*seeing 80 warships coming to destroy a whole nation*: you gotta be kidding me....

Tell me all about LOST all I know is from Dane Cook

that is. such a funny sentence

aw shucks, its tempting, but i don't wanna give ya spoilers. and there are truly things in lost that must be experienced by your own flesh

...yes im aware of what my blog is like

so i guess i'll give a vague spoiler free overview

so. a group of plane crash survivors find themselves on a mysterious island and have to deal with the strange happenings + their weight of their individual traumas

the show is serialized and one ep more or less flows into another, so literally no ep can be skipped (no matter what anybody says) or else you'll miss something

its a large ensemble cast, ranging from the 13 to 20s range, all in all i think theres like 35 main characters

the show follows a flashback structure, each episode dedicated itself to a main plot on the island intercut with flashbacks to one character. we call these centric episodes. eg. this is a jack centric episode. sometimes an ep will have multiple characters have flashbacks in one ep. while this show didn't originate the concept of a large cast or flashback storytelling, it did popularize it in the early 2000s. so a lot of post 2004 shows wanted to be lost so bad and it shows

at first lost was a survival show but they gloss over this very quickly and its more about the weird shit going on. as time goes on, plots and mysteries stack up. this is to create intrigue, as the shows main focus is an endless parade of character studies. with the added bonus of some cool and twisty shit going on too

but because lost had so much plot, over time it got accused of being confusing and convoluted and Not Answering Questions and well. your mileage may vary. but i think its confusing if you watch it too slowly. like, it aired over a 6 year period, no wonder people got confused. its better to watch nowadays, way easier to handle

the genre of lost is: drama mystery action paranormal sci fi romance with a dash of comedy. lost is full of the saddest fucks you'll ever meet but the show contains enough levity and great colouring to make it not a huge misery fest

pretty decent racial diversity. next to no LGBT rep. more women than the average tv show. then and now

the score FUCKS

not a single bad actor in this entire show, the performances on display are fucking outstanding. and every emotion is like up to 11, which is great for my autistic brain

for those of you who find sex scenes to be tedious, i have a bit of trivia for ya: all sex in LOST happens off screen. not a single sex scene to be found. pre sex, yes, post sex, yes. making out, yes. but sex itself? footage not found. i'm neutral on the concept, i just thought that was something to point out

i highly recommend lost to, like, anybody. ever. its a masterpiece of television. even the low points are better than most shows. sometimes i take lost for granted and then i watch any other drama series and im like "oh right, lost is incredibly good"

its my third favourite show. and thats only cuz star trek and doctor who exist, and nobody is beating those fuckers

anyways do you like to see beautiful people cry and scream but it isn't cringe?* well, i've got a show for you! *okay there is some cringe. as a treat. the leading man of this show has the social grace of a cold pancake (affectionate)

thank you for your time

No bc Mike getting vecna'd is such a good idea if byler endgame is the goal. Like his regret/shame would be the fact that he can't say ily to his gf and the fact that he's in love w his best friend but repressing it. Then will could confess and this would remove some of that shame thus possibly saving him?? Cause people saying will gets cursed has me wondering what his regret would be (other than his love for Mike, which he seems to be relatively accepting of, whereas Mike (if he is in love w will) is repressing it much more and prob thinks it will hurt el whom he really cares about)

(this got a bit longer than i first wanted, but i have too many delusional theories 💖)

exactly, i see this more even as a great tool for their respective character developments than even for the ship itself, but ofc that would be best outcome if this all happened.

in my opinion if will gets vecna'd it would just be too similar to what hes already been through before, it would be unnecessary repeating. what we need is to see will have some connection to the upside down, that will help by the end to defeat vecna or whoever else in s5.

meanwhile it would be much more interesting to see this with mike. bc overall its a bit more difficult to see what hes really thinking, if we only see the surface level emotions.

first, he cares about all his friends beyond anything. and while will and el and max went through such trauma that was very visible, (and theyre still dealing with that, we still dont know much how mike is dealing with anything.

we only see how he changes depending on whos around him and how they interact together (dustin and lucas, eddie, will, el, his family - i feel he acts very different around each of them)

In season one his best friend went missing, was pressumed dead and had a funeral - mike thought, even for a while, he lost him permanently.

In that time el appeared and was helping find will, his friends suddenly think he likes her more than a friend (its whats normal, right? Ofc he should like her before he even knows himself...)

He fights with lucas about el in s1, and one of the things he said (i cant remember exactly now) is how he feels guilty they fought about it, "if only he could have said something more, something better, its my fault"

i think he said something similar in different situations during the first three seasons, and then in s4, when hes opening up to will about this, he tells him similar thing twice "if only i explained myself better, i should have said something more to el, do something better"

from that i get the feeling hes always trying to do not just the best he can, but whats expected of him. and when he finds he doesnt have the power to stop something, or physically cannot make himself say something thats probably not true, he blames himself afterwards.

S3 is such rollercoaster for him, hes with el but cant be with el bc hopper, and then cant say what he feels - or maybe he doesnt know whats hes supposed to feel. And then el and will are leaving. Two of his most important friends, and i think thats what made him all the more confused, bc what if he misses will more than el?

Why did the promise of will wanting only play d&d with mike made him smile so much, but then the kiss with el made him all the more confused?

theres two such contrasts in his personality, where one of his main beliefs is "friends dont lie" and he does as much as he can with honestly, but at the same time he pushes something inside him down and pretends it doesnt exist (his complicated feelings towards.. romance, lets say).

Back to the vecna theory - this is why i think if mike gets vecna'd it would add more perspective to his character and for us to see what all hes been going through in the past seasons.

Same as his feelings towards will, its been there building from s1.

It could be few flashbacks and memories telling the audience the scenes that already happened from mike's point of view, how he struggles at home,

how he regretted the words he said to will in s3 (its not my fault you dont like girls), bc it was more directed at himself than will, but he didnt realize that yet.

how finding eddie and playing in d&d club could mean hes slowly finding himself (and with d&d being like a connection will again, bc its something they both loved playing together).

And how all of this is so confusing, especially for their time in the 80s, and hes still trying his best, but slowly, more and more cant ignore that his heart wants something (someone) else than hes supposed to be with.

Its just all these things that will go either unnoticed and unmentioned in the series, which i think would be a shame, or it could be addressed in the way with vecna who would manipulate his fears and nightmares, and if others can save him (which im sure they would), he could start process it in a better way, more honest to himself as well to others. To accept himself, and by that also will's feelings (if he noticed those, which i dont think he did, i think will noticed mike's confused ones, if anything.)

ok im very much in A Mood rn, so im gonna put what i hope will happen/think might happen in s3 under the cut just so if they happen i can point them out and say i told u so (spoilers from set photos/videos under cut)

ok so first off is dead klaus, weve got little girl on bike confirmed for two episodes already, a cemetary scene, and a title that is german for 'goodbye for now' so like...... obv its gonna happen. ive been thinking (even before the cryptic dirt comment on twitter) that the sibs are gonna have a sad/emotional funeral-ish thing for him maybe thats what sad allison storyboard is from), bury him and hes gonna have to dig himself back out. maybe he gets stuck in afterlife for longer because hes actively trying to not go back/see dave or brelly ben/smthn like that. oh also hes dying in a prev episode as well, because in my opinion the leaked set scene of the bikers carrying a body to a dumpster, dumping the body, and leaving all while klaus in green is watching is klaus "astral projecting" (when hes doing it in the comics hes highlighted in green) while his body is dumped. (maybe someone else is possessing him because his stunt double is moving while green klaus is still standing there???)

most sparrows dying, tho i hope fei and sloane live cus i think theyre neat so far. ben will probably live too, might be convinced to join with the brellies going into season 4??? that would make an interesting dynamic for sure.

lila time shenanigans before meeting back up with brellies. maybe lots of character development while away, even if it only takes a short time to the brellies. could be the episode opening flashback possibly. maybe shes seeking out the other 43 kids??

flashbacks to everyone else's birth whether this means the sparrows or umbrellas i just wanna see more miraculous births.) there is a woman cast as 'screaming woman on subway' and in the comics the miraculous births were shown by a baby being born on the subway. shes def ben's mom, i would like a smash cut of all the rest of the brellies being born intercepted with that, but more likely that scene is gonna be the opening to episode 1 of s3, to parallel s1's opening with vanya's mom. altho there was a berlin wall set leaked while shooting, which could be a flashback to 80s germany for a klaus birth 👀 (or luther but id prefer klaus lmao)

i would LOVE to see the brellies alternate selves, tho im not sure its that likely to happen lmao.

mothers of agony plotline, though i think the FULL full plotline of it might be a bit too dark for the show....... they might pare that back a bit cus forced possession prostitu/tion for klaus is a bit much to show on screen imo. tbh 'auf wiedersehen' could also be a line in show when klaus leaves the bikers to die out in the desert?? idk that would be fun, but i do think its a reference to dead klaus (probably from od like in the comics with the mothers of agony plotline)

hotel oblivion is DEF happening, though to what extent is a mystery. cars with the logo were seen on set, as well as filing outside of a hotel with a bellhop. im hoping its very trippy with horror elements, and also have some easter eggs with villians from the comics.

also just to get it out of the way heres what im 99.99% sure the sparrows powers are: marcus-invincibility, we got a muscle emoji as a hint, but they wouldnt make two characters have the same power; fei- can turn into/see through flock of birds, pretty much her comic power, though idk if they go full on 'change into flock of birds' like in the comics; alphonso- human voodoo doll, whatever injury he inflicts on himself he can push onto someone else, same as fei its just his comic power, but the scarification def suggests theyre following the comics on that front; sloane- could be flying/levitating/making other things/people levitate or fly too. she feels 'tied down' so flight is probable; jayme- i think she inhereted the 'emits a powerful beam from face' from the comics tbh. her 'fear-inducing snarl' sounds similar enough for me lol; christopher- we were basically already told his powers: lower the temperature and make people scared lmao.

im hoping so dearly we get some good good gender talk from vanya (and klaus preferrably but probably not). just want some honest gender talk from elliot in the show lmao. would love to see a nonbinary/trans vanya

DAVE we need dave okay. i saw someone mention a hardware store seen on set (which i havent seen??? if anyone has pics i would love to see) which could DEF mean old dave which i will not be able to handle in the best angstiest way. give me all the 'right person always the wrong time' for klave (but also please end with them together)

and finally, as a reward for reading this far, a playlist i made of songs i want in season 3

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4hmjlayoZhfjU8lG1Ma1k5?si=3c2dd7aa4bc342fa

alright anyway. chucky tv series thoughts mostly about episodes 5-8 now. this is all over the place and long please bare with me. also spoilers if you give a shit

the writing + characterization + pacing + etc all took a massive nosedive after the first 4 eps. which is a shame because we dont get to see tiffany, nica, andy, OR kyle until the second half of the show; theyre just very briefly referenced aside from andys phone call at the beginning where we dont get to see him. i feel like the parents especially are written SO inconsistently, switching from supportive to downright hostile to their children at a moments notice (or vice versa) depending on whats needed for the episode plot.

lexy is built up as this incredibly cruel girl who thinks its funny to dress up as jake’s dead father and reenact his death in front of a crowd of people (including jake himself), and after ONE episode all the bite is drained out of her and she’s just this generic nice girl who’s our third protagonist. which id be FINE with- shes only 14, character growth and arcs are a thing, i dont mind her becoming a better person at all- but aside from characters occasionally referencing the fact that she used to be an asshole theres no trace of her old personality for the rest of the show.

and tiffany- god, tiffany feels like she’s just a caricature of herself at this point. theres traces of her actual personality here and there but for the most part she’s this inconsistent mess of emotional moodswings, changing depending on what the scene needs

the 5th episode is the worst episode i think just because its so much filler and exposition and flashbacks to the films and shit the audience Should Already Know. 5+6 both have so many unnecessary expository flashbacks to the movies to remind the audience of the films and i cannot for the life of me figure out why. “for newer fans” ok but each episode starts with a “previously on” segment where they could easily shoehorn in a few little clips from the movies and some expository voiceover, which they DO in the 6th episode’s “previously on” segment? rendering it completely unnecessary to force that shit into the actual episode?

the majority of episode 5 is 1: the kids “killing” chucky, unaware he can split his soul into other dolls, and thinking theyve won until whoops! he killed again! this is somehow framed like its a shock to the audience! and 2: us finally meeting nica again and her explaining Her Whole Backstory to a man that chucky+tiffany have held captive instead of Freeing Him From The Ropes Tying Him To A Chair until its too late to save him. so much of this episode felt like expository shit that the audience should already know that i was genuinely surprised when the credits started rolling, i thought that was all setup for the ACTUAL plot of the episode. but no

speaking of nica she is the most heartbreaking character in this entire series for me because i feel like this franchise just fucking hates her. or it loves to make her suffer. part of why i dislike cult of chucky so much is because its so cruelly mean spirited to her in ways that genuinely arent fun to watch- shes this disabled woman who was institutionalized for a crime she didnt commit but is gaslit into believing she’s psychotic and murdered her whole family, by her doctor who is actively sexually abusing her. shes not able to take revenge herself and instead her body is possessed by chucky (which immediately erases her disability, because i guess thats how souls work now) who kills her abuser for her and then proceeds to use her body for his own gain, including in his relationship with tiffany (which, nica cant exactly consent to her body being used like THAT, either)

and then she finally shows up in this show and shes terrified for her fucking life and her body is intermittently possessed and tiffany spares her life but only because tiffany is attracted to HER, too, and wants to have a relationship with HER that nica doesnt want, so tiffany kidnaps her and keeps her tied up and gagged and eventually at the very end of the final episode amputates all her fucking limbs so nica cant escape from her and chucky wont have any use for her body anymore. WHICH. much to be said about disability in horror and disability-as-torture and the like but just, holy SHIT, why do you hate this girl SO much. how is this supposed to be fun to watch?

speaking of girls returning from previous films, while im glad to see kyle again outside of a short endcredits cameo the show doesnt really do much with her- the scenes of her with andy are nice, but then he abandons her suddenly (despite her hunting chucky with him for a while now and them Actively Confronting Many Versions Of Chucky together before this point) and goes on ahead solo; she finds her own way to hackensack, has a handful more scenes, and then triggers an explosion and thats the last we see of her. she’s mentioned one more time after that and not even by andy.

and YES, both devon and andy were suspected of dying in that same explosion and are later revealed to be alive, but we dont get that reveal for kyle, and im not sure if that means im genuinely supposed to believe shes dead now?

