#he's honestly like this with most of his former drama members

[talkingbl]

GMMTV's Gen 2 problem

I am not impressed that GMMTV just commenced representation of BounPrem. Why? Because their priorities recently have looked a lot like this:

Gen 2 (or maybe stylized Gen Z? still thinking of a name for them...)

Pillars & Pillar-adjacents

Personalities (think Godji, Nicky, Jennie)

LYKN

Girls & Basement dwellers

Rookies

And I hate it.

IMO, Gen 2 is far too overexposed for the sheer lack of talent in their group. I mean out of all of them they only have, who? Fourth? JimmySea on a good day? And honestly, Gen 3 is already starting to debut in roles but they don't seem to get content that'll be widely received. And a lot of the potentially interesting stories (that inevitably get ruined by poor direction/writing) are being funneled to Gen 2 instead of elsewhere, where they belong... I don't mind JimmySea (and to a lesser extent GemFourth) getting good stuff but stop just allowing PondPhuwin, ForceBook, and JoongDunk to do whatever tf they want and start giving Gen 3 & basement dwellers something to do!

Pillars and pillar-adjacents are doing everything I want them to do (OffGun never unemployed, TayNew remarried, KristSingto look to be on the horizon). I mean, we do need to have a serious conversation about letting OffGun take a very long break...but that's a conversation for another time. Plus, GMMTV has turned around and given EarthMix a Japanese remake when they know they've been having problems with Japanese distributors...seems dumb to me.

The personalities will always be employed and, honestly, I rarely watch their content unless my faves are guesting. I like Jennie in a lot of the stuff she's been in. Plus, I feel like their content doesn't require too many resources, so I don't think it's a huge concern to have the personalities continue to stay booked.

But where things get interesting to me is how GMMTV seems to be pouring a lot into making Project Alpha guys into actors... Like P'Tha if you don't let those boys be tpop idols and stop shoving every remotely soft looking boy into a ship!! Nothing is worse than an "actor" who really wants to be a singer istg!!

And this leads me to another issue I have and that is how only like 5 out of: Mook, View, June, Jan, Ciize, Tu, Neen, Namtan, Pod, Thor, AJ, JJ, Luke, Sing, Pluem, Joss, etc., can get work at a time. Like I know they do het and ensemble stuff at times but it really feels like they don't get the stuff with the juicy marketing budgets.

Then there's the poor rookies. And I'm not talking new to the company like Sky and Inn. I'm talking about the ones who've been signed for at least a year now and only have, at most, support roles under their belts. These are the Javas and Indys of the world. Sometimes I forget they're even represented by GMMTV the way they haven't had a chance to showcase any talent.

And then there's all the new male talent who rightfully got lead roles basically immediately. Sky's in a homoerotic het drama with Nani. Inn and Great are practically having sex onscreen by GMMTV standards. Perth was basically assigned to a ship before he even signed with GMMTV... I have a feeling these guys will continue to get more and more roles thrown at them based on the success of their previous dramas, their acting skills, and the hype for their current/future ones dramas.

All this makes me wonder where on earth former Wabi Sabi artists fit in? As for Santa, I don't think we'll have to worry about him because I have a feeling he'll either be a basement dweller, get mostly het roles, or be paired with a LYKN member so he can finally breathe the same air as a functioning idol. Same with Yacht--except he'll almost certainly be sent to the basement for not having the GMMTV vibe (I'll explain on another post). But if GMMTV wants to cast BounPrem together, I feel like they'd have to carve out a space for them that they'd usually give to FirstKhao and pillar-adjacents like EarthMix. Maybe GMMTV can do that but it just doesn't seem like their bandwidth his large enough, nor their story selection good enough to do right by BounPrem. I hope I'm wrong but that would require GMMTV to care more about all of their artists rather than just Gen 2.

For Reference, when I say Gen 2, Pillars, Gen 3, Rookies, Basement Dwellers, these are the folks I'm talking about -

Pillars & Pillar-Adjacents:

TayNew OffGun KristSingto EarthMix Win

Gen 2 is anyone with a lightstick that participated in LOL that's not a pillar:

PondPhuwin JoongDunk GeminiFourth ForceBook JimmySea PerthChimon FirstKhao Ohm Pawat Nanon

Gen 3 is still forming but I'm including everyone who has appeared in multiple BLs but not in an established ship and joined the company within the last 3 years; everyone who just got their first ship and lead role; and everyone who recently joined the company who looks as if they're being prepared to star in a bl. NOTE: I'm not including Inn because I feel like he's more pillar-adjacent due to his age, his talent, and the fact that I don't think GreatInn will go on beyond Wandee Goodday.

Mark Pakin Ohm Thipakorn AouBoom SeaKeen WinnySatang LYKN (particularly Lego & William) Java Ryu Chokun Fluke Aungpao

Basement Dwellers include folks who have been at the company for 3+ years who have either been apart of several BL ships or who have mentioned wanting to star in a BL or who get fancasted in lead roles but never get the work:

Pod Guy Gawin* Joss* Luke Drake AJ JJ

#gmmtv #studio wabi sabi #bounprem #taynew offgun kristsingto geminifourth jimmysea earthmix firstkhao seakeen winnysatang aouboom perthchimon pondphuwin joongdunk #markohm nanon korapat ohm pawat win metawin greatinn jossgawin forcebook

[beautifulpersonpeach]

everyday i thank god hybe did not buy sm ent.

did you know sm is bringing back fuck ass lucas??? how???

imagine all of this blowing up after the acquisition bpp. i shudder just thinking about how hybe dodged a massive bullet there.

***

Really, HYBE pulling out after the reverse tender offer, resulting in them owning a sizable but not controlling stake in SM, turned out to be the best outcome for them as things currently stand. The drama isn't over yet though, with Kakao's exec team scheduled for court proceedings to resolve by H2 2024.

The only glimmer of hope for fans of SM is the debut of their new girl group later this year. In a parade of faux pas, this will be the positive rallying point for SM stans in 2024. And honestly I'll be happy to see it.

As to Lucas debuting, the only reason this is happening is because he's with SM. For as long as I've been into k-pop, during every major hate train on an idol/group, especially if it results in them leaving the industry/disbanding, it has always had one group of stans at the forefront. Because of their loyalty to the company though, they never reserve the same vitriol for their own, and as no other group of company stans matches their intensity of fanaticism, idols/groups from that agency are always rehabilitated. The only time SM idols have faced any real repercussions has been when they've fought against SM management and lost the protection of company.

One good example is Kris Wu, former EXO member. Like Lucas, he was very popular but also notorious for 'bad boy' behaviour, but that was kept mostly under wraps. There were rumors swirling about him for months on various forums, just like with Lucas, but it wasn't until he sued SM to break his contract and won, that's when suddenly people started talking more openly about his... tastes. Years later Kris Wu was exposed as a rapist in a separate incident, but the allegations showed a pattern that was eerily similar to rumours that had been circulating while he was a member of EXO, receiving massive support from SM stans. There's been a lot said about how several SM idols can do things like marry and have children, compared to idols from other companies, but the unspoken bit of that assertion is that no other group of company stans target people for perceived failings the way SM stans do. Like, even when there is pushback to SM idols, it's coming primarily from other fans of SM groups.

And if you think I'm exaggerating, the next time there's a controversy/scandal about any idol or group, pay attention to which groups of stans are primarily instigating it. I'm serious. Then come back here and tell me what you think.

Lucas won't have a smooth sailing debut, but the only reason he is being rehabilitated to this point in the first place, is because he is an SM idol. This is a form of Big 3 privilege that SM artists benefit the most from, given SM has the largest amount of company stans.

When I say the blueprint of current fandom norms started with SM and that they largely influence the tenor of narratives in fandom spaces, this is yet the latest example.

Lol, truly fascinating stuff.

Stay tuned for Lucas's debut single on April 1st :)

#kpop #lucas #hybe #sm entertainment #kpop fandoms #sm stans #fandom behaviour

[susandsnell]

Movies with Scarecrow vibes?

Ahhh, thank you so much for sending this! This might be long-winded, as I tend to be, but such is the way of Cranerot!

Naturally, Brian de Palma's Carrie. Aside from the plot and thematic matches almost eerily to Scarecrow: Year One to the point I'd be shocked if it wasn't a direct inspiration, de Palma's camp balanced with heartrending drama and tragedy and a horror where nearly everyone involved is a monster has Crane written all over it. I actually have several tracks from the score on my inspiration playlist for when I'm writing him!

Hellraiser (1987)! Jonathan Crane is so, so, so Cenobite-coded (highly recommend @acapelladitty's Cenobite!Crane AU, incidentally)! An old house filled with secrets, a plucky heroine whose sanity is doubted but who wins the day (at a great cost), and creatures that want to bring you to the height of sensation until the joy is inextricable from the anguish...it very much suits his more sensual reverent speeches/quotes about fear. "We have such sights to show you" could so easily be a Scarecrow quote, and likewise, "Eventually, the victim desires the horror" could very believably be a Pinhead line!

Since you mentioned it in The Most Poetical Topic, Night of the Hunter (1955) as a Southern noir quasi-folktale thriller absolutely suits the more charming, insidious iterations of Crane, in atmosphere, setting, antagonist, and in the themes of corrupted religion. The themes of childhood fears and defeating your demons while also struggling with their humanity both suit different phases of Jonathan Crane in his life, and the responses to and from the people he knows and terrorizes.

On the note of the South, O Brother Where Art Thou provides heavy atmosphere that give off Crane vibes, bringing a mythic epic to the setting of his backstory, with the music and monsters therein giving a good feel of everything that built the man and the monster.

Also naturally, many a mad scientist movie! The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari gives us a corrupt asylum director who torments his patients until he eventually becomes one of them, and Re-Animator gives us an actual former Scarecrow actor, Jeffrey Combs, in a very Crane-like role when it comes to being penalized in academica for horrific and unethical experiments. (It's even set in the original Arkham for which Gotham's is named!!) The Fly isn't quite as on point, but it does still give those vibes as well. And although the degree of 'madness' when he plays him is debatable, any of Cushing's roles as any member of the Frankenstein family come to mind since he's very much an old school!Crane figure.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984): yes, yes, 'look out for Mr. Pricky-Fingers', in the words of Codotverse!Scarecrow, but fear gauntlets/needles gloves aside, Freddy is the boogeyman who is literally fed on fears, and he much better gives the feel of a distinctly Scarecrowish tormentor than, say, your average Pennywise or other. Nancy's speech to him at the end is highly reminiscent of those who've managed to successfully stand up to Crane over the years, too.

Halloween (1978): On the note of boogeymen, and other than the "one good scare" quote you yourself have mentioned, I imagine Scarecrow to move and function a lot like Michael Meyers; slow, creeping, inevitable. Every kid in Gotham City thinks this place is haunted. They might be right!

For the pure fanservice of it/JonBecky vibes, let's say both the Lon Chaney and Charles Dance Phantom of the Operas, Death Takes a Holiday (1934), The Shape of Water, and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir inspire how I conceive of the more romantic side of our beloved Scarecrow. I'll throw in Silence of the Lambs as well, since that gives us an incarcerated evil psychiatrist meeting his match in an intrepid young woman involved with the law who he forces to face her formative traumas, but who manages to come out on top despite his machinations.

A few Hitchcocks, honestly! The Birds is outright referenced in Year One and definitely gives life to the visceral horrors he underwent in the old Keeny chapel, whereas Vertigo more in atmosphere and obsession captures a lot of torment he experiences. I also do see shades of crane even in Norman Bates' "private traps" speech!

Thanks so much for sending this along!

#scarecrow #jonathan crane #batman #bat-tag #cranerot #ask night #<3

[chibivesicle]

The sadness of Steven A. Starphase.

How Kekkai Sensen/Blood Blockade Battlefront is painfully realistic.  In the most banal adult ways possible.

With me going back to rewatch Trigun before Stampede began to air, I was itching for more work by Yasuhiro Nightow.  However, his follow up manga that started as a one-shot that became Kekkai Sensen/Blood Blockade Battlefront came out while I was in grad school and when the anime was briefly on Crunchyroll later, it didn’t ping me as a suggestion.  I’m very much a josei/seinen person with occasional forays into good sports or slice of life series, then shoujo and then shounen series if they have a good sense of humor.  Essentially, I need something like FLCL or Gintama to keep me amused.

With Stampede not meeting what I’m realizing were unrealistic expectations, I was curious and decided to follow up on Blood Blockade Battlefront (B3).  The title alone would be a turn off for me; I put faith in it that it would have that original Trigun quirky vibe.  Honestly, I wish they’d not have translated and told me it was Kekkai Sensen, I would have been easier to convince to watch it.  I watched the first episode and was already loving the style, the artwork and the OST. That OST man - so good.  And the VA cast - so many actors from Gintama and I was shocked no one was commenting that Femt, the King of Depravity, was voiced by one of my fav VAs, Akira Ishida!  What sealed the deal for me, besides the incredible graphic design, story boarding and attention to detail from studio Bones was the entire sequence in S1E3 - A Game Between Worlds when Klaus and K.K. go to the Alterworld following the former Soviet chess grandmaster to the Alterworld Mafia Don’s home. 

