that maybe all he needed was you. That all these hurdles he had been facing alone would have been much easier if he had just let you in on his problems.
“I just feel bad Y/N, I haven’t even seen you for months and the first time I see you I’m like this? I’m sorry.”
The gears started turning in your head. Batting your eyes overdramatically at your boyfriend, you smiled.
“Okay how about we make a deal then babe?”
Jungkook looked at you curiously and let you carry on.
“From now on, every time you feel like this you come to me okay? We can figure this out together, but I can’t help you if you don’t let me in,” you expressed, grabbing his hands in yours.
“Also, if you felt like making it up to me you could buy me some ice cream? It’s not the same when I eat it without you,” you joked.
Jungkook’s melodic laugh vibrated through the room.
“Just ice cream? You’re selling yourself short babe. I’d buy the whole world for you, my love.”
--♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡--
As you emerged from behind the curtained section of the dressing room, hand in hand with a smiley Jungkook ( a stark comparison from how he was a mere hour early), you were greeted with Jimin jumping up and cheering loudly upon seeing the maknae.
Unable to contain his excitement, Jimin ran towards the two of you, chiming “you did it Y/N!! You brought back our maknae!”
“Good to see you smiling, Jungkookie,” beamed Jimin as he stepped forward to ruffle Jungkook’s hair.
Jungkook chuckled and looked up at his hyungs.
“I think I owe you all some ice cream. Ready to go? It’ll be treat.”
If his hyungs weren’t already excited to see Jungkook feeling like himself, now they were ecstatic. And you definitely felt the same way as well. ♡
--♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡--
If you liked this, please interact/follow! Thank you for reading ♡
- Emily
#bts#bts imagine#idol bts x reader#jungkook x reader#jungkook x you#jungkook imagine#bts fanfic#jungkook fanfic#bangtan boys#bangtan sonyeondan#bts fluff#bts angst#jungkook fluff#jungkook angst#kpop fic#kpop imagine#bts fic#bts x reader#bts x you#bangtan#eternally-writing#bts scenario#jungkook scenario#bts sfw#sfw
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HELLO this is Fandom Obsessions 💖💖💖
I'd love to know what work (movie, book, song, fanfic, etc.) you have found to be the most inspiring and/or memorable?? 💖💖💖
Also, what's your favorite memory from this year??
xoxo
AHHH HI @fandomobsessions016!!!! ❤️ Thank you so so much for these amazingly thought-provoking questions!!! 🥰❤️❤️
(P.S. you have no idea how much I’ve been looking forward to binging The Deception and your other stories!! UTNL has been taking up my entire life for so long that I haven’t been reading as much, but once it’s finished I can’t wait to catch up with my Marked For Later, and The Deception is right at the top of the list!!! 🥰)
Under the cut cause my answers were a little on the long side!
What work have I found to be the most inspiring/memorable?
Oooooooh that's so hard to choose!! There are so so many!! But I guess I have to always go back to The Lord of the Rings films. I know there are countless others who agree with me when I say that those films are truly masterpieces in every sense of the word. Even if you had read the books first and didn't think that the movies were your ideal representation, I feel like you still have to appreciate the level of care and detail that went into making them. 20 years later and all of the special effects are still better than half the stuff that's currently coming out.
I remember watching a lot of the special features when growing up about how the movies were made, and they were saying things like all of the chainmail was made by hand and just...omg SO much love and attention to detail went into making those films what they are, and I feel like it really shows. The SCORE, the casting, the special effects, every single aspect just pull you into this incredible world where even after watching all 12 + hours of the extended editions for the hundredth time, I just want to go back and rewatch them all over again right away.
I was just thinking about this the other day, and I feel like that’s part (in addition to my natural personality and upbringing) of why I’m so nitpicky and have such an attention to detail to this day. Those films (including the BTS) shaped a lot of my childhood and have always inspired me to strive to create on that level. Where it might take a ridiculous amount of time and effort, but hopefully the end result is something that shows the amount of care put into it and stands the test of time ❤️
What’s my favorite memory from this year?
What a great question! It's hard because everything feels like such a blur between last year and this one, and it's been a pretty tough year depression-wise, so I’m having a hard time even remembering what even happened this year😂. But I'm going to go with something somewhat fandom-related and say that when @goshinote and I rewatched Inuyasha from start to finish together back in March/April! I was still exclusively working from home at that point (plus that time of year is the slowest for work), and this was before Jane ended up getting two jobs, so we both had a lot more free time.
Every night for a few weeks, we would watch a bunch of episodes of Inuyasha (starting from the beginning) via Netflix/Hulu Party while messaging on discord, and it was just SO much fun to rewatch the show with another mega-fan! We made so many funny comments, thirsted quite a bit over Inuyasha, and just in general it helped form our friendship into what it is now! We also watched a bunch of other stuff together that was all just as much fun, but the Inuyasha rewatch was definitely a special experience 🥰
Thank you so much again for these questions!!!! ❤️❤️❤️
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SU rewatch- S1E11- Arcade Mania
Hey, long time no see!
I’m desperately bored in solitary quarantine at university right now, and decided to try and pick this SU rewatch series up again for fun. It’s been a while since I’ve watched through the show in order. Plus, now that this show is completely finished, there’s plenty more connections to make. I can’t promise I’ll be consistent with this, but at the very least I can have fun trying to make a few more posts at my leisure.
Anyways. With that business out of the way. Let’s get right on to the show!
We begin with yet another mission Steven’s guardians have brought him along on! I believe this is the fifth mission we know of that he’s accompanied them on so far. (Lunar Sea Spire, Inverted Pyramid, the unknown mission he returns from in Tiger Millionaire, the desert, and now this one.) It’s really sweet seeing the Gems begin to trust him tagging along more often. There will come a day in the near future where missions become routine for Steven, but in these early episodes, you can really tell that each and every one is a brand new adventure.
In terms of plot, though, this episode is honestly Future Vision: The Prequel.
We learn a lot about Garnet’s abilities and her role in the team here, even if all of these details aren’t spelled out word-for-word quite yet. Hints towards her future vision we see this ep include:
Garnet moving ahead of the group to be in the perfect spot to catch Steven when he falls.
Her flawless moves while fighting and dodging the monsters.
Her becoming a master at the rhythm game later in the episode.
Like, damn. Look at this.
Look at her go.
My Q U E E N!
I had to gif all of this just because it’s such a beautiful and smooth sequence of animation.
If there’s one thing all of the Crystal Gems can 100% agree on, it’s that Garnet is friggin’ amazing.
Garnet: “Let them go. They’re just parasites. If they want to be a problem, they’ll have to answer to me.”
So, does this statement mean that- at this present moment- her extended stay at the arcade was entirely beyond her future vision? That the only futures she saw were ones where she was actually present to deal with containment of the Gem parasites? Given that later scenes insinuate she’d never been to the arcade before, and would have no “data” about its games to factor into her internal understanding of the world, this seems likely.
I adore the gradual palette change here, from shadow, to setting sun. It’s a nice detail that adds so much more life to what could otherwise be a rather mundane transition scene. It seems like unique palettes were more common in early SU- I wonder why Crewniverse stopped implementing these as often later on?
Pearl, entering the arcade: “Humans find such fascinating ways to waste their time.”
Thanks, Pearl. Love you too. <3
This sequence of Pearl failing at playing a car chase/road rage game hits so much different knowing what happens in Last One Out of Beach City. It’s genuinely radical how far she grows in confidence from this point, because here, she seems so shackled to rules and guidelines. Now that we know about her rebellious past, it might be tempting to write this characterization off as “early series weirdness,” but... I don’t think that’s what’s happening here.
Instead, I wonder if she’s working through grief-related regression.
Think about it... the pain of Rose’s passing is still so fresh for her. She was a rule breaking rebel once, yes, but she spent all of those days at Rose’s side. And I get the sense that she’s poured so much of herself into keeping Rose safe, into the rebellion against Homeworld, that without those, she’s caught in a vacuum. What IS her purpose now, when the very person she rebelled for is gone?
So she slips back into old pearl-like habits. Chronic rule following, and a fear of deviating from norms. How familiar. Thankfully, much of her arc throughout the show is her directly growing beyond these habits to live boldly as her own Gem.
The friggin video game when Garnet knocks its head off: “TELL MY WIFE I’M SORRYYY!!!”
Yo, what the fuck. This line is both hilarious and messed up, all at once. Please tell me the game isn’t sentient.
Aaaand here we finally introduce Garnet to the video game sensation that is Meat Beat Mania! This game is perfectly suited to her and her power of foresight because its patterns are algorithmic and not vulnerable to spontaneous deviations, and thus easy to predict, with enough input. She’s probably getting a quick rush of satisfaction with every correct move, and she barely has to exert any energy with her future vision to get that rush. After years and years of wading through endless possibility at every avenue, this video game’s patterns must be a rejuvenating breath of fresh air.
It’s addicting.
...Kinda makes me think of how I get sometimes when I play solitaire on my phone for an hour straight. After a while, I barely even think, I’m just shuffling through my deck and moving cards almost on automatic. I don’t have to use much energy to play, and it gives me animated fireworks every time I finish a match. It’s a win-win.
Amethyst: “I’MMA WIN AN AIRPLANE!”
I don’t know what it is about the way Michaela Dietz says the world “airplane,” but this makes me laugh every time. Does... does she think she can win a genuine airplane here because she saw Onion win a tiny motorbike from the ticket booth?? Amethyst, oh my god. XD
She’s got the spirit, this wild child.
So, moving on- we meet up with our crew later the next morning, Garnet nowhere to be seen. There’s an interesting exchange I’d like to highlight real quick-
Pearl: “If we’re supposed to fight a giant foot, Garnet would let us know.”
Amethyst: “Yeah, Garnet’s the boss!”
Pearl: “Well, we’re all a team. Garnet just has heightened perception that guides us towards our mission objectives.”
Considering the specific phrasing Pearl uses here- “heightened perception” instead of “future vision-” did Garnet outright tell the two of them to not explain her powers, just like she told them not to mention she’s a fusion? Because I’m pretty sure no one ever uses the phrase “heightened perception” again in reference to her powers.
Given the fact that Garnet chose to keep the knowledge of Ruby and Sapphire under the table until she felt Steven could understand her better, my guess is that this is a similar scenario.
Ahah, I genuinely can’t tell if this is Steven being gullible, or just impulsively playing along with Amethyst’s antics. Still- gross, kid. Don’t wipe your wet cereal face on your shirt! Ew! :O
When he goes outside and starts to use a kiddy metal detector to scan for quarters... so THAT’S where he finds his arcade money! Because I can’t imagine Greg is financially able to give him that much to spend on non-essentials at this point in the show.