anyway. i have to talk about the chucky series gender + sexuality address now. theres at least two instances in the show that outright state that chucky is bisexual- him in nica’s body calling the guy he + tiffany kidnapped (and made watch him+tiffany make out) “kinda yummy”, and tiffany commenting on chucky getting dick while he’s in nica’s body. i am despondent and i want to curl up on the floor and die over this new reality i am forced to live in where chucky the killer doll is canonically bisexual. hes still v much homophobic though

tiffany being bi was just obvious ofc. really wish the show didnt have her Fucking Amputate All Of Nica’s Limbs Because She’s Into Nica, though

i outright refuse to think of chucky as anything but a cis man you can put a knife to my fucking throat and i will not accept him having Gender Shit going on just because hes in a woman’s body for a good chunk of the time. you cant make me. i have limits. i have fucking dignity. glen(da) though, i will point out- is brought up a grand total of TWICE in this entire show. once in the “gendaflooid” bit, obviously; and once in the last episode where tiffany very offhandedly mentions glenda and refers to them w/ they pronouns. they make no onscreen appearance, which does NOT solve my most pressing question: “if this show is actually taking ALL the events of ALL the childs play movies as canon, then what the fuck is going on with glen(da)?” because at the end of seed of chucky, glen(da) is revealed to be two souls in one, which is the reason for their gender confusion- and which is NOT GENDERFLUIDITY- and theyre split into two separate bodies, one boy and one girl. but chucky refers to them in this show as genderfluid and only mentions having ONE kid, which would imply that glen(da) is still in one body and is one soul. so what the fuck. anyway. all these complaints aside.this show does have its fun moments, its hard to dislike any scene where chucky is toy storying around or getting tossed around like a ragdoll, chucky himself is usually fun to watch because hes just So Good at being the Absolute Worst, theres some scenes that are really genuinely funny (maybe not always for the reasons intended), the main kids are alright and the acting is usually fine (the material they have to work with, less so sometimes), i have no complaints about the effects, its visually more appealing than several of the movies... im glad i saw it. i absolutely am not watching it again any time soon, at all. i curse the fact that theres a season 2. ... also according to a gravestone this is set in 2021 but theres no mention of a pandemic (despite this being filmed in 2021), and also in episode 5 nica says that its been two weeks since chucky possessed her, which i assumed was just her hearing november 8th but not the year and thinking "oh it must be november 2017" or whenever the hell she was possessed by chucky, but thinking on it now im not actually sure because theres later a mention of andy getting broken out of the institution "a month ago", and im assuming kyle didnt leave him there to rot for like 4 years, so what the fuck?

danny phantom, season 3 episodes 3-6 thoughts!

see prev episode thoughts in this tag <3

-johnny was actually pretty civil with danny and left when he asked! thats nice. also, SKULKER?? HAD A FRAMED PICTURE OF EMBER?? oooo fuck wait had they established they were a Thing Before?? I dont think so. thats weird. its like that country boy/goth girl meme lmfao. I think i am going to choose to ignore this new info and pretend I didnt hear it. 100% unrelated to the jazz/ember fanart I already drew and posted....😳

-LADIES NIGHT EPISODE THIS IS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT. wish it didnt really center around the guys or them being pissed at them, but. willing to bet this was written by men lol

-THEY ERASED ALL THE MEN??? meanwhile, jack and danny are fishing at. silent hill or something. im glad jack is trying to read a parenting book and making an Attempt. (theyre at lake erie, but, they made it actually eerie...thats fun)

-the girls alt outfits...cute. EMBER MADE A NEW SONG TOO!!! kinda. jazz being one of the backup singers and being AWFUL. NOOOO

-'how are we going to get kitty to blow a kiss?' 'she'll have to think there are still some males in town!' ...i dont know how to break it to you, but I dont know that a 100% het girl would wish for all men to Begone. I think. I mean im not a het or a girl so I dont really know for sure. she Is probably Bi tho. esp having the other ladies in town chanting NO MEN!!! excitedly............(then again, the kiss is to get Rid of men, so, she probably would have blown it at the ladies only if they were actively trying to attack/stop them, so...I MEAN. THE DRESSING LIKE DANNY BIT WAS SO EXTRA)

-I feel like an all female cast ep couldve been way way way way cooler than that was. like. why was it still somehow all about Men. ...anyway. (where was valerie...)

-next ep opens with the observants, and, way way more of them than I expected...existed? I mean I guess them being a council/jury of some kind is what I expected from their first appearance (bc at that time they were basically TELLING clockwork to kill danny, not asking,, so I figured they had SOME kind of authority) but. there were so many. anyway, here goes vlad! letting his own hubris go brrrr. releasing a weather ghost for political gain! #justvladthings

-okay say what you will about him (he IS an asshole) but having an umbrella with his own face on it and more prepared to share is SUPER FUNNY. and him being fanned by huge wads of money by his bodyguards. SO ineffective but so Dramatic. He UNDERSTANDS that if youre rich you need to be. you know. obnoxious and kinda eccentric about it! fuckign hate when rich people are boring about it. I would trust vlad with nothing except to not be a boring rich asshole who wears...fucking khaki or some shit. man knows his Presentation Skills. and that 'V' chair in his mayoral office. is that fucking embroidered?

-maddie get your MAN PLEEEEASSSE. IM SO EMBARRASSED FOR HER. the way jack stays simping for this man. in FRONT OF HIS WIFE!!!! ...my god its like a love triangle. jack clearly loves vlad, who loves maddie, who loves jack. jack fenton is at the very least bi, right................. this is an OBSESSION . 'THE V MAN COMETH'???? i...my god. (also, on a serious note, to have a friend THIS SUPPORTIVE...and still be SUCH A DICK TO HIM (TRYING TO KILL HIM AND STEAL HIS WIFE??) NOT COOL VLAD. JACK IS YOUR 1 AND /ONLY/ HYPE MAN. if someone loved and supported me THIS HARD...LIKE. CMON DUDE.

-STOMP the fucking GAS, JACK

-this would make a great shirt design, looks like a metal band design! we love The Maelstrom

-oh, so vlad did in fact get a mansion in amity park. and its purple! good color choice! not as flashy as a CASTLE or MURDER CABIN, but still pretty eccentric, which I appreciate.

-...vlad knows the difference between picasso and da vinci? in the ep last post where we were watching him fail at conquering every historical time ever he didnt seem to know history well enough to like. be effective...was vlad taking art history at college?? (was he an art MAJOR??? we never DID KNOW WHAT HE WENT TO SCHOOL FOR. I kinda assumed business because in the masters of time ep he was still rich without ghost powers so he had to have..known something about business or something, right...but also, art and or theater FITS HIS PERSONALITY. possibly also something science-y, I guess, but I always felt like he got roped into that, esp how pessimistic he was about the ghost portal in the flashbacks to college, like, i felt like he was just there for maddie and was uninterested/un-invested at the time...)

-THIS GHOST JUST ELECTROCUTED MADDIE (THE CAT) BITCH!! THATS MY FAVORITE MADDIE!!! vlad going after vortex and being ~shocked~ .....WHEN. WHEN WILL YOU LEARN. THAT YOUR ACTIONS. HAVE CONSEQUENCES!!!

-the way this random man with a camera sees the mayor laying in an alley covered in TRASH AND DECIDES TO TAKE A PICTURE HAHAH

*snap* this ones going in my cringe compilation!

-vlad 'if we're going to defeat vortex, we're going to have to do it together!' *immediately dips after dropping danny off in front of vortex* JKASDFHKJHJKN

-DANNY CAN DUPLICATE!!! ...he couldnt even attack with it, but he DID IT!!! INTO (4) OF HIMSELF!!! SO PROUD!!!!!!!!!!

-'THE ROLLER COASTER EMOTIONS OF A TEENAGER THREATEN MY PLANS!' ...0 self awareness of his own dramatic moodiness. incredible, how dumb this man is. its very close to circling around to endearing, if he was less of an asshole. at least its very very funny to see danny shooting him with tiny lightning bolts anytime he's even slightly irritated! vlad you should be nice to danny anyway. this is what you GET

-...making sandwiches and ice cream and playing video games with your nephew is a totally normal thing. WHY is vlad acting like this is the end of the world. if you were a GOOD UNCLE YOU WOULD ALREADY BE DOING THESE THINGS!!! bitch I make my nephew food all the time and dont forget what he does and doesnt like. if u didnt know danny didnt want tomatoes, thats on u. if u, a grown adult, are gonna piss of the 14 yr old by not letting him win, u deserve to have to pay for the arcade machines he ruins because he now has uncontrollable storm powers because YOU THREW HIM INTO A FIGHT WITH THE STORM GHOST. fuck u vlad. paypal me $400,000 while ur at it tho. (also, gamer vlad confirmed)

-VLAD CAN COOK THOUGH???! I assumed he had...people working for him that did that. I mean. billionaires usually dont do that. then again, we've only seen those vultures working for him (and I guess the dairy king was AT his old mansion, but it was never really clarified if he worked there...I think he probably just Hung Out and they Enjoyed Cheeses Together. thats what I think, I dont think a KING would be working for anyone and also the dairy king was nice <3) but then again he would be a private person and we cant have anyone accidentally finding Ghostly Things, so...still, that's hilarious. pour one out for that really cute banana split that got ruined 2 seconds later

-vlad just fucking picking danny up and THROWING HIM AT VORTEX TWICE WITHIN LIKE A MINUTE. JUST ABSOLUTELY LAUNCHING HIM. BITCH THATS MY SON BE CAREFUL!!! HES GOT ORGANS AND THINGS!!!!

-danny seeing those animal commercials and feeling sad is the biggest 2000s throwback so far. i legitimately had to change the channel or walk out of the room when those came on bc id CRY AND BE SAD ABOUT THEM FOR DAYS AFTER. fuck those commercials and fuck that IN THE ARMMMS OF AN ANGELLLL song 😭

-'vlads ego almost got the town destroyed!' yes danny thats the entire episode. the entire series anytime vlad shows up honestly. this episode was just him being really embarrassing the entire time, and, me laughing about it. 10/10 would laugh at him again

-NEXT EP WE HAVE A SHAPESHIFTING GHOST?? I've said it before but shapeshifting is the power I would want when asked those 'what superpower do you want' questions...its the Best power! this guy looks like a homestuck character. ive never read homestuck but thats the vibe

-I love every time we see tuckers family, they are by far the most functional family. and dash has a lil chihuahua!!! named pookie!!! i am crying (I've had 3 chihuahuas, so I am very biased, but...) AND HE WATCHES THE ROMANCE CHANNEL WITH POOKIE. POOKIE I WILL DIE FOR YOU YOU SWEET LITTLE BABY.

-danny can lift a bus! I shouldn't be surprised, but i am proud of my son. hes got lil kid fans. i am going to cry about this

-JAZZ KEEPS A SCRAPBOOK WITH DANNY'S LIL HEROICS AND NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS!!! we've actually seen it on her floor before, but I didnt realize it was a scrapbook!! thats sooo cute.

-...and danny has to stand there listening to his parents saying danny phantom sucks and is a 'filthy ghost' and calling him egotistical...i am once again stealing their kids!

-THIS GHOST RIPPING JAZZ'S SCRAPBOOK!!! ILL KILL YOU. SHE WORKED HARD ON THAT!!! BITCH

-yes, maddie, the one with red eyes is For Sure Actually Your Son. ignore the, red eyes... (CLEARLY she hasnt watched the other 2 eps where danny has been evil, she doesnt know red eyes= evil!!!)

-'billy fenton'.......................

-danny being stuck as phantom in his own house, no way out is a fucking NIGHTMARE. his parents pointing giant weapons against him and SHOOTING AT HIM. THIS IS A HORROR MOVIE.

-NINE INCH NAILS POSTER.

-this is the most screenshot of all time

-amorpho turning into mr. lancer because hes 'someone no one will want to be around' BUT HES WRONG, I WOULD BEFRIEND AND HANG OUT WITH MR LANCER SO FAST.

-tucker dressing as danny, now I have the full Tucker set of him being sam and also being danny. also saying 'the ghost...uh...RIPPED MY FACE OFF.' and then running. SMOOTH. NOT AT ALL CONCERNING TO ANY PARENTS.

-sam accepts the toast from jack. and then 2 seconds later is like 'why am i eating this.' THIS SHOWS HUMOR IS SO UNEXPECTED SOMETIMES ITS REALLY GOOD. and then the scene after, mr lancer running into his ghost doppelganger and being like 'YOURE GORGOUS' THEN FAINTING. I AM CRYING. AND DASH FAINTING TOO.

-sam disguising herself as danny again to help tucker run from the fentons. but leaving him shirtless in the streets. incredible. 'plEASE DOnt NOTice MY FACELessNESS I MUST LIVE IN EXILE' this episode is destroying me the humor in this show is exactly my brand of corny and cheesy

-the impromtu story made up by danny and amorpho to explain stuff to the fentons. my god they are both such bad liars. but amorpho is a good egg. wish danny wouldnt have said he didnt wanna see him in town again!! I want him to be reoccurring. not that thats gonna matter since I'm almost done with the series, but the idea of this being the Only Time We See him is :(

-NEXT EP SAYS STARRING MARK HAMILL??????!!! hello ! mr . joker....mr. star wars.... I feel like I should be. idk. taking off a hat im not wearing in respect. I shouldnt be surprised tho bc hes in a lot of cartoons as a very good voice actor, and dp has already had a lot of talented ones so I've been looking out for ones I might know, but....mr. hamill....

-sam has her own greenhouse, names all the plants, and says thank you to them (in the languages from where the plants are from) whenever she harvests from them. thats SO cute. and her lil gothy lunch box...

-and danny's lil red fuzzy lined jacket!!! ive said it before but every time the characters get alt outfits im like :D

-danny has ice powers now!!! THATS WHAT FROSTBITE MEANT. HE KNEW SOMEHOW WAY BACK THEN

-THIS SHOW NEVER LETS YOU FORGET VLAD IS A BILLIONAIRE, HUH.

-danny's lil 'holy hibiscus!' first off the 50s batman swearing is hilarious. 2nd. my username is from the flower sanchoyo hibiscus, so, shoutout to ME this ep. hi :)

-EURGH UNDERGROWTH MAKING EVERYONE PLANT ZOMBIES. HIVEMIND PLOTS SCARE THE SHIT OUT OF ME. and this dude made the city SO overtaken so quickly like how long was danny asleep?? oh god

-evil fucked up sam! now the whole trio has gone evil at some point! the voice actress did a really, really good job with making her sound like a zombie...

-frostbite's paws are so so so big compared to danny. oh my god. i want to hug the snow dog...