As the story unfolded in season one, I started to gravitate towards my usual character types; tough independent females and tall, dark, and handsome males.  Yeeeaaaaah; I love Chain Sumeragi, K.K. and Steven A. Starphase.  I also appreciate Leo with Sonic and Klaus Von Reinhertz is the best male tank character I have ever seen.  He’s so adorable!  And gentlemanly with his tie and oxford brogues.  B3 is a workplace drama/comedy that just happens to take place in a secret organization that handles weird supernatural stuff.  Seriously, that is a great summary and it is a great cast even if I’d likely kill Zapp and punch Brody & Hummer for being double ditzes.

I haven’t finished season two yet (I’ve watched through S2E7 - so no spoiler comments for the rest of season two or the manga please!).  But the character who ticks all my boxes is Nicholas D. Wolfwood - er - I mean, Steven A. Starphase.  Steven is the second in command of Libra, one of the oldest team members (over thirty), has a facial scar, dark hair, sarcastic, stylish and the team member; who gets shit done.  That peaking bit of a tattoo and his ruffly black hair . . .  Chain may have gotten Wolfwood’s outfit and is a werewolf, but Steven is the evolution of Wolfwood, balancing out Klaus’ unwavering principles, and willing to take on the role of doing the dirty work in the background which is necessary.  The body language of Steven is the same as Wolfwood, he’s a mix of straight lines, angles and noodle.

Steven is also paired with Vash - I mean - K.K. on missions.  Following the anime format he’s teamed up with her in S1E5 - Bloodline Fever where they have to fight a Blood Breed in a subway station.  Unlike, Vash and Wolfwood, K.K. is not keen on him all the time calling him black-hearted and giving him the mocking nickname of Steven-sensei (I guess since he is the logistics expert of Libra always coordinating the teams while K.K. is a lone sniper character).

However, despite their one-sided discord, the two of them work well together where he shows his noodle qualities saving K. K. and the young girl and her mother in S1E8 - Z’s Worst Day - Part 1.  Interestingly, Steven takes K.K.’s criticism rather seriously as he’s shaking as she scolds him . . . Steven takes K.K.’s words into account indicating that he does want work well with her.

Before, reverting to his oft “Now, now, now” line to de-escalate things.  The two also naturally balance each other out and communicate well with their options when trying to determine which of the two mysterious individuals is the Blood Breed from the India Gate.

They are also characters who are able to info dump quite naturally due to them being the most senior members of Libra in the main cast besides Lucky Abrams.   And the storytelling makes their info dumping flow with the story - sometimes they are trying to figure something out, sometimes Steven is pondering a situation. Either way it works well for the second in command to be the man with a bookmarked to hell reference text and even have a color swatch for a Blood Breed’s aura.  He also has lots of paper reports which indicates he’s the kind of guy who likes to read through physical items than scan a computer all the time.

By the end of season one, we know that Steven is for the most part, serious about work, a deadpan snarker, leans towards the more pessimistic side despite having hope for the future. e.g. he’d likely describe himself a realist as opposed to Klaus being a dreamer.

It gives us enough information that he’s been beaten down and is no longer an idealistic youth.  Take when he asked about why Leo wouldn’t accept higher pay despite struggling financially and comments that Leo is an upstanding young man.  He also originally was hesitant for them to even invite Leo to join Libra in the first place, despite knowing the value he brought to them, we know this is alleviated by S1E5 when he takes a literal beating to stall for time. Steven looks chronically burnt out - he is the only character who always has lines under his eyes.  His facial expression is rarely one of him smiling or laughing and he maintains a sort of meh or down turned expression when not dealing with serious work situations.  Even in the image below when he’s smiling it isn’t a happy smile, he’s thinking about the situation they are about to enter, looking back on the past three years.

His character is frequently shown with a cup of coffee - at the office, he has a blue mug with a red bottom that matches his shirt, frequently when he has papers in the other hand.  He will also drink tea with Klaus but it is clear he’s reached that working adult phase of life where coffee is fundamental to your day to day function.  Steven is also shown to down energy drinks in times of extreme deadlines as well.

Season two, B3 & Beyond appears to be a season of back filling manga chapters that were skipped in season one to have a tight story.  The one aspect that was a bummer in season one for me was how characters besides Leo, Klaus, Black and White got loads of development and growth everyone else was just in the background as support.  Season two likely pulled from manga chapters that were published earlier which lead to some confusing/unclear points for viewers aka, like why K.K. calls Steven black-hearted and the Steven-sensei nickname.  It is too bad they didn’t have these episodes earlier but I’ll take my character development background whenever, just give it to me.

We first get the explanation from Klaus and Steven at the hospital that reappeared about their personal experience of the Great Collapse to Leo and the introduction of Dr. Lucina Estavez (who should totally date Klaus) as well as defeating the Blood Breed that the two hand been training to fight.

The episode that really hit on my idea that there is a sadness to Steven wasn’t until S2E3 - Day In Day Out.  We get a few parallel story lines that show what happens in Leo, Zapp, Steven and Chain’s day where they are independent of each other but still cross paths by the end.

The first thing we learn is that Steven has an amazing loft apartment with a balcony and cool artwork and an Alterworld/Beyondian housekeeper, Mrs. Veded.  He emerges from a bedroom with a cup of coffee in one hand and the newspaper as he greets her.  With a genuine smile too.

I can look beyond his choice to put milk in his coffee - however, that goes against K.K.’s comment that he’s got a black heart.  I’ll excuse his milk in coffee for his stress and soothing his tummy.  The phone rings and he goes to pick it up.

We can still see the lines under his eyes so again, he is either always exhausted or we are to read them as actual wrinkles.  Maybe both - he’s older and tired due to working hard.  A rather playful female on the phone jokes with him about waking up early - at 11AM and it is clear that he hasn’t been up that long either.

There is a conversation about how much alcohol to bring tonight, cluing us into the fact that he’s having a dinner party at his place.  Which again, is freakkin’ swanky as all hell.  I want Steven’s place.

He’s got a carefree attitude as he talks to two different people on the phone about arrangements for the evening. These are not Steven at the office looks, these are Steven potentially having an outside life facial expressions!

When he gets off the phone, Mrs. Veded comments that he looks happy and Steven seems shocked.  She also noted that he seemed very stressed out and tense all the time and she is glad to see him not in such a state.

Since we know that Steven keeps a straight face for the most time at work, he can’t help but reply that he’s shocked at her observation.  Which is true, I’m sure Klaus can read him pretty well in work situations, but it is his thing to keep his cards close to his chest.  In season one, he is frequently the go between for Libra and the government whether it is the FBI, HLPD, the League of Casters and so forth.  Angelica’s comment of Klaus-san and Steven-shi shows that she knows Klaus from previous interactions, but the -shi on Steven implies that she’s never met him, but knows of him and speaks to him respectfully.  The English equivalent would be like staying, “Oh, you’re the well-known organizer at Libra, Steven Starphase.”  The point is, Steven is well known in certain circles and is respected professionally.

In season one, he was only happy when they were successful at work or his plans went well.  For example, his delight at how Leo was able to spot the Ghost Wagon and how he told Klaus that he needed to work on his management skills of others.  He additionally has a mix of a dark and offbeat sense of humor, able to laugh while Leo is wrapped up in bandages.

This is not a relevant image other than that it shows time has passed and I still want Steven’s loft.

Mrs. Veded has been helping him all afternoon to prep for his party and we see that he even gets in on the action cooking and wearing an apron of course.  He goes with his more casual dress shirt with no tie.  There is an almost excited look on his face.  I’d guess he hasn’t had people over in sometime.

He goes to let people in and he hands the flowers to Mrs. Veded (who adorably inhales their scent looking happy) and after greeting them, trips over.  Of course the friends comment that he’s been working too hard.  Steven, adulting hardcore.

The gifted flowers are placed on the table in a vase by Mrs. Veded and he thanks her for all of her help.  However, it is clear that he doesn’t need her for the rest of the evening and she takes her leave.

Again, we see another nice subtle smile from him here but something about it lingers, like he’d like to say more but can’t.  After she departs, he talks to himself about getting things started, grabbing a bottle of champagne from a bucket of ice and commenting they should get started.

The next time we return to his place, all of the party guests are eating, drinking and chatting up a storm.  There is chill music on, everyone looks fashionably dressed, wealthy - and human.  All of this gives us the indication that outside of work, Steven has the most ‘normal’ social group.  Look at his swanky place, the nice artwork, stainless steel fridge, kitchen island . . . yet while everyone is chatting merrily in groups we get a framing shot of him silently standing alone leaning into a column in his living room.  You can tell that every single individual except for him is talking with another person or two based on their body language.  This is such an excellent image and it lingers just long enough before it zooms into him looking off in to the distance with a wineglass of course.

Steven has such an interesting expression here, he’s got what appears to be his usual poor posture, leaning against the wall, holding the wine glass and has a soft but almost sad smile.  Wistful is the best I can think of.

The fact that his left hand is across his chest and under his right is unusual for him.  He rarely displays this type of conservative closed off body language, think of how frequently he’s got at least one if not both hands in his pockets.  Steven speaks rather casually and bluntly; I like to call his overall posture, noodle, which is relaxed and confident.  Yet, here, he appears much more stiff and is alone at his own party as you look more closely. Something is definitely off.

He goes off to get more beer and leaves the living room when all of his guests raise their arms to reveal biological weapons and tell him to remain in place, Steven Alan Starphase of Libra.  Love the use of his middle name for emphasis as well.  Of course he denies any knowledge of Libra at first before turning back towards them slightly.  Another great part of this scene is how when he walks the few steps up to his kitchen we get a glimpse of his shoes he’s wearing at his house party. 

They aren’t some sort of relaxed shoes, the few short steps allow us to see that they are his modified shoes for Esmeralda Blood Freeze techniques.  We didn’t get this when he tripped in the foyer, but this is now giving the viewers a hint that he’s prepared for a serious fight.

The first sign that things are about to go south is that when he calls out two guests for only just meeting this evening but appeared to actually know each other.

As they continue to threaten him, he concludes that they need to capture him alive; likely due to his role as the second in command at Libra.  This allows him to stall for time as he teases them to give him more information, by stating their bosses are idiots for wanting to capture him alive - as it implied he was expecting them to shoot him.

The framing for this entire sequence is top notch.  He never turns to face them directly while continuing the conversation with Ellen. She tries to threaten him to stop being all pretentious and that they’d have no choice but to attack him.  Of course he replies mocking them by throwing the question about it back at them.  The resignation in his body language that this is what is happening.  I don’t think that at this point that he can even look them in the eye.  He’s too upset and is keeping it calm and collected.

The shading over his eyes as he looks down, the slack shoulders, this is not how he wanted his evening to go down.  Yet, here he is inside his kitchen in a tight spot.  Or so it seems.

However, Steven is anal retentive when it comes to organization and details, and he faked tripping at his front door to use his Needles of Absolute Zero move on them.  Obviously, he likely did this at the beginning of the party for the rest of the guests being a good host circulating himself.  This also explains why he sent Mrs. Veded home, he didn’t want her to witness him doing something this ruthless.  Plus, she likely doesn’t know what he does for a living anyways.

The look on his face as he freezes them is so lonely, his eyes are closed and he’s hunched forward.  He may not regret his actions honestly; he had no choice but to follow through with this course of actions but that feeling of disappointment, sadness, loss, betrayal. It hurts.  Only after he’s frozen them all in place does he even glance back to them as his breath is visible in the air.

Once everyone has been subdued, he gets a moment to gloat over them and their mistakes.  He notes that Larry was smart to select weapons that could get into his building undetected implying that he lives in a pretty secure building and that Larry was carrying his weight funny for the past ten days.  He also tells Ellen that she tried too hard to cover the scent of the weapons with her usual perfume - by adding more.  However, she should have changed the scent and he wouldn’t have noticed.  After telling them how he figured out things were off, he steps back and looks at the group, his entire expression tired and blank.  More stress lines under those eyes.

His own personal clean-up crew is there to take them all away.  And since this isn’t under the guidance of Klaus, he’ll likely let those masked individuals use questionable methods to interrogate everyone for the information he needs to know.  Who or what is targeting him?  Why?  What do they want from him?  These are the sorts of things Steven has to know, but the type of things that Klaus wouldn’t be involved with due to his stricter moral code.  In this instance, Klaus is Vash, holding an almost impossible level of hope and goals while it is clear that Steven is pragmatic and realizes sometimes you gotta slog through the shit to get things done and protect others like Wolfwood.  Though, Steven would have been very upset if Mrs. Veded’s roast were damaged in anyway so he clearly loves her cooking and the love she puts into it.

The likely immediate reaction for a lot of viewers at the end of this scene when he goes out for some air is; Holy shit!  Steven is a total badass.  He just froze his entire dinner party and turned them over to shady underlings to pump them for information.  Badass indeed!