Okay, so... I just want to bring light to the fact that Garnet has literally been in this arcade ALL NIGHT LONG.
It was evening when she first arrived here- the sun was visibly setting in the background, and when Steven, Amethyst, and Pearl left, the sky was dark. But now it’s morning. Steven was just seen eating breakfast. And Garnet is STILL HERE.
Does this mean Mr. Smiley locked her IN? I have so many questions... Did he try to get her to leave, only to be intimidated by her complete lack of response? I would kill to know more about this interaction. Poor Mr. Smiley. That man deals with so much bullshit in this town, huh?
Geebus, is Garnet a solid wall. Previous episodes have shown Steven forcibly shoving whole tons of food, and swinging a mini-freezer over his head, and yet he can’t get her to budge even an inch.
I absolutely adore how he climbs up her frame like a koala, though, ahah. Cute.
Meat Beat Mania announcer: “That’s rare!!”
Steven: “Oh my gosh...!”
I take these two lines as evidence that this is the first time Steven’s ever seen Garnet’s eyes. Specifically, the fact that there’s three of them. Which, makes sense- since Garnet is still really reserved emotionally at this point, and is only begins to get in the habit of taking her visor off to show Steven her full face later on in the show.
This expression deeply hurts me.
Steven’s so distraught here- because the others are in danger, the town is in danger, and he doesn’t have his trusty, dependable guardian who catches him when he falls and beats up scary monsters for him. Without her, the whole team is vulnerable and blind.
He feels alone. He feels... powerless.
And so he responds to that confusing, powerless feeling by trying to compensate with his own power. When all other routes he can think of fail, he smashes the video game console.
It... uh, it works... but once again, Steven entirely fails to consider the consequences, huh? He experienced a little bit of character growth in this regard in the episode Serious Steven, but even past that it’ll remain an recurring issue for him. Hell, his impulsiveness is a general character flaw even stretching into SUF.
In summary, though:
Poor Mr. Smiley. He works so hard, and doesn’t deserve this BS. ;-;
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Look at me, not being on time for my April Immersion Overview as is the usual. (・w・;
First, little blog updates to get out of the way:
I reached 100 followers! Got an influx of people checking out my 1 year update post, and got plenty of nice compliments on my data collection.
For those of you wondering just why I keep up with so much data, it's mostly because it can get really hard to notice how much you're improving in a language especially with something like immersion learning that for people who don't get it feels like a waste of time or a time sink.
Graphs showing consistency, improvement in reading speed, increasing vocabulary counts, and generally just seeing numbers grow turns language learning more fun and motivating for me, and if as a bonus, it encourages someone to try immersion learning then that would be cool!
With that said, whether you're here as a fellow language learner, graphs enthusiast (笑), or just want some Japanese media recommendations, ようこそ!
Also, made a tiny DP change - it’s チト from 少女週末旅行. Pretty sure it’s the first manga series I ever finished in Japanese (not the first one I started since ちはやふる is still ongoing), and I always felt a bit of a ☆connection☆ with her - between her book-loving personality and being a no-nonsense kind of person, there was no way for me not to enjoy her character. Great beginner anime/manga if you’re not into most beginner recommendations.
-☆-
April has been a pretty good immersion month, as I was able to dip my toes in a variety of media. A bit competitive, too! The club I joined has been pulling all the stops to get to the Top 20 Immersion Leaderboard in it’s first month. I was able to snag the 9th spot among a bunch of people of different comprehension levels (the majority being N1+ since they’re able to comprehend much more and in turn stand longer immersion hours). Lots of tiny complaints though of potential “whitenoising” content (”listening” and “reading” but not comprehending very well just to get a large number to post), but really what can you do? People lie all the time on the internet. Besides, it’s internet points that doesn’t do anything beyond being a little shiny I guess.
Enough about that, let’s get into the nitty-gritty details you came here for!
ANIME
フルーツバスケット
Might need to rewatch this one. Felt like I didn’t connect with the characters the way the rest of its fandom has. I’m kinda sad about it, since I normally love Slice of Life and Fantasy, and I know this is one of my friend’s diehard shows.
ラブライブ! School Idol Project S2
A filler anime to watch tbh. Nice and easy enough to follow for beginners. Pretty good songs. With regards to it being a show about music and moe, I still 100% prefer K-On! if I’m going to be honest, but for a show about non-toxic idols, it’s good!
魔法少女まどか☆マギカ
First read this as English translated manga when I was 13 or something. Mistakes were made. Let’s all just agree to throw キュウベえ into a pit of fire and never talk about it again. Great ending and a show that really reworked the magical girl genre. But seriously, I was traumatized by マミ’s death then and now, help.
四月は君の嘘
Already knew what was going to happen even before watching this so I didn’t ugly cry like I was expecting. Still got that awful sinking feeling though. 10/10 would recommend for a good cry. Also, I’m planning to read the manga, might enjoy that more, because I’ve always liked it more than anime actually. *shocked pikachu face*
ホリミヤ
Watched before I even finished the manga which felt like a mistake at first until I realized that it perfectly stops where I stopped reading. Nice and comfy anime, the kind I would have loved as a teen. Fun animation too, making parts very dramatic even though it wasn’t really that deep of an issue even in the manga. Just teens feeling feelings. Still salty that we lose bad boy styled ���村, but I get why it had to happen.
AUDIOBOOKS
氷菓
Second re-listen. I understand it fine, but it’s very easy to drift off when you can’t catch all the words so I had to replay often. Will have to mine more from the anime/book.
君の名は
I mined from the anime, and was really pleased to be able to follow all 6 hours of this audiobook perfectly fine. Will need to read the book, because I realized just how seamless reading it would be after listening to it with hardly any issue.
BOOKS
キッチェン
Completed! Read my thoughts about it and see my stats on this post.
君の膵臓を食べたい
Still trudging on with this one. It’s not a bad story, it’s pretty well written actually, I just made the mistake of watching both the anime and live adaptation first, so I know exactly what’s going to happen and it’s killing my motivation to keep reading. I guess reading the book first before watching the movie still applies in any language with me. Really need to 頑張れ and finish so I can move on.
三日間の幸福
Started reading towards the end of the month, mostly because I realized that every chapter is only 5000-15000 characters long, and I was able to read up to 40k in a day with Island most days. Only two chapters read so far though because I got distracted by manga, but it’s shaping up to be a really good plot and potentially a really sad one, too, so I’m interested.
DRAMA
花ざかりの君たちへ イケメンパラダイス
Heard this was a classic so I gave it a try. Loved 生田 斗真’s character in this one the most especially all his internal dialogue acted out. Also, 小栗 旬 in anything is bound to be a good watch. Simple and fun watch. They dragged the ending so much though lmao
ごくせん
Look, I see 松本 潤, I click. Definitely the kind of show you should watch for some great life advice. Planning to watch the 2nd and 3rd seasons even if there is a terrible lack of 松本 潤, because I love my strong female protagonists, and man, ヤンクミ is such a great character. Need to read the manga, too, if I can find it.
極主夫道
Oof, this was kind of hard. The yakuza talk was throwing me off, but the rest of it was enjoyable. Not really plot heavy as I thought it was going to be. The comedy side of it was fun and predictable after the first few episodes. Overall, pretty good slice of life, family story with a twist.
MANGA
Read a bunch of manga this month, mostly because I am struggling to find the next vn to read.
おやすみプンプン
Read a couple of volumes (6-7). This manga is so good, but it’s so depressing I need to stop to take a breather every once in a while. Please don’t leave any spoilers. The club has been reacting to me reading this, and it has mostly been a lot of crying emotes. It’s both been enjoyable to see and really worrying. 笑
チェンソーマン
Club recommendation. Only read the 1st volume so far. I really need to get into more 少年 anime/manga. That’s currently my 苦手 genre which is awful because literally all the top anime/manga is 少年 help. I just can’t enjoy it much still even though it’s comprehensible to me.
ちはやふる 中学生編
Read Vol. 1, chill read to me at this point after reading 45 volumes of the regular manga. Look, it’s my favorite 幼馴染 manga in baby format, of course I’m going to read this! 太一 has been a flake way before season 3 confirmed. Don’t come at me たいちはや stans bc I also like his character.
約束のネバーランド
Volume 7. I’m taking my sweet time with this one, because I heard the anime for season 2 sucked, so I’m avoiding it like the plague. This is 少年 how am I enjoying this and not everything else what.
ヲタクに恋は難しい
Enjoyed the anime hated the movie why did they make it a musical that sucked (ps i normally love musicals hated this one)
The オタク jargon is kinda hard to read suprisingly but I do enjoy this ship very much. It’s a lighthearted take to otaku culture which is great because seriously it’s scary out there.
ツバサ -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-
It’s my childhood ship, obviously I will read this again (read in English several years ago). Still as plot twisty as I remember it being (now at a bonus hard level reading it in Japanese 笑). Really enjoyed reading this one (I finished it this May).
-☆-
I’m starting to really dislike furigana in manga. It was a great help as a beginner, but now it’s like training wheels that you can’t take off. I feel like the gains I’m getting from manga is much lower than it was when I first started which makes me both proud of how far I’ve come, but also sad because I love manga. Sad that I might have to start choose VNs over it, because it’s not going to challenge me as much going forward. I mean it didn’t stop me from reading a lot of it this month, but you get the picture.
VISUAL NOVELS
ISLAND
Completed! See my stats and read my long spoiler filled post here.
ファタモルガーナの館
Picked up this VN and finished two doors (15 hours) before stopping. On the fence about it, because it has been kind of predictable so far, and I don’t particularly enjoy the horror genre. That said, this is more psychological than anything, so it’s probably not that that’s putting me off. The language is not exactly difficult, too - maybe some oddly specific words because it is after all historical fiction (which is one of my favorite genres, btw), and 敬語 is definitely interesting to read for once after encountering so many お嬢様 characters in anime/drama so far.
I think maybe it’s the conversations that are kind of dull - dots (silence) every few clicks that keeps breaking the flow of reading. Probably judging it really harshly too early, because it’s rated so high everywhere, and I just have high expectations. Definitely not dropping it yet though, just taking a break and testing a couple of other VNs before I settle with whatever I end up choosing. It is, after all, going to be another 50+ hour read, and I just don’t want to not enjoy the process, because having fun with the process is a huge part of immersion learning.
