#it is very difficult to convey nuance in a couple of drawings or posts about a character

[mewguca]

1 and 22!!

1. Could be a lot of characters really but I guess the main two are both good candidates here

though of course everyone's interpretations are gonna be different and headcanons influence that a lot too!

I think a lot of people tend to write off the depth of these two though, and not necessarily on purpose...

A lot of people think of Moon as being the sweet type who's secretly scary when mad and super strong blablabla but...like

she wasn't able to stand up to her own brother until it was too late...She's a very passive person. She kept trying passive means of getting him to stop until she finally forced a communication that just resulted in him getting mad at her and blaming her for ruining everything...as an admin over Pebbles she realistically had the power to try to stop things much sooner or more forcefully

but she just isn't really a forceful person...she isn't secretly really powerful and strong and someone you shouldn't mess with...she's just tired and sad and irritable and frustrated and hurt but trying her best to be happy and live as well as she can

She tries really hard to be kind and good and fair and do her job properly and be helpful...

And maybe that's good enough, idk...it makes me feel better at least

That maybe you don't have to be secretly really strong or whatever for people to take you seriously and respect you. Maybe it's okay to be weak and kind. idk

And Pebbles...he has a lot of remorse for his actions. The guilt is literally eating him up from the inside. He's not just mean and angry and hates everyone!!!! He just is incapable of asking for help. He's too prideful. But he's prideful in the sense that he cannot stand anyone looking down on him or pitying him...and he can't admit he was wrong. So he just kinda gives up. He resigns himself to his fate without even trying to reach out to his local group again and apologize...

He is clearly very pained thinking about what he's done. Even in arti's timeline, he remarks he hopes that [the rot] won't spread to moon. He's generally concerned about how she is doing, but he doesn't have the courage to ask. He's very scared, I think. He tends to internalize things and withdraw into himself. It makes the rot really fitting lol...

By the time he is able to accept asking you for help, his structure has started collapsing. It takes him a REEAAALLLY long time to overcome that flaw of his.

But I also really don't like the idea that he's some helpless little baby or whatever...it kinda diminishes the inner turmoil he is experiencing and the weight of his guilt. He did this. He hurt himself and his sister. He damaged things irreparably. To try and absolve him of his sins rubs me the wrong way. Pebbles is such a great character because he is flawed. Because he is not a good person. Because he does bad things and hurts others. Because that's how real people act. The exploration of his feelings of guilt and how he represses his emotions to try and cope with them would be far less interesting had he not done something substantial enough to warrant this sort of reaction...

So please don't try and take his agency away!

Of course I havent played saint yet (though ive read somewhat about it) and I can't always remember all the dialogues off the top of my head so take it with a grain of salt haha...

everyone will have different headcanons and views and stuff though haha once again...

lemme make another post for the other one...

#rambled eggs #talkstothemoon #sorry if i got anything wrong its um. kinda off the cuff here #and again just MY personal feelings n stuff yknow #pls dont take anythinf personally btw #it is very difficult to convey nuance in a couple of drawings or posts about a character #thats just kinda how it is

[communistsister]

Diary of a Strange Land

I’ve been rereading Ikoku Nikki again, an ongoing manga series written by Yamashita Tomoko (who you may perhaps know as the original writer of recent anime adaptation of the supernatural BL series The Night Beyond The Tricornered Window). It’s one of my favourite manga, largely due to the art and very considered, introspective writing, but also because I just empathise with one of the two protagonists a lot.

Some thematic if not literal spoilers will follow.

One of the two protagonists, 35 year old novelist Makio Koudai is wonderfully written; she’s awkward, somewhere on the neurodiverse spectrum, struggles to be around people and prefers solitude; she forgets things, hates phonecalls, struggles to clean up after herself; and she has a tendency to monologue on deep dives into the meaning of words, the uniqueness of everyone’s own feelings, and how it’s okay to hate your family. Much of the plot is her learning to live with her 15-year-old recently orphaned niece, Asa, who she adopts at the start of the series.

Generally though... she’s a rare kind of protagonist that I don’t really see written much, and is also directly relatable for basically everything I wrote above. I see myself in Makio a lot. I also think it’s easy to read her as trans; the author’s background in creating Boys’ Love manga means she tends to draw women with quite androgynous-to-masculine face shapes, and some imagery and subtext has cropped up so far through the series that can be read as supporting Makio as trans. She has at least one close nonbinary friend who she can joke about their junk with; she quickly clocks a supporting character as a teenage lesbian struggling with her identity; childhood flashbacks of Makio’s terrible relationship with her sister often show her in masculine clothing with short hair. It’s not textual but it’s an easy read for me.