Yet, when I saw the end of that scene, I felt so sad.  When it goes to him alone along the road, he’s chastising himself for his own behaviors.  He’s leaning on the railing looking out into the night giving himself criticism for letting his guard down and enjoying himself too much.  He tried to meet ‘normal’ people who didn’t work for Libra and look what it got him?!?!

He thinks back to how he met various individuals like Ellen and Larry.  And that is when it really sinks in and all of its subtlety.  You think back to his comments and realize he had to likely know these people for a few years as he met them and slowly thought about having them meet.  To realize what type of perfume Ellen wore all the time.  To notice that Larry started walking oddly with in the past ten days meant he saw him walk a lot more for a decent amount of time prior to the recent days.

And then it sinks in - all of those people might have went out of their way to befriend him over the period of several years - for the purpose to kidnap him for their boss.  The level of deception, of effort.  If that was how he met all of them, it sucks so much that it could break someone down.  I almost felt like crying the more that I thought about the entire situation.  Even if they’d met him first to just be friends, it still shows they were convinced to join this plot to capture him.

Thinking about that hurts; it would make him absolutely paranoid to befriend anyone who isn’t associated with Libra and socialize with them outside of work.  But you don’t want to hang out with your work friends outside of work do you?  

The entire mood of this image captures his feelings of sadness, isolation and loneliness.  He’s the darkest figure in the image as the car headlights, apartment windows and orange construction barrels are more illuminated than he is.

The car turns out to pull over and stop as it is Mrs. Veded and she’s got her two children with her who meet him.  Steven smiles at them and they have a pleasant conversation.

The icing on the cake is when he thanks her for everything - she likely thinks it is about her help prepping for the party and cleaning his place.  But Steven is speaking from his heart.  She’s likely one of the most normal people he knows.  Oh, that smile and his smiling eyes.  Steven, you’re a good guy even though you have to do some not so great things.  You care about normal people, you know how to talk to normal people and you are not biased based on species.

Her daughter shows him the cat they found and he knees down to see them eye to eye and comment on how the cat is so cute.  Note, he’s totally channeling Wolfwood, by talking to the children like they are normal and then comes down to their level to continue to chat with them.

The bonus is that he properly pets that cat which shows it is happy.  Aaaahhhh my heart is melting.  I love it when someone knows how to properly interact with cats.

The episode then ends with Leo, Sonic and Zapp riding by, Zapp having a total meltdown about his eminent loss of his most important body part.  Steven laughs how his friends are having a wild night out on the town - revealing that for better or for worse - his closest friends are his colleagues at Libra and Mrs. Veded.

I’m sure that when Leo stops by to chat with Steven, they likely notice the heads of the two goons in the car and figure out that cat is the missing purebred and all’s well that ends well.

The entire episode was a wild ride as the different characters navigate challenges for the current stages of their lives.  The one though that stuck with me the most was how realistic Steven’s entire situation is, besides being a key member of a secret organization who can freeze stuff with his blood.  I mean more along the lines of what it is like to be a hardworking professional over the age of thirty. Trying to navigate a work-life balance and meet people outside of a school context.  It is really difficult and it makes his situation in this episode sadder.  He likely put a ton of effort into meeting all those people as adult friendships are bloody hard.  Steven’s actions were not out of revenge nor malice; it boiled to either something bad happening to him or to them.  He outsmarted them and won the contest but at the loss of likely a bunch of people he socialized with outside of work and clearly never told them who he was - with the whole working for a secret organization.

We can also guess that with his multilingual skills, like Klaus, he’s not a native of NYC originally and moved there to be a part of Libra.  Which makes his story even sadder and more lonely.

We don’t have enough information if he’s a native speaker of Spanish or that he knows it for his Blood techniques.  Zapp and Zed have to do theirs in Japanese (with very Buddhist undertones as opposed to Christian for Steven and Klaus) and they were taught by a mysterious ‘otherwordly’ man with a dark skin tone and wears a skull sooooo one can’t correlate Blood technique language with ones own racial/ethnic background.  All that it has revealed is that between Steven and Klaus, besides English, they can speak a total of nine languages knowing that Spanish and German are two of those nine.

I’ve gone off track, but getting back to my main point.  The entire episode fills in a few gaps from season one.

Steven does have a black heart - sort of.  K.K. isn’t incorrect, but he isn’t doing this all for fun.  He’s the guy who has to choose between two terrible options.  He is the character who makes decisions - very deeply thought out decisions for the overall good of the many as opposed to the few.  Unlike Wolfwood, he does not charge into situations and instead, does his research, assembles teams and will work himself to utter exhaustion to prevent disaster.  He commands others with a strong presence and organizes almost all of their coordinated plans as well as making sure they are executed properly.

Though his interactions with Veded and her kids as well as his concern for protecting normal people or other staff; he cares a lot about others. 

Older characters are more reserved. Steven frequently interacts with all sorts of people and is the contact point for Libra.  Everyone has his number.  He does not show his emotions easily and takes much effort to be convinced.  Detective Daniel Law is the one who talks directly to Steven while Klaus listens silently.  Though, as obvious as it is that Law is manipulating Klaus, Steven doesn’t say anything aloud and instead sighs and groans at the expected outcome. When Master Raju Jugei Shizuyoshi appears, it is Steven who quickly determines his identity, implying he’s done his research though it was still after the Blood Battle God utterly mocked both K.K. and him, the two most senior members of Libra. Yet, he holds his own and keeps his cool - interestingly, Klaus does not speak until addressed by Shizuyoshi, instead allowing Steven to carefully question him without being intrusive. A character like Steven also hits differently.  The antics of say Chain or Zapp aren’t as interesting or realistic as watching Steven lose it over making sure his computers aren’t destroyed.

He’s realistic even in the context of something like B3.  The burnt out vibes, the snarky comments, the confidence in regular work situations.  Steven is an easy older character to connect with.  And he’s got that twinge of adult isolation and loneliness where you wonder how you got to this point professionally successful, yet, somehow are still alone? What did you sacrifice to reach this point?  Was it worth it? I still have a few more episodes to go, but I’m curious to see how things pan out.  Annoyingly, the print version of the manga is out of print (throws serious shade at Darkhorse) AND they don’t even have it digitally for me to legally support.  That’s pretty annoying there Darkhorse . . . Yet so far, hands down, I love Steven’s character and all of his banal realistic flaws.  As life gets older, you have to compromise on things and his character is a great example of that along with the grind of working and being successful

#kekkai sensen #blood blockade battlefront #kekkai sensen meta #blood blockade battlefront meta #steven a starphase #character study

[fwb-anon]

the idolz and their controversies... part 1

because we love drama

i don't hate any of them btw <3 i just like to make the world as realistic as possible with people doing some questionable shit or having controversial actions/opinions at times...

gonna get beheaded for that but LET'S START WITH GOJO <333

gojo (ex... whatever the big jjk group is called, former tripleS + GG member)

he's actually fine, at least for someone who's been an idol + a producer for like... almost twenty years sheesh

does get a lot of rumours but we don't care about those

his biggest controversy is basically the one that.. he hasn't "fixed"... putting "" because truth is everyone is divided on this ("does he really need to fix it?" you decide booboo)

anyway, he uses aave despite being the palest japanese mf ever ❤️​ some black fans don't care, others do care, some non-black fans don't care (not that... we care about their opinion...), some non-black fans do care, one of the pro arguments is "well at least he uses it correctly" so you decide if you're pro or anti gojo now /J... /hj i know some of y'all are extremists

has been called greedy as a producer but let's be real he's a man so he doesn't actually get called out a lot for this + he's one of the most popular idols anyway so who cares (if it were a woman tho...)

okay so this one is actually fake af but he's been called xenophobic and racist towards panda (who's chinese) and yuuji (who's half dominican) because they had less than 2 seconds of line in a song. gojo didn't respond to that, but a week later the behind recording was out on socials and everyone was able to see that 1/ panda actually had more lines but got outsang by most of the group (understandable, he's not a vocalist), 2/ yuuji can't sing to save his life, so giving him one line was already very nice of gojo

okay everyone, you can breathe again it's over for gojo's controversies

shikamaru (from hanafubuki)

oh god where do we start

nah tbf he only has one big controversy and it's: he's sexist

OKAY SO technically he isn't anymore because he got women's studies classes as a trainee otherwise he was kicked out for being a sexist little shit

he does have.. "traditional" views but honestly he's also very open minded

got accused of being sexist because he said he "sees himself with a boring job, a wife, two kids, and his wife cooking dinner for him when he comes back from work"

gonna play devil's advocate and say that's literally how it works with his parents and they like it that way, so

also he said (after being accused of sexism) in a radio show that while that's how he sees his life in twenty years, he wouldn't mind it if his wife was like "no i wanna work too"

they'd just have to agree on a schedule and all, especially for the kids (he wants kids so there's no way he's marrying someone who doesn't tho which is... common sense)

jiraiya (ex wabi-sabi, now soloist)

he's not sexist but he's been labelled a pervert... ngl he does like to look at women's bodies BUT he doesn't make them uncomfortable... leave me and my old man alone... where is @sexygeriatric-retirementhome :( <3 i'm still working on your ask i just take years to reply

has a tendency to date younger people, mostly women but sometimes men (bi icon) <3

has had some ableist comments in the past, mostly when he was a teen though, and although he never addressed it he's never done it again so... you decide...

(btw you gotta realise bro was technically in the public eye from 1991 [pre-debut era] to... well... nowadays... so he's been an idol for 33 years so yeah)

has been caught with porn magazines on his shelves LMAO he's such a loser <3 he was a teen when that happened and also had a gf at the time so that was fun LOL

has struggled with an eating disorder as a late-teen/young adult, which led to him being in a very poor mental state and "giving advice" on how to lose weight. <- pls don't excuse that, that's just the explanation as to why he said those things in the first place ❤️​

he did talk about it a decade later and said he was wrong, also donates yearly to charities (mostly anorexia related ones)

oh yeah i forgot but he's also been accused of having predatory behaviour towards young idols (hanafubuki's neji, bureikou as a whole, kismet's konohamaru)

basically -> he hugged neji when neji was crying (neji was 16). he regularly compliments bureikou (girl group with the naruto girlies + AFAB NARUTO YEAAA), also has a very close bond with naruto herself since he's her godfather, DID talk about her body as in "she's growing up fine" (you take that as you want honestly)... did make a joke about naruto growing up fine but being so tall yet so flat (<- didn't phrase it like that tbh but that was the joke, naruto is 180cm tall and flatter than sakura). konohamaru is his nephew in this au and the way he's been teasing him or even hugging him rubs people the wrong way, mostly because of the previous things (for people who think he's actually having predatory behaviour) and because kono was 15 when he debuted. honestly idek, you make up your mind <3

gonna be real he probably has way more, he's been in the industry for 30+ years LOL but yeah brain is smol

neji (hanafubuki, soloist)

has had ableist comments in the past, mostly about shino's quirks (fyi shino is on the autism spectrum) -> owned up to it and apologised to shino and shino's dad, literally people learned about it because neji mentioned it during a public apology when they were having a concert

neji is basically if character growth was a person

bro is gay as hell (and dating shino!!!) but was homophobic so... character growth <3

honestly props to shino for staring at neji and thinking "i will talk some sense into him" cuz LOOK AT THEM NOW <33

a few fatphobic comments towards choji during predebut era too, but gonna be honest he quickly changed his mind and is literally "choji's husband" (and choji is his wife <3 <- their dynamic is light hearted) so ykw i don't think choji would be fine with that if neji was still fatphobic

again: ✨ CHARACTER GROWTH ✨

i'm hungry so i'll make a part two later

geto will be in it.. if i don't forget

#fwb.idolz #cw eating issues #cw ed mention

[ciaossu-imagines]

Personalization Prompt #1 – Eternitas

So, I used the first personalization prompt here for the lovely and incredibly supportive Lou over @eternitas! They’re an amazing person overall and I really cannot state enough how much their support and encouragement means for this blog 😊 I hope they’ll enjoy this prompt, done for the Katekyo Hitman Reborn universe!

Siblings: So, it’s definitely not a sibling but I’m going into this little fantasy and all these thoughts about your life inside the KHR universe with the basis of you being Brabanter’s grandchild, actually. Because of this, you’ve sort of known about the Vongola all your life and it’s how you really end up meeting most of the character’s initially.