-the far frozen has an advanced medical stuff!!! very cool. very smart snow dogs

-im so glad danny has a friendly ghost snow dad to explain this new power and teach him!!! this is so sweet. DANNY'S GHOST SENSE WAS A PART OF HIS ICE POWER?? OOOH. COOL. we love a training montage!!!

-danny saying if he cant defeat overgrowth, that he'd want to stay with frostbite...oh my god...do you think this is the first real supportive adult figure in his life (I am NOT counting his parents because they threaten him on the daily even if they dont realize it.) I mean mr lancer is a Teacher, but he was also nice but this is different, but this is a GHOST WHO IS WILLING TO HELP HIM with his powers and also will help him when hes injured and is so so nice and comparatively so much more mature than 90% of the adults in this show!!!! god. dad frostbite is my everything.

-the framing and lighting this episode, and all the angles...they went all OUT and it looks really really good. this is my nightmare scenario, tho. like, FUCK zombies and dead city zones and hivemind shit. and using the humans as 'nutrients for the children' i am going to THROW UP.

-MALEFICENT VIBES WITH THE HORNS AND GREEN EYES! this costume kicks so much ass. sam is now mark hamills daughter, I guess.

-danny's ice powers making his eyes blue!!! thats neat. and him going for the roots underground was SO SMART. i will not stand for danny ever thinking hes stupid, hes SO smart.

almost done with the show... :"( thats a sad thought!!!

I just read your crosshair post and I agree with everything you said BUT…

Let me put on my own tin foil hat for a sec and talk about….

The burn mark thats supposed to cover the chip removal scar. Doesn’t it seem to be in a slightly odd position? Every other clone has it straight above the angle of their jaw/before the ear. I get that the burn was “placed” on that side of his head by writers for suspense and so it wouldn’t be apparent that his chip is out(thus showing Hunter checking it). But is the message here “oh he has this burn that’s close enough”? Also the scene where he was getting blasted by that engine could have easily scarred his face or at least affect the area closer to his face. I expected it to be over the temple too. But no it’s only that spot. (Now I know people will say “it’s Disney cartoon” so the scarring is minimal due to that)

Then it just kinda surprised me to hear brad Rau go “oh yeah, chip is definitely out, have you seen the side of that guys’d head? Lol” Followed by Jen’s “the eagle-eyes fans would notice all along”. Because now I feel like a clown for thinking I WAS being eagle-eyed and NOTICED that it was in the wrong place to really hide the chip scar. And if I’m correct to assume she meant that it was after Bracca that makes crosshair’s line “a long time ago” even weirder since there is no way Bracca happened that long ago.

And what was the point in showing Hunter checking the burn mark? We don’t really see his reaction. We don’t ever see him commenting on it later. It seemed like a big deal to him given how shocked he looked and how insistent he was on knowing when exactly was it removed. (“Does it matter?” “YES!”). And then he suddenly doesn’t care and never brought it up again. Even when they got to a relatively safe location or back to their ship.

I don’t think it’s a good sign that we have to rely on an interview to be sure about such an important plot point. I would be disappointed if this matter won’t be addressed at least in some way next season.

We’re all just passing the tin hat back and forth at this point. This is fine and we're handling the hiatus beautifully lol

But YES to all of that. Every detail here has two (or more) possible readings attached to it, which makes it impossible to figure out what we’re meant to be prioritizing. So, to summarize:

Yeah, despite my own claim that the burn scar is “exactly” where the chip scar would be, there is a slight difference. Is that a significant difference then, or just down to the animators not mapping Crosshair's design down to the inch?

Is the burn mark (almost) precisely where the chip would be to show that there’s a chance it’s still there (you can’t see the surgery scar), or to show that enough damage happened there to make the chip’s removal inevitable?

Yet "enough damage happened there to make the chip's removal inevitable" is a pretty big assumption that the show never set up. So are we meant to view the untold number of clones who suffered other head injuries throughout TCW as evidence that the chip must still be there—after all, they weren’t de-chipped due to head trauma, burns, etc.—or are we supposed to ignore that because #Disney cartoon, not everything is gonna have such long-term consistency?

Is the placement of the burn deliberate and the lack of any other facial scaring suspicious, or (again) is that just because #Disney cartoon doesn’t want to disfigure his whole face?

Is the scene where Crosshair has his chip enhanced another clue—the chip appears to be a bit higher up than others’ in his scan—or just an animation inconsistency?

Was enhancing the chip important, or just used for the drama of that particular scene?

Does Hunter think that the burn is somehow evidence of the chip’s removal, or is he just taking Crosshair at his word?

Is Crosshair’s lack of clarification meant to read as him being evil—he doesn’t care what was the Empire and what was him—or another hint that something else is going on?

Finally, most fans agree that, if the chip is out, it had to have happened after Bracca so… yeah, how is that “a long time ago”? Is that line meant to imply that Crosshair has been misled (perhaps with the Empire lying to him, claiming his chip was removed before the season even began), or are we supposed to believe that a significant amount of time has truly passed (making TBB’s lack of a rescue even worse in my eyes…) Even other evidence we might point to is pretty useless. “Well, it could be a long time because there was enough time for him to heal from those burns.” But is that because time actually passed, or did the Empire us SW’s super science fiction magic to heal him up quick? Idk the canonical time it normally takes burns like that to heal with bacta and I doubt that's consistent across the lore either. But regardless, the SF aspect means that a healed face isn't good evidence for a lot of time passing, like it might be in another genre. For all we know, Crosshair was healed in a few days.

So yeah, what in the world are we meant to make of all this? It’s too ambiguous, too confusing, and each answer—chip or no chip—comes with apparent contradictions. None of that reflects the certainty seen in the interviews. In order to reward “eagle-eyed” viewers, you need to be on top of all those details, both in terms of the writing and the animation. Yet it doesn't appear like the writers were. With all of this combined with the confusion I mentioned in another post regarding side-character clones overcoming their chips with ease… I don’t think this is a good sign either. I love TBB and had a blast watching it, but this particular aspect feels like it could unravel into a tangled, contradictory mess very quickly. The sort of situation where many in the fandom will accept the plot and argue strongly that here, Crosshair's canonical chip situation is supported by X, Y, and Z. Whereas others will point out that yeah, that’s true, but it’s also not supported by A, B, and C. Even if we’re willing to ignore those moments of confusion and disjointedness, it’s a big letdown to feel like you’re following along with what the show’s hinting at… only for the show to turn around and go, “Lol nah. None of that was important.” Shows with twists and reveals—which TBB very much is at this point—are built on the fandom’s investment in the details. If you don’t treat those details carefully, the fandom will quickly begin to resent the expectation that you be invested in the mystery... but not so invested that you "read into things."

Intense flashbacks to the later seasons of Sherlock.

BUT right now for me the larger issue is that even if we don't care about these details, the rest of TBB absolutely should. The fact that Hunter doesn't question what's up with the burn, Tech isn't interested in trying a scan, Wrecker's experience under the chip has no impact on how he approaches this, Omega seems to accept that this is the "real" Crosshair, and Echo doesn't push to rescue him like they did for Gregor... all of that is at the emotional heart of the show and arguably more important than getting a perfect resolution to these chip questions. Obviously I'd prefer to get both, but if we can only have one, I'd prioritize tackling the group's reaction to these events, rather than trying to smooth over every potential inconsistency revolving around the chip. Ultimately, I'm more interested in the show explaining why four brothers and a sister didn't fight for Crosshair when, as far as they knew up until he said otherwise, he was a prisoner of the Empire just like everyone else they helped was.

The reaction was really interesting. I agreed with a lot of Bright’s point and it was nice to see a different perspective. I really wish they had showed it in the show. You can tell Bright is really attached to Sarawat and it hurts his heart to see the pain. It also showed me that the finale could have been loads better with a few cute scenes and a proper discussion. This is what Bright was talking about. At the end of the day it was the lack of communication.

Ahh I loved that reaction video and I loved seeing Bright talking about Sarawat’s point of view. I’m sure one of the reasons they bought him was the amount of shit he was getting from some people. This however also showed me what the show lacked. Though I loved 2gether.. most of the time we saw things were Tine’s perspective. It would have really been good to see it from Sarawat’s perspective in the last episode. You can also see Bright’s frustration at times with how they portrayed Sarawat.

I assume you watching the reaction video atm! Let me say this boy gives me heart attacks like how thoughtful he is and wants to explain sarawat’s every move since episode 12 and why he acted the way he acted. I felt like he kept it inside for so long that it needed to be spoken out like when he wanted to see a reaction from P’Jennie how he looked away and then right back at her. He was so stressed and on the edge the whole time! How he repeatedly said he’s sorry for Sarawat cause he knows that everyone was sorry for Tine but didn’t get to see/understand his side of version. He also zoned out in a couple of scenes like this boy has sooo many emotions and it feels it’s too overwhelming for him(I feel that at least). I’m so grateful that Bright exists and talk about loving a man and to feel love so freely!! He could’ve said so much in the end but instead it was more like an apology for hurting Tine and how his character works. He understands Sarawat so much. I’ll cry. I didn’t thought my opinion would be that long... he’s speaking so enthusiastically about Sarawat and what his character taught him. This boy is really a blessing for the 2gether + lgbt+ community I love him he’s a child like a babie :((

Bright just wants to smooch his co-star but the universe won’t let him.

hiii anons!!! i’m gonna combine all of your asks into one bc we’re all essentially talking about the same thing.

yeah. so. the ep 13 reaction video. lets talk about it.

firstly, i ... it will never cease to astound me just how much bright loves sarawat? he knows him with every fibre of himself. he knows sarawat right down to the tendon and bone of him. like. bright’s taken so much time out to character study sarawat, get into his psyche and mind and heart. and. i hate novel! sarawat, but, bright’s taken that character, and made it his own, completely transforming him. and that takes so much understanding and commitment and passion. truly, we don’t deserve bright. we really don’t. and i am so thankful we got bright to play sarawat. no body else could have done sarawat better than bright. so much so that like .... they both overlap, bright and sarawat. sometimes its hard to distinguish where sarawat ends and bright begins.

and like some of yall said, i think it was a very clever ... move (?) ... to star bright to react to ep 13, solo, without win. bc, like yall mentioned, and like im gonna dwell on now: 2gether was entirely from tine’s perspective. it reminds me a bit of skam, in that way, that ... ya know even tho i’ve watched skam and i should KNOW this, but i still forget just how POWERFUL perspectives are. and how much they influence your way of thinking. i touched upon this after ep 12, but now after watching bright react to the whole of ep 13, like, it comes back to that. we saw everything through tine’s eyes. and so, it felt like, sarawat’s side needed to be justified. but it could never be done on the show bc the show was about tine’s perspective. and the only way it could have been done, is if they both would have talked.

which brings me onto my next point, that bright mentions - the biggest barrier and fault was they both don’t know how to talk. i touched upon this just yday actually, how sarawat is someone who doesn’t know how to talk, he’s more of a do-er (like bright said), whereas tine is someone who overthinks himself to the point of sickness and anxiety and so he doesn’t know how to voice that out, and like bright said, tine is someone who is EXTREMELY obedient - if someone says something to him to do, tine will go along and do that and won’t say no to them. which means that tine himself has had very little experience of going with his gut and how he feels, and when he comes face to face in a situation like that, it becomes Very overwhelming for him.

so, it was really clever to have bright on, solo, to explain everything from his and sarawat’s perspective. especially the bit where bright was like “everytime someone flirted with tine, wat never once questioned his trust for tine or their love, he would go directly to the person in question and deal with them.” and ... ya know, that’s more easier for sarawat to do, than it is for tine, who isn’t like that at all - like bright said, tine is the more obedient one who just follows along everybody else’s suggestions and has never really used his agency to decision make for himself.

and so ... yeaah. like. people sent a LOT of verbal abuse to bright after ep 12. and bright even said he knew it would happen, bc the entire series is from tine’s perspective, he understood that from well before. so he says he was prepared, but he still didn’t come on social media that often bc he got so much verbal abuse over it. 

and like, i’ve said before, just like how jennie and go said in the reaction video, that we should have got less flashbacks in the finale, and instead, we could have had a more sweeter scene. that could have been and should have been a proper, open and honest conversation between tine and sarawat, or, as bright suggested, a kiss. so, ya know, as some people were saying that maybe bright was just uncomfortable about kissng win??? no. no he wouldnt be AT ALL. it just ... never occured in the script. but yeah. i think .......... it really did get to bright - that sarawat never on the show got a chance to explain. 

which honestly makes me feel like thats why half the time he would improvise as sarawat? and add in things he KNOWS sarawat would/should do bc he KNOWS the depths of his love for tine so he used those moments so smartly to show that (a sign of v v v good acting!!!). like a marriage proposal, or putting tine’s hand over his shoulder, or adding in cheek kisses. like. bright’s really gone over and beyond for sarawat and tried to show just how intensely in love wat is with tine, with the little space and room for manoeuvre that he got granted.

idk if the some of scripts were written in a rush? i mean, 2gether was the FIRST show from gmmtv to air in 2020 - if i’m correct???? - so, between november to february, the had to get everything shooted and done, but they MUST have started script writing earlier than that. idk ... 

personally, i do wish we did get some more of the novel scenes in the show. like, sarawat and tine coming out to sarawat’s dad was SUCH a BEAUTIFUL scene in the novel but we never got it on the show. why? bc it was from sarawat’s perspective, not tine’s. another really nice scene, is the cinema scene where they held hands, but on the show we got a different version of it, where instead, they talked about a happy or tragic ending before tine decides to accept being wat’s boyfriend and they hug (i like that scene though, purely bc we got to see win’s crying which was !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AMAZING! and the hug was SUPER sweet!). 

but yeah, it .... idk. seeing bright in that reaction video in some moments Hurt. bc .... there was so much he wanted to say but he kept it in. and he’d just glance and sigh and look down or away bc he GETS sarawat in a way i think nobody else does. and so ..... had the show had more time, or was able to cut out some scenes and replace them with other and rewrite bits, we could have gotten sarawat’s perspective, and not had the show completely butcher sarawat’s image in ep 12 the way they did, only for them to then have less than one episode, a finale no less, to save his face again, whilst also tying up every other plot at the same time. 

like, bright has SO MUCH to offer as sarawat. and bright says he doesnt know about a season 2 (yet), but, ya know, if we ever got to see tine and sarawat again, i kinda wish they allow bright more freedom - bc he understands his character a lot more better than the writers do, i feel. he gets sarawat on soul deep level. so i just wish they’d give bright more freedom to be sarawat. and i have no doubt that, if that had been the case, we would have gotten a LOT more physical intimacy between tine and sarawat. i’m not mad about the lack of it, but, i’m assuming that bright would have really made sarawat be a lot more physical with tine. but at the same time, i agree with bright when he said that tine and wat are people who show their affections to one another in private - which is why i am SO ...... upset that we never got to see tine and wat ALONE in the one year later scene, bc, like i said, they WOULD have been a LOT LOT LOT more intimate then. but they weren’t alone. so they weren’t intimate. which. yeah. 

but at the same time, ya know, bright’s so .... like. he gets where the hurt for tine stems from. just like how he gets sarawat’s character, he gets tine’s too. but like he said, he’s lived and breathed wat since day one - and so, i think he just really wanted a chance to explain everything from sarawat’s point of view. he really didn’t need to apologise at all, and yet he did, on behalf of wat hurting tine. 

so whilst i know its just said that oh ya know bright should just write the whole of s2, i kinda wish, if we were to get one, that they writers would sit down and LISTEN to bright and win and take some input of theirs in, since, they’re the ones who KNOW their characters and play them. 

but yeah, bright’s mind. his intellect. his knowing of sarawat ............. it will never cease to amaze to me just how dedicated he was at an emotional and psychological level to play sarawat.