Let me know if you’ve read Fata and if I should continue!
-☆-
That’s it for this month!
If you have any suggestions on what to watch and read next, please send me a reply, especially for VNs because I’m struggling over here.
#language learning#japanese language#language acquisition#study blog#langblr#studyblr#japanese#japanese studyblr#nihongo#anime#manga#books#audiobooks#visual novels#jdrama#oyasumi punpun#chainsaw man#chihayafuru#wotakoi#the promised neverland#tsubasa reservoir chronicle#fruits basket#love live#mahou shoujo madoka magika#horimiya#shigatsu wa kimi no uso#hanakimi#gokusen#gokushufudo: the way of the house husband#island visual novel
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Supernatural Rewatch Ramblings: Bloodlust
2020-21 has been a huge transformative time for many of us. Whether we wanted it or not, we have been forced to stop, switch gears, rethink, reflect, let go, make new priorities, discover who we really are and who we want to be in the face of adversity.
One of those transformations for me has been giving up on control and finding a way to surrender to the power of the universe. Another has been to not let perfection be the enemy of good.
You may well wonder---What does all this have to do with the Bloodlust rewatch and review??!
Probably nothing LOL except for the fact that I still have to write up my review on Bloody Mary and have been unable to write for various reasons. And then because the Bloody Mary review was still incomplete I could not write about the next one etc etc etc.
So when we watched Bloodlust two days ago in the continuing re-watch, I decided that I am going to re-start the review, and from exactly where I am right now!
If time and life permits I might fill in the gaps later. If not, well, life is unpredictable and weird and we keep calm as it carries on….Thank you for coming to my Philosophy talk….:)
Read below for the Boodlust review, Season 2 episode 3 and look out for the post from @soulmates-for-real on this rewatch too!!
The opening scene is the perfect switch and bait because we as an audience have been trained to latch on to types and identities and representations.
Woman in white night gown screaming and running--victim
Person who brutally beheads her—villain.
A few minutes into the episode we realize that we were wrong.
A good few minutes later we realize that we were wrong about being wrong.]
Haha.
We are idjits, swept away on the eddies and currents of this masterfully written and directed episode. Thank you Sera Gamble and Robert Singer!
The acting and the mesmerizing beauty of the two leads is worthy of an entire essay of its own but in order to have a life and finish this review I shall only say this—Oh my goodness HOW gorgeous is Jensen Ackles?!!
It is sometimes impossible to look at him in this episode because my eyes didn’t know where to land! That perfect face? The lips? Those eyes?? The quirk of the eyebrows? Those micro expressions that are constantly weaving across his face? The smile? The way his lips move when he talks?? His hair? The Samulet?
And then the shot pans out and includes his hand and the ring and honestly it’s a miracle I could follow the plot at all.
So the images I am going to include in this review, much as I love Sam Winchester and Jared Padalecki, are all of Dean Winchester. It’s a criminal waste to not do so when the man is just an ode to perfection.
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Sheila O’Malley’s review of this episode is in itself a work of art and a thing of beauty so I will direct you most enthusiastically towards it and only add here my little pennyworth bits. Do click on this link but be prepared to sink into a one hour read which will make you feel like you were dropped into the episode itself.
https://www.sheilaomalley.com/?p=87187
Here is a quote from her review which is so insightful.
These are the details that a director like Robert Singer never misses, and at this point his relationship with Ackles and Padalecki would be almost telepathic (it’s probably 100% telepathic now). He has said before that he and Kripke were such a good team because Kripke’s primary concern is Plot/Gore/Horror and Singer’s primary concern is Character/Relationship. And they both end up in the same place. It’s a good mix. If Singer were also Plot/Gore/Horror focused, we wouldn’t have the depth of relationship which is the real point of the show, its real hook.
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For a much briefer and far less technically adept and analytical review, read on here!
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The opening of this episode shows us the Impala from every possible angle. Gleaming, gorgeous, road -worthy. This is mirrored by Dean. He is also gleaming, gorgeous and roadworthy. He is in a happy mood that not even Sam’s little brother snitty comments can deflate.
Here is the soundtrack of this episode for those who are interested.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0835248/soundtrack
Here is some random but fun trivia:
Dean tells Sam in one scene "If it's Supernatural, we kill it." One of the rare times the title of the show is actually spoken in the dialogue.
This is the first episode where Sam began parting his hair down the middle, the hairstyle he'd keep the rest of the series.
( I didn’t like his hair too much in this episode honestly but then again I could barely see anyone beyond Dean :D)
During the filming of this episode Jared injured his hand when he fell badly during a stunt. He thought it was merely sprained and went straight into filming the next episode without having it checked. But it got more and more painful and finally he went to the doctor and discovered that his hand was, in fact, broken. Because he had already begun filming, he couldn't bandage the hand until filming for that episode was finished. The writers ended up writing in an accident for Sam and his line "I think she broke my hand" to explain the fact that for the following few episodes he would be wearing a cast.
When Dean kills a vampire, blood is sprayed on his face, mostly on his right cheek. In the next shot the pattern is different, and notably the right cheek is almost clean. Furthermore, his mouth was agape when he made the kill, risking the blood getting into his mouth and turning him into a vampire. While the brothers didn't yet know how a vampire is made at that point, Gordon did and should have been alarmed that Dean might have gotten some of the blood in his mouth.
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A random behind the scene shot from the episode:
Guess who she is? Apparently this is Jensen’s sister in a super brief role in Bloodlust!
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On to the review, or rather some of my thoughts during the re-watch.
The first scene with the Sheriff they are interrogating him about the cattle mutilations is hilarious. The way they bluff their way into the morgue is hilarious. Dean always leading and Sam following.
Random trivia: When Dean enters the morgue with Sam and sees the name tag of "J Manners", it has been thought the name was to honor Jeffrey Dean Morgan and series producer Kim Manners. Dean guesses "John" - Jeffrey's character name - and the intern corrects with "Jeff"
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It a testament to the way Supernatural has trained its audience that we barely blink when they pull out a decapitated head in the morgue, squabble over who is more chicken, dig into the mouth and eventually discover vampire fangs.
Yes, of course they do.
*
Next scene: Two hot guys walk into a bar…..
…….where the adorable Benny, who is not Benny in this episode but a random dude ( spoilers—later we find out the dude is a vampire), gives them directions/ mis- directions to a possible vampire nest.
We see the first glimpse of Gordon Walker, amazingly played by Sterling K. Brown, and making us worry about and dislike him almost right away. The way he is shown with the light and shade bars on his face from the window blinds is so menacing.
The next few scenes continue to build that sense of unease where the Winchester brothers, apparently telepathically, decide to double back and catch him following them, then he shows them his car and his weapons, where he references their dad and then refuses their offer for help.
The scene where he shows them his car is like a painting. (The car by the way is just as inconspicuous as the Impala –which is to say NOT AT ALL!! How do these people stay below the radar of the regular law enforcement is a mystery….).
The dust highlighting the rays of light, the two brothers on one side of the car and Gordon at the other, it’s all so consciously set up for a few seconds worth of screen time. Impressive!
Next comes a truly brutal kill, at Dean’s hands, which we don’t even see except as a spray of blood on his face. Poetic! But it is Dean’s expression that makes my stomach clench. His eyes are dead and he is somewhere deep that even Sam can’t reach, as we can see from the distress on Sam’s face.
Gordon of course is all chipper and full of bonhomie and offers to buy them drinks.
That following scene is the one which gives Wincest brother-wives vibes like 100%.
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Sam plays the role of the disgruntled ‘wife’ to perfection. No one but hubby is allowed to use the nickname. He hates the male bonding going on with Gordon and the more Gordon seems to slip into Dean’s inner circle, the more uncomfortable Sam gets, until he finally decides that he just cannot physically be there any more.
Dean’s smug expression when Sam tells Gordon off for calling him Sammy, his instant worry at Sam going back alone, his hand raised in exasperation to convey to Gordon—look what I have to put up with-- the tossing of the keys to his car----it is all a symphony of Dean playing his part in the brother-wives orchestra.
The last line?! ‘Remind me to beat the buzzkill out of you later.’ And Sam’s expression at that? That’s exactly the way a bullying /abusive husband would react to a nagging wife who doesn’t like his toxic friends and wonders how he can be so blind as to not see them for the bad influence they clearly are.
( Bad Dean!!!)
Sam goes back to the motel and does his due diligence by checking with Ellen, gets kidnapped by vampires, released and on his return is disgusted to find Gordon inside their motel room.
*
The next scene is where Dean erupts, having clearly had enough of the shifting power dynamics between them over the evening. Sam has been silently judging him since the kill and Gordon has managed to ‘other’ Sam and make Dean feel validated in his own bloodlust as a hunter.
Dean clocks Sam one.
Wow. I did not see that coming. And what shocked me at this re- watch is that Sam just takes it.
Like an abused wife, he just takes it. Not only that, sometime later in the episode he tells Dean to hit him again if it is going to make him feel better.
NO Sam! NO!!! This is NOT healthy and this is NOT the way to deal….ugh. Sigh.
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Then the second half of the episode swings in and the moral dilemma they face becomes clear when the victim and villain switch roles and Dean is shook enough to question his dad’s judgement!
Dean is still kind of trying to give Gordon the benefit of the doubt even though he sees him literally torturing the vampire. But of course all bets are off the instant he touches Sam. Dean pulls his gun on him. I was surprised that he didn’t shoot him just on principle later simply because he hurt Sam even if it was a small cut.
That is Dean’s definition of monsters-- Anything that hurts Sam. 😊
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We don’t know it at this time, and spoilers ahead, but maybe Dean has been so annoyed and violent with Sam at the idea that he is standing up for MONSTERS is because he might also be one….and the way he looks at the end when he realizes that his whole life’s philosophy has been upended.
There are the details about the vampires who drink cattle blood so they don’t harm humans and therefore want to be treated as the good guys. Of course it is all about the inherent struggle between who you are and what you do—something that shows up hugely magnified in the later seasons when Sam is struggling with his own demon blood addiction and the knowledge of the demon blood inside him.
He needs desperately to believe in this as the utmost foundation stone of his life and its purpose—what you DO is more important than what you ARE!
So even if you are a monster, if you don’t behave like one—that is your redemption.
But it’s not just anybody whose faith he wants in his struggle to prove to himself that he is not a monster. He needs it from Dean.
Remember the dialogue from the panic room “Don’t you say that to me. Don’t YOU say that to me.”
And the fake voicemail set up by Zachariah exploits this at the time of the breaking of the last seal.