Best friend: Tsuna, Shitt P., Kikyo, Chrome Frenemies/Enemies: Belphegor, Chikusa, Mochida, Bluebell Crushes on You: Fran and Lambo both had huge crushes on you at some point during their childhood/early teen years that they eventually do grow out of. First Romantic Relationship: Honestly, I see it being with Yamamoto. He’d had a slight crush on you for a little bit during his high school years, you thought you might like him as well. Though the relationship was very short-lived and didn’t work out, the two of you remain close friends. Lost Virginity To: Gokudera Married/In A Committed Relationship With: Of course, is it any surprise that I’m putting Gokudera here? While you do end up dating other people besides him before getting into that committed and long-lasting relationship, he’s who you ultimately end up getting and staying together with. Cockblocked by: Oh, pretty much every member of the Vongola Family at some point, Bianchi a lot, Reborn a fair bit, and sometimes even by Gokudera himself because he’ll have a sudden burst of inspiration in his head because you’ve gotten him into such a relaxed frame of mind that he was able to properly think and now must speed off before he loses that inspiration. Affiliation: You’re part of the Vongola family, a member of Vongola Decimo’s generation and family.

Special Abilities: While the former Rain Guardian Brabanter is your grandfather on the paternal side, you take more after the maternal side of your family who are all Lightning Flame holders. I do see you having a very strong Lightning Flame, with a much weaker Rain Flame attribute that you can eventually use after a lot of training, like at least several years’ worth. You tend to use the Rain Flame defensively and the Lightning Flame offensively when you do come to master the use of both flame types.

5 Headcanons About Your Life:

You might be a non-combative member of the Vongola during your childhood, but you are still a member of the Vongola and when you find out that the new Vongola boss to be is a kid around your age, you beg permission to go and meet him. When you do, you end up getting along surprisingly well with him and his friend group and because of that, you chose to stay in Japan and with them. Your parents rent you an apartment in Namimori and you speak to them, other members of your family, and your friends left behind, on the phone or via video call fairly regularly.

Namimori’s drama club was on the verge of being shut down because of lack of members when you arrived at the school. Not only did you join and save the club from being disbanded, but your obvious love for theatre and acting and your dedication to it does inspire some other new members to join. Throughout your school life, you and the club put on at least twice-yearly performances and theatre continues to be something you pursue even after you finish high school. Tsuna and all of the family members, plus your friends from the other families are in attendance to as many of your shows as they possibly can be. Reborn’s drilled it into the boys that flowers should be given to any actor before a performance so all the boys chip into to decide on a bouquet and Tsuna always presents them to you backstage either before or after the performance, depending on when he can get there.

You’re pretty good with kids and do help Kyoko and Haru out with the childcare rather often. The boys can sometimes take advantage of the fact you seem to be able to distract the more troublesome kids to stick you with Lambo a lot of the time so you and Lambo become really close, to the point where he refers to you as his older sibling and wants you and Tsuna to be the ones to walk him to school on the first day every year.

You have only gotten in trouble with the Disciplinary Committee once in all your years being in Namimori and you still thank your lucky stars it was with one of the lower ranking members and not Hibari himself, because the lower ranking member just figured your friends would beat him up if he beat you up, so you escaped unharmed in any way. If it was Hibari, you know very well you would have gotten a fair bit more violence, haha.

Colonello and Lal are both the Arcobaleno’s who tend to favour you the most due to your personality and attitude and both have offered you little training sessions with them here and there.

#unrequested prompts #eternitas #khr #khr reader insert

[straightplayshowdown]

Angels in America: In the first part, we meet Louis and Prior and Harper and Joe, two couples whose relationships are on the rocks: the former because of Prior’s AIDS diagnosis and Louis’s inability to cope with illness, the latter because of Joe’s closeted homosexuality and Harper’s incessant fears and hallucinations, as well as her addiction to pain-killers. The second part focuses on the story of Prior Walter, a gay man living with AIDS who has recently been left by his partner, Louis, after he could not cope with the physical and personal impact of the disease.

The Ferryman: Set in Northern Ireland in 1981, Quinn has swapped his career with the IRA for a life on the farm in rural Armagh. He now lives with his sickly wife, their children, his sister-in-law and nephew. The IRA murdered Quinn’s brother, Seamus, and his body has only recently been discovered. He was one of the sixteen men and women who were killed and buried in unknown locations during the 1970s. Seamus was apparently shot dead following Quinn’s defection from the IRA in 1972, and a threateningly influential IRA member, Muldoon, now comes to pay Quinn a visit. He is keen to ensure that there are no further repercussions to the IRA’s cause, now Seamus’ murder has come to light.

Propaganda under the cut!

Angels in America:

painful funny surreal and down to earth all at the same time somehow, even without being a landmark piece for me personally w/ regard to queer literature

The Great American Play. The definitive exploration of how AIDS affected an entire generation of queer Americans in the '80s, and what it left behind in its wake. Those more eloquent than I am will be better at doing this play justice, but my sincerest hope is that the sheer significance of this work is clear enough to carry it all the way through to the highest end of this showdown.

honestly the peak of modern theater 2 me. everything i write and create is in the hopes that i might someday make something that lives up to the bar that angels set. it treats every one of its characters with such depth and compassion and the world it creates is so vivid and fantastic. and the context in which it was created will always be beyond important to me like i don't know how to describe how important it is that a play widely considered an american classic is about the aids crisis. she's the blueprint she's perfect she's everything

genuinely changed my life when i first read it. andrew garfield played prior walter in the 2018 national theatre version and he fucking kills it. it's 6 whole hours of joy and heartbreak and, most of all, hope. stan harper pitt!!!

This epic stageplay has become more accessible since its HBO miniseries adaptation in 2003. It is epic, intersectional, commemorative of a collective trauma that had been silenced for too long at the time of writing. (also Harper deserves to be as much a Tumblr Sad Girl icon as Lana del Rey or Sylvia Plath.) 

The Ferryman:

Over three hours of riveting family drama that could have gone on another three hours and I would have been delighted. The last thirty seconds of this show will take you out. 

#round 2 #polls #angels in america #the ferryman #the straight play showdown

[goddamnwebcomics]

Gay People vs. Webcomics: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

This will be a different kind of article thingy. It is Pride Month, so naturally, I feel like I should talk about gay people in webcomics. Yes, I identify as a homosexual (former bisexual) myself, and also gay people have appeared most frequently in these webcomics.

The Good:

There’s a reason I wanted to save this article for late June, it’s because of Burke. While I sadly doubt we’ll ever see followup on his and Sulfur’s relationship, the little amounts we’ve gotten is somehow better than most of the shit in the mainstream. Burke and Sulfur weren’t in an abusive relationship, but their relationship wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. They disagreed with eachother’s philosophies which is why it didn’t work out, but neither of them carry ill will to this day. I liked Burke before but this whole scene turned him into one of my favourite characters in this comic. Burke starts off as rather generic gay guy, he has a crush on Matt and they never openly admit he’s gay, but overtime he not only becomes the most competent member of Matt’s group, he’s also excellent at calling out other people for their shit, like he did with Carson. It’s sad that someone as out of touch with reality as Albert could write a better gay character than any Hollywood writer ever combined.

Thankfully Burke is not the token gay of Albertverse, on the Kit n Kay Boodle side of things we have Squinx and Snowicet. Although they’re the only true gay couple we see in Yiffburg, they’re much more mature than rest of Yiffburg’s manchild population. They do get their own arc where they help Dee Muir to overcome her fear of boinkberries. Rereading that arc, they do both have unique personalities, unfortunately it’s ruined by Squinx putting his dick inside Dee Muir at one point but still, these two are way better than rest of the comic, and the only lesbian couples we see in Yiffburg are Bill Blaine’s rats and even then they’re bisexuals and do nothing besides licking each other’s pussies.

Speaking of lesbians, it’s time to discuss the bad stuff.

The Bad:

When it comes to LGBTQ+ rep, Lesbians are overused, not just in the mainstream but also in webcomics, and there’s a reason I’ve been calling them a webcomic cliche since this blog first started. I’m sure there are well-written lesbian characters but I haven’t run into one yet.

Arguably the most prominent gay couple in this blog are Spinnerette and Mecha Maid, I’ve explained about a hundred times why this couple sucks. Mecha Maid is more of an object for Spinny than a source of affection and it seems Mecha Maid lost all of her personality and ability to criticise Heather after they hooked up permanently. Outside of the times this comic introduces a homophobic villain, this relationship is no big deal. Honestly this couple is the biggest wasted opportunity in this blog’s history, since if Kraw wasn’t a hack we would’ve gotten a really tragic couple whose story we could’ve been invested in. But no, MORE PORN COMICS FEFEFEFEH

Marilyn here is not the only girl after Spinny’s clit, there’s also Sarah Nicole, after being indoctrinated into the homophobic church, we learn she is secretly a repressing lesbian, and in fact she becomes somewhat of a stalker for Heather. This angle of Sarah Nicole servers nothing besides making her another porn comic fodder character. It really is a shame because Heather’s chemistry is Sarah Nicole is way better than her chemistry with Mecha Maid, it’s one of the ONLY times she was actually likable!

But moving on from Spinnerette, it’s time to go into another superhero comic. Tsuki is labeled as a lesbian despite being fucking bisexual, and that shows you how much of a moron Dumok is. She treats Kriti as her “girlfriend” but they’re always fighting and arguing, they only bond because of Llew spanking Tsuki or something. There is some attempt at drama as the villain Bittersweet hates lesbians, but her only response to Tsuki being a lesbian is NOOOOOOOO and then she disappears. While Tsuki is one of the worst characters ever, the fetishist treatment of her lesbianity is expected. What I’m saying is, she could be WAY worse, how worse?

The Ugly:

For a comic that tries to be Mookie’s justice serving Banksy protest piece about the evils of government, sports players, paying customers and Orc Haters, the way it treats the comic’s token gay, Szark, is something right out of homophobe’s playbook. Szark starts as a depraved bisexual, but after his wife who tried to kill him dies, he develops a crush on Deegan. He somehow becomes a ridiculously exaggerated gay guy which is a real shame because his character is otherwise decent. He imagines Luna as a temptress and iirc, he has lewd fantasies about Dominic. But once Dominic pukes, pisses and shits his pants he realizes he no longer loves Dominic. It remains to be seen if he will be improved and become a decent character again, but I doubt it.

At least Szark’s love was never implied to be non-consensual, that is not the case with Bowser from Roommates, whose first action is harassing the hideous creature that is VeERGHmon and then he finds him masturbating in his room, and rapes him. And that’s how they fall in love. Yeah, even if VeERGHmon is a sleep paralysis demon he doesn’t deserve to get raped. This whole comic feels super homophobic in general, even the homophobes are homophobic! Wait...I mean, the treatment of homophobes is based on homophobic assumptions that every person who hates gay people must be secretly gay, look no further than Olly and Mondo. We see Olly in the main comic as a guy who brings a little bit of bigotry into the world where no women seem to exist, after an intense Rapist vs. Bigot fight the duo leaves, but Mondo has a pretty decent apology scene after the whole incident, which paints the duo as troubled individuals...and then an Addendum arrives which reveals Olly and Mondo were gay all along. I can’t remember why these two became homophobes to begin with but I’m sure the reason didn’t match any semblance of reality and psychology that exists. And the worst thing is these characters were actually written by gay people. I don’t think Spelunker Sal and Dreamous are “internalized homophobes” or whatever that stupid buzzword is, I just think they’re out of touch with reality.

And yet, YET, YET, these aren’t the bottom of the barrel when it comes to gay characters. For that we must go outside the radius of this blog, and into the horrible world of SuperSaiyanCrash. Yes, Cora Bandicoot should stand out as an example on how to not do a gay character. Cora is a nudist and a molester, she harasses every single woman she comes across, and there was even a cut scene where she gropes a character without the creator’s consent. She claims to be lesbi-err, lesbain, but she also ends up getting impregnated by Goku (Richie’s selfinsert) and thus raises two children, who also end up becoming lesbians. I don’t go “yikes sweetie this is homophobic” that easily, but I feel this character is so offensive the only way she could be more offensive is if she wore a blackface. Cora’s creator is a homophobe who only hated male gay people but liked lesbians because “they were hot”, which perfectly describes the mindset behind most of these characters. They’re stereotypical and presented as overly sexual characters, which has done lasting damage to gay community.

Thankfully I haven’t run into any “zoomer gay” characters, but that might change in the coming years.

#article thingy

[bigskydreaming]

Holy shit, I loved the first two issues of X-Men Red, but this third issue just......I haven’t been this invested in a comic, or surprised by the twists it takes, in longer than I can remember. Ewing had me with his S.W.O.R.D. series back in Dawn of X, but his plotting and pacing in XMR is on another level entirely. And his characterizations are just....*chef’s kiss* 

I will ALWAYS agree with the criticism of him being heavily whitewashed compared to his original design and depictions, but writing wise? THIS is the Roberto DaCosta I’ve been waiting to read again for AGES.

The way he played Isca, using the right of challenge by insult to force her hand, tricking her power into ensuring Magneto won his challenge against Tarn, even though he knew damn well how she’d react and what it would cost him......Sunspot is playing 3-D chess out here while all the allegedly more powerful and influential mutants of both Arakko’s Great Ring and Krakoa’s Quiet Council are puttering around playing checkers. He finessed this whole situation from the word go, and even played Magneto to get him into position (though I think Mags at least is very aware of that, and more than a little proud of his former pupil for that. I LOVE that Ewing’s leaning so heavily into their history together from when Magneto was headmaster of the Institute and the New Mutants’ primary teacher).