HDB vs MB Laito + my opinions

There’s been a lot of opinions about Laito’s abrupt shift in his character between HDB and MB. I’m gonna break it down first, and then talk about it. Whole essay under the cut!

To begin with, let’s start with the contrasts between HDB and MB in general. This is a short list, there’s definitely more.

Laito’s route in Haunted Dark Bridal 

Darker, isolating, focusing on the mysteries around Laito and le Sakamakis as a whole

Hints pretty heavily at Laito’s masochism

Voice drops and manic laughs and sadism galore

Stomach knotting content

Laito’s route in MB

Not as an isolating feeling; not as dark compared to HDB; different focus on Yui’s placement in the Sakamakis and now the Mukamis, along with some Karlheinz development. Focuses on interactions with the Mukamis as well in the plot scenarios

Laito? A masochist? Who is she???? Where’d she go??? She not here

Stomach knotting but more of “oh god what the fuck why” @ the toothbrush scene 

Focuses on Laito’s perverseness; not as sadistic as he was, but still uses objects for,,, unconventional things

What they kept with both: 

Laito’s poetic and cryptid phrases with double meanings

Laito’s lust vs love motifs; more prominent in MB 

In Laito’s route in More Blood there isn’t an instance where you go into the dungeon (except in his brute route I think?)… Which is… interesting… Because he took you there a good handful of times in Haunted Dark Bridal. I found the fact that in HDB you RARELY saw any other of the brothers. I don’t even think you saw Shuu in that route aside from the prologue. That whole route was isolating, like I said, and that just added to the whole twisted experience. More Blood wasn’t as isolating; you saw Kou or mentioned Kou in the plot oriented scenarios. 

I know More Blood focuses on the Mukamis too, whether you’re in a Sakamaki route or not. It also assumes a scenario where Yui didn’t choose any of the vampires like she did in HDB. She was just there, vibing. I did like how we got some Laito interactions with other characters, because that was barely a thing in HDB. 

More Blood was a lot more traditionally fanservicey, in my opinion, compared to HDB. It was oddly calmer too, with rare Laito mood switches, except in the maniac portion where Laito became more thirsty for Yui’s blood. He was in a writhing, screaming mess. What I do like about More Blood is his development towards the end. But the first half of that game was… oddly fluffy, for Laito’s HDB brand he created.

We did see another side of Laito in MB; a side we’ve never seen. He was in a begging, craved state (even more so in his HDB flashbacks; dear god Hirarin can scream and cry). He was very poised and calculating in HDB. He was a predator, had walls that Yui couldn’t even break; cuz Laito broke Yui before any of that happened. In More Blood, he was desperate, and ended up not wanting to drink Yui’s blood because it just made it worse for him. He was in an utter state of confusion, which made him more susceptible to Reiji’s words and his paranoia of Kou stealing Yui. 

As much as I don’t like Reiji as much (just a personal preference; don’t hurt me), I do like Reiji and Laito interactions, considering they contrast each other quite a bit (and it can be really funny and or constructive!). But Reiji was kinda done with Laito’s shit by the end and Yui ended up killing herself over it as a self sacrifice to Laito. Which was definitely different than her trying to kill herself in Haunted Dark Bridal. In HDB it was an act of escape, she hated Laito’s actions so much that she felt like that was her only choice (god that scene in HDB made my stomach shrink and invert). In More Blood, she had more of a positive (?) attachment to Laito compared to the HDB experience. 

In contrast to HDB, MB had Laito’s walls broken down by Yui. Karlheinz was like “haha nope you’re not dying wtf” and we got a beautiful, tragic scene of Laito being confused by his own tears over Yui’s death; and her unlocking his heart. Something that was never possible for HDB Laito, since he broke Yui and had her right where he wanted. He could mold her to his every desire. (Yes, she’s a strong character, but her being broken by Laito doesn’t mean she’s weak. She’s a human, and is capable of neuroplasticity; a neurological concept that means the brain can be molded negatively and positively no matter whatever the person’s previous circumstances are). 

More Blood Laito is kind of an antithesis to HDB Laito. We actually got a consensual sex scene at the end of ecstasy, which makes me cry every time. It was a really poetic scene; Laito guiding Yui through the process but Yui shows him the fuzzy wuzzies. (thanks to @/akuichansera for the translations as usual!)

Laito: So, love… …seems to be a good feeling of thing after all… …

I think… …you were asking to be loved.

Yui: … …Yeah… …it’s good. But, still.

Laito: Fufu… …I thought that Bitch-chan was saying so… ..It’s something you only know… …

But, I’m relieved… …to do things like this… …Nn… …

――Yui, only you.

As mentioned in my Hilde analysis, I was saying how he hated and rejected love, but grew to “like” it because he forced himself to just intake the physical pleasure. Which I do think is true to his HDB character as well. And in this quote in Ecstasy 10, it shows that he still likes pleasure (which he has to work on more of the emotional side, but hey, thats gradual development!) but has a positive correlation with it; which is that scene.

As for endings, his vampire ending was meh in my opinion as for Laito endings. It was cute, him trying out cute couple things, but it was too cheesy for my taste LOL, idk it was a weak ending too but that might just be me.

I know people are mad or disappointed by Laito’s fluffier character in MB. And I’m not exactly mad, because the events in MB make Laito less calculating and more erratic and emotional (because he’s craved with thirst). Which I like seeing that new side of him. Sure I like the dark sadism stuff in HDB and I will miss HDB Laito, but I do love seeing this man develop! One thing I hate more than writing abruptly changing for the audience cuz of business related things, is just having a stoic character. I still think he’s Dialover’s most complex character, even if they made him and the other boys less dark. 

Thanks for reading as always! Feel free to add on if you’d like! -Corn

Yashahime Episode 2 "The Three Princesses"

The episode starts with young Towa and Setsuna in the Forest of Ages. I want to note that the music that is playing during this scene is Towa's theme song in a more calm emotion played slow. Fun fact, that Towa's theme song does have Rin's theme song in it, for those who don't know. I have a video I made on that. Towa says that they have lived in the forest for a long time. Setsuna appears to not have her fur, either she gets it by puberty or hers was decorative from another animal. As we know the fur from Sesshoumaru is apart of his body, this was confirmed by Rumiko Takahashi in the InuYasha Profiles book under Sesshoumaru's profile. Again, the comparison to Sesshoumaru's belt is made here like I noted in my trailer breakdown. River (Kawa) or winding stream represents continuity and the future. Based from their color palettes given to us in the first artwork we were given, Towa is blue and Setsuna is purple. While in this scene it appears that Setsuna is wearing blue and Towa is wearing purple. When Setsuna is older, she is wearing blue with a purple belt. While Towa is wearing a yellow belt like Sesshoumaru and Setsuna seems to be wearing the faded red belt that Rin wore from the Final Act.

- Towa's memories have began to fade when she's an adult. The thing she remembers the most is Setsuna - So anything else we see in this flashback may be missing details. - The animals shown in her memories might be the other characters. There were two deer coupled together, and a fawn that could be InuYasha, Kagome and Moroha. With another deer running after. The boar had two twin babies Almost like K'inu and Gyokuto. My friend https://twitter.com/Mokomoko_fluff made even more comparisons and she describes more into the past theory with the animals, as well as the Young Twins clothing comparison to the parents. So please follow her. Towa begins to run too fast, and let's go of Setsuna's hand. When recalling this memory she even questions why she let go of her hand... Setsuna pushes Towa out of the way. I know some people were confused, but as I played it slowly frame by frame. Especially when Setsuna says "Look out!" Setsuna pushes Towa out of danger. Towa can't track Setsuna's sent because of the fire. In this moment, I want you to take account of the Japanese terms used.  In English we have words like scent, odor, aroma, and so one. Sesshoumaru in the Japanese manga uses the term aroma (sweet smelling) for Rin, while for others he used regular smell. In this moment Towa is using the same scent term that Sesshoumaru uses for Rin - A Sweet smelling Aroma. Towa's pearl activates when next to roothead. Probably because she's in danger, or many other reasons as to why it could activate. We hear Ne no Kubi - or it's English name Roothead talking about Towa's pearl. Towa is holding onto a vine until it tears and sucks in Towa. Towa goes through what is officially called the "Tunnel of the Tree of Ages" also known as the "rainbow corridor" as to what Moroha calls it later on in the episode! So this could imply that the pearls have to do with this. Towa wakes up from Buyou, and Souta finds her. Souta notices that she's from the Feudal Era - "It looks like you've come from place far, far away, huh?" Towa wasn't sure why, but she knew she could trust Souta. When they go looking for Setsuna, another version of Towa's theme plays. They never found Setsuna, it had been ten years since Papa Souta adopted Towa. In this moment it's further into Towa's song in this slow version, and we can clearly hear Rin's theme song in it. I got chills. They're living into a condominuim, and she goes by Towa Higurashi now. She says her memories have faded and lately she had been thinking it may have all just been a dream. It shows her weapons, including Kikujuumonji at the top. She has a lot of workout equipment and a punching bag. She's got trophies. Towa says Setsuna definitely was not a dream. She says it's such nice weather, then she goes to brush her teeth to get her day started. Her younger sister Mei is on her way to go to school, tells Towa Good-Morning and mentions that it's Towa's first day at a new school. She tells Towa to not get into any fights. Then she leaves to go to school. Towa tells her to be safe. Towa then says that Mei is "Papa Souta's true daughter". "She's a bit shy and naive, but she's also cute, smart, honest and quite talented." She's Towa's precious little sister. But she feels that maybe she cherishes Mei so much because she's a substitute for Setsuna, whom she was never able to find. The flower on her bag - Plum Blossom (Ume) is the first flower to bloom in the spring and is known as the ‘Flower of Peace’. A protective charm against evil, it also represents longevity, renewal and perseverance. Identified by rounded petals. We also see Towa wearing a robe that has yellow Plum Blossoms on it. Towa says she dresses the way she does because it's easier for her to fight. Souta is worried about Towa being dressed like a boy because it's an all-girls school this time. Because he doesn't want her to get into fights anymore. She walks to school and says that no one seems to get it - That transferring to an all-girls school won't stop the fighting. The ones she takes down always come back for more. The bullies show up thinking Towa is trying to run away from them. The bullies are actually a cameo appearance of Lum's Stormtroopers or also known as Lum's Guards from Urusei Yatsura. She answers "Who said I was running?" In the next scene is shows her beating them up. At one part one of them says "Stop it! Itll break! Help!" in this moment she pauses and stops. She says that the fighting hasn't stopped ever since she stopped a bully in elementary school. And there'd be more each time she changed schools. As she picks up her bag, we see the flower upclose again. She says that they are all weak and "Why can't they just keep their heads down?" The bullies say "That ain't no woman." "Why doesn't she finish us off?" "She's too soft." "But at this rate..." "We'll have to ask Bro for help." That part made me laugh. BRO Towa reaches her school, Saint Gabriel Academy - It's her first day and she's late already. "St. Gabriel Academy" is the name of the school where the main characters went to in the series NEW MOBILE REPORT GUNDAM WING. Which was made in 1995 by Sunrise! She's making sure no one is looking, then she hops over the gate. We see the Feudal Era - Moroha is sitting by a waterfall, picking her ear. She can tell that there's Demon Slayers behind the trees. She says that she wouldn't be slain, not even in a 1000 years. She says that she will turn them all into lunch for her Kurikaramaru. This could be a reference to the swords possible absorption ability like Tessaiga, or even Dragon Scaled Tessaiga. I can't get enough of Moroha, I loved it when she laughed.