As both an author and a neurotic person who largely overthinks things and lives inside her own head, Makio does display a lot of emotional intelligence throughout the series; but it’s generally a very analytical display of it that I feel an affinity with. She struggles with direct emotional outbursts, and sometimes fails to read how others feel until it’s said out loud; she explicitly says she struggles guessing people’s thoughts and emotions. But when able to take a step back and describe an emotion or situation in a more literate way, she expresses a real understanding of the nuances of a lot of difficult emotions, like waxing lyrical on the expression of grief when her niece Asa is thinking about her recently deceased parents, by discussing the use of tense in both english and japanese:

Makio’s a good protagonist to co-centre the story around; Ikoku Nikki deals with the obvious themes of grief that come from having an orphaned character, but keeps going into some other less familiar areas. Whether your parents love you; how and when it’s acceptable to be angry; being unable to relate to others’ feelings; breaking up with a partner because they feel too perfect and you feel undeserving of love; the struggle and loneliness of writing & creating art. Makio often takes a teaching role in chapters about these topics, conveying wordy thoughts to Asa as the latter struggles through processing grief & growing up through school. Makio’s own past is told through often-abstract flashbacks rather than spelled out, but it’s clear from how she acts in the present day that she’s developed a sort of detached, almost disassociative maturity around being a person, and her advice to Asa usually comes across as pained sympathy instead of lecturing. Coupled with a small cast of similarly well-rounded supporting characters and their own internal and external emotional dialogues, Ikoku Nikki both starts strongly and grows over its chapters to be a really thoughtful story about sets of complex emotions. In case you can’t tell from me writing a long post about it, I really recommend it, as a relatively uncommon example of manga with a well-fleshed-out adult cast dealing with the low, relatable stakes of trying to be happy.

#long read #manga #ikoku nikki #Yamashita Tomoko #trans headcanons #there's canon lesbians as supporting characters too if you need an extra motivator lol #introspective

[guylty]

My annual social media Lent is coming up. From Ash Wednesday I will abstain from Twitter for the next 6 and a half weeks (until Easter Sunday), allowing me to recalibrate a little and concentrate on other things. Such as my blog – or RAnet. That means I need blog fodder. Almost four weeks have passed since The Stranger launched on Netflix. Enough time to assume that most fans and readers have watched the show and will not be spoiled by the discussion of the show. Moreover, some more in-depth discussions have already started in the comments. Last weekend, for instance, we got into the intracacies of the “bar scene” in episode 4 of TS, talking about the casting, costuming and directing of that particular scene and how we, as women of a particular age reacted to that scene.

However, it would probably make more sense to start at the beginning. So anyone who’d like to discuss TS with me, you are welcome to write your observations, reactions and opinions in the comments. I know I am kind of launching into this without announcement. But by doing this episode by episode, I hope you can follow along and catch up with individual episode if need be. I’ll also try and summarise every episode at the beginning of each review post so we know what we are talking about. Hm, I may need to rewatch the show for that. The hardship!!! However, the discussion will probably focus on the plot… eh… Adam. Anyhow, I hope you’ll join me and share your thoughts either here – or your own blog, if you are blogging, too.

The Stranger – Episode 1 Recap

Prior to the trailer, TS starts with teenagers at a bonfire party, culminating in a naked boy escaping through the dark forest. The plot then begins with the Price boys driving in the car to the football club where younger son Ryan is trying out for the A team. While at the club, daddy Adam briefly speaks with his wife Corinne on the phone. She is away at a teachers’ conference while Adam looks after their sons. In the clubhouse, Adam is approached by “a stranger” who reveals a devastating secret to him: His wife faked her pregnancy a couple of years ago. He is shocked and disturbed.

Once back home after football training, Adam can’t resist checking the details the stranger passed on to him, and sure enough, his suspicions are confirmed – there is a credit card payment for a fishy website called Novelty Funsy, and the ultrasound scan of the miscarried baby does not quite match the ones of his two sons. Meanwhile, Adam’s elder son Thomas heads out to the bonfire party with his friends.

The next morning, police woman Johanna investigates a bizarre crime scene of a decapitated alpaca in the city centre. With her DS, she drives to a nearby alpaca farm to confirm where the animal came from. On their return trip their attention is attracted by some pieces of clothing in the forest. They follow the trail of clothes and find a naked body. The young man is still alive.

Adam meanwhile looks after his day job – he is the legal advisor to an obstinate tenant who refuses to move out of a house that has been earmarked for demolition. Upon his return, Corinne arrives back from her conference and Adam receives confirmation that the mysterious credit card payments are for a website that provides fake pregnancy products. He immediately confronts Corinne. She does neither deny nor explain why or what she did, only hinting that there is more to it than he thinks. The Prices spend the night in separate bedrooms.