I mean really, X-Men Red itself is the book I never knew I wanted this badly until now, but its just.....its like Dune meets Game of Thrones but with X-Men. The politics and power struggles, the dedication to examining and subverting colonialist and imperialistic tropes, the larger than life and surrealist backdrop of Mars as a fully terraformed and flourishing mutant homeworld, the way every single main character has multiple agendas and constantly shifting allegiances, the intricacies of the actual fights between the MANY omega mutants on the cast, each and every one of them a potential planet-killer in their own right....

Not to mention the unapologetic over the top DRAMA of it all, lmao:

(Honestly, that’s one of the things that impresses me most about Ewing’s work with the Great Ring. How writers handle uber-powered characters while keeping stakes high and plausible, like, tends to be a very good barometer for their work as a whole. Its HARD to pull off, without making everything feel very paint-by-numbers and with no real risk or urgency, let alone just flat out unrealistic or riddled with plot holes. And not only has Ewing been juggling Storm, Magneto, Tarn, Vulcan and Isca from the start, he’s been laying seeds for Lodus Logos, Lactuca and some of the other GR members to become entangled in the larger plot as well. PLUS there’s the fact that most of these characters are now literally immortal and unkillable thanks to the resurrection protocols, yet he’s still managing to make the now-merely-temporary-deaths feel weighty and significant even without the threat of permanence. And I REALLY want to see Ewing’s take on Ora Serrata).

But like. There’s so damn much to enjoy about this book, I can’t believe its literally only on its third issue:

Brand and Ororo’s ideological war over Arakko’s autonomy and their constant attempts to outmaneuver and keep two steps ahead of the other. (Like seriously, Brand vs Ororo is fast becoming the new Xavier vs Magneto dichotomy for me). 

Cable, Thunderbird and Manifold’s subterfuge, working to undermine Brand from the inside, with even Nate and John’s ‘fight’ in the last issue having just been a deliberately staged bit of theater to sell the idea they hate each other too much to EVER work together against a common enemy....all while remaining true to the fact that its not actually a lie, they really do have beef with each other and are not remotely interested in being friends.

(Also I remain unapologetically stanning one Eden Fesi and I’m so glad his apparent departure from the cast last issue was just a fake-out and he’s not actually going anywhere. BEST CHARACTER IS BEST, SORRY NOT SORRY).

Brand’s blatant manipulations of Vulcan as she attempts to use him as her ‘big gun’ to gain herself an in on the Great Ring, now that she knows there’s no way she can use Ororo to further her agenda. 

Not to mention that every fucking time Gabe gets beaten and humiliated to hell and back, the stakes just keep rising, thanks to how heavily Ewing’s foreshadowing what’s to come once ‘the real Vulcan’ cracks through the shell those aliens from the Fault used to hide ‘his true mind.’

(And I’m like LMAO that freaking MENTALLO has a better read on Gabe’s real thoughts than Xavier. Loooooooool).

Magneto’s breakdown and the reveal of what really made him leave Krakoa and seek solitude on Arakko - how he’d hoped when Wanda made the Waiting Room, it might finally lead to Anya’s resurrection as well, but it turns out she wasn’t even a latent mutant, and there’s just no way to bring her back after all (at least not using the res protocols). 

The way this is juxtaposed later in the issue with Isca’s vulnerability when she’s tricked into basically sealing Tarn’s fate herself, and the fact that for a woman whose own power has made her betray her closest family in the past, no matter how vile Tarn was, the fact that they spent a thousand years fighting on the same side MEANT something to her. She’s not as cold and jaded as she likes to present herself as, and for a brief moment her mask slipped in public, and she’s as likely to hold a grudge against Roberto for THAT as for the actual manipulation itself.

The sheer fucking BRILLIANCE of how Roberto looked at this nigh-all powerful mutant who has literally spent four thousand years being known as THE UNBEATEN thanks to her omega level power to manipulate probability and ensure she literally CAN NOT lose.....and where everyone else sees proof there’s not even a POINT to challenging her, he sees opportunity and is just like....no yeah, I can use that. 

Like, what Magneto did in his actual fight with Tarn was irrelevant before the fight even began, because Roberto had ALREADY ensured his victory just by backing Isca and her power into inadvertently siding with Max instead of her long-time ally, Tarn. That’s so galaxy brain, I can’t even. 

afhslfhalfhal

Like not gonna lie....a BIG part of why I was so bummed when it was leaked that Bobby was just moving over to Duggan’s X-Men title, was because I had genuinely, sincerely convinced myself that he HAD to be the ringer Storm was bringing in to beat Tarn and take an additional seat on the Great Ring, because there was simply no other omega she could both trust AND who was actually capable of beating Tarn. His powerset is a beast and I don’t know that its a given that Magneto could have beaten him without the edge Roberto gave him. Whereas Bobby’s one of the few omegas whose own powerset comes with a built-in immunity/workaround for Tarn’s particular bag of tricks.

I mean I KNEW Gabe wasn’t going to be able to pull it off, no matter how Abigail tried to stack the deck in his favor, but I didn’t think that was where Ewing was going with Magneto either, not for sure, just because I think in most variations of this fight, Tarn WAS the more likely victor there. But the combo of Roberto’s insurance policy and how Max used his helmet.....perfection.

Also perfection? Magneto’s budding bromance-plz-let-it-be-more with the Fisher King. I LOVE their dynamic, and Mags is ABSOLUTELY winning the Magneto/Xavier break-up because of it. LMAO.

As for Tarn’s fate.....eh, its not the last we’ve seen of him. He’s basically the Arakkii version of Sinister, there’s no WAY he doesn’t have clones of himself stashed away somewhere, or some failsafe in place in case anyone ever did get the drop on him. Especially after Ororo humbled the fuck out of him in their duel.....that scene made it clear he’s waaaaaay too big on self-preservation to risk not coming up with some get out of death free card for himself.

But then, I’m ALSO not convinced that we’ve seen the last of Nameless. I don’t buy that she actually killed herself at the end of losing HER duel to Ororo, and I think she just faked it with that lightning strike before slipping away to recover and plan for her revenge another day. 

So I’m kinda expecting that some of these fallen Great Ring members are still gonna be out there, maybe forming a kind of Shadow Ring of their own, to undermine Storm and her allies on the GR.

Of course, even without that, Roberto’s gambit might have won them the Seat of Loss, but it came at a cost as it guaranteed that the formerly ambivalent ‘frenemy’ Ororo had in Isca, has now given way to absolutely-holding-a-grudge-enemy-for-life Isca. And we’ve already seen in X of Swords that ideally, you WANT an apathetic Isca who doesn’t care all that much about what happens to you after her inevitable victory. An Isca the Unbeaten who is INVESTED in beating you.....that’s something to be afraid of.

And lastly, but certainly not least:

I fucking love Khora, and I hope she takes Ororo up on her offer to jump ship from Brand’s camp and join her Brotherhood instead.

#X-Men Red spoilers #wednesday spoilers #X-Men spoilers #x-tag

[britishhusbands]

So the lead up to the zayn part was Logan talking about how Jake had an interaction with zayn in vegas. Apparently Jake said hi to zayn and Jake felt like zayn was being disrespectful to him which pot calling the kettle black but also just lol of all people Jake Paul talking about disrespect. But anyways so that led to the back and forth tweets between Gigi and Jake back then and apparently during that Logan claimed that their hotel rooms were right next each other and zayn was apparently screaming in his room and they could hear it. And then Liam goes on to say that Gigi tweeted about getting yourself a respectful man and Liam was that didn’t age well. Then liam went on to semi defend zayn by saying there’s many reasons why I don’t like him but there’s many reasons I’ll stand by him and if Liam ever had to go through what zayn went through and went on to ask Logan “are your parents supportive” Logan responded yes Liam said the same then went on to say that zayn didn’t have that growing up and that he had it different growing up. And ended with how he doesn’t agree with a lot of what zayn has done but understands why he is the way his because what he’s gone through in life to get to this point. What I found the most interesting was what he ended with is basically I just hope that the person on other side of the phone is willing to accept the help they need sooooo 💀.

But on a another note right before this part he got asked about if any of the boys got physical when they would fight. And he said there was one member that threw him against a wall and Liam told him if he doesn’t get his hands of him he wouldn’t have hands anymore to use. And I had flashbacks to when they canceled that one show and made up that Liam was sick or something can you imagine if that’s the reason.

uhhhhhmm ikr first of all going on logan paul's podcast is so.... yikes.... and on the content you mentioned like, like i'm sorry but it's just disrespectful to talk about someone else's family like that when you aren't in it and that isn't your situation and you /know/ people will be using it as clickbait. like yes zigi is a mess but also stfu cause it isn't about you so like??? just don't say anything. it's also clear that zayn's parents were supportive to him specially in the early days so idk wtf liam is talking about cause honestly it's lowkey like racist to say that specially with zayn's working class immigrant background. like that narrative was so heavily pushed by 1D mgmt when it wasn't true and it's annoying that liam is furthering that narrative. like liam has said some stupid shit but this is another level like where is his pr team please tell him to stfu

re: the fight that is interesting, i mean with the amount of times they were together 24/7 during the 1D days so it's not surprising to get disagreements but i'm curious was his tone more 'lol we get into fights' or was it more i will stir drama a was like 'ohh we hated each other' ? cause honestly if it was the former then i'd be pissed at him again as if i wasn't already. like i think we can all agree that we want them to spill the tea on the shit that wen't down behind the scenes before but being on logan paul's podcast is not the way, my man. specially when the other boys aren't there to defend themselves or to say their sides.

#anon #asks #SIGH #someone tell liam to just not talk please

[olko71]

New Post has been published on All about business online

New Post has been published on https://yaroreviews.info/2024/02/ex-fujitsu-boss-shocked-by-post-offices-actions

Ex-Fujitsu boss 'shocked' by Post Office's actions

Getty Images

By Ben King

Business reporter, BBC News

Former Fujitsu boss Roger Gilbert has told the BBC the prosecution of sub-postmasters was only raised with him once during his tenure from 2009 to 2012.

The Horizon team assured him the Post Office was managing the prosecutions “competently and honestly”, he said.

He said he was “shocked” by the Post Office’s actions and expressed sympathy with victims of the scandal and their families.

Fujitsu declined to comment.

The former Fujitsu UK boss shared his first detailed media comments on the Horizon scandal with the BBC. He chose to respond only by email to questions as said it allowed for considered answers.

He started his email by saying: “I am shocked by the Post Office’s actions in prosecuting so many innocent people. It is right that there is a public inquiry to investigate what happened and I am looking forward to their report which I am confident will provide much more insight than my very limited visibility of Horizon operations could provide.”

Mr Gilbert, 76, was chief executive of Fujitsu’s UK and Ireland business from April 2009 to March or April 2011, when he handed over to his successor Duncan Tait. He served as chairman for another year, before retiring in 2012.

This was a crucial period in the development of the Horizon scandal – the Post Office was securing the convictions of around 50 cases a year at that stage, accusing sub-postmasters of taking money that only appeared to be missing because of faults in the Horizon computer system designed by Fujitsu.

2009 was the year Computer Weekly published the results of a year-long investigation into the scandal, detailing the cases of former sub-postmasters Alan Bates, Lee Castleton, Jo Hamilton and others. It was a landmark report that played a major role in bringing the story out into the open.

“During my tenure, Computer Weekly was not a publication that I subscribed to and I was unaware of their campaign,” Mr Gilbert says. “However, I did see an article in another journal that referenced a dispute between the Post Office and a number of sub-postmasters.”

He says this was most likely a report in another trade journal, Accountancy Age, from August 2010, headlined “Post Office faces legal action over accounts IT”.

It describes how Alan Bates and the Justice for Sub-postmasters Alliance were preparing a legal action against the Post Office, which would ultimately lead to a win in the High Court in 2019.

Why were hundreds of Post Office workers prosecuted?

Fujitsu: We let society down over Post Office role

Fujitsu admits ‘moral’ duty to pay Post Office victims

Their story was told in the ITV drama earlier this year, which brought the sub-postmasters’ plight to renewed prominence.

Mr Gilbert says: “I discussed [the article] with members of the Horizon project team and came away with the belief that prosecutions brought by the Post Office were being managed competently and honestly. At the time I was not alone in this belief, and I note that the national mainstream media including the BBC did not report on the Post Office and Horizon until, I think, late 2014.”

The Today programme on Radio 4 interviewed Mark Davies of the Post Office in December that year, though the BBC had covered the story before. The Welsh-language programme Taro Naw covered it in 2009, and Inside Out ran a documentary in 2011.

Mr Gilbert says that the issue of the prosecution of sub-postmasters was not raised with him again during the rest of his time at Fujitsu.

The Horizon contract was one of many that Fujitsu had, in a business which at the time had a turnover of £2.3bn and around 12,000 employees.