Hisui shows up and calls her "Moroha the Demon Killer" this also refers to her being a Bounty Hunter. Hisui's theme song sounds like it uses notes from Miroku's theme, of course that being his father. I'll have to wait until the songs are released for me to make a proper comparison. He says on behalf of the local villagers, that they've come to punish her. "In the name of the Moon I will punish you!" He throws Hiraikotsu and she jumps out of the way. Moroha says that they've got the wrong target. She hasn't left the mountains, she was just waiting for her bounty to show up. Hisui says "A demon /and/ a bounty hunter? All the more reason then!" He was charging at her while Kohaku tells him to stand down. Kohaku calls Moroha, "Lady Moroha" - and asks if another demon is responsible for the attacking the village. She says thats right but that it's too late - they've made her mad. Now she pulls out her rouge that contains the red pearl. You can use rouge as lipstick as well. It looks like a nipple. MOON PRISM POWER! - MAKE UP. Okay, these Sailor Moon references are killing me. She says "With this rouge, I become Beniyasha, Destroyer of Lands. Tremble before the bloodthirsty dawn." Setsuna interrupts Moroha with her Naginata. Moroha says "Hey, you Demon Slayers work with an interesting companion." "You're a half-demon, right? I'm also a..." Setsuna immediately says "Silence! You're dead." Moroha pulls out her sword and the fight starts. It seems that Moroha knows about the weapon Setsuna is using the Kanemitsu no Tomoe. Moroha asks if she wins the match if she could have it. Hisui wants to back her up Setsuna but she says thats theres no need. Moroha says "So your name's Setsuna, huh?" Moroha licks her lips giving her a nickname "All right! Sorry "Setsu," but I'll be taking your weapon!" The battle animation here was beautiful. In this moment Setsuna's pearl starts to glow in her eye. By many reasons this could be happening, Setsuna's life being endangered, or because Moroha's red pearl is nearby, it could be telling her that Moroha is not an enemy. Moroha says "You have a rainbow pearl too?" It seems that Moroha knows about the Rainbow pearls, but that Setsuna doesn't know what they are. As this happens Mistress Three Eyes senses the pearls powers and comes out. The zoom in animation of her eye, that's really detailed. Mistress Three Eyes was the demon that was attacking the village. From the Yashahime Keyword, we also know that Mistress Three Eyes is the Granddaughter of Mistress Centipede from the first InuYasha Episode. She lunges at Setsuna Hisui picks up Setsuna quickly, avoiding Mistress Three Eyes. In this moment Setsuna could be having visions because of her pearl activating. Hisui asks if she's okay and she snaps out of it. Moroha knew that Mistress Three Eyes would show up since she has the red pearl with her. Moroha has been after her from the start. She says "Time to claim my bounty!" as she jumps to attack Mistress Three Eyes, but she's tougher than Moroha though. Instead she pulls out her bow, prepares an arrow for firing and says "Hey Demon Slayers! Get lost, unless you want to get caught in the crossfire!" "Take this! Heavenly Arrow Barrage!" She shoots an arrow, and it cuts Mistress Three Eyes hair, passing her head. Mistress Three Eyes thinks she missed but she was very wrong. The first arrow vanished and then Loads of arrows appear, raining down onto Mistress Three Eyes. Kohaku says "Are those Sacred Arrows? No, those are the Arrows of Sealing. How could Beniyasha have such spiritual power?" Moroha says she did it! In this moment Mistress Three Eyes shouldn't be moving. But here's where things get interesting, Mistress Three Eyes begins to move, however in this moment a purple aura appears. This is the same purple aura we see from Episode 1 when Roothead swallows bandits. Could it be that some arrow shafts  are made from the fallen branches of sacred trees? However this isn't true for all arrows as we know powerful priestess such as Kagome and Kikyou have been able to channel their spiritual powers from regular arrows. Could it have been that these arrows were made from Rootheads fallen branches at some point? She was able to take Moroha's shell that containted the Red Pearl out of thin air. Could it be that Roothead took it from Moroha to give to Mistress Three eyes on purpose to lure the pearls to him? Or Mistress three eyes has a different power than her grandmother. It's possible that even having a pearl nearby she could get stronger, similiar how Mistress Centipede got stronger with the Shikon Jewel nearby. The thing is that Mistress Three eyes was only able to move her head up when this happens, so something tells me Roothead has something to do with it.

MIstress Three Eyes swallows Moroha's pearl and becomes stronger, slightly transforming. So she goes after Setsuna, who has the Gold Pearl while they try to divert her to Lady Kaede.

Towa is at school, with her homeroom teacher Osamu Kirin who seems to be a cameo of Mousse or Dr Tofu from Ranma 1/2. He tells her a British Proverb with an Engrish accent "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." So he overlooked her being late for the day. Which she seemed surprised that he didn't call her parents and let her off the hook so easily. Three of the bullies seemed to be stalking Mei. Then we see Towa jumping onto the roof to look at her sword. She says that this is the moment when she feels at peace. She says "The celebrated sword Kikujuumonji, a national treasure." Towa says that "she was told" that her sword once belonged to the shogun Yoshiteru Ashikaga - Although it might not be true though, you know what Gramps said about So'unga. If he was the one that gave her the sword, I wonder how she got it. I also want to note that Kiku is also a Chrysanthemum flower. Yet another flower symbolism of Towa. It is the symbol of regal beauty, rejuvenation and longevity. Used as the Imperial Seal of Japan, it also represents autumn. The guard on her sword seems to be a flower shape as well. Towa sniffs the air, and she can tell that Mei is crying at Grampa's shrine. The bullies tied up Mei, Grammy and Grampa Higurashi. Bro seems to be Kuno Tatewaki from Ranma 1/2 Towa says "This world is full of the weak. And because they're weak, they band together and pick on people weaker than them. I'm really sick of it."

I like it when Towa says "I can show you a crying face. But it won't be mine. It'll be yours!" Towa fights them with her fists. One of the things I mentioned in my trailer breakdown was the symbol on Towa's sword bag. That appeared to be one of the Kagome symbols. But we'll see what it really is or actually means down the line, I'm sure. One of the guys take out a knife and threatens them. So Towa takes out her sword and drops the bag, we get to see the symbol once again and it appears to be ten pointed. A decagram, based on this frame.

A different version of Towa's theme plays. Towa takes hits because she remembers her promise to Papa Souta, to never use her powers in front of other people. Of course in this moment, she is sorry that she can't keep her promise. She throws the other dude, saves the day. Mei doesn't want her to fight, and says "I know you want to be more girly and cute, don't you?" Towa says "Um, I guess there's a part of me that can't answer immediately." Mei was like "You're supposed to say 'yes' even if you don't mean it!" Okay little girl.

All is well the bad guys leave as they think the police were coming, but Gramps says that they just so happened to be passing by. Mei and Towa have a sweet moment. Towa says she's sorry. Towa says Living in this world is hard. If you don't follow set rules, you're treated as an outcast. Girls must be feminine, and boys must be masculine." And that she has been sick of that. The whole gender roles, and having to follow those rules. I really love that she talks about stuff like that. This is what I've been really wanting to see more of especially coming from the Feudal Fairytale universe. The story of InuYasha was the internal struggles of having to follow what society wants, being an outcast. She said that but she thinks it's time to stop being stubborn. There's nothing that could ever justify making Mei cry that much. Towa is so sweet and loving, she cares so much. Like the voice actors said in Animage, she represents her mom's personality. Another cute part where Towa's smelling something that she's smelled before, something nostalgic as the breeze passes through the Sacred Tree. She questions why it was coming from the Tree. Then we see Lady Kaede coming out of her hut. She's like "What the Hell?" seeing Mistress Three Eyes chasing Setsuna and Hisui on Kirara. So Setsuna says she was going to use to her advantage that Mistress Three Eyes wants the pearl in her eye. Which is funny to me because that was Moroha's idea first. So, here are some things to note from Moroha with her baiting as a Bounty Hunter. Setsuna drops down and uses her Senpujin, or Cyclone Burst. This sounds a lot different from the trailer. I preferred how it sounded in the trailer - But I'm sure that we'll be hearing it a lot more. As not all announcing of special attacks are going to sound the same each time. "My name is Setsuna. Those are my only words for you. That is why you will die tonight." Moroha interrupts with her Crimson Dragon Wave. Atta girl. That's my daughter. You tell her! That was your bounty first. Setsuna said a famous Sesshoumaru line "Ridiculous". Setsuna can't seem to move at all, and Mistress Three Eyes takes her Gold Pearl. Swallows it and does the same transformation we see that her grandmother Mistress Centipede - becomes in the first InuYasha episode. Moroha seemed to be more excited that she was becoming stronger, like it would be more fun of a fight that way. I really like that about her. "Hold on. I've got you, Setsu!" And Setsuna's like "Don't call me that!" Roothead inside of the Sacred Tree/Or known as the Tree of Ages begins to glow blue, and talks. He says "I sense the Rainbow Pearl for the first time in over ten years! And two at that! By the power of the Tree of Ages, I now return to this world!" By hearing this, I know from the first movie the Tree of Ages are linked to all different times. So it could be that Roothead can also travel between ages as well. "Could this smell be..." All three of them get sucked in. Sent to the Modern era. One thing to note is that Moroha is being thrown and landing the same way that Kagome did from the first episode of InuYasha. Towa is amazed to see her sister Setsuna back, her silver pearl begins to glow in her eye. Calling out Setsuna's name. Moroha says "Damn it. I feel so weak. It is because I crossed through the rainbow corridor?" I'm really curious as to what she means by that. So I'm sure we'll figure out more of what the Tunnel of the Tree of Ages does. She could be exhausted from time traveling. Which would be something that's new, but heck she was thrown as well. Mistress Three eyes gettin' all excited about getting a pearl for each of her three eyes.

"Setsuna! I'll save you!" and her sword breaks. So this is what leads to Towa creating a blade from her demonic energy that we will see in the next episode -

The animation in this episode was beautiful especially down to the water effects when Towa and Setsuna were drinking water, even when Towa was walking to school you could see the water effects there as well. Kaoru Wada's music does not dissappoint me, ever.

NCT AS DIMENSION 20

okay so firstly, this is very niche but its been on my mind for literally ages now. im mostly gonna be focusing on fantasy high characters because that’s the one im most familiar with(d20 release free episodes of crown of candy already ;-; ya girl is suffering) i think i might write a fic or a couple more posts based off this concept but im not sure yet lvfksdvsk let’s get startedddddddd:

so i believe that 2000 line would be the most accurate for fantasy high main characters. i WAS gonna have dream at first but there are 7 members and there are only 6 mcs. so 2000 liners are pretty much perfect for this.  

okay idk if it’s me or renjun gives off the extremely polite vibes at first? like thinking of early dream era where he seemed really quiet and chill. buuuuut then i also flashback to him putting chenle in a chokehold in like mfal era which makes me think of the cafeteria scene. i dont think renjun is as anxious as adaine. hes def more confident and more forceful but i think he has that ethereal factor adaine has. renjun would absolutely be a high elf because he would be NOTHING less and he deserves it. i think wizard class fits him really well! also his tiny little elf ear may have convinced me to make him adaine....

so jeno is literally the most like gorgug and it makes me wanna cry kjfnvlsdkl they’re both such loveable sweethearts that are too good for this world but then sometimes???? they just get super intense and fucking insane and it scares me sometimes holy shit. gorgug deals massive damage in battle and can fucking wreck people and jeno,,,,,,lets not talk about it. ALSO i do think jeno would absolutely act like gorgug does with zelda(probably more likely when he was gorgug’s age but oh well) gorgug can be very ditzy(himboish if that’s a better word) but he gives really good advice.and i feel like even though jeno is so foolish, he is supportive and is a wonderful friend. i just fucking love them so much

HAECAHN IS LITERALLY FIG I FUCKING SHIT YOU NOT: in this essay i will explain why lee haechan is actually fig in disguise. not ONLY does he give a lot of affection/flirt with basically everyone, he’s literally the perfect definition o f bard. like come onnnnnnn. also he’s VERY mischievous and gets the gang into 90% of the trouble and somehow gets them out of it. the “makes problems on purpose but solves them by accident” type. it’s not just because i wanna see him play a bass and jeno on drums bc that would be sexy of them noooooo absolutely not. if you ever see haechan in an outfit similar to fig’s, just know i’ll be literally laying in a grave just know this. STYLISTS PUT THIS MAN IN FISHNETS IMMEDIATELY FOR SCIENCE PURPOSES. bitches be emotional and then say theyre closed off,,,,, literally haechan at both the last dream show with mark and the dream show before they would have graduated

HES A JOCK DWEEB DO I NEED TO GO FURTHER?? okay so i know that jaemin is pretty introverted and quiet at times bc he likes to chill and im the same way, but when he’s out of his shell or with people who share his energy HES LEGIT LIKE FABIAN. my man’s was a SPEED SKATER, which is so fucking surprising but not the point. im saying that he’s also pretty lean and quick when he wants to be and that makes him good for the type of fighter fabian is. not to mention the weird relationship both fabian and gorgug have and also jaemin and jeno’s relationship. a l s o fabian straight up punched gorgug and then started becoming his friend after being spending time in detention and stuff. jeno and jaemin legit joined at the same time and were seatmates in school and stuff like that.... but this aint about those two. also jaemin’s intonation is fucking funny sometimes but other times i AM willing to fight him bc he wont talk normally (this is a joke vksjdkjs) but the same goes for fabian. the confidence they both have is literally unmatched, its actually kinda scary

first of all look at how spiffy they look, its actually adorable. second, look at my gremlin childrennnnnnnn i love themmmm(yes i know riz is a goblin no i dont care) okay shotaro is literally a child and he’s kinda still new so he’s a bit shy. but he ACTUALLY terrifies me with how talented he is. like in the recent relay when he learned the dance in like an hour. my guy is so quick at picking things up, he’s the perfect riz. also his korean has gotten so good in just like 3 and a half months so that just showssssss how hardworking he is. i dont know, i feel like shotaro is hiding some feral energy and we just need to wait it out and he’ll be foaming at the mouth or smth. shotaro is a liiiiiiitle too cool for the Ball but they both kinda have that dorky feeling to them. like the kid brother whose hair you ruffle all the time. but all in all i just think he’s neat :]

okay the photos dont match that well but thats because i was trying to find him in the pink takeoff outfit and i couldnt find a good screenshot but that’s not the point. now you’re probably thinking “helios, yangyang cant be kristen. make him the Ball or fig or anybody else.” ohoho quite the opposite my friend. i think  yangyang is the most like kristen purely bc of the untapped chaotic energy these two have. i literally remember both my first impression of kristen and yy were that they were mostly harmless and then somehow they started speaking and holy shit im terrified of them now. it also makes yangyang being a healer very interesting. they’re both really caring and outgoing, but some of the shit they say literally makes me head fucking spin bc it’s so ridiculous. 

Honorable mentions: 

Taeyong is Prinicpal Aguefort bc he is one of the only ones who has that chaotic yet majestic energy he has. 

Johnny is either Johnny Spells or Jawbone. Johnny Spells because he hangs out with the kiddos a lot and i just think of the “johnny spells fucks” bit and it makes me laugh so hard. but also Jawbone because he’s our emotional support werewolf basically. he also gives great advice. 

Doyoung is Sandra Lynn because of how much of fig/haechan’s shit they have to put up with. also i think the dynamic’s are really funny and similar

Chenle as Torek,,,,,do i need to explain any further

more tgcf chapters 143-173 lets goooooo

PEI MING BOO HISS except actually okay he’s mostly funny i think but still boo hiss

“hey who’s this guy who’s really pissed at you?” “oh thats my sword. i broke it.” alright then!

i think i need to go back and reread the banyue pass arc bc im still confused as to whats going on with banyue and pei su

“Banyue dropped from the sky with two pots raised. Without a word, she plummeted with the mouths of the pots facing down, trapping and detaining the shocked Ming’guang and the roaring Ke Mo within.” - THATS MY GIRL

“It must be known that, to heavenly officials, it certainly was more than natural for kingdoms of the mortal realm to fight and annihilate one another; the acts of these plays progressing on endlessly. But when it came their own turn, it was often hard to let things go. If one must stand in the same court as the one who annihilated their own kingdom, and that man cavorted in the heavens, exceedingly flashy, then it must be vexing.” - hmmmm!!