The next morning Adam observes Corinne taking a phone call outside the house. She later suggests to Adam that they talk later that day after a school awards ceremony where she will explain all. However, Corinne never shows to the event. Adam receives a text message asking for some time apart.

The episode ends with Thomas revealing the decapitated alpaca head in his cupboard.

  Episode 1 – Discuss

So, first of all – I have watched the first episode about three and a half times. Twice on my own, once with hubster, and finally today a quick run-through for the sake of the recap where I fast forwarded through a lot of scenes, focussing on Adam mostly. I couldn’t help it… My first response to the show at the very first viewing was – WOW! I remember that I was fully engaged during every minute of it – even the scenes and story lines that Richard did not feature in. Granted, I was most interested  with the “grown-up” arcs, not least because anything involving drugs and other goings-on with teenagers makes *this* mama really worried. But having said that, I think the first episode was very effective in establishing the storylines and the characters. Hence the show spends most time following Adam (Richard Armitage) – as a father, as a lawyer and as a husband. Then there are the two police officers who also are presented as round characters – the middle-aged senior officer Johanna (Siobhan Finneran) approaching retirement who has just decided to split from her husband, and her much younger partner, a gay black man. Adam’s son Thomas also gets a good bit of screen time with his friends, making him more than just secondary. Other secondary characters include first and foremost Dervla Kirwan as Corinne, Stephen Rea as obstinate tenant Martin, and Jennifer Saunders as Johanna’s BFF Heidi.

So, the first watch was highly exciting and addictive, so much so that I basically binged the whole show. On second and subsequent views, I found the episode not quite as fast and exciting anymore – only natural, as a lot of time was actually spent setting up the characters and the various story lines: Johanna waking up in bed to her snoring husband; Johanna meeting Heidi in her café; observing the teenagers at their bonfire party; visiting Dante in hospital…

RA is the natural focal point from the get-go. Not only for fangirls, I might add. The show is really good at setting him up as the perfect family man who obviously has great rapport with his sons, both the “difficult” almost grown-up older son, but also the younger lad who needs a different kind of care than a young adult. I found the casting really great, with Thomas definitely matching the tall, dark, handsome vibes of TV-dad Richard, and younger boy Ryan more a mirror of his blond, curly-haired TV-mum. They all have great chemistry together, and found Misha Handley (Ryan) very natural and convincing. Jacob Dudman as Thomas was also great.

… really aged well… hehe

RA really shines in the confrontation scenes, both with the stranger and with his wife, when he has to convey both suppressed anger and outright fury at having been deceived. Both his major scenes with Corinne are very convincing, and I appreciated the decision to make Adam extremely angry, on the verge of volatile, when Corinne refuses to explain her actions. Adam’s anger is immediate, raw and confused and Armitage really draws the viewer on his side with his emotional outburst. So much so that I basically missed Dervla Kirwan’s nuanced acting in that scene. On second and subsequent viewings, once you know how the show ends and why she doesn’t want to talk immediately, you start to notice the little things: her refusal to talk has more to do with fear than with anger or denial. She is afraid of actually addressing the fact that the reason for her faked pregnancy will also bring another secret out in the open, and the subsequent discussion (which she had successfully avoided by faking the pregnancy in the first place) will now have to take place. What might have looked as callous or dismissive at first viewing, conveys much more detail the second time round: there is a sadness to Corinne that Kirwan expresses very subtly – in a slight pause, or the tiniest glance into the mid-distance. The same applies to their second and much calmer confrontation the next morning. What might have looked almost callous on first viewing, gains much more weight when you watch it with prior knowledge of the plot. When Adam says he has lost trust in her, Corinne replies “it hurts, doesn’t it?“. The question tag really stood out to me on first viewing. It confused me. Why is she phrasing it like that? It of course became clear in episode 4, but again, Kirwan really gave it a spin by loading it with subtle sadness that doesn’t only confuse the viewer but also Adam. Armitage here kept his response at just the right level of confusion without giving away how much Adam really recognises or understands what she was hinting at. RA reacts with great detail expressions. No words are needed. And in hindsight you can see how he begins to wonder whether she knows about his affair. Loved it.

Let’s talk a bit about Armitage’s look in this show. Such a spectacle!

Yes, I like details like that. The jury is still out on whether this is a prescription that Armitage wrote into the script himself 😂, or whether we just had a costume department that is on the ball. Yes, it’s time for the presbyopic lenses. Happens to most of us at around middle age. 🤓 I found it a lovely detail that makes Adam more relatable. Because – a dad bod he has not.

Even if he claims he does. I find this a rather attractive package for a middle aged family man. Also:

Bonus WRP. Needs no further elaboration

But to get back to the look and style – I enjoyed the casual style of Adam. Once again, it felt right – nothing too fancy, with windbreaker, jeans and shirts, and even a tracksuit at home, the perfect attire for a father of two (pre-) teen sons. I was surprised how good RA looked in other colours than just black and blue. The red polo shirt was very nice on him.