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Of course he doesn’t know any of this yet, but that’s Sam fucking Winchester for you –always purer and better than his circumstances allow. Always struggling to do better, be better.😍
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It is fascinating how the visuals and the roles these two play are of rugged handsome men, badass heroes-- Dean of course super macho role playing all the time. But there are so many layers upon layers and honestly if it wasn’t for Jared and Jensen’s fine nuanced and impeccable acting adding depth to the characters, the show would not have held our interest for this long.
We are shown Sam as the brains with his lore and research, but then in the very next episode (Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things), we see Dean connect dots faster than Sherlock Holmes.
Dean is shown as the instinctively violent one with the gun under his pillow, trigger happy, and in this episode even that brutal kill of the vampire on the docks. But then please remember the way Sam kills Gordon finally. Or the insane way he bites himself to get blood for drawing sigils. Or the way he just simply shoots the crossroads demon point blank!
We see Sam as the soft hearted one and he does rescue kids once in a while, but he is never shown to bond with them even a fraction of the way Dean does—so effortlessly. Also the ladies of course, all of whom have a soft spot for Dean. The exceptions being Sarah and Madison, both of whom completely ignored Dean. Oh and that doctor from Sex and Violence.
Dean has had his share of bad dates of course with Cassie, the woman who gave birth to his magical superfast growing daughter ( who was killed by Sam), and the whole Lisa arc, but somehow we are shown Sam as the one who is invested in relationships. Hello?! Sam was planning to marry Jessica without having told her a thing about his life while Dean told Cassie the secret as soon as he thought he was in love and wanted a relationship.
So anyway, just to say that a rewatch is so brilliant because we know more about them at this point than they do and the character arc is such a thing of beauty to see unfolding!
*
That last scene where Dean is in a thoughtful frame of mind, the sun is rising overhead ( as a metaphor for him seeing the light, maybe?)--that insanely gorgeous shot of Dean with the ring of fire and light and his absolutely perfect face in a close up…sigh.
Then he thanks Sam for pushing him to see this grey area and for the first time in that episode Sam finally smiles.
His big brother is back with him.
And then he commits to Dean too. Ah…how it warms my heart to hear this dialogue!
DEAN
I wish we never took this job. It's jacked everything up.
SAM
What do you mean?
DEAN
Think about all the hunts we went on, Sammy, our whole lives.
SAM
Okay.
DEAN
What if we killed things that didn't deserve killing? You know? I mean, the way Dad raised us...
SAM
Dean, after what happened to Mom, Dad did the best he could.
DEAN
I know he did. But the man wasn't perfect. And the way he raised us, to hate those things; and man, I hate 'em. I do. When I killed that vampire at the mill I didn't even think about it; hell, I even enjoyed it.
SAM
You didn't kill Lenore.
DEAN
No, but every instinct told me to. I was gonna kill her. I was gonna kill 'em all.
SAM
Yeah, Dean, but you didn't. And that's what matters.
DEAN
Yeah. Well, 'cause you're a pain in my ass.
SAM
Guess I might have to stick around to be a pain in the ass, then.
DEAN
Thanks.
SAM
Don't mention it.
Transcript here http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=2.03_Bloodlust_%28transcript%29
Guess Sam does stick around for the next 15 years to be a pain in the ass 😊
Some quotes from the writers about this episode:
· "The episode was really about what Dean would become if he didn't watch out: that Gordon was Dean in ten years if Sam didn't ask the difficult questions and keep him from getting too militant." - Executive story editor Sera Gamble
· "We set out to create a monster episode where you weren't entirely sure whether these monsters should be killed." - Eric Kripke
· "For me, the show is at its best when the supernatural story reveals something new about the brothers, or forces them to change in some way. Sam and Dean's realization that they've basically been raised as 'monster racists' was really meaty stuff. Exploring these characters' flaws is just as important as showcasing their heroism - these are the things that make them human, that make us invest in them." - Raelle Tucker
Check out this site for more amazing trivia and stuff
http://www.jonescave.com/supernatural/Episode/Episode.php?s=2&e=3#PopCulture
I have already finished watching the next episode ‘Children’s Shouldn’t play with Dead Things’….so let’s hope I get around to writing a review sometime soon !
#spn#spn review#spn meta#sam and dean#bloodlust#the epic love story of sam and dean#wincest#brother wives
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Heaven Official’s Blessing | Live comments compilation
eyy, I finally finished it. I won’t talk about plot too much because I don’t trust my brain to remember it correctly and I watched it in very spread out sessions dshsj-
I really liked it though I don’t follow all the heaven politics at all dshsj- too many names, too small brain.
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Reactions
Randomly decided to continue heaven official's blessing bc i was bored. The op is so damn soothing and pretty i still can't.
youtube
I also forgot so many details probably but I'm too lazy to rewatch the episodes I've already seen so. Here i go.
It's kinda funny how this whole meeting call of gods is like "yeah that guy is dangerous, the butterflies are a bad sign" Meanwhile mc is like huh i thought they were adorable
Okay why did i stop exactly where it gets REALLY gay okay then me
Alright then friend
Also bilibili subs are so small pls save me
I feel like the dynamic is kinda sassy but it's kinda like... It's still kind of calm in it's portrayal which is interesting.
Idk how to explain it but sth about it just rly calm and sort of peaceful pshhh so i need more braincells to pick up on the low-key sass and witty banter.
Maybe it's also me not being as used to chinese and that's why hmm Chinese is growing on me tho it's so pretty
[the bilibili subs]'re on Funimation too, also?? Funimation didn't even make their own subs good job guys. I could literally watch this on bilibili too wheeze
Okay main guy has been interrupted twice when he was gonna say sth about himself stop
Also intense staring intensifies goddamn
They keep glancing at each other intensely guys stop.
This is wild
I'm enjoying it but I'm just very sjdhdhdh
...
I feel like there's intense staring every like 2 minutes like y'all pretty i get it but pls my gay goggles might overheat here.
[someone else:] I can just imagine them staring at each other in a gay way and then there's Tori squinting at the subtitles
Mc is big brain he's like "there's no way a ghost could fabricate a human body well. Give me your hand, I'll tell you your fortune." *proceeds to inspect hand* "let me brush your hair!" his hair would surely give him away *proceeds to lean in close*
"Are you really fixing my hair or trying to do something else?" sahjs
Also ma ghost man rly made a door for their home so that he wouldn't use talismans on the entry. What a guy.
This guy is so offended at them living together oh jeez sjdhdj
Also great line.
A classic
So much food. Only so.much digestion i can do
He do be smug.
Stop it with the gayzes jesus-
I mean don't stop but holy hell
No wonder these two guys wanna out him as a ghost king, they're just sick of you two not getting a room shdhd
I mean don't stop but holy hell
No wonder these two guys wanna out him as a ghost king, they're just sick of you two not getting a room shdhd
...
Wow. He just tripped into him. I'm not used to food every 2 seconds pls my heart
Casually putting the robe back on your companion, then he catches your hat before it yeets away
Everyday things.
I-
DOES HE LOOK LIKE HE MINDS-
I can’t-
[someone else:] What are they even doing for all this gay to happen in such little time
You see, they really hit it off.
But i don't know and I kinda don't want this to end bc it's just... So charged sjsjsj
Snake bite treatment bc of course
Dramatic name calling and self-sacrifice. The food is real with this one
Hahahaha immediately following into the cliff
Carrying bridal style while fighting, okay then
Also HHhH they revealed something in hindsight and now I'm emotional. So: at some point they read the tombstone of a general, and how he died, and the travellers that were with them laughed. And black hair said that it'd bring luck to bow before it 3 times, so they did. Brown hair asked if that was rly on there and he replied "they made fun of it so we can have some fun too". And it just now got revealed that that general was actually brown hair and I'm just :((( he probably knew bc he's so knowledgeable about everything and he protecc. Big emotion.
And if not it’s just even sweeter in hindsight, anyway sdhjds
...
Why do they keep leaning into each other while gayzing. Like ik it probably won’t commit to it fully/obviously but JESUS
The description even calls it an affair WHAT
I-is anyone actually believing this is not gay- it's impossible right im-
They are just actually flirting Jesus Christ
He literally just said "so you were the bridegroom on Mt. (Sth)"
":)"
"I mean. You pretended to be"
"I didn't pretend."
"So why were you there?"
"Two options. 1)" LEANS OVER HIS SHOULDER "for you. Or 2) i have a lot of time to kill"
THEY EVEN HAVE THE "TITLE OTHER PEOPLE CALL ME BIT WHEN YOU DO IT ITS SPECIAL" TROPE HELP
[someone else:] How can we speedrun every romance trope
I also think it’s hilarious that priest girl basically went “ok this is too flirty, let me out of here” in the special dshdsj
Ehehe
welp there's a ring
Okay that was neat. Now to wait for s2
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BONUS:
IT WAS ON NETFLIX THE ENTIRE TIME
im dumb
oh well.
#tian guan ci fu#heaven official's blessing#tgcf donghua#tgcf anime#tori talks#tori has opinions#toco#tori comments#long post
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What's your favorite and least favorite thing about gogy?
idk why this isn’t framed like an ask like it looks like i just typed the above stuff out omg i don’t know what you did op but sure i’ll answer this!