“I’ve spoken too many words in this lifetime. What are you referring to?” - okay to be fair thats a mood

okay its nice to get some pei ming backstory and its funny that he and xie lian are bonding but also still whenever pei ming interacts with a female character my hackles rise like a cat lol

“Xie Lian watched as Banyue thought really hard before cheerfully pulling out a few long, wine-red scorpion-snakes, and putting them into the bubbling pot.” - THATS MY GIRL

“Although “smell” was something colourless and formless, the instant Banyue removed the pot cover, it was as if some mysterious physical object had twisted all the air around the mouth of that pot. The group stared at the sight within the pot for a long time. Their pupils reflected an endless, bottomless darkness; like it could pull them into the abyss. No words could describe the sentiment expressed within their eyes. A moment later, Xie Lian patted Banyue’s shoulder and gave a thumbs-up.” - like father-figure like daughter-figure. amazing.

“However, what if one day mortals discovered something completely new that ran faster than horses? Then, when this new invention overtook horses, worshippers of this heavenly official who controlled horses would inevitably decrease. Such heavenly officials, flashing by like shooting stars, made up the majority of the heavens.” - obsessed with this, genuinely. life and change. worship and its purpose. my religious studies diploma on my wall is screaming at me rn. ALSO i am once again thinking about celebrities

“...” It was only then that Pei Ming seemed to notice, and started to contemplate this question. A moment later, he answered, “A habit. In a dark, creepy place like this, isn’t it normal to hold women in your arms, to comfort them and calm their fears?” “I’m sorry, but I wasn’t scared,” Banyue said.” - BANYUE I LOVE YOU. I MISSED YOU SO MUCH. god this takes me back to every college party i ever went to

LING WEN BACKSTORY????? shoeseller chosen for godhood bc she wrote a political essay and got arrested...... and now she’s face to face with the official who appointed her..... do go on.....

“Ling Wen laughed out loud, seeming to be enraged, and her voice dropped. “Very well! You said I couldn’t reach that high. Then, might I ask you: had the prominence of the Palace of Jing Wen at its peak ever reached even the knees of my Palace of Ling Wen??” - GET HIM!!!! BOO HISS JING WEN

“Compared to you, I’m not that bad,” Ling Wen said. “You’d personally order me to stay in the Palace of Jing Wen until midnight, then turn around and say I shamelessly hang around ‘til late to harass you. Words murder without form; I was much nicer responding with blatant violence.” - ling wen im love you..... also this bit... feels Real

BLOOD RAIN BLOOD RAIN BLOOD RAIN!! FLOWER PETALS TRANSFORMATION!!! see hua cheng? look as how cool it can be when you leave the story for a little while!! bc then you get to return and make an entrance!!

“Not only can you bring forth bloody rain, you can also make flowers shower. I didn’t know that. How fun!” - cute!! and in that moment we were all xie lian

“Everyone was stunned by his deed, and Ling Wen arduously gave him a thumbs-up. ”Ol’ Pei, what a man!” Pei Ming gritted his teeth. “WELCOME!” - aww three two tumors buddies!!

okay yin yu is here and xie lian did the equivalent of asking someone when the baby is due only to find out theyre not pregnant at all. then rong guang taunts yin yu and no one says anything. i do love the amount of awkward moments in this book tbh sometimes there are no words.

“All around was sand and mud crushing at him, exceedingly suffocating. The sand and mud was also moving endlessly; the feeling was like he was swallowed into the stomach of a giant monster, and that monster had also eaten a bunch of other things besides him, tumbling everything in its stomach, trying to digest” - ooooh creepy!!! the red string thing... is cute.... also xie lian being able to see hua cheng’s butterfly vision by looking directly into his eye is kinda cool. and obviously homoerotic.

“Are lower-ranked heavenly officials below other people?” Quan Yizhen asked. “No,” Yin Yu replied. Were they not? It was obvious that he himself didn’t believe in his own words, and Quan Yizhen also noticed. A good while later, he said bluntly, “I don’t like it here.” Yin Yu said nothing.” - im having emotions. and then yin yu also saying he doesnt like it there either.... also idk how this scene is going to play out but as much as im enjoying quan yizhen being an icon i can also possibly see how yin yu could eventually get to the point of “i am tired of being nice. i do just want to go apeshit” even if he really cares about qyz. it happens </3

“Indeed,” Hua Cheng said. “Half a year later when Quan Yizhen actually ascends, he won’t find it so funny anymore.” “Can we watch that part too?” Xie Lian asked. “We can. Hold on,” Hua Cheng replied.” - quan yizhen king of taking things literally. also why did this turn into hualian having a movie night

jian yu seems like the kind of asshole who would purposely give someone regular soda when they specifically asked for diet soda. god yin yu is really having a bad day i really feel for him in the whole situation with the brocade immortal

awww okay at least jian yu tried to take responsibility. im still mad at him tho that was objectively a terrible idea. god this whole situation sucked :(

“Rocks and earth crushed at them from all around, forcing their bodies to press tightly against one another, their faces brushing, their ears warm. Although it wasn’t the right time, a thought flashed through Xie Lian’s mind: “‘To die buried together’ doesn’t feel so bad.” - okay... im kind of emotional.... gay people....

okay obviously these murals and the prince of wuyong have some connection (im guessing pretty direct) to xie lian and are important but everytime they start analyzing one i feel like im back in art history class fhadskfhskjdhf not that thats a bad thing!! i liked art history a lot tbh

“Don’t worry, they’re not human,” Hua Cheng said. “It’s precisely because they’re not human that we have to worry, alright….” Xie Lian thought.” - goth ghost bf problems

xie lian: well, there is one person i trust more than anyone else, someone who’s first in my mind hua cheng, oblivious: oh :/ xie lian, also oblivious: what? hua cheng: you shouldnt trust so easily its dangerous xie lian: oh. haha. yeah. well. wanna,,, know who it is? hua cheng: its :) fine :) it :) doesnt :) matter :) but of course you can tell me if you want to gege xie lian, internally: well now ive made it weird hua cheng, 5 minutes later: actually i need you to tell me. right now. its totally for your security me: gay people smh

“As they suspected, he had been captured by Qi Rong. Although no one was bound by ropes, there were balls of greasily green ghost fires hovering over every one of their heads.” - completely off track but anybody else remember the great green globs of greasy grimy gopher guts song

“Could there actually come a day when Qi Rong was embarrassed that someone might see the manner in which he ate? Before Xuan Ji entered, she put Guzi down. Guzi, ta-ta-ta, ran in, rushing straight to Qi Rong’s side. But when he saw him, he pointed his finger. He cried, “Dad is eating bad things in secret again!” “I’m not!” Qi Rong retaliated.” SCREAM IS QI RONG LEARNING THE POWER OF LOVE NOOOO also god that poor man whose body he has im starting to doubt if he’ll ever be free jimmy novak flashbacks

everytime we get another ghost king power somewhere someone should be writing hua cheng the cyborg bf in a high tech futuristic au i think thats the only other potential setting that could truly capture this wild ride

“In truth, throughout history, there was no man in the world who didn’t love bragging. A breeze could blow the handkerchief of a brothel girl into a man’s hand, and he would turn around and say the most beautiful of renowned escorts had fallen in love with him; holding shoes and wiping benches for the emperor’s mistress’s uncle’s grandson’s cousin’s mistress would for sure become him being an important administrator at the residence of royal relatives, raising his status. Thus, men who didn’t brag were a rare species.” - SCREAM this is going in my favorite tgcf quotes folder god... mxtx come here let me shake your hand

read the story of rain master yushi huang’s ascension. why am i crying. also this bit im crying again me with my stuffed animals “Thus, while Yushi Huang was cultivating at the Temple of Yulong, every time when she went to seek water and passed that door, she would rub the head of that ox. The door knocker soaked in her essence of life, and when the Rain Master ascended, the ox ascended with her.”

okay thats enough for now i have 7 more chapters to book 4!!! woo!!!

50 or so hours into Cyberpunk 2077

This should be roughly the correct amount of time, ive been leaving the game running as I get up to get food or do stretches. Quests are roughly in order I did them

non spoilers above cut:

 i haven't found a single hat/helmet i like, and since you can't hide them I just am not wearing any. It matters that much.

I posted the other day about bugs, every few hours I play I find new bugs. some require me to go back and reload a save others I honestly can’t tell if it’s a bug or just really poor development

there are several perks that don’t quite do what the description says, like the Anamesis perk. Based on reddit and trying it out it seems to just not do anything.

sometimes in car chase segments the passenger will say “look out” as cars spawn in my path and hit me. Can’t tell if that was deliberate or a pop in issue

Yeah I’ve just totally given up on doing pacifist things unless required by a mission. Given up on doing stealth too unless a mission objective, except for sneaking around to set up a fight.

:readmore:

the delemain car quest is fun. From the shock of the one going "beep beep motherfucker" and doing a hit and run to start it off, to the GLADOS car i see a lot of people talking about. It was fun to explore the city when i might have missed places like the landfill apparently there is follow up on T-bug's death if you go back to the quick hack shop in Kabuki. It's not much but better than nothing I made the pass with Panam of "what if the room just had one bed". I know she won't do a wlw romance, which is fine since I wouldn’t have chosen her.  I enjoy her as a character, don’t get me wrong, my V considers her as a friend, but it seems like theres always drama going on which would be tiring. I would have gone for a fling, i like her leotard-pants combo with all the straps

but also her questline was buggy as hell. Multiple cases of having to reload due to clipping into objects, including her in a driving section, or just insta-dying when collision physics with some rocks broke "your neural network can no longer function independantly of the chip" me slapping my desk: s y m b i o te!!! come on lets have some s y m b i o s i s

in the scene with hellman i really liked how Johnny moved around the room. It made him feel like he was really there. it was hard to follow the convo as I left the room, i would not have understood it without subtitles. But i guess Takemura fucking waterboarded hellman. :|

lol I hope the dialogue is different b/c i refuse to smoke for Johnny

i am level 18 and still can't beat the first opponents in the fist fighting quest. ffs

I looked up the romances options so I went to do the I fought the law quest as soon as i got it. ACAB, but like I literally just met River Ward 2 minutes ago, and I really like him. His earring and cyborg eye, his big fluffy coat. I'm definitely gonna sleep with him Ok i like how when River Ward is dealing with the tiger claws if you interject it leads to a fight. It goes better if you follow his instructions and let him deal with it. Seriously I enjoy that sometimes its good to not pick a dialogue choice.

during the red queen club part, there was no dialogue over the phone. So i reloaded a save and got myself spotted and attacked. Then River showed up to help me <3 and it was more enjoyable having him there. I honestly am not sure if him not going to the club level is bug or not.

then uuuuuugh the worst of irl police "cops are my family" from Detective Han. Again ACAB "FRATERNITY OF CITY COPS RESEMBLES A [Nomad] CLAN NOT AT ALL" ok a few minutes ago i was complaining about bugs, but the character modeling in this game is good (when they're there). You can see body posture, characters jiggle their legs when they are nervous. Like I though character A was just throwing a cigarette on the ground, but then character B flinches back; I realize Char A threw it at B as a fuck you

I'm honestly curious if "I fought the Law" quest will have any impact later on. My choices were that I thought there was more going on than Holt being the only person behind this (based on how complicated the main questline heist is, and keeping an eye on some of the in game news), and told him not to take it to internal affairs, and I loved his response of how he doesn't give a shit what we think, he's doing it anyway.

In the elevator to report in, Johnny said "this muck is deeper than you think, tell them nothing", so i just said that the case was complicated. anyway i love how much of a sarcastic asshole V is

I thought i was being nonlethal with the monk quest, but it seems i accidently killed someone. RIP, but thats kind of the problem with this game. Like when i do the non lethal cyberpychosis quests I equip my non lethal modded gun and hope for the est. I like how a go here kill things quest led to Charles the ripperdoc. He's getting all his parts from scav gang members so I felt obligated to take him out. I got a police bounty for it but w/e.

I merged the Delemain fragments with the whole. Guess he's the meta now. (Side note: some of my favorite rvb fanfic plots are Ai consiousness/memory merging with the humans, so I’m having fun with this game and look foward to introspective fanfic)

Honestly Jonny made some good points, the fragments didn't deserve to die; but also destroying the core and freeing the fragments, they couldn't really function alone.

I was able to rescue Saul fine with stealth. Using cameras and the synapse overload really made it easy.  Can't use the sniper rifle reward b/c I don't have the stats for it, and while it has a silencer the fact that it's a ricochette weapon and not a shoot through walls weapons, makes it not as good imo; and theres a legendary one that is stats free for only 100k.

Lol made a pass again at Panam, and she immediately shut me down. I then did Mitch's quest and I love every time someone tells V they area  good person.

I hacked the operation carpe noctem shard, and wow the corporations are using ai to make people have cyberpsychosis, or something like that. What a shocker /s, I've played Deus Ex HR before

lol driving through the unifinished interstate, past the fight from Panam's first quest I found a "batcave" with a very nice car, and a manifesto written by "muckman'. But here's my complaint about the loot, there is a legendary top, but it had 16 armor. My current top has 84 armor, like why would i switch?? then later i found a bunker with soviet spies in it. Wild

Doing River's second quest, love the timing of as soon as you ask, why are we breaking in, someone shows up to tell you he got kicked off the force. It's funny how Johnny comments how maybe River's into you, and V just doubts Johnny's words. Love how the first kid asks River if I'm his girlfriend. also wow like oof both the second parts of Judy and River's quest are SUPER fucked UP!! oof like i stopped doing first person mode on the braindances for those quests as soon as i could, just made me too uncomfortable seeing that in first person.

DRIVING IN THE GAME IS BAD! nowhere is it more apparent than the sinnerman quest, which took me 3 times to get the driving section done, as cars spawned out of nowhere to hit me. Then when you restart, there is a bunch of dialogue it doesn't let you fast forward through. The rest of the Sinnerman questline is interesting. My V took every option to tell the dude that he was messed up, and what he was doing was wrong. idk, I was surprised how much dialogue there was that let you buy into his whole "forgiveness thing" and how there wasn't any real dialogue to call him the fuck out, that in seeking forgiveness he continues to do harm both emotional to the mother of the man he killed, but also that he got the husband killed via cop. The later follow up quest, I told him that what he is doing is crazy, studio is just going to profit off this vid. Then I refused to join him prayer, and told him fuck no i wasn't going to hammer him to the cross, or even watch. Yes, the man is scared of dying, and the corporation is exploiting him, but he keeps creating burdens for others.  I think the discussion on this quest will be interesting to read, it's definitely my own personal experience with religion coloring my view. Anyway back to a main quest, yeah i don't trust Placide, especially in that scene where he grabs my hand, then jacks in. I ran off to do most of the sidequests here and got some criticism from him. I do love how in the cinema the western movie switches to a mission brief as the netwatch agent talks. its a fun enviromental detail.  I took the netwatch offer, i don't think he's being fully honest with me, but he didn't put a virus in my head. As I told Placide later, I didn't pick a side. I like how you can then talk with the agent, who is a fan of Western movies, b/c they show "a simpler time where all good guys carry badges" :eyeroll:, and then V recommends Unforgiven, which from the wiki summary goes against that theme.