“Horizon was probably about 5% of the total business,” Mr Gilbert says.

The current UK boss Paul Patterson told Parliament in January that Horizon had “bugs, errors and defects” from the “very start”, and Mr Gilbert also knew Horizon had glitches.

“I was aware that, in common with other complex computer programs, Horizon had bugs and I understood details of these bugs were shared with the Post Office so that the Post Office could take account of them. Speed of bug fixes was monitored closely by the Post Office,” Mr Gilbert says.

Mr Gilbert is not among the former Fujitsu bosses who have been asked to give evidence at the statutory Horizon Inquiry,

“This note covers events and perceptions 14 years ago,” he told the BBC. “But as we learn more about the Horizon scandal, I have become shocked by the Post Office’s treatment of its sub-postmasters. My sympathies are with the victims and their families.”

On the subject of Fujitsu employees giving evidence in court, where two former Fujitsu employees are currently under investigation for alleged perjury, Mr Gilbert said: “I think the Horizon scandal has taught us that if a business is ever likely to be supporting prosecutions in court, there is a need for the Board to review their implementation of corporate risk management.

“This is not just to manage the corporate risks in reputation, and financial terms, but also to minimise the chances of the business becoming involved in an unsafe prosecution. I’m not just referring to Fujitsu here, but any business that is likely to face such risks.”

Related Topics

Post Office Inquiry

Post Office Ltd

More on this story

Fujitsu: We let society down over Post Office role

19 January

Fujitsu admits ‘moral’ duty to pay Post Office victims

16 January

Fujitsu manager called sub-postmaster ‘nasty chap’

18 January

[excusethequality]

My 2023 in Film

Part 3:

101-150

Am I starting to regret listing all of these on here? A bit, yes!

True to form I underestimated the scope of this project. Also true to form I made it more complicated than was strictly necessary.

But in my defense I nearly started out writing little reviews/thoughts for each one, mentioning notable actors/directors, and putting in pictures before finally acknowledging that all of that would have just resulted in me not finishing it at all.

Link to Part I Link to Part II

* = rewatched

[++] = I loved it [+] = I liked it [=] = I am indifferent about it [-] = Not my thing [--] = I hate it

Click on the list number to get a trailer for it.

101.

Air (2023) ---Biopic Business Drama

A biopic about the man and the team that created the first Air Jordans. [+]

102.

Evil Dead Trap (1988) ---Horror

The host of a late night tv show receives what seems to be a snuff tape. In search of a good story she grabs a crew and attempts to track down where the video was shot. [-]

103.

Falcon Lake (2022) ---Coming-of-age Drama

A French family take a trip with their Canadian friends to a lake cabin in Quebec. While there their kids bond over a local legend about the ghost of the lake. [+]

104.

Ojibwa Warrior: The Legacy of Dennis Banks (2021) ---Documentary

A documentary about the life and legacy of native american activist Dennis Banks. [=]

105.

Terrifier (2016) ---Horror

A creepy clown kills people and generally gets gross about it. [--]

106.

Primal Rage (1988) ---Horror

A newspaper reporter got bitten by a monkey after sneaking into a university research lab and all he got to show for it was this infectious rage virus. [+]

107.

Horrible Bosses (2011) ---Crime Comedy

A group of friends all hate their respective bosses and concoct a murder-swapping plan to solve their problem. [=]

108.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016) * ---Mockumentary Comedy

A mockumentary chronicling the life of a former boy band member turned solo artist as he tries to recover from a slump. [+]

109.

Antichrist (2009) ---Horror

A married couple go to a remote cabin to try and deal with the grief of losing their child, but things get weird and dark. [=]

110.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) ---Fantasy Adventure Comedy

A party of adventurers plan an epic heist in order to save the world. [+]

111.

First Love (2019) ---Crime Action

One night a boxer and a call girl become entangled in a dangerous knot of yakuza, drugs, and schemes. [=]

112.

Peter Pan & Wendy (2023) ---Fantasy Adventure

If you don't know what Peter Pan is about by now, then that's honestly kind of impressive, and you should consider seeing the play or reading the book. For everyone else, this one was directed by the same guy who did The Green Knight (2021). [+]

113.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) * ---Comedy Adventure

A high school senior decides that today is his chance to enjoy one last day of true teenage freedom before graduation and he's determined to make the most of it. [++]

114.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) * ---Animated Superhero Action Adventure Comedy

Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man) narrowly stops a madman from inadvertently tearing New York apart with a device made for tunneling into parallel dimensions, but not before coming into direct contact with it. Now Spiders from different dimensions have been sucked into this world and it's up to a teenager named Miles Morales to save his dimension and the Spiders along with it. [++]

115.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) ---Animated Superhero Action Adventure Comedy

Miles Morales discovers a secret society of Spider-people, but soon learns that the cost of membership is higher than he's willing to pay. Now the effects of his meddling may have just destabilized the entire multiverse. [+]

116.

Parasite (2019) *

A poor family cons their way into working for a wealthy one. Now with a taste of a better life they are confronted with the reality of what the true cost of wealth may be. [++]

117.

Spider Baby (1967) ---Horror

Three siblings suffer from a rare condition that causes them to begin to mentally regress when they hit puberty. Cared for by their butler after the death of their parents, he has managed to keep their penchant for murder a secret. However, there's only so long one can hide a secret like that. [=]

118.

Terrifier 2 (2022) ---Horror

That murder clown is back! And this time there's actually kind of/sort of a plot. Also this time it's nearly 2.5 hours long for some reason. [-]

119.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) *

[see #114] Watched it with commentary this time.

120.

Moonlight (2016) ---Queer Drama

Over the course of his life a black man struggles to learn how to be safe, accepted, and happy in a world that seems determined to undermine who he wants to be. [++]

121.

Blackberry (2023) ---Business Drama Bio-pic Comedy

The story of men who created the Blackberry and changed the course of communication technology forever. [+]

122.

Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed (2004) ---Coming-of-Age Horror

Brigitte Fitzgerald struggles to keep her werewolf infection at bay, but a misunderstanding lands her in a rehab clinic. Between slowly becoming a monster, being trapped in this clinic, and being hunted by another werewolf, there's only so much a young woman can take before she snaps. [++]

123.

The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future (2022) ---Magical Realism Drama

A Chilean woman comes back from the dead and tries to make sense of the world, but finds her presence affects her family in very different ways. [-]

124.

The Revenant (2015) ---Western Adventure

A frontiersman in 1820s America fights for survival and revenge after being left for dead. [=]

125.

Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004) ---Period Horror

Two sisters in 1800s Canada try to find a safe heaven after their father and the rest of his trading party fail to return. Although they are soon to learn that monstrous things lurk in the hearts of some men and that things are not always as they appear. [=]

126.

All About Evil (2010) ---Campy Horror Comedy

A meek woman inherits her father's failing movie theater. But in order to keep it up and running she finds she has to embrace her dark side and create her own brand of horror movie. [-]

127.

A Fish in the Bathtub (1998) ---Relationship Drama Comedy

A testy 40-year marriage finally hits the breaking point when the husband insists on keeping a live fish in their bathtub. [-]

128.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010) * ---Action Adventure Comedy

Scott Pilgrim is stuck in a rut. But when he falls in love with the mysterious new girl in town he's going to have to defeat her 7 evil exes in order to have a chance with her. [=]

129.

Chile '76 (2022) ---Period Drama

During the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet an upper-class Chilean woman goes to her summer house to oversee its renovation. But when a chance encounter gives her an opportunity to do something meaningful with her life and skills, she learns that everything has a cost. And safety and freedom often do not walk hand in hand. [=]

130.

Mohawk (2017) ---Period Action Revenge

During the War of 1812 a Mohawk woman is torn between two lovers and how best to handle the war. But a mass killing will soon force her into the fight and one wrong move could have deadly consequences. [-]

131.

Shivers (1975) ---Horror

A man's quest to develop a parasite to free humanity from its prudish shackles has deadly results when it gets lose in an apartment complex. [-]

132.

Pusher II (2004) ---Crime Drama

Freshly out of prison Tonny wants to make a name for himself and impress his father. But when he learns that he might have a son of his own he begins to question his life's path, what kind of dad he wants to be, and if it's too late to change. [+]

133.

Slumber Party Massacre (2021) ---Meta Horror Comedy

An overly aware of itself sequel remake of the 1982 slasher movie of the same name. [-]

134.

Hot Rod (2007) *

[see #87]

[++]

135.

Calvaire (2004) ---New French Extremity Horror

I think describing this movie in a succinct way might be beyond my skills as it has a lot to say and a very dark and unusual way of saying it. Suffice it to say that it's about an entertainer who is traveling to perform at a Christmas special when his van breaks down in the middle of nowhere and...uh...some wild shit goes down. [+]

136.

Grizzly (1976) ---Animal Attack

I mean, it's essentially Jaws...but if Jaws was about a bear and didn't have Steven Spielberg-level talent. [-]

137.

Tremors (1990) * ---Queer Buddy Comedy Creature Feature

Two "business partners" in rural Nevada are all that stand in the way of a pack of monstrous underground worms that want to eat everyone. [++]

138.

Asteroid City (2023) ---Comedy Drama

In 1950s America an odd collection of characters gather in Asteroid City for a youth astronomical science competition, but are held in quarantine when the competition gets some unexpected guests...except not really. [=]

139.

What's Your Number? (2011) * ---Rom-Com

A woman reads a magazine article that makes her self conscious about the number of sexual partners she's had in her life and starts on a quest to investigate if any of her exes have matured since they were last together. [=]

140.

Elemental (2023) ---Animated Rom-Com

Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Currently the four nations kindofnotreally live together in harmony. Then everything changed when this fire lady fell in love with a water dude, which I guess had never happened before in the perhaps thousands of years these beings have been around? In any case it's all a metaphor for immigration and race relations. [-]

141.

Cat People (1942) * ---Queer Horror

An immigrant woman feels different from those around her. She tries to live a normal life in fear that giving in to her true impulses will result in her turning into a murderous panther. [++]

142.

Free Guy (2021) ---Sci-Fi Action Comedy

An NPC in a MMORPG gains sentience and tries to become a hero. [+]

143.

Wolf Creek (2005) ---Road Trip Horror

An Australian road trip goes awry when three friends find themselves stranded in the middle of the desert after their car breaks down. The good news? A local man comes across them and agrees says he'll give them a tow. The bad news? The man has a secret agenda of his own. [-]

144.

My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006) ---Superhero RomCom

A man finds out that the women he's been dating is actually a superhero. But this makes things awkward (and dangerous) for him when he wants to break up. [-]

145.

Highlander (1986) [Director's Cut, baby!] * ---Fantasy Action Adventure

A Scottish highlander discovers he's an immortal and is destined to embark on a quest across the ages to be the last immortal left alive. [++]

146.

Unwelcome (2022) ---Folk Horror

A British couple moves to the Irish countryside. But when they fail to respect the local traditions they might wind up paying the ultimate price. [=]

147.

Johnny Mnemonic (1995) ---Sci-Fi Action

In a future of technology run amok a data smuggler might have bitten off more than he can chew when he accepts to carry a highly dangerous package. [--]

148.

Sound of Metal (2019) ---Drama

A metal drummer begins to lose his hearing and struggles to accept a future so different from the one he had dreamt of. [++]

149.

Vesper (2022) ---Sci-Fi Adventure

A 13 year old bio-hacker struggles to carve out a life for herself in a future where the environment has turned against humanity. [=]

150.

Werewolves Within (2021) ---Mystery Horror Comedy

A forest ranger has only just started a new job in a small town when he begins to suspect that a werewolf in lurking in the town. [+]

#xcusethequality

[thethreemages]

Hey J.J., remember Prym Fletcher from the academy? What do you think of her?

JJ: “Hmpf, you mean that Fletcher? Ugggh, how can I not remember? -.- Lil witchy diva thinks she can hog all the spotlight from me in Drama club... like those dashing, starstruck roles were made for me, dangit! -n- ...but oh well, guess I can’t stay too mad if I’m the one making the records now, hehe~ ;p”

#the three mages #J.J. u a butt lol #he's honestly like this with most of his former drama members #Prym in particular just tended to get more on his nerves 'cause she was chill/usually quick to catch on his schemes :p

[imaginesforjohnnydepp]

Safe (Johnny Depp x fem reader)

for anon @kittenlittle24  @evelynrosestuff  

You ran your fingers through Johnny’s soft dyed blond hair, not saying a thing as he cried, and you felt so bad for him. A few hours ago, Johnny posted a statement on Instagram saying that he will no longer be playing Gellert Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts franchise, and it didn’t help that one of his former co-stars was was already speaking on it. You wished you knew what to say to him, he stuck his foot into that role (not that you watched the whole movie, only a compilation video of his scenes) and to be fired after a few days of filming? It was completely fucked up. “Baby, I’m so sorry they this,” you cooed to him.