edit: anon i’m so sorry and i didn’t realise you said “thing” and this is very lengthy
i’ll start with my least favourite, george can be really stubborn sometimes and when he won’t easily give into something it’ll kind of ruin the mood/make others really frustrated and it can be tense to watch
it’s like sometimes he knows when to concede and back down and other times he’ll just argue for ages and want it his way it’s usually over very silly stuff related to minecraft, then again it also doesn’t ruin entire streams because him and his friends are quick to get over stuff it’s just something he does which can be awkward to watch in the moment
on a more serious note george being aggressively apolitical is also not my favourite thing i get it and i largely appreciate how he tries to stay unproblematic and he has a good track record but his radio silence sometimes on things is not a good look and it’s something that can personally bother me
but also it’s not like i can or want people to force him to make statements on stuff he doesn’t know enough about but a little allyship couldn’t hurt when it’s a cause everyone is rallying behind and most of the time it’s only ever george who hasn’t said anything even sapnap and dream have had things they stood for or at least when it mattered and george just hasn’t, ever
it’s worth it to note i don’t think he’s secretly a bad person or has really awful views i just think he doesn’t get/care about politics and it’s okay to admit that comes from a place of privilege no one is above this
my favourite george things include (because i cant pick just one):
how he instantly vibes with people he sometimes straight up doesn’t know there’s so many examples of this and i always love watching his mcc povs because it’s nice to see people instantly warm to him, he just has that effect and it means i never fear him being in calls with people he doesn’t talk to/know that well because it’s never awkward he’s always pleasant and he’ll match their energy and it’s a really nice time! bbh was right yesterday about george having a bright personality that people are drawn to
his non-competitiveness and ability to not take stuff toxically seriously is really nice and refreshing like again, it’s why i’ll always pick stuff like his mcc pov to watch because he’s just there for the ride and to have fun and be entertaining for his viewers and obviously he’ll try his best and if he wins it’s so exciting but if he doesn’t it was still a really really good time and the vibes would always be good regardless
i love his respect for his own privacy unironically i think it’s cool that he doesn’t want to share every detail about his life and he shouldn’t have to i like that he clearly separates the content and his online persona from his real life some stuff is just personal to him and he should be allowed his things that he doesn’t want to share with the world but i like when he does and it always feels special when he wants to :)
i like that he’s kind to his viewers and always wants to make us happy and it’s in the little things he does, like i was rewatching an old stream and someone asked him to turn on the subtitles in minecraft because they were hard of hearing and he did it immediately he also writes down peoples names to check out what they’ve sent to him and seems to make an effort to check
i’ve mentioned this before but he tells off people for spending too much money on him genuinely and it’s funny i remember him once saying something along the lines of “it’s not reverse psychology when i tell you to stop like i seriously don’t want you spending that much on me” and it was just nice to hear and he always wants to satisfy his viewers and make us happy and give us the best content he can offer and i really appreciate it
i also love how he genuinely engages with people he’ll do it by pointing out peoples funny twitch names and expands on their donos when he wouldn’t have to and starts discussions w his chat and i just like that when someone says something to him he takes it in considers it and replies honestly and starts talking about it generally i don’t know how to explain it but george doesn’t brush off donos the same way i see a lot of other people do he genuinely thinks about his answers and what he’ll say back
would it be silly to mention how i love how he interacts with his pets/animals he seems to melt down into a softer version of himself whispering and being really gentle it’s a nice side of him to get to see sometimes he seems like genuinely such a kind person
and my god this is getting so long but the last thing i’ll point out and i talk about this a lot so i’m sorry but it’s how i love when george has these little moments where you can see he really pays attention to and appreciates the smallest details in life whether it’s him fawning over dogs in minecraft or simplistically describing the frogs he’d catch as a kid as “slimy” or appreciating a good sunset it’s like, i just like how he looks at things and decides he likes them and wants to be happy over them, this world is so chaotic and busy there’s smth beautiful to me in someone who can stop and appreciate the simple wonders in it for a moment and it’s weirdly grounding
alright i’m so sorry this was an essay long response i’m so bad at condensing my george feelings but i hope this came across well if you’re still here thanks for reading
#asks#not sure to tag critical for the first bit#and i don’t necessarily wanna argue about it either because they’re my personal feelings you know and i still love him#also it’s not me saying anything new tbh#none of this is new this is just rehashed brainrot but when people ask me what i like about george#i want to sufficiently cover it LOL#bc i have a lot of george feelings#and i feel like people sometimes don’t understand why i like him so much#submission
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name 7 comfort movies + tag 7 people
tagged by @swinging-stars-from-satellites (yes I’m still catching up on things from like 2 weeks ago, shhh 😅🙃) thank you dear!! ^-^
(these are in no particular order aside from the order they came to my mind)
1) Spider-Man: Homecoming--I know there are some IssuesTM with this movie (specifically its portrayal of Spidey as compared to the original comics’ portrayal of him), and I try to be aware of them, but I do still personally really love this film. it’s very comforting to me for some reason, I think because it’s familiar and has a fairly straight-forward plot and themes that I resonate very deeply with?
2) Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring--I mean really all of the LOTR movies are comfort movies for me, but I think FotR is especially so, probably because of all the time spent in the Shire.
3) Doctor Strange--I’ve only seen it a couple of times, but I’m still going to count it because it’s another one where I’m very comfortable with the characters and storyline and resonate deeply with the themes (I guess I just don’t rewatch movies quite to the extent that some people do, even movies I really love??)
4) Rogue One--yes it’s tragic, yes it’s kind of heavy, but I still just love it so much. I’ve seen it so many times, I’m very comfortable with the characters and their journeys at this point, but I also never get tired of seeing their story play out, and I always manage to come away having noticed new things about them and being touched by the themes in a new way. Jyn is still my favourite Disney-era SW film heroine. <3
5) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey--I certainly understand the complaints with all the films of this trilogy, but they’re rather nostalgic for me, because I still remember watching them when I was young with my dad and little sisters, and how re-enraptured I was by the world of Middle-earth (I’d seen the LOTR films not long before but hadn’t read any of the books yet). the colours and designs of this film are just so appealing to me, and it has fairly few discrepancies between the book and the film (compared to the other two)
6-7) all of the Star Wars Prequels + The Force Awakens--this is a bit of a cheat, but I’m going with it anyway, because doing this tag has reminded me just how rarely I actually watch movies and I’m struggling to come up with more to list 😅 I grew up watching the PT almost every weekend for several years of my early childhood, and then when my sisters discovered the Star Wars universe a while later, they were also the ones they fixated most on. I firmly believe that all my entire understanding of storytelling was heavily molded by these movies.
and then The Force Awakens was just so cool when it first came out. at first I complained a lot about how it was “too simple” and “too much like A New Hope”--and while I still think it copied the format of ANH a bit, it’s also very fun in its simplicity. I just enjoy it and it makes me feel like a kid going to the to watch spaceships without worrying about what The Important Fandom Officials thought about every detail.
tagging @audreythevaliant @as-dreamers-do @ladyzayinwonderland @ontologicalmoki @dawnflames @ladyverachtung @assorted-things (but if you guys don’t want to do it or have done it already, that’s perfectly fine! :))
#gurt says stuff#movies#comfort things#star wars#LOTR#the hobbit#rogue one#the force awakens#star wars prequels#doctor strange#spiderman#spider-man: homecoming#tag games
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So there’s a really interesting interview with Deborah Pratt here. If you don’t want to pay for it, I’ll paste what I can below, but a few points first.
Deborah says she doesn’t know where Dean is, and says she misses him. I guess she hasn’t had contact with him since he left for NZ? And with Russ Tamblyn saying Dean’s hanging in there in answer to a recent Twitter question, that brings up more questions about his condition.
Deborah claims she came up with the idea of Quantum Leap, which I’ve never seen come up before. Also Don wanted to send Sam home?? I feel like she’s misremembering a lot of details/making herself seem better than she is.
“Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished… He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own, and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time tht his next leap will be the leap home…”
The premise of Quantum Leap succinctly and empathetically explained by a voice that spoke to viewers week to week, setting the scene at the opening of the episode. It is a voice that left an indelible print on the show, from its inception to its finale. This is the voice of its Head Writer. No, not Donald P. Bellisario, but a woman of color who was leaps ahead of her time – co-executive producer and uncredited co-creator, Deborah M. Pratt.
Deborah wrote or co-wrote 40 episodes of this sci-fi gem and her authorship of the show runs deep through its five seasons. Aside from the opening narration, Deborah is audible as the voice of Admiral Al Calavicci’s pocket computer, Ziggy. She also guest stars in the episode ‘A Portrait for Troian’ (S2, Ep11) as a grieving widow who hears the voice of her husband calling her.
Deeper still, Quantum Leap was a family affair. It was co-created with her husband at the time, Bellisario, and their daughter, also named Troian, appears as a little girl in ‘Another Mother’ (S2, Ep13, who can not only see Al, but also sees Sam as he really is, rather than as her recently divorced mom.
Prior to helming Quantum Leap, Deborah rose through the ranks as an actress, racing the screen in Happy Days, CHiPS, The Dean Martin Show and many more, and was also a writer on shows such as Airwolf and Magnum P.I. She is a five-time Emmy nominee, Golden Globe nominee and winner of countless other awards. She went on to produce CBS comedy cop show, Tequila and Bonetti, and then to co-create and produce the TV series adaptation of Sandra Bullock tech thriller, The Net. But Quantum Leap was Deborah’s brainchild – one which is emblazoned on the hearts of its faithful fans.
Deborah has since moved into directing, including on hit show Grey’s Anatomy (2020), but was generous with her time when spoke in late 2020 to leap back into the past.
It does seem that you were really ahead of your time as a female head writer and a showrunner in the ’90s, especially in science fiction TV. Was it hard for you to progress and to get Quantum Leap made?
“Usually women were relegated to comedy, very rarely was it drama or heavy drama. It’s changed, finally, with people like Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy, Bridgerton, Scandal). But yes, I was a true pioneer, even though I don’t have a ‘created by’ credit, it was a ‘co-created by’ show – with Don. I brought him the original concept, and we were married, and he said ‘Let me just run with this. I can get it made.’ And to his credit, he understands how to tell a story to the audience. He simplified it in a way that you could welcome Quantum Leap into the world. But it was still a tough show to sell.
“I think we went back three times to pitch it to the network. It was complicated to explain. Brandon Tartikoff [the executive] said ‘It’s a great idea – It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen on TV. Let me think about it.’ Then he asked us to come back, ‘I want you to pitch it to me like I’m six years old, then pitch it to me like I’m 80 years old’ and finally he took it. Then even after the show first aired, they decided to introduce that opening where I tell the story. That was created to explain every week to a new viewer what was going on and it worked really well.”
On rewatch now, the best part of three decades later, the show feels groundbreaking in terms of the subjects you cover. Did you feel like you were pushing the envelope?
“I feel we got to do so much on that show. I remember when I did ‘Black on White on Fire’ [S3, Ep7], the networks in the South in the United States wouldn’t air it because it was a black/white relationship. Even though there is no scene where you see a black person and a white person being intimate.
You saw Sam, who was white, and the girl who was white, but because he was playing someone who was black, it was an issue. They wouldn’t air the show in the South. This was around 1992.
“It was challenging for sure. I think we pushed the limits.
“The beauty of the show too, was that it was about hope, which I see so little of on television today. Everything’s so dark, so mean, so vicious, bloody – how many people can you kill? How mean can you make your lead characters and antiheroes. I think it’s why I didn’t work as much afterwards. A) I was a woman, and B) a black woman. There weren’t any black female executive producers that I knew of in drama. I got to do <em>The Net</em> because it had a female lead, but that was almost ten years after <em>Quantum Leap</em> was created. Any show I brought in that had a black lead was never bought, or a female lead, was never bought.