Looks like the Voodoo boys all got killed by Netwatch, but I as revenge for them trying to set me up I'm fine with it. Honestly after speaking with ai!Alt I don’t believe their plan of trying to be on good relations with AI would work. 

doing the johnny flashback 2, and wow Johnny really is an asshole. Like I had gotten so used to him in side missions I forgot how self centered and unlikable he was.You constantly get prompts to drink or do drugs, which I ignored. But i do love the goth/punk love Rogue and others have.

lol i called it, when Hellman said that the engram would seek to override the host, put V on the engram. I really like how as the relic malfunctions, you wind up in the chair with a cigarette, which you can either smoke and say you are turning into Johnny or throw away. My dialogue "your problem is the ends justify the means", which is true!!! He and Rogue detonated a nuke downtown, does anyone know that, and like ask Rogue about it????

(Funny you can ask Rouge about Johnny silverhand, over the phone, then the game bugs out and spawns her npc where you are. She doens't say much about the nuke, but she does say no one trusts you for jobs). The line of no one trusting you for jobs is pretty funny at level 46 street cred where im at “respected” status. really loving the family atmosphere at River's 3rd quest. Also his big strong arms, and the fact he is no longer a cop. I totally let the kids win, and wow the family dinner where they GRILL YOU over the relationship and try to set the two of you up, then the water tower scene!!!!! I don't love the first person sex cutscenes but they do have personality. I'm glad afterwards you got to tell River about the biochip and that you might die. Because he's so far removed from your personal plot. So I took that option to back out of a relationship.

I do love that you wake up with "river's tanktop" that says "fuck the police" It actually has extremely good armor stats, so thats what I'll wear now.

panam 3rd quest, when shes like why did you help me, I'm like "because it's important to you". Basically the closest you can get to "when a friend asks for help you help them", which as an ex-nomad backstory I really choose the nomad options when ever i can Paralezes quest part 2! I love the piano song but I always think of it as ocean's 11 music. It's also fun to see the computer and see Judy recommended you for the first quest. The emails talk about "forgetting" to hire a staffer, on the balocony a strange antennia was scannable, the color of the roses was remembered wrong...  lol guess i was right with those giant wall screens. Its fun environmental details that spell things out before you can notice, and it ties into some other quests where people's behavior is being altered. Actually, this quest "Dream On" I love it! For a while I've been like "wheres the illuminati conspiracy! Here it IS! I chose to follow Elisabeth's wishes and not tell her husband he was being brainwashed. In best case they program him to forget again, in worst case he ends up dead. The gaslighting Elisabeth described is CHILLING, her husband describes a vacation she can't remember and she doesn't know whose memories have been messed with. On your way to the plaza you get a call from someone/something that says the know exactly WHAT you are, any you black out!!! It's such a great feeling of helplessness that you're just one person in a world so big that you can't fight every power. As Johnny said, could be a corporation, could be a rogue ai, either way Jefferson is fucked (and so are you).

THE KING: ETERNAL MONARCH EP 5, My Appreciation and How It Made Me Feel

1 of the charm i found in this series was the acting of all actors. I have been in theater before and learn acting from my teacher who seems to teach us Stanilavski’s System of acting. I found it in each leads, they shows us this method and leads to a nice subtle acting which you will missed if you are not a person who likes to pay attention to detail. And also why for me, i falls deep into the characters, because they are so damn natural. As if i watching them not really as an actor, but as them. Very good.

For example with this particular scene where JTE was following Gon to basketball ceremony. You can see JTE actually impressed here but trying to keep her cool. Slight eyebrows movements and slight smile there, i saw 💕

I love startled JTE and playful Gon here. They make me feel butterfly as a watcher

As the series goes, the editing was getting better, i appreciate the effort to make the connected transition between 1 scene to another like when Gon are looking at his search history, he found out JTE was reading about Lee Rim and she knows Gon history now. The camera zoom in to the search page then moved to Lee Rim whicn now we can see him recruiting people that will benefit him for his plan. I swear to god i love Lee Rim, he is so creepy. He gave you offer you cannot refuse. The only thing you need to do is kills your other self. And this line of him is one of my fav, and damn scary with the music while throwing the 2G phone

Lee Rim “연락은 내가 합니다” (i’ll be the one who contact you)

Appreciation for PM flashback because they made it aesthetic. PM walking passing the pictures of her inauguration as PM by the King. I love how the make the transition. Smart.

JTE is roaming around Corea alone and found out many thing, like the rare mineral that Gon owns, yi sun sin statue in Busan, we get a glimpse of her being same face with Luna and JY knows, she saw PM on the street, she goes to police station (this scene shows how she acts inline with her detective background, the method that she use to prove that this is paralel world was practical, she is better than Gon. and also shows she was actually a soft person. Eventhough she knows every familiar faces here are a different person, she still have the same feelings and amount of respect to them) , last but not least what a cool scene where JTE and KSJ being in 1 place and time but different world

She basically run out of money and calling Gon, kind of cute. Its like real stuff you do with your boyfriend and probably because she only knows him in this world. I love the piano bgm everytime they are being lovey dovey 🥰 and the fact that Gon changeing direction to pick her up, makes me blushed 💕 i love how they shot JTE from below the building looking up and saw the helicopter.

I also love JTE and JY bickering here. Both are cute and i love protective JY, he is so cool.

This conversation in front of KU building also shows a good acting by KGE, as Gon asking who is Ahn Bong Hui, she explain it with smile but holding her tears, makes Gon feels and saw her so softly, call the ambulance because im dead. Here is my fav JTE line after Gon asking him who is the person that she looking for in this world

JTE “우리 엄마. 여기가 평행 세계면, 나리도 있고 은섭이도 있으니까, 난 없더라도 우리 엄마는 살아 계실지도 모르니까, 몰론 다른 사람인 건 알지만 여기서는 안 아프길 바랐고 나는 다섯 살 때 기억밖에 없으니까 그냥 먼발치에서라도 잠깐.. 그래서 와 봤지” (my mother. If this is a parallel world, Nari and Eun Seob exist here, although i might not exist, my mother could still be alive. I know she is someone else, but i didnt want her to be sick in this world. I only have memories of her from when i was five. So i just wanter to watch her from afar. Thats why i came here”

This girl is seriously pretty here

Gon brought the topic about what he found in a searching page and teased JTE who look for his ex gf and PM. And JTE says “why you read that? Thats cheating” girl is definitely falling for him and very honest. I love her. And Gons smile as he looking at JTE panic face is everything

Then comes the trouble. PM is here because he saw Gon landed in seoul. I love how Gon describe his relation with PM as “금요일마다 보는 사이” (i think netflix did not translate it nicely, i dont know how to translate it either) and JTE refer her as IU 🤣 i love this line.

PM is a cool woman and very professional, i love her choices of fashion, i love her character. I actually hoping she is somehow will becomes allies. But ..

How it made me feel:

Happy. Most of the times, smile from ear to ear. As i said earlier, the main character of this episode is JTE. Here we can see her feelings grow fonder to Gon. I dont agree if people said that JTE only loves Gon because he is rich. Not at all. Even before coming to Corea she already missed his existence, and left marked in her heart, also if she did not slightly believe in Gon, she will not going to go to Corea with him. And arriving in Corea seeing how Gon is very affectionate towards her and took good care of her, also he is cool at work, makes her fall deeper. Its like crushing back to the person who had crush on you. Very normal.

The other thing i got from this episode is about Lee Rim recruiting people to be on his side by killing their doppelgänger. He inform us that up until now, nobody have ever refuse him. Lee Rim act as a devil who seduces human to be evil by pretending as God that helps them coming out from their problem instantly. Many people lives in an unbearable life they wanted to change it so badly and sometimes took a wrong way. Also here we were shown that greed is a common emotion that human has. Even JTE which we know is a good girl, has it. She is looking for her mother, she might be saying that she will just going to look for her from afar. But i bet, seeing her personality, she will probably hug or talk to her if she really exist in Corea. Probably will not let her go so easily. Just my assumption though.

I hope my eyes did not wrongly see, but i feel like they use a different camera filter for Korea and Corea. In Corea im feeling a sense of like being in the past. It gives an antique feeling. And Korea gave more modern feels. If this is true i appreciate it even more 💕

Last but not least, so far until episode 5, despite being a fantasy genre, i found real emotions and events related to real life here. Appreciate it so much 💕💕

Here’s my long ass review of TGCF that literally no one asked for it i have opinions and I have no one to tell them too so i must write them out and post them. (also part of this is abt the mdzs novel bc i can’t not compare them and I have a lot of thoughts abt that too)

This is very very long so it’s going under a read more. Spoilers ahead!!

Okay so first off this book was a fucking behemoth i can’t believe i read all of that (minus the extras) in under a week.. what the fuck. I definetly got reading fatigue halfway thru book 3.

I’m gonna separate my thoughts into sections bc i  have a few points that don’t all relate

firstly, overall writing and organization:

I said it earlier but tgcf is a lot more structurally sound than mdzs imo. My biggest criticism of the MDZS novel (minus the bad sex scenes, homophobia, and general I hate mxtxness of it) was the way the flashbacks were presented. 

Like OH MY GOD they were presented so badly. I hated that the flashback was told intermittently and only when one of the characters invoked the past. For example, when WWX meets Jiang Cheng and a second time, Jin Ling distracts JC to release “Mo Xuanyu” bc he saved his life in the Nie Ancestral hall earlier. WWX then proceeds to be the self sacrificing dude he is and take away Jin Ling’s curse and put it on himself. When he escapes and returns to LWJ, LWJ offers to carry him.

 If you watched CQL, you know exactly what LWJ is referring to when he says smth to the effect of “You once offered to carry me too, remember.” HOWEVER in the novel you don’t know what he’s talking about. This is because the flashback wasn’t been revealed to you yet. The next chapter goes to tell the flashback. I think that this takes away all of the emotional depth away from the scene. But in CQL, having the flashback already be known, you make the connection on your own and are like “awww wangji remembers that.. even 16 years later.“ Its a lot sweeter bc you know what the two have gone thru. At this point in the MDZS novel its barely the 30th chapter or so and you have no real idea what wangxian have been thru together or what reasons wangji has for loving wwx. You just think, well obviously they like each other bc this is a danmei novel and they are the two leads, ofc they have to like each other. But in cql, you learn through watching them that they’re in love. It’s not just like”well they have to be!! its a bl!!”

Okay that was a rlly long side tangent but it makes me so angry. So what did any of that have to do with TGCF?? well tgcf doesn’t have this issue. In fact, i believe that it gains a lot from having the flashback withheld from the reader. 

I really liked how the flashbacks were contained to books 2 and 4 respectively because it adds a layer of mystery. Hua Cheng is a very secretive man so it makes sense for us to not know everything about him upfront. The way that the author teases and hints little things at you make you want to know more, making it all the more satisfying when the truth is revealed. Because in a way you Know that Hua Cheng meets Xie Lian before and you know that he’s the child XL saved during the God Pleasing Ceremony but you don’t know all the details. Like obviously since Hua Cheng is a ghost you know that he’s died and it was likely for Xie Lian or Xian le’s sake but you probably never expected that he actually died twice. Once on the battle field and second when he took the human face disease. I think the difference between these flashbacks and the flashbacks in MDZS result from the length. In TGCF you get two long concise flashbacks that make sense to be placed where they are. Book 2 because you already have a feel and hint at what the characters have been through and book 4 because the White No Face appears again so then you learn how he and Xie Lian met before. It wouldn’t make sense to place book 2 any earlier bc there is no emotional impact. And it doesn’t make sense to place book 4 earlier because you don’t know what the white no face’s deal is so it’d be confusing. In MDZS, you get numerous short flashbacks happening alongside the main story and it makes it hard to piece together the timeline in a way that feels satisfying. Ik a lot of ppl grill cql for having a confusing intro episode and having a rlly long flashback but its much better than the mdzs novel. However the mdzs donghua handles the flashback in the most concise way imo.

Overall i think the way the story is structured is very good and is a step up from mdzs. Also the horror aspects of tgcf are rlly enjoyable and honestly i think mxtx should just write short horror stories at this point. like enough long ass novels chock full of fetishization. just write some fun horror with no romance and call it a day.. pls

Side Characters:

okay so straight up, i think the side characters arent used as well as they were in mdzs bc mxtx wanted to focus on hualian and didn’t want to give the side characters as much focus. This is a weaker point of the novel.

I’ll get into it more below but i think hua cheng was done dirty as a character by having him rlly only care abt xie lian. Since he doesn;t have any real relationships with others outside of xie lian this takes away from having more depth in the side characters. They’re really only related as far as xie lian’s relationship with them. Though thankfully xie lian gets rather close with a few officials and the ones we get to see more of are rlly interesting. I especially loved the reconciliation of mu qing, feng xin, and xie lian at the end of book 5. honestly their relationship was one my favorites and i’m glad they finally said what they had to say to each other after 800 fucking years. Also Shi Qingxuan is a delight. we stan sqx in this house.

The characters i wish we had seen more of were yushi huang (although she didnt rlly want to be there, good for her), Quan Yizhen and Yin Yu. I very much wish yizhen and yin yus story happened earlier on and we had more time with them. It felt strange to have their subplot occur towards the end and it was sort of out of place but i liked them a lot!! i wish there was more to it. and that there was a reconcilation but mxtx hates happy shidi’s doesnt she, (glares at novel jc). Also man yin yu did NOT have to die like that i’m sad.

Also, honestly.. i don’t think qi rong added to the story whatsoever and i have no clue why he and guzi were there. qi rong just pissed me off the whole time and added literally nothing.

going back to yushi huang, i’d like to say for the millionth time that i hate how mxtx uses any of her female characters. like we get it.. u hate women being useful... im still pressed but what i want to say has been said many times before so ill leave it at that.

Hualian:

I really really did like hualian at the end. They had a truly epic love story and it was so beautiful, especially when hua cheng repeated his words as wuming to xie lian as he started to disappear. But, I said it once and i’ll say it again. I don’t think Hualian is a super healthy relationship. As fiction its fine (i firmly believe fiction impacts reality but let me finish), i guess bc literally nothing about their situation can be replicated irl and none of it ended up containing manipulation or abuse or anything bad but there was a potential for it to and i’m really glad it didnt go that route.