You were angry for Johnny; he was fine to play Grindelwald when it was just accusations but when he loses a libel case (not a criminal one) now it’s a problem? And to fire him in the middle of production? You wanted to fight the Warner Bros executives, as in a full on fist fight in an arena WWE style. Johnny stopped crying after a while and he turned so you could see his face; his eyes were red and so was his nose. You weren’t the only one wo was upset over the news.

In the span of a few hours, the news of Johnny’s exit from Fantastic Beasts had spread like wildfire on the internet and his fans were pissed. #JusticeForJohnnyDepp was trending and you favorited and liked some tweets that came across your timeline; all of it was unfair, Johnny didn’t deserve any of this and the worst part, you didn’t know what to say to make him feel better. “Do you want some soup?” you asked in a small voice; your favorite comfort foods always made you feel better, especially when it’s made by a loved friend or family member. Specifically your mom’s homemade soup and a sandwich. Thankfully you made a batch of it the other night, maybe it will have the same effect on Johnny too.

In the kitchen, while you waited for the soup to heat up in the microwave, you fixed the sandwich, using Johnny’s favorite condiments and added two slices of kosher dill pickles on the side. He was sitting up when you carried the tray in the room, bracing his hands on the edge of the bed. “Thank you, Y/N,” he whispered, his voice hoarse. Johnny truly looked like he had been through the ring, like he’s been to hell and back, and in a way, he had. The trial had really taken a toll on him as well as the verdict and you tried your best to make him feel better.

“This actually tastes better on the second day,” he remarked; the power of a homecooked meal. As he continued eating, you could see him perk up little by little. “Really, Y/N, I can’t thank you enough for this. You’ve been so understanding these last couple of months, just tell me anything you want and it’s yours---” You had to cut him off, “you don’t have to get me anything. I’m your girlfriend, it’s my job.” You and Johnny have been dating for almost two years which definitely ruffled some feathers.

Johnny is older than you by almost two decades, and coupled with the controversy with him being an abuser, it was not a good look for him. You’re an actress as well, starring in a hit television sow and in one of the most popular and successful movie franchises as well, and countless other movies. “I really do mean it Y/N, I don’t know wat I would’ve done if it wasn’t for you.” He pushed the tray away and motioned for you to come back into his arms. “Johnny, everything is going to be fine. Anyone with a brain whose seen the evidence knows that except for a very disturbed corner of the internet, and they know that tis is just Warner Bros trying to save their ass.”

The two of you stayed that way for a few more minutes, not saying a word. In Johnny’s mind you were absolutely perfect: beautiful, smart, successful and honestly one of the most genuine people in the industry he’s ever met. How did he get so lucky with you? When you first got together, Johnny was a little apprehensive with the age difference and his drama with his ex wife, but you didn’t care about any of that. You just wanted to be with him. 

The relationship itself is pretty lowkey, with the both of you preferring to stay in with the occasional date night which is just fine with him. It was a far cry from his ex wife who always wanted to be seen at the trendiest spots and known celebrity hotspots in LA. Johnny felt at ease with you at once; you are so caring towards other people whether it’s your co-stars and high studio executives or movie extras and people who worked behind the scenes from craft services to the wardrobe department and special effects and editing. Johnny looked down and saw that you were falling asleep; you were too far off in dreamland to hear what he whispered in your ear: I love you Y/N.” Your eyelids only fluttered as you smiled a sleepy smile.

#johnny depp imagines #johnny depp imagine #johnny depp x reader

[aceopmari]

If the Straw Hats Had a Reality Show Dedicated to Pirates Headcanon! Ft: Law!

With how infamous the pirate crew gotten, it was only natural that they were soon granted the rights to have their own reality show, like other famous pirates in the Grand Line and the New World.

Get ready for Keeping Up with the Straw Hats!

Luffy: Whether it was his strength, or his childlike innocence, Luffy was a fan favorite!

He often ignored the producers suggestions to make the show more interesting.

Luffy didn’t like when the producers told him to punch a random person on the street when they were visiting an island.

Was not getting paid, as he owed the producers over 10,000 berris for punching the camera one time in anger, when the director attempted to take his meat away. The director was only making a suggestion for a much healthier diet for the star of the show.

Luffy also skipped out on a lot of confessional sessions. Mainly because he really didn’t have much to hide to begin with. But if he did go, it was mainly to either show appreciation for his crew or to make public declarations:

“Sanji’s cooking the BEST!”

“Do we get free meat with this show?”

“I’m going to kick Mingo’s ass!”

Zoro: The viewers found Zoro amusing! Whether it be him constantly getting lost, or his heated arguments with Sanji. The producers would rush over to him, cameras and all whenever they caught the two together.

Zoro was surprisingly popular with female viewers. They enjoyed watching him sweat whenever he would work out in the crows nest.

Zoro didn’t care about the show really. Just as long as he gets to work out, drink booze, and sleep, he’s good.

The producers always looked forward to his confessionals after he fights with Sanji:

“That damn shitty cook! Just who the hell does he think he is?!”

“That curly brow dumbass is gonna get himself killed one of these days!”

Sanji: Was angry that Zoro was racking in more views from the female viewers than he was!

Why him?! Why not me?!

He kicked the camera man straight in the chin when he told him that Zoro was naturally more popular than he was.

Sanji desperately tried to win over the female viewers by showing off his fighting skills or his culinary expertise.

He was excited when he finally got some fan mail from the fans!

It turned out to be from the okamas though…

If Sanji went to the confessionals, it was usually to cry about why women weren’t interested in him…or to talk shit about Zoro:

“Just what does he have that I don’t on this show?”

“Why aren’t all the beautiful ladies watching me?”

Little did Sanji know, he caught the eyes of Violet and Pudding.

Nami: An absolute slut for the camera! The producers LOVED her!

One couldn’t tell who was using who more. All that mattered was what would bring them more views and more money.

Whenever it was filming time, Nami would purposely wear a bikini without the jeans to draw in the male viewing audience.

Add the extra seductive act she would put on, and nosebleeds would cover millions of transponder snail television screens.

Loved to give tours of the Sunny and show off her designer clothes.

Would parade around the islands, using Momonosuke as an accessory to manipulate the fans into loving her more.

Nami LOVED to take advantage of the fanbase, often subtly asking for gifts mainly money through the fan mail she receives. Next to Robin, she had the most.

Nami became very vain and strict with the crew on how to present themselves for the camera and had to keep members like Luffy in check to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid to cause the show to be cancelled. But just in case, as a backup, she could always start an Only Fans.

One might say that the fame and fortune was getting to her head, as she would purposely start up drama whenever she was out on an island. Would probably steal from a city mayor if it meant she could get the fans taking for weeks.

Whenever she was in the confessionals, it was mainly to complain about Luffy’s or Zoro’s antics.

Would probably shit talk about Robin, although faking it the whole time, to get some drama started:

“Honestly! I wish Luffy would just use some common sense for once!”

“Robin thinks she’s all that! But everyone knows, I’m the prettiest girl on the show!”

“I’ll let you film me in the bath. It’ll cost you 1 million beri!”

Franky: Loved the camera! One sided on the producers part since they didn’t enjoy Franky’s sense of…ahem…style.

He would dance, be loud, or show off his cool body.

If he was in the confessional room, it was to complain openly to the producers on why they did him dirty.

“Hey! I saw last weeks episode! Why did you cut my scene out, bro?!”

Ussop: Although not nearly as popular as Nami, Ussop was interesting enough to get some viewers watching the show, even unintentionally.

Ussop used the show to make himself seem cooler, mainly through the confessionals.

The lies he told caught the attention of viewers worldwide, though very few could sees past his lies.

The producers didn’t care, so long as there were viewers.

“Yes it was I! The Great Captain Ussop who defeated CP9!”

“Wait wait! Cut that out! Cut that scene out! I meant SniperKing!”

Chopper: The Worlds Favorite Cutie Pie!

Choppers looks alone were enough to win the hearts of viewers! Mostly the female reindeer mink.

Combine that with his child like innocence and he’s instantly a popular household name!

On top of that he already has many sponsorships from multiple sweet brands. (Mainly cotton candy ones.)

Choppers pretty shy on camera and often does his usual dance when he’s nervous. The audience eats it up.

He doesn’t gossip. When it comes to confessionals, he’s usually talking about Zoro’s recklessness when it comes to bandages, or Sanji’s nose bleeding habits.

Jimbei: Not particular interested in TV or fame, but used being on TV to his advantage to spread his word and try stop discrimination against fishmen.

The producers found him boring and didn’t look forward to filming him, especially at confessionals…but at the very least, he was able to bring in views due to his former status as a warlord.

Robin: Had many admirers! She enjoyed being on the show. Often is seen on screen on a lavish shopping trip with Nami.

She does her part to make the show more interesting, whether it is be her dark sense of humor or putting her devil fruit powers to good use.

She once used it on a producer when he asked her to do something suggestive for views. After that, the producers never messed with her again, out of fear for their lives.

Not much for confessionals though, except when she’s expressing how amused she is at Luffy’s antics.

She may appeared to be calm and quiet but you better believe that the rumors she would stir up, would get the people talking!

Piers Morgans was having a field day with the headlines:

“Did Cat Burgler Nami Get Breast Implants?!”

“Roronoa Zoro: Honorable Swordsmen or Man Thot?! Gets Caught Sleeping with Wano’s Most Beautiful Woman!”

“Is Monkey D Luffy, Secretly Seeing His Crewmates Sister From the Germa Kingdom?!”

Brook: Fans loved seeing Soul King on screen. In some episodes he’s either playing music or he’s attempting a panty raid in Nani’s room. Which often results in him getting beat up by her every time.

Anything he says in the confessional‘s ends up with his signature laugh.

Law: Made a special guest appearance since starting hiw alliance with Luffy.

You can imagine his look of surprise, when the crew showed up on Punk Hazard with a camera crew and all.

He wasn’t at all interested in being on TV. His famous “I hate bread” made him an instant fan favorite. And meme along the fanbase.

He didn’t like that…

Law hated being followed around by the camera crew on the Thousand Sunny or when he simply just wanted peace. He frequently scolded the producers to stop or told Luffy to call off the cameras, but neither listened.

He only wanted to discuss the alliance plans in private with the crew and didn’t want the producers to catch any of it for the world to see.

As time went on, and Law was getting sucked into the Straw Hat shenanigans. He found himself wandering into the confessional where he would frequently complain about the crew. Mainly the captain.

“Mugiwara-ya will be the death of me…”

“Rorona-ya has no sense of direction…”

“How has the crew survived this long? They don’t ever strategize when it comes to making a plan!”

Viewer Reactions:

Sabo: Enjoys watching his little brother on screen, and always has a good laugh. Koala would often scold him for abandoning his duties to go watch the show.

Hancock: Would briefly abandon her duties as Pirate Empress for the whole day if it meant, she could watch Luffy on screen.

Took up most of his fan mail, and gifts that had meat.

Hancock would be envious of Nami and Robin on her screen, wishing she was their with Luffy.

Mihawk: Reality shows weren’t his usual choice of television entertainment, but he did watch, soley to watch over Zoro’s progress as a swordsmen. He would lie if Perona asked him if he found what he saw the slightest bit amusing.

Ace: He got a kick out watching his little brother on screen. Often laughing at Luffy’s antics. He saw that Luffy’s crew was slowly riding in more views on the reality show The WhiteBeard Pirates had. Ace wasn’t too worried but he knew he had to step it up.

Shanks: Often shaking his head and smiling in amusement at the sight of Luffy on screen. Would sometimes watch the show with Ace as the two spoke fondly of him.

Big Mom: Was furious that Luffy was racking in more views than her crew combined. Everyone used to love Big Mom’s wedding cake special episodes.

“MUGIWARAAAAA!” *Smashes TV*

Garp: Nearly choked on his crackers at the sight of his crazy grandson invading his screen.

“LUFFY NOOOOOO!”

Smoker: If any marine soldier was caught watching, Keeping Up with the Straw Hats, you better believe that he’ll would be raised at HQ. in secret though, he would watch it. Not for entertainment, but more so to study the Straw Hats moves.

Buggy: Screeching out in jealously seeing Straw Hat Luffy was popular enough to be given his own show and not him.

Kid: Was sitting at a bar one night and spat out his drink in anger at the sight of Straw Hat on his screen.

Nearly popped a blood vessel when he saw Law on screen.

“The hell?! Even Trafalgar?! How come those bastards get their own show?!”

Killer remained silent. He knew the reason why the Kid Pirates never picked up the rights to a pirate reality show was because of how scary Kid was.

Dragon: Used the show as a way to keep up with his son. Although in secret, since he didn’t want his army to notice.

Germa 66: Mixed reactions.

“That’s no son of mine.” Judge would say.

Reiju giggled at the sight of the screen. After a mission, she would look forward to watching the show to see her brother.

Ichiji, Niji, and Yonji expressed annoyance and criticized Sanji. Although would never admit that they were each jealous that Sanji got to be on a reality show instead of the Germa Kingdom itself.