“I remember I wrote a big action piece – like an Indiana Jones, but female-driven, feature film – and pitched it and the studio executive said, ‘Yeah, yeah, but when did the guy come and rescue her?’ And I said, ‘She doesn’t – she rescues him.’ The look on his face. I’ll never forget it as long as I live.”
The show darted around TV schedules, but the fans remained with it, and still to this day hold it dear to their hearts. Was that palpable at the time, or has that grown since?
“I think near the end of the first season, Harriet Margulies [Production Assistant on the show] found a chat room after an episode where people from across the country talked about it and it became the ‘watercooler.’ We were the first television show that had a chat room as a watercooler. Before that, it was literally you going into your office and standing around the watercooler and talking about movies or TV shows you were watching. Suddenly, it was online. So we started to go into the chat room and talk to people about what they liked and what they didn’t. Not necessarily telling them who we were, but that fan base is what kept us on the air because the network didn’t know what to do with us. There was no show like it, so they couldn’t like pair us with anybody.
“In the five years we were on, I think they moved the show six times and the fans still found it, they followed it, they watched it. That’s how we knew we had something unique and special. To this day, I’ll go into a meeting with a young executive who’ll go, ‘I have to tell you, I loved Quantum Leap. I used to watch it with my mom and dad’.”
Scott Bakula was such a great hero and heartthrob as Dr. Sam. What was he like to work with?
“He was so approachable, you know, in the sense that he had this great, easy acting style. He took chances and he was likeable – in a way that he could be a man’s man and a woman’s man at the same time. He’s really a brilliant actor. I am saddened by the fact that he has not had the opportunity to do movies in the way that could really have lifted his career. He’s had an incredibly successful television career. He’s a good actor. He’s a kind man. I’ve always admired him and felt like when we were working together, I had a friend that I loved to write for because he was always so giving and willing and wanting to take chances as an actor. So it was fun to go down to the trailer and say, ‘Guess what? You’re going to be pregnant this week’.
He does everything in the show from sing and dance to baseball, football, hopping over car bonnets to fights and martial arts. Did you know he had such a wide skill set from the outset, or did you write the challenges for him to rise to?
“I think we had conversations with him about that. I also knew that he had been on Broadway doing musicals. I knew he could sing and dance. When I wrote ‘Sea Bride’ [S2, Ep20], I wrote a tango number – that was unique for him. When Don knew that he could play the guitar… We asked Scott, ‘What do you want to do?’ And he said he wanted to do a musical and I think that’s how the ‘Catch a Falling Star’ episode [S2, Ep10] came about, which involves a performance of ‘Man of LaMancha’.”
Admiral Al Calavicci – he’s so much more than wisecracking and surface jokes or flirtation. There’s so much depth to his character. Was that fleshed out early on with an end to end journey for him in mind, or did his character evolve through the seasons?
“It was a little bit of both. Dean Stockwell had been on Broadway at five-years-old and had been a major child movie star. I remember when we wrote the show where Sam had the chance to save Al – ‘The Leap B4, Ep1] – he was so good in that. I’ll never forget how beautiful that was. And then in the very, very end, I love the fact that Sam did change history and Al ended up wih his beautiful wife with five kids.
“I remember once asking Dean, ‘Do you want us to write more drama for you? Big dramatic moments?’ And he said, ‘I want you to look at me right now. I want you to tell me what you see.’ And I said, ‘Well, your performance, the pain, fear and loss and all that, because you’re such an incredible actor.’ And he said ‘For me to perform that, I have to be it and live it. So don’t do too many.’
“He had that depth of acting talent. He is so good – Dean, wherever you are, I love you. I miss you.”
The episodes that follow later in the seasons involving celebrities – Sam as Elvis, Dr. Ruth, or Lee Harvey Oswald, was that kind of a direction that you always foresaw? It feels like a sea change as the show progressed.
“The stories were designed, for the most part, to be so, so simple in that they were everyday stories. They weren’t change-the-world stories. I think the biggest one was Lee Harvey Oswald, and maybe the one involving Marilyn Monroe – those were with people that could have had a ripple effect.
“But there were other little kisses with history in the show, but they were very hard to do. They ran into a child version of Donald Trump in a taxi cab, [‘It’s A Wonderful Leap’ – S4, Ep18], then they ran into a little boy who is supposed to be Michael Jackson – Sam teaches him to moonwalk [‘Camikazi Kid’ – S1, Ep8]. The first time I did a kiss with history was ‘Star-Crossed’ [S1, Ep3] – Sam meets up with the woman that left him at the altar and they’re at the Watergate Hotel. That was fun stuff.”
Sam managed to awkwardly kiss lots of ladies in that sense of ‘Oh God, they’re going to kiss me and I’ve got to be this person, what am I supposed to do.’
“We never, ever really discussed what happened to Sam. We didn’t want him to be encumbered by a relationship. But I didn’t get to kiss him. My husband wouldn’t leave the set on the episode I was in!”
Your move into directing – from your TV drama Cora Unashamed back in 2000, to Grey’s Anatomy just last year. Is that something you wanted to do sooner? Were there barriers prohibiting you?
“I was supposed to direct on Quantum Leap four times. Every time it was coming up, something would happen. The only women who directed on the show were two black women – Debi Allen [Fame, Everybody Hate Chris, Jane the Virgin] and the other was a woman named Anita Addison. They each did two shows.
I said, ‘If I’m not doing this, I want black women.’ There were no other black women. And it was a fight. I tried to get black women directors on the show, but I could never get them past.
Then when I went to do The Net, the studio blocked it. I give huge amounts of credit for executive producing to Shonda Rhimes and what she has been able to do. She did what I thought I was going to be able to do. She’s so talented and I’m such a fan of her and her shows. I’m looking forward to what she’s going to do on Netflix. And it was an honour to do Grey’s Anatomy because I’m a fan of the show and I’m really grateful to have that opportunity.”
Has there been progress in terms of female directors and filmmakers being given opportunities?
“It’s very hard for women because there aren’t a lot of women executives at the studios. There are more now. And so there is an evolution that’s happening, but it still feels slow. There were shows run by people I gave opportunities to back in the day, but when I said, “hey, I want to direct on your show,” the response was, “oh, there’s too much machismo. There’s too many male hormones around here. They’ll eat you alive.” And I went, “no, they won’t, you’ll protect me. How about if I do my job?” And that was only last year. But there are more opportunities. There are more women making decisions, but we have to do more because women’s stories and women’s voices are more than half the population – we need to hear those stories. The historic ones as well as the contemporary ones.”
Is there a leap that was your favourite overall? That you feel made you made your mark with?
“’The Color of Truth’ [S1, Ep7] touched so many people and it opened a dialogue. I remember we got a letter from a teacher who said she brought the VHS in and she played it to her class, up until Jesse [Sam as an ageing black chauffeur in ’50s Deep South] goes and sits down at the counter in the restaurant. Then she stopped it and asked the students what they thought happened next. They thought that he just ordered lunch. And then she played the rest and that hostility and the animosity he endures and the fact that he had to get up and leave really incensed these children. They had never heard of or experienced racism. They didn’t want to believe that it really happened. This is how history gets buried and why television is so powerful and important. It opened a conversation that she could not have necessarily had in her classroom, according to her, had she not brought that show in to share with her students.
“We had another letter that was very moving, and I want to say it might’ve been ‘The Leap Home’ [S2, Ep1-2]. There was a couple who wrote and said they had a child that was on a cancer ward and every Thursday the whole ward would watch Quantum Leap. Their child was dying and they had kind of given up and it was just time to help that child transition out of this world. They watched the show and she said, ‘We realized we gave up hope. When we watched the show, we realized we didn’t have to give up hope and we wanted to write to you. It’s now six months later and the crisis has passed. The cancer is in remission. Our child is up and going back to school. And we just want to thank you for reminding us that hope has its own power’.”
Its power and poignancy has never diminished. Though the final episode, ‘Mirror Image’ (S5, Ep22), with the caption saying Sam doesn’t get to go home, does leave a sucker punch.
“That was our last fight. Don was going to send him home. And I said, ‘You can’t, you can’t send him home. If you ever, ever, which we’ve not ever been able to get Universal to let us do it, want to do a movie… If you want to keep the story going, you have to leave Sam out there in the hearts of people, leaving people thinking he could leap into their lives’. And at first Don said, ‘No, no, we need to bring him home’. And I said, ‘Do not bring him home. Or you will end the show. If you leave the hope out there, that Sam is out there and he could leap into your life and make a difference’. You keep the show alive in the hearts and the minds of the fans. And I think I was right.”
The ending was poetic for me as a viewer, but your point about Sam still being out there – Is there a leap back to the future for Quantum Leap?
“I started writing a project called <em>Time Child</em> about Sammy Jo Fuller. I actually wrote a trilogy in Season 5 where Sam leapt back three times into the same family and the second time he leapt he ended up in bed with this character and conceived a child. Then the third time he leapt in, he met her at 10 years old – a girl named Sammy Jo Fuller. So in my vision, Sammy Jo Fuller grows up. I actually have Al say, ‘Sammy is in the future with me. We’re trying to bring you home.’ That was my set-up way back in 1993, in Season 5, to say someday, Sammy Jo being his daughter might take over….
“This was the ’90s. Women heroes didn’t exist really – other than comic books – Wonder Woman was there, Super Girl was there. But I set it up in the show that Sammy Jo was going to bring him home. Sadly, I have not been able to get Don and the studio to give me the green light for Time Child. It might happen someday.”
Right now, it feels like we need more shows that offer hope. Is there a place for a reboot on streaming platforms?
“Universal keep saying they want to bring it back. They’re not going to give it up to Netflix because they have [US streaming service] Peacock now and still have NBC. I personally think it should be on a full blown network. The hard part would be that it would have to be recast if there was a female version using my character Sammy Jo Fuller. Or if they just redid the show, it would be interesting in the sense that there was such an innocence about the show. I still believe that there is an audience out there that wants it, that longs for looking at the past through the eyes of somebody in the present. But who would that person be if you did the show now, what are those eyes like?
“We’re living in the time of COVID and suddenly you go back in time. How do you warn people that this is going to happen? How do you warn people about 9/11? How do you warn people about things in the future?
“I mean, one of the beauties of that innocence too, and I thought that was a great gift from Don to the concept, was that Sam’s memory as Swiss cheese – he didn’t remember things and that made it a lot easier, and Al was not allowed to tell him what was happening in the present. There’s a lot of detail woven into the mythology that allowed it to be innocent and in the moment of time travel. You didn’t have to drag the future back with you.”