Hualian is a highly idealized and romanticized relationship full of some truly troubling feelings of self worth. While its “beautiful” in a way that hc really was xls most devoted believer, it wasnt healthy for him to live for xl like this. Nor was it healthy for xl to feel so unworthy of hua chengs love.  

Hua Cheng’s devotion to Xie Lian is a little too extreme and it bothers me. When the truth was revealed abt the Temple of 10,000 Gods I had the same reaction as Mu Qing and Feng Xin. I was like... HEY WHAT THE FUCKK that’s a little uh... thats NOT HEALTHY,, dianxia PLEASE say smth. But ofc Xie Lian didn’t say fucking anything and and i was so pissed. Like the whole thing of Hua Cheng living his life solely for XIe Lian is really kinda fucked up and not romantic. I was holding out hope that at some point XIe Lian would sit him down and be like “Hey! I love you and i’m really grateful that all these years you’ve still believed in me when no one else did. But you can’t just live your life for my sake. You deserve love from many other other people and deserve to have a life and happiness outside of me. I still want to spend the rest of my life with you, but you need to not only think of me.” or something to that effect

It bothers me that after Xie Lian learns the truth he doesn’t once reassure Hua Cheng that he didn’t have to make Xie Lian his reason for existence. Like.. idk i just think that’s rlly kinda unhealthy. Like I understand why Hua Cheng is so deeply devoted to Xie Lian-- he saved his life twice and was the only one to ever show him kindness and he’s seen xie lian suffer a fate worse than death multiple times. I get that he wants to protect him and make his life easier, but to not let anyone else into his life and spend 800 years looking for xie lian is just overkill. Like if the whole 10k statues thing never happened i’d be 100 percent fine with hualin but the whole devotion to that extent... uhhh yea.. no that put a bad taste in my mouth. Obsession should not be romanticised. I don’t think any reader of tgcf is going out and deciding to live like hua cheng obviously but still.

Also Side note, the whole 100 swords scene.. bro i felt for hua cheng, the way he screamed seeing that, i don’t blame him. I was so horrified reading that chapter. i don’t think i’ve been so horrified by a piece of media like that in a while. Poor fucking xie lian.. oh my god. I understand the intense reaction he had and how seeing that prompted such a degree of loyalty but still.. 10k statues?? the cave that mu qing and feng xin saw... thats a little too much obssession... like please.. dial it back.. im begging u.

I was talking to mary (liviahyes) and she said smth abt how Hua Cheng doesn’t have a character outside of xie lian. And she’s right, he kinda doesn’t. If Xie Lian didn’t exist neither would Hua Cheng. I get that that counds kinda romantic but in practice i don’t think its a good things. Especially because Xie Lian has a story outside of Hua Cheng, hehas goals, he has friends, he has something. Hua Cheng said it-- his only dream is Xie Lian. Which is romantic but very very unbalanced. 

THAT BEING SAID, i still rly liked their relationship and i think theyre cute they just have issues they need to work through. I mean they have time but yea. It wasn’t perfect but eh. overall i’m bitter bc they couldve been THAT COUPLE but theyre so many bad implications as mentioned above and i.. smh. They still have amazing moments. Like the lantern scene, the alter scene, the “what matters is you, not the state of you”, the end when hua cheng helps release the shackles on xie lian, the scene where hua cheng disappears, the way xie lian waited for him, like they were so close to being THAT COUPLE but then mxtx and her fujo ass just had to make it uncomfortable like that. i’m so bitter. Like the reason why i wrote out all of this is bc this novel could’ve been great but so many little things added up and made the experience far more sour than it shouldve been.

MXTX did hua cheng SO DIRTY by not giving him a character much outside of loving xie lian and being good at everything. Like when I first learned abt how Hua Cheng beat 33 heavenly officials at what they excel in best i was like WHO IS THIS LEGEND but honestly.. he rlly doesn’t have any motivations outside of helping xie lian and I wish he had more to him . Like if we had more situations like the one where hua cheng dug out his own eye to save the group of mortals on mount tong’lu then he’d have been a much more well rounded character. Honestly, that’s rlly the only instance where he seems to have taken xie lians ideals to heart. I wish we had more of that bc that scene was so cool. i wish it hadn’t been revealled so late and there was more than one occasion where he defends others (minus xie lian ofc) without anything for himself to gain that.

To contrast hualian with wangxian, i think wangxian work so well bc at their core, they have the same life goals and same ideas about people and the world. Where in hualian, xie lian has core principles and morals and hua cheng is just like, anything for xie lian. SMH they couldve been great but overall i think hualian falls flat for me because of my own fear of dating someone who doesn’t have a life outside of dating me. Moreso, my parents had this sort of unbalanced relationship towards the end of their marriage and it ended very badly and yea, i just can’t whole heartedly love relationships that in any way resemble this, even if it ends differently. that’s a personal thing tho.

I don’t think Hua Cheng has ANY bad intentions towards Xie Lian or ever will. I don’t think he’s ever manipulated xl or tried to force him to love him. But again, it’s my own personal feelings that makes me feel kinda.. ehh conflicted abt hualian. There was potential but again.. fujoshis ruin everything... smh. Overall i think the way it ended redeemed the issues it had but still there were issues and i really wish xie lian like,, reassured hua cheng about living his life freely at some point but whatever. 

IN CONCLUSION

TGCF had the potential to be better than mdzs, it rlly did but it was bogged down by the authors own toxic mentalities abt love, and mlm relationships, and treating women like ppl and it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I enjoyed this book, truly i did (otherwise i wouldn’t have stuck through and read 750k words of it) but there are some flaws that cannot be glossed over. I hope that tgcf when it does get adapted, goes through the same miracle that cql did and makes the characters more like ppl and less like tropes but i doubt it. Also i highly doubt that a live action tgcf is feasible given the supernatural aspects of the series but we shall see. I’m excited for the donghua when it eventual comes out but i will continue to be critical of the novel bc..well.. you see why. idk if i’d reccommend this book tbh bc like yes i would, no i would... well.. </3. yea. overall, it sure was something that i enjoyed in spades. especially the last 5 chapters. I generally liked it but had many issues with it at the same time, but honestly, yea thats the standard fair for a mxtx novel. 

What Is Love ?

Love.

Love means different things to different people. Some people say love is making your partner happy and seeing them happy makes you happy . But love, is actually a figment of our imaginations. In a way, love is selfish and makes us lose our independence. You make the other person happy to keep yourself happy, and you become dependent and vulnerable. It's a somewhat like a shared dream. And until one person decides to wakeup, and that dream, albeit fun while it lasted, becomes a living nightmare

1 YEAR AGO

For Harry and y/n; sneaking out of premiers and award shows,buying tacos and eating them at 3 AM was love. For them, love was dancing in the kitchen to Elvis and baking with each other. Love was watching horror movies in makeshift tents, snacking on caramel popcorns and cans of soda; all while making fun of Harry's "those dumb bitches" in the movie. Love was falling asleep in each others arms and reading each other books. It was dressing up as Disney characters and acting out scenes from their favourite animations. It was etheral, perfect. Almost too perfect too be true

People always said "Love will fizzle out. One of you will get bored." Harry and y/n didn't listen. They burned so fast, so bright and didn't realise that their spark too, like all blazed and sparks from lighted matches, had extinguished. One second it was burning so brightly, and the next, it was gone

..............................................................................................

"When was the last time you spoke to him ?" asked y/n's sister.

" A week ago" a distraught y/n replied. "He barely has time to even talk to me on the phone, let alone show me the sights and explore the places with him via facetime"

For a brief moment, she allowed herself to close her eyes and all the memories flashed through her eyes, like a movie roll, playing over and over agai

FLASHBACK

"Y/N !" exclaimed Harry, the golden flecks in his eyes dancing with joy. Oh how she longed to see him, feel him and be with him in real life , rather than on a screen. Yet she was eternally grateful for Harry for never making her feel left out from the tour experience, he always made sure to show her around, even if it was only on a screen, while giving tour guide commentary in a horribly fake American accent.

"You're in for a treat ! We're going to see the Louvre today. Come on an enjoy the sited with Harry's Tour Experiences"

Y/n couldn't stop laughing.

Being an art fanatic, she giving Harry detailed descriptions of the art, while all he did was turn it inti a joke. His put on accent stood out when he kept saying " Oh shucks ! Here's another painting of a few women and men fighting and eating." He termed an entire style of art; renaissance art as "men and women barely dressed fighting and eating". He made a few sly comments on how y/n would look lovely in that dress. It was so wonderful and each of these virtual trips was marked with his signature end. Going to a park, and eating the same food.

His laughter was contagious and y/n loved it. She wondered how she got so lucky, so blessed to have hazza in her life.

She never thought that this love, would eventually fizzle.

end of flashback

Now she was lucky if he spoke to her for 5 minutes. Even those 5 minutes were filled with her talking and him showing least interest in what she had to say. She doubted whether he even listened.

Today, however was a low blow. It was y/n' bday. had it been any other year. Harry would've made this day perfect. They had been together since they were 18. The first year, he bought her 18 gifts on her birthday. The subsequent year, he got her 19 and so on. He would make her breakfast in bed and wake her up with showers of kisses and a "Good Morning, Happy Birthday Darling."

Today however, at 7 PM , she was yet to have him acknowledge that it was her birthday. She was yet to have any sign of news from him at all. She illusioned herself, thinking that maybe he had interviews to attend.

Her sister, however, tired with y/n's moping, said" You're coming over with your friends to Club 22 this night or else I wont speak to you. I don't want you to spend your birthday moping around"

With great difficulty, y/n was persuaded by her friends to go clubbing. The loud music, the drinks and the dim lights were never y/n's scene. Yet, for the sake of her friends, she fixed up a smile on her face and tried to enjoy, trying her best to forget than Harry's call still hadn't come.

.......

It was 10 PM and the party was in full swing. y/n's friends were drunk, so drunk. Everyone around her was laughing, drinking and joking. Meanwhile, a new disturbing thought had settled in y/n's head. What if he got into and accident ? What if he's really sick ? She was ridden with anxiety and couldn't get Harry off her mind, until that one fateful message from Nezza, her best friend, Harry's PA, through whom they had met, sent her that message. When y/n's phone lit up and she scarmbled to see the text, hoping it was Harry, she did not know it would change her life permanently.

The text was simple. "I'm so so sorry honey; you deserve to know" It was attached with a single file of pictures.

She subconciously knew what had happened. She had seen all the signs, yet chose to ignore them, not wanting to get up from her dream. The reduced duration of phone calls ultimately leading up to a call a month, the regular excuses, coming home late, half hearted kisses, they all added up. For a split second, y/n wanted to think that it was something else; maybe harry was too drunk or had passed out in a bar.

The message to forever to download. It was so slow and painfully excruciating. It was like the calm before the storm. The slow before the fast. The light drizzle before the thunderstorm. When the picture finally loaded; her heart shattered ever so fast. The pain she felt was numbing, yet somewhere in her mind, she was gald that Harry was safe.

There was Harry, his arm around the small waist of the redhead, his fingers entwined in hers. The same fingers which ran through y/n's hair multiple times, were now woven in another's hand. She thought her heart couldnt break more.

Fate was not kind to y/n.

She swiped to see the next picture, and she wasn't sure how, or whether it was even possible, but her heart further broke. Harry was kissing her in the booth, their booth, in Alessandro's the place he had her first date with y/n.

Fate had evil plans for y/n.

Tears streaming down her face, the makeup for the night ruined, y/n looked around for her sister and friends but they were nowhere to be seen. The only thing glowing right now was her glitzy dress, the one she had been forced into. Unable to take it anymore, she ordered an uber and left.

Fate wasn't kind to y/n at all

The minute she left the club, she was blinded with lights, the flashes from the camera, and the shouts from the reporters

" How do you feel about Harry cheating on you on tour ?"

"Did you expect this ? How do you react to Harry kissing a supermodel, younger than you!"

Y/n wanted to scream, but keeping her emotions in she pushed through the sea of people, got into her uber, gave her address and broke down.

She cried and cried. The uber driver tried to ask her what was wrong but she couldn't stop crying. she wanted the pain to go away. she wanted to cry. But most of all, she wanted Harry to tell her that it wasn't true and hold her in his arms and tell her it's alright.

But it wasn't. it wasn't alright. Far from it.

The next morning after an extremly broken sleep, y/n awoke. All the event's from last night wre remembered and her eyes started to water again. She switched on her phone to see the hashtag #y/ndeservesbetter and #harryandy/nareover trending. She also so 100 missed calls, voicemails and texts from Harry but chose to ignore them.

Y/n was raised to be strong. She spent most of childhood see her mom struggle to make meets end. She had seen the worst. She was strong. She went over to the mirror and saw her reflection and realised that she looked a mess. She took 3 deep breaths, washed her face, and masked her emotions, just as she did way back in high school, before she met Harry, before he changed her.

She went down and suddenly the apartment door opened. There stood the man who she loved, the man who had broken her heart, the one who still held her heart, no matter how broken it was.

He pleaded with her to forgive him. He begged, cried, said it was a one time mistake, and he regretted it, that he loved her; but y/n turned a deaf ear to his pleas. Their love had fizzled out, and she was blinded by affection not to realise it earlier. And as the saying goes " Once a cheater, always a cheater." Y/n wasn't taking any more risks. She put on a strong facade, made up her mind and left, leaving a crying Harry on the porch.

She wasn't over him, far from it. She was so broken, yet showed no signs. She had calm expresssion, yet her thoughts were chaotic. But she knew what was best and she knew this was the right thing to do. She had to take the lessons from this experience and move on, just like her mother had taught her. Dreams end, no matter how amazing it is, no matter how much you want to hold on and live it, and this, her perfect dream, had also come to an end.

So, what is love ?

A dream ? A nightmare ? Soemthing too good to be true?

Maybe all it is, is an illusion. A fairytale. Or maybe it is the truth, because truth teaches us lessons and so does love. i guess it's one of those things which just has no answers.

author's note

AND THATS A WRAP. I DO NOT CONDONE CHEATING. it's something which definitely shouldnt be forgive . this the first ever imagine I've posted on my new tumblr. Please send feedback. Hope you enjoyed it. Reblog. What are your thoughts? i would love to hear them. Send requests for more imagines.

i should be studying but eh.

keep dreaming

ashu.

(here's a random B99 gif for no reason)