Yamato: Wants to be on the show. Not for the fame, but mainly to spread the word and tell the world what a horrible father, Kaido is and spread Oden’s legacy to the world.

#one piece imagines #one piece headcanons #one piece headcanon #one piece masterlist #one piece x reader #zoro x reader #sanji x reader #luffy x reader #one piece scenario #sabo x reader #ace x reader #straw hats #trafalgar law #law x reader #big mom #smoker x reader

[shijiujun]

Time for some BL/Danmei novel recs! 

You guys have probably (maybe) seen my novels list here - [X] - but it’s more for my own tracking than anything else, so here’s a brief list (I’ll probably do full ones of the ones I really love in another post, probably on Minmo).

The ones elaborated on below with the asterisks are the novels I’ve actually finished reading.

*since everyone more or less knows MXTX’s works - TGCF, MDZS and SVSSS, I’ll skip those!

1. SCI 迷案集 | SCI Mystery Series by 耳雅*

Summary: Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao are childhood friends and rivals that end up working together under the newly established SCI unit as co-leads, with Bai Yutang providing the brawn as Captain and Zhan Zhao the brains as Vice Captain and the team’s resident genius psychologist. They solve cases together and slowly unravel a wider conspiracy that involves their parents’ generation and beyond. At the same time they also realize that they’re meant for each other!

Other CPs: Bai Jintang (Bai Yutang’s older brother) & the medical examiner, Gongsun Ce, Bai Chi (Bai Yutang’s younger cousin) & magician Zhao Zhen, and at least three other gay pairings, one of which is considered another main couple of sorts from Vol. 2 onwards

Status: Incomplete (Began in 2010, author is still going on strong with one chapter every one or two months, we’re halfway through Vol. 5 right now and it’s been 10 years ;-; Love that the author is going on strong!! Everyone on JJWXC are like “please author it’s okay if you go slow as long as you keep going we’re here for you” and jfc I understand the fear of this not completing, also when will Vol. 5 be completed and printed?!! I need to complete the collection)

Translations: Unfortunately, only the first volume has been translated well so far on novel updates. The one on Wattpad seems to have caught up, but I would not recommend that one.

Drama/Live-Action: Season 1 was filmed and released in 2018 under the same name with slightly changed names for the characters. Season 2 was supposed to start filming this month but... oh well. First season basically covered Vol. 1 novel from start to end.

*I love this one only because it was my very first danmei and so it’ll forever have a special place in my heart, and also because it’s still ongoing so ya know, I relive how much I love this every month

2. 成化十四年 | Cheng Hua’s Fourteenth Year (The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty) by 梦溪石*

Summary: Tang Fan, a prefectural judge, and Sui Zhou, a high ranking officer in the Embroidered Uniform Guards, meet while trying to solve a murder case. Both of them end up partnering very well together, Sui Zhou ends up inviting Tang Fan to live with him, and the rest is history. Through their days living together and solving cases + a larger conspiracy involving the royal palace, they fall in love. Adding to this mix is also Wang Zhi, a powerful, young eunuch who befriends the pair, and the three of them basically help the crown prince to overcome challenges and his enemies to become the next Emperor

Other CPs: None XD

Status: Complete!

Translations: Ongoing on several websites. I’m only translating relationship highlights, but here’s an introduction post I did for it, if you guys would like somewhere to start without getting too invested - [X]

Drama/Live-Action: The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty was released earlier this year, directed by Jackie Chan and starring Darren Chen and Paul Fu, but cases are a little different and there are new characters in the show that weren’t from the novel etc.

3. 杀破狼 | Shapolang by Priest*

Summary: Set in a steampunk universe where flying boats named ‘kites’ and flying armour exist. Young teenager Chang Geng lives with his mother and stepfather - the former abuses him and the latter neglects him, and the only person that he cares about (and cares about him) is Shen Shiliu, his (very young) godfather. He realizes his identity as a royal prince when the Man tribe invades his city and Shen Shiliu, whose real name is Gu Yun, turns out to be an army general whose duty was to protect Chang Geng in secret (among other things). 

Chang Geng has been critically poisoned by his mother (who’s not actually his birth mother, if I recall she’s an aunt) which leads to him getting terrible dreams frequently with the end result of him being driven into insanity, while Gu Yun is half blind, half deaf due to poisoning + injury when he was much younger, and he can only regain his hearing and sight fully when he takes a medicine that is slowly losing its effectiveness with every dosage he has.

The both of them navigate learning about each other again, falling in love a few years later when Chang Geng is all grown up and also unravel conspiracies and fight bad guys (both external threats and internal as in the current Emperor and other parties) XD

*Note: The age old debate is that Gu Yun ‘preyed’ on and also ‘groomed’ Chang Geng, but I disagree and stand by the fact that Gu Yun was 90% of the time not around while Chang Geng grew from a teenager to a young adult as he was fighting wars elsewhere, while Chang Geng refused to stay at the Gu manor and insisted on running around, travelling on his own and seeing the world for a few years before they met again. And it was Chang Geng who’d always loved Gu Yun and devoted himself to caring about him, making advances on him etc. when he became an adult

Other CPs: Shen Yi (Gu Yun’s second-in-command) & Chen Qingxu (a renowned physician who ends up healing both Chang Geng and Gu Yun of their ailments) 

Status: Complete!

Translations: Fully translated the last I heard, it’s up there in the list of holy grail BL/danmei novels, so I’m sure it’s done hahaha.

Drama/Live-Action: Filming in progress!

*This is up there in the hall of fame for danmei novels for more than just the amazing content and writing - It’s also famous for being one of the most complex novels ever. I don’t know how the translations team did it because DAMN it was complex and I read all my novels in Chinese without much issues but I was honestly STRUGGLING WITH this one and I went through some existential crisis while reading because I was like ‘did I ever learn Chinese, am I even Chinese’ XD

4. 默读 | Silent Reading by Priest*

Summary: Luo Wenzhou, a police captain, and his team including best friend and partner Tao Ran, face a few challenging cases that end up being small parts of a larger conspiracy, and end up having to consult with Fei Du, a flamboyant, charming and flirty, young and rich CEO, who Luo Wenzhou describes as someone who is an expert at ‘crimes’. Not deduction, not solving crimes, but someone who is familiar with how the murderer or culprits would commit crimes. Both Luo Wenzhou and Tao Ran know Fei Du well, because they first met when Fei Du was in high school, when he called the police because his mother had hanged herself in the house, and since then Tao Ran and Luo Wenzhou look out for him, spending holidays with him, giving him presents here and there. Luo Wenzhou and Fei Du overcome their misunderstandings of each other and fall in love while solving all the cases and the larger conspiracy behind it.

Other CPs: Tao Ran and someone he knew first from his school days or was a neighbour when he was younger, I can’t remember, but they meet again at a blind date and end up living in the same building on different floors XD

Status: Complete!

Translations: Complete!! There’s a huge post floating around on Tumblr with all the links (I can’t find it right now) and on Twitter you can also find the collated, epub versions etc.

Drama/Live-Action: Rights for a live-action was signed, no casting confirmation or set dates yet

5. 犯罪心理 | Criminal Psychology by 长洱*

Summary: Police captain Xing Conglian drags psychologist Lin Chen out of seclusion/hiding to solve a case that is indirectly tied to him. Lin Chen was involved in a case a few years ago that led to four deaths - these four victims were the sons/daughters of four of the five huge old-money (super rich) families in the country and these family members sought to make Lin Chen’s life very difficult for him afterwards by making him lose all the jobs he can find, by surveilling his every move and ensuring that he’s not happy etc. Because of that, he backed out of the police force as well and quietly lived as a school dorm administrator, which is where Xing Conglian finds him a few years later. Lin Chen fakes his death after the first case (not deliberately but kind of a by-the-way thing), but as fate would have it, he ends up meeting Xing Conglian on another case, and he decides that he’ll move in with him and also involve himself again, consequences be damned, and they fall in love!

Other CPs: None XD

Status: Complete!

Translations: I think it’s not complete yet.

Drama/Live-Action: None that I know of.

6. 死亡万花筒 | Kaleidoscope of Death by 西子绪* (MY ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE)

Summary: Supernatural setting where people who are about to die get a second chance to live. These individuals are either in the midst of a dangerous situation (for e.g. a shootout or a deadly mugging incident) or are about to get into accidents (for e.g. an entire bus going off a bridge or a chandelier dropping from above and crushing the person underneath) or are ill (recently diagnosed with cancer or are terminally ill with a condition for e.g.) - The list is endless, and in the situation between life and death, 12 doors will appear before them. 

It is said that once these individuals finish all 12 doors, they will truly get a second chance at life and survive whatever cause of death they were imminently facing. 

Each door represents a creepy, supernatural mystery, and Lin Qiushi finds himself in a strange place after opening a door when he was trying to enter his apartment one day. He meets Ruan Baijie, a beautiful, tall woman who he happens to meet, and they realize that in this strange world, he and other individuals who came through the door have to complete a given task, find a key and an exit door, and make it out alive. The others in the team (some of which have already gone through several doors) explain to Lin Qiushi, who is a first-timer, what the doors are about. 

The catch is, if they die inside the door, in the real world, they’ll die immediately, by accident, throwing themselves off a building, or just throwing up blood until they die (just to name a few)

On the first night, however, three people are slaughtered and eaten by a long-haired ghost/creature. The good news is, Ruan Baijie isn’t all that she seems to be (for one, she’s not exactly a woman) and she takes a liking to Lin Qiushi immediately.

Other CPs: None XD

Status: Complete!

Translations: I think it’s not complete yet!

Drama/Live-Action: None that I know of, but honestly, this novel would be fricking EPIC as a live-action, and really creepy, but this is my all-time favourite novel, I kid you not!!!!

*I’m definitely doing a longer and more detailed to-read for KOD on my translation account, gosh you guys have no idea how much I love this.

7. 当年万里觅封侯 | Those Years in Quest of Honor Mine by 漫漫何其多

Summary: Yu She and Gu Wan were close friends for a short period of time when they were younger, but unfortunately their identities and positions meant that they were opponents. Yu She’s family was for the Second Prince and Gu Wan was taken in by the Sixth Prince’s family, but in the end it was the Second Prince who ended up getting to the throne, while the Sixth Prince was accused of treason and died somewhere far away at war after being captured. Gu Wan’s only wish was to keep the Fifth Prince’s children - Xuan Rui and a pair of twins, Xuan Yu and Xuan Congxin safe, and so he moves them to another province and asks the Emperor (the Second Prince) to demote Xuan Rui’s status to prove that they are no threat to the Emperor, if only to stay alive for another day.

However, their days of hardship have only just begun, and Gu Wan decides to namedrop Yu She, whose family is so powerful now, and claims that Yu She loves him and that he was wooing Gu Wan back in the days they knew each other so that officials and others would treat the children under his care better. A few years pass and Yu She doesn’t expose Gu Wan. Gu Wan thinks they can go on like this forever, until the Emperor asks Xuan Rui and the twins to head back to the palace for a visit.

Gu Wan meets Yu She again, but the boy he knew, who was gentle, a stickler for rules and a proper, well-mannered person, has changed almost completely. Cue palace conspiracies again, brothers fighting for the throne, scheming consorts etc. XD 

Other CPs: None XD

Status: Complete!

Translations: I think it’s not complete yet but I’m not super sure on this

Drama/Live-Action: None that I know of!

*They came out with a new reprint edition three days ago and it’s gorgeous! And comes with amazing freebies, and I am a sucker and read it on the day of the printed novel release because I saw the art and loved it, wanted to see if the story was any good, and damn after chapter 2 I WAS GONE and then I checked out two copies from different stores for the two different sets of freebies 

--

A list of those I haven’t read but I see are highly raved about:

1. 二哈和他的白猫师尊 | The Husky & His White Cat Shizun by Meatbun

- I’ve already been spoiled and I know what goes on mostly, and there are a lot of warnings for a reason, but I’m still a fan, and let’s not get into the debate on the content, I know I have to read this but the angst level is apparently ridiculous, so I need like some mental preparation before I sit down for it.

2. 千秋 | A Thousand Autumns by 梦溪石

3. 烈火浇愁 | Lie Huo Jiao Chou by Priest

4. 将进酒 | Qiang Jing Jiu by 唐酒卿

- A really good group of translators picked this up initially on Twitter, but then assholes were complaining that they were being too slow and insisting that machine translation (MTL) did an equally good and faster job, so the OG dropped it, and then another nice team picked it up, but MTL team is still being an asshole XD I’ve heard really good things about this one, it’s apparently quite complex as well, I’d liken it to Shapolang level? But it might be even more complex (with a lot of politics and stuff), so much so that apparently the printed novel comes with a relationship/character chart so readers are at any point in time clear on the characters which is like amazing XD

#danmei #bl novels #novel recs #sci谜案集 #kaleidoscope of death #silent reading #shapolang #犯罪心理 #成化十四年 #the sleuth of ming dynasty #2ha #priest #梦溪石 #meatbun #西子绪 #耳雅 #长洱