Do you have an actress in mind to play Sammy Jo in a reboot?
“Oh my gosh, Jennifer Garner. I always felt she would be a great female Sam. She’s an ‘every woman.’ She’s funny. She does great drama. When I think of a female Sam or even Sammy Jo, I think Jennifer – in a heartbeat. She’s so great in Alias. That show just never stopped. You couldn’t take a breath. If I had to go younger, somebody that would have that kind of believable humour that you think could actually rescue you – maybe Jennifer Lawrence. She’s pretty formidable in that sense.”
“To bring Quantum Leap back. If they’re thinking about it, now’s the time to happen. Tell people to write to Universal! Write for the attention of Pearlena Igbokwe – if anyone can bring it back, she can do it. Write! Write to Pearlena – she’s the one that’ll make it happen. That’s how we stayed on the air for five and a half years. Fans unite and write!”
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Do you have any writing tips Coz i rlly like your writing ❤😭
This one took a while to answer because of how much I had to say. (Please keep in mind that I am in no way telling you to follow these tips, take whatever you think will work for you and discard what doesn't, okay?)
Alright, first things first, I've been writing on and off for the past seven years, and I can say for a fact that I've definitely improved since my first fic (which was on paper, we don't talk about it). The following tips are what works for me, and what I believe has helped me become better at writing.
Remember, fanfiction is supposed to be self-indulgent, and therefore you are entitled to write whatever you like because it's your work, so you don’t have to follow any of these tips if you don’t feel like it.
Proofreading, making sense & grammar
Grammar and punctuation make a huge difference. You could have an amazing story, but bad grammar can make that piece of work flop. Stories are supposed to be immersive, but if there are too many mistakes or the words don't make sense, it can ruin it for a reader. (I don't mean your garden variety missing letters, I mean something like 'an he and her goes and u were like oh no'.) I can't name the amount of time I've started to read something online and ditched it because the grammar irks me (your instead of you're, their instead of they're and so on). I've seen a lot of fanfiction writers also switch between past tense, present tense and future tense in the same paragraph, which makes it hard to understand what's happening.
If you're trying to post and have it get attention, please do check your work to make sure it makes sense. Write down everything first, don't correct anything, and once you're done writing the scene, go back to proofread the whole thing. Get someone to read it for you and point out mistakes or things that don't make sense, if you can.
If you can't, then there are alternatives. There's 'text to speech', where you can copy and paste what you've written down onto a website, and it will read the text out loud to you. It works the best (for me anyway). There's also grammarly, which is kind of similar to google docs except it points out all the mistakes you may have in your work. (Bear in mind a few mistakes don't matter, but if there's too many then it's likely that your post or blog won't get much attention.) This tip helps you to get a lot of likes on your writing.
Research
If you're writing fanfiction, please study the character(s). My biggest pet peeve when I read fanfiction, is that the love interest is out of character. Whether it be the way they talk or the way they act, if it isn't close to canon, I cannot read it.
So, if you're trying to gain traction and have your work get a lot of positive feedback or likes, then it's best to do research. Most fictional characters have wiki pages where their personalities, relationships and life stories are listed, so why not make the most of it? It's all there for the taking. When writing for a character, rewatch the show/movie to get a good grasp of their personality and then begin to write. The more canon your writing is, the more people will enjoy it.
Reader Inserts
Ever come across an x reader where there's way too much description about their appearance? (Specified hair colour, hair length, named family members etc.) I once read a reader insert where the author described the reader as someone who had pale skin, blue eyes and blonde hair... I was like, huh? That's not what I look like :')
When you specify or go into details about 'reader's' appearance, it will most likely ruin the mental image your readers have in their heads already. I feel like when one tries to write a story or oneshot with a reader, they should be as vague as possible. There's no need to specify the height, or the reader's dream job or names of family members, or outfit choice- that's up to the people that are reading your stuff to work out. Leave it to their imagination. (This doesn't apply to requests made by others for specific character traits or appearances.)
Write believable characters
If your work has a reader insert or original characters, please make them believable. You don't want to write characters that are 2D and have little to no depth. Please don't make them perfect, that takes the fun out of things and makes your character somewhat boring. You don’t want to write a character that your readers find it hard to care about, so even if you were to kill them, the readers wouldn’t care.
Make them real, with real problems and a factor of relatability. Heck, give them toxic/bad personality traits while you're at it. Easily irritable, overly sensitive, cynical, selfish, manipulative, people pleaser- the list is endless (we all have our flaws, no?). Contrary to what others may believe, this will make your character easy to relate to or understand, and more people will like your work that way. (this links to my next tip btw)
Mary Sues
I've seen this a lot in the fanfiction community, and oh god, does it make me cringe (this is because of personal preference, though). Mary sues, if you aren't aware, are perfect characters that have no faults. They don't make mistakes, and everyone loves them even if they do nothing. They are basically the perfect hero/heroine, and that makes them boring. My biggest pet peeves are mary sues in fanfiction author's works, (but, this is because I can't stand perfect and over-powered characters that everyone seems to fall for at first sight).
Fair enough if the entire story is self-indulgent, I'm not here to bash others over personal preferences (this is just how I feel on the matter), but that also means that you take the risk of your work flopping for that sole reason. Your work might not get any traction or positive feedback because it is overly indulgent.
Don't make your original character or reader insert a mary sue. Throw hurdles and hardships at them, let them make huge mistakes and learn from them, let them mature. Let them have flaws, let them win over the love interest slowly, instead of having the two fall in love instantly.
Use the right inspiration for romantic relationships
Please for the love of god do not use toxic relationships as your inspiration for the romance you write into your story. 'After' by Anna Todd comes to mind first, as it is a good example of a romance written horribly. If you don't know already, then it's a Harry Styles wattpad fanfiction that got popular and was published, with two movie adaptations out already, (with more on the way)- the classic good girl falls for bad boy cliche.
So, what's so wrong with 'After'? For one, the male interest is toxic as hell. Anger management issues, substance abuse, trash personality, the list goes on. What does the female interest to about it? Absolutely nothing. She lets him walk all over her and forgives him for it every time.
Please don't use stories like this as a basis for what the romance in your work is like. Relationships where one abuses the other, whether it be mentally, physically or verbally are wrong and shouldn't be glorified nor romanticised. Relationships are supposed to be healthy, and shouldn't tear the people in it, apart. Use the right inspiration, there's plenty out there.
Writing chemistry between characters
For me, I use inspiration where ever I can find it. Movies, animes, books, real life, you name it. Observe the different types of media around you. How do friends interact with each other? How is it different from childhood friends and family friends? How is it different to lovers? I watch Netflix shows/movies in my free time, mostly romance- and yes, it is for research purposes. From there, I take a particular interaction or scene and get to thinking. If the characters from my works were in that situation, how would they react?
Ever watched a movie or a show and thought to yourself, 'Wow, the interactions are so awkward'? That's mostly because the script is forced, and that's the last thing you want to write like. Chemistry, whether it be platonic or romantic, should be natural. The best way for you to do this is by thinking about how characters would interact and letting it come naturally to you.
Don't rush it
You have all the time in the world to write chemistry between characters. Why rush it? Slow burns hit the hardest and a lot of people like them. What I mean to say is, please for the love of god, don't let the characters in your work meet and then immediately fall in love.
The countless amount of times I've sighed in frustration because I've decided to read a story and the first chapter they meet, the second they're already a thing and the third they get married? (This is an exaggeration, but you know what I mean.) What? Why? The time between realising feelings and officially dating should at least take a month, so write with that in mind. (This tip doesn't apply to one-shots.)
Narration
I’ve seen authors skip out on explaining where the story takes place and give the bare minimum when it comes to details, and have realised that it makes it very hard for the reader to understand what’s happening. When there’s barely any context, the story is no longer immersive and is less enjoyable.
Focus on describing the settings. There should be more description than dialogue. The weather, the surrounding, if there are people near or not, smells, sounds, etc. This will help the reader visualise what's happening, and will make it more enjoyable all around. The surroundings should be included in your story to make it more interesting and to keep the reader hooked. I've seen authors do this in their fanfiction and my god, when it's done right, it is so beautiful.
The first paragraph
This is a tip I've only recently started to use. You should always start the first paragraph off with something interesting. It's gotta be eye-catching. This makes sure that the reader doesn't click off of your work before you get to the good bits. There are a lot of writers who start their stories off with the classic 'I woke up in the morning to the alarm clock sounding,' and it is the absolute worst because it's the most overused cliche I've ever seen.
Reading about someone waking up isn't interesting unless it's important to the story. For example, you can start off with a character waking up, if they're sick, 'I jolted awake only to immediately groan at the headache I was hit with. I moved to massage the bridge of my nose, to ease my pain, somewhat. It was then that I realised I was covered in a thin layer of sweat. Breathing in through my nose, I kicked the covers off of myself in an attempt to try and cool down. Turning my head and coughing into my pillow, I wondered if it was even worth it to get up.'
Internal monologues
Internal monologues give character to the person you're writing about and also gives the reader a good idea of what they're like. They also make your story better as a whole and can prove to lengthen it a bit more. Sprinkle them in where you see fit.
For example, 'The school day dragged on. You gazed at the clock yet again- why did it feel as if the hand on it hadn't moved? You should have stayed home. What was the point of this again? You could be spending your time doing something better. You suppressed the urge to yawn as the teacher droned on about how to calculate frequencies and wavelengths.'
Read
I mean this. When you're not writing, read, and do it like it's a job. Find a good book or a fanfiction that's well written, and take note of things the author has done that you think, 'Oh! That's worded beautifully.' This will help you expand your vocabulary, provide you with inspiration and overall will improve your writing.
hope this helps 💞💞💞💞
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2020
What a year, huh? Surely not anything anyone has expected to happen when we woke up on this day a year ago. I certainly haven’t. I’m not even sure, now, where to begin to sum up this year like I’ve done years prior. But then again... I may just as well just dive right into all the media I consumed this year, as I have done every year. I haven’t kept track as detailed as I have last year, but my year was definitely punctuated by pieces of entertainment that have come into my life.
Continuing on from 2019, my obsession with Good Omens was still going strong. Which was ideal, since I was gonna spend the first half of the year writing my Bachelor thesis on it. The intensity of the obsession may have waned a bit since, but I still love that show and book dearly and hold it close to my heart, and I don’t think that will ever stop. But while Good Omens was certainly an overall theme throughout my year, there were some other things that actually stood out.
With January came new episodes of Doctor Who, and having returned to that particular bandwagon the year prior, I was all about that. Jodie’s second season finally brought what I had longed for in her first--a darker kind of Doctor. She wasn’t quite as bubbly anymore, you could finally see some of the depths in the character that I loved so in the previous regenerations, which made me love Peter’s Doctor so incredibly much. In this season, I felt, Jodie was finally becoming the Doctor. Overall, that season catered to me personally every single episode. So many of the time periods they visited were of people I loved, and the introduction of Sacha Dhawan as the Master was absolutely....well, masterful. Sacha is brilliant in that role and I am utterly stunned by his talent. Although both John Simm and Michelle Gomez brought things to the Master that I liked, it’s Sacha’s completely unhinged take on it that made me finally like the character. He’s a madman and I love it.
The next major thing was The Good Place. I tend to have a talent of getting into shows just as they either ended their entire show, or the final season is just coming up. It’s happened quite a bit, and it was the same with this. I finally binged the show early in January and it would end its final season at the end of the month. True to form, I was completely obsessed with it for about a month, before I only occasionally thought about it again. But, thinking back now, I get this incredibly fond feeling for this show, and I remember that the finale absolutely wrecked me and I basically ugly sobbed through the entirety of it. Also very true to form, actually. I want to rewatch it again some time, but honestly preferably with someone who has never seen it before. Which, obviously, is a difficult thing to do given, well, everything.
Next up is something that surprised me a lot. In the middle of having to write my BA thesis, my procrastination thought it would be a great idea to rewatch and catch up on the entirety of Criminal Minds. And so I binged 15 seasons of that instead of writing my thesis. Which, coincidentally, had also just aired its final season not long before I started my binge in March. Rewatching this, I realised just how little I took in of the actual, like, stuff in the show when I first watched it as a teen. Although I mostly cared about the characters and their found family this time around--although I do find the cases really fascinating most of the time too--I noticed just how much I am not watching this for the fact that they are in the FBI. I was hyperaware of how often they shot at people before doing anything else, how many of the suspects died before ever being questioned or being brought in, and it made my skin crawl. I am aware how fucked up the criminal justice system is, and especially in the US, how the police functions and how incredibly glorified they are in the media. But rewatching this show, I realised how little I actually paid attention to anything when I was younger. Big yikes. Still, I remembered my love for these characters, and I really enjoyed that rewatch a whole lot. Found family will always get to me.
Once I finished writing my thesis and handed it in early in July, I then found my next momentary obsession: Community. The show had finally come to Netflix earlier in the year and a friend of mine had watched it then. I remember watching that pilot episode back then and being completely uninterested in watching it. The comedy felt like it wasn’t quite up my street, the characters were entirely unlikeable, and I especially disliked Jeff who the show was more or less centred around. I binged Criminal Minds instead, but then decided to give it another try. And, well, I watched it twice through without taking a break to watch something else in-between. Ironically, and maybe actually unsurprisingly, Jeff ended up being my favourite and I found myself relating a lot to him and his arc throughout the series. I even found myself writing some short ficlet-like things in the notes app on my phone. I made an attempt at starting a third watch, but I guess then the month was up, and my brain decided it was time for something else. My hyperfixations usually tend to die out after about a month. Which is why my complete devotion to Good Omens was a pleasant surprise. I did, however, end up watching quite a bit of Joel McHale and Ken Jeong’s The Darkest Timeline podcast throughout August.
Early in September, while already preparing for the new term at uni, and my first semester in my Master’s studies, I then turned to New Girl. Friends of mine had seen it and recommended it, and I remember watching probably the entire first season on TV while I was in San Diego the first time around back in 2016. Or at least I think it was the entire first season. Either way, I binged that whole thing, realised through Nick Miller that the go-to character I am drawn to and tend to project on in any piece of media is usually what I like to call “the garbage man,” which Nick is a prime example of. And although I spent a month watching the show in-between starting university again and volunteering at a film festival, I didn’t spend much time afterward thinking about it and moved on to other things rather quickly. I enjoyed watching it, that much I remember, and I’m pretty sure I cried at the finale because it was done wonderfully, but seeing as another month was up, my brain was probably like “okay fine that’s enough”.
I then spent most of fall and early winter watching every single bad Christmas movie available on Netflix, which was quite fun. In that moment of festivity, I also watched a movie I found absolutely brilliant and fell in love with immediately. It’s a beautiful movie called Jingle Jangle, it has a magnificent soundtrack and is absolutely incredible. I had no idea Forest Whitaker could sing and he completely blew me away. If you haven’t seen it already, I highly recommend it. It doesn’t matter that Christmas is already over, it’s beautiful either way.
By the time December finally rolled around, I was already over the whole Christmas thing, to be honest and I turned away from festive movies or shows, and eventually ended up finally picking up a gem I had heard much about and had been meaning to watch for a while. A show which, as it were, also aired its final season earlier this year. This little show is Schitt’s Creek. I will be going on about what this show means to me probably in another post at length, but for now just let me say: if you haven’t seen it, find some place to watch it, and put this beautiful show in your eyeballs. I am on my second run through already (although I’ve seen the second half of the show a second time already while watching it with a friend on their first run through), and it brings me so much fucking joy. It’s a gift, this show. And it will likely stay with me for a very, very long time.
That’s about it for the big things. I also watched a whole lot of other stuff, including entirely new things, or just newly released seasons of things I was already watching. Here’s what I can remember off the top of my head:
Charlie’s Angels (2020). The Night Manager. The Witcher. Dolittle (2020). The Librarians (rewatch). Harley Quinn (2020). Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). The Chef Show (S1 part 3, S2 part 1). Avenue 5. Money Heist (part 4). The Good Fight (S4). Brooklyn Nine-Nine (S7). DuckTales (2017 reboot). Frankenstein live. Staged (2020). Hamilton. Sense8. Julie and the Phantoms. The Boys in the Band. One Night in Miami. Enola Holmes. Supernova. His Dark Materials (S2). Happiest Season. The Great Canadian Baking Show.
I also got some reading done in-between what I had to read for my thesis in spring, and then for regular university courses in fall. Here’s some of what I can remember:
Anthony Horowitz, The House of Silk. Ramona Meisel, Sunblind. Donna Tartt, The Secret History. Good Omens novel and script book. Matt Forbeck, Leverage: The Con Job. Keith R.A. Decandido, Leverage: The Zoo Job. Greg Cox, Leverage: The Bestseller Job. Greg Cox, The Librarians and the Lost Lamp. Greg Cox, The Librarians and the Mother Goose Chase. Greg Cox, The Librarians and the Pot of Gold. Neil Gaiman, Marvel 1602. Christina Henry, The Lost Boy. Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology. John Green, An Abundance of Katherines. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh. Maria Konnikova, The Confidence Game.
Having mulled over all this entertainment I consumed in 2020, there are also some non-tv or book things I need to point out. As many, many other people around the globe, I have also spent a large amount of time this year on my Nintendo Switch, playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It is a game I have waited for since the Switch was first announced, and I fell in love with it from the moment the first trailer dropped. It has brought me great joy in this weird fucking year, and I have more or less consistently played it since it came out in March. I ended this year with the in-game New Year’s Eve celebration and I feel like that summed up this year quite neatly and appropriately.
This year also brought with it another game very close to my heart: Super Mario Sunshine. With their release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars in September, Nintendo finally brought my all-time favourite Mario game to my all-time favourite console, and I played the entire game through in the first week of owning it, in-between university courses and volunteering at the film festival. Also contained in that package was Super Mario Galaxy which I have also played through in its entirety since. All that’s left for me now is Super Mario 64, which I am excited to play through in the coming year.
And to round off my year of entertainment, there are two more things I would like to mention. First, David Tennant Does A Podcast With..., which released its second season this summer. It is one of the only, if not the only podcast I keep up to date with and listen to immediately whenever a new episode drops. I’ve loved the first season dearly, and David came back with some incredibly fantastic guests for the second season as well. I can’t wait for what the podcast will bring in the future, but I will wait patiently until it is time. I can highly recommend it for everyone who likes interesting conversations between lovely people who clearly adore each other a whole lot.
And finally, while this year brought a whole lot of bullshit with it, it also gave me something I never thought possible and did not even dare to imagine in my wildest dreams. My all-time favourite show announced that it would be rebooted with the same main cast (minus one), a new wonderful member, and involvement of the original creators, and even started filming already in summer. Leverage is coming back. I still cannot believe it. I hoped for a movie, always. That maybe one day, they might bring the gang back together, for one last job, just one more encore. But to get a whole new tv-show with Aldis, Christian, Gina and Beth returning? With the addition of Noah Wyle? I can’t wrap my head around it. I am so excited for this. I predict that I will ugly sob through the entirety of the pilot episode, if not the first season, and will have to rewatch every episode because of it, but I have no doubt that it will be brilliant and wonderful.
True to form, I have now gone on about tv shows and movies for far too long, and haven’t really said anything about this year at all. 2020 was fucking weird. And I don’t think 2021 will be much different quite yet. I wrote an entire BA thesis in 2020. I successfully finished by Bachelor’s degree and started my Master’s studies and even got some excellent first grades in as well. I was lucky enough to be able to see some friends and family throughout the year, and even celebrate my birthday with a small circle of friends. I’ve become closer with friends, shared experiences I wouldn’t trade for the world, and, I think, maybe also grown a bit as a person.
I started this year excited to finally be able to start taking testosterone in February, and to finish the first part of my studies by summer. Although I did both of these things, they didn’t happen quite how I imagined them, but I am glad that I could do these things nevertheless.
2020 was a hell year, for sure. But there were some moments in there that I wouldn’t want to lose.
I’ve tried very hard to not be optimistic about this upcoming year, and rather take a more realistic, even pessimistic approach. But I can’t help but be hopeful. Hopeful that this year will be kind to us, and if it isn’t, that at least, we’ll be kind to ourselves and each other. It won’t be easy, and not much will change, I think. But we have to approach the coming time with kindness and compassion. That’s where I’m at currently. And I think that’s all for now.
Be well, friends, and take care.
#2020#end of year round up#personal#blog post#good omens#the good place#criminal minds#community#new girl#schitt's creek#schitts creek#jingle jangle#his dark materials#doctor who#leverage#leverage reboot#leverage 2#super mario 3d all stars#super mario sunshine#nintendo#nintendo switch#switch#super mario galaxy#super mario 64#university#david tennant#david tennant does a podcast with#animal crossing#animal crossing new horizons#acnh
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