I can’t say I am as convinced of the costumes provided for Corinne. In fact, I think there were some rather sledge-hammer style decisions going on there, putting the wife and mother into rather dowdy, pale pink mom trousers and giving her a hole-pattern, fluffy knit jumper. Then there was that turquoise dress that went slightly longer than her knees – apparently the work wear for female teachers in English private schools, judging by an equally frumpy outfit for Corinne’s colleague and friend Vicky? (This observation I will come back to in a later post once we get to episode 4.) It just kind of made me think that Corinne was made to look older and less casual than her husband who even attends to his client in jeans and shirt…

Police officer Johanna Griffin OTOH looked *real* and great. (I kept double-taking because O’Brien’s severe look kept coming back to me.) And I loved Heidi’s funky style – very much the slightly crazy café-owner with a café as stylish as herself… And can we also mention the Price’s residence here? There were only quick first glimpses of their house – but oh, that stylist made it a gorgeous family home. The garden was beautiful but I can take it or leave it. Too much work – I don’t like to get my fingers dirty. But the dining area with the floor-to-ceiling windows and the sleek white kitchen? Big win, especially because it doesn’t look like a showroom but has photos on the fridge and a mess on the counters.

So episode 1 gets a big thumbs up from me – for introducing us to almost all the characters (some held back for more surprise later on) and establishing the plot. Yes, there is a lot going on here, which I haven’t even all mentioned in the recap: the stranger dropping her first bomb, the Price family life, the secret in Corinne’s past, the tenant who refuses to move out of his home, the colleague who has trouble with her pre-teen daughter, the teenagers who are partying under the influence of drugs, the mystery of the boy who was hunted through the forest, the curious story of the decapitated alpaca, an almost-comic police duo, a police officer who is splitting up with her hubby, her friend, the funky café owner, the gregarious neighbour, the busybody football trainer… Too much? I’d say a lot of it is deliberate overload to distract us, yet give us some extra info about the characters, their work, their life and their environment.

The strategy definitely works when you watch the show for the first time. You are busy dealing with Richard Armitage’s overwhelming handsomeness taking it all in. The questions only really pop up when you watch again.  Such as: When stoned Mike takes the alpaca for a walk into the city centre, why is there no CCTV footage? I mean, nowadays there is hardly *any* urban area that does *not* have CCTV on shops and banks or traffic spots. How come no one saw him decapitating the alpaca, in a city centre? And how did he manage to decapitate it anyway`- it’s hardly a one-chop job?Likewise and with hindsight we know now that Corinne’s text message was not sent by her at all: But how did the sender actually know the password to Corinne’s phone to send that message? I mean, don’t all people lock their phone with a password these days? Possibly nit-picking questions, but that’s the fun of it, isn’t it? You can enjoy a show immensely – and still want to pick a few holes into the plot just to see whether you are cleverer than the writer 😉.

There is probably so much more to discuss, but for the sake of getting the discussion started, here is the post. What is your take on the first episode of TS? Any agreements with me, or disagree? Other points of interest? Let me know in the comments!

Let’s Talk About… #TheStranger – Episode 1 My annual social media Lent is coming up. From Ash Wednesday I will abstain from Twitter for the next 6 and a half weeks (until Easter Sunday), allowing me to recalibrate a little and concentrate on other things.

#Adam Price #Richard Armitage #The Stranger

[skamamoroma]

Vediamo/We’ll See - Thoughts (or, as I like to call it, Megan rambles about giraffes for far too long)

As requested (by you lovely lot), my rambles on this clip. And what a clip it is!

This one made me sob. Full on tears down my face, need a tissue sob. It was equal parts heartbreaking and soothing which is Skam allover isn’t it?!

I think this one is one of my absolute favourites so far. I’ve been dying to see more of Mamma Rametta (when will we learn her name?!) and I have a feeling we’ll see more but this was some of what we needed after the other evening.

Her’s a long winded way of saying that everything about this clip was ever so special, the acting was stunning, the symoblism was completely perfect and in equal parts, brutal but beautiful.

So, first off, Ludo and the god damn synthy atmospheric music that has plagued me for weeks. I LOVE this kind of music and god has he used it to his advantage so much. This one is so sad but kind of helps us feel how Marti’s head is spinning. He’s a couple of days post Milan but his mind is still confused and full of hurt and sadness. He has internalised Maddalena’s words and yet is still researching. But as we all know, the internet is not always the best place to be when you’re researching a complex illness or medical issue. We can see him looking at elements of ‘suicide’ and this is a boy who we know has had a lot of exposure to mental illness but doesn’t have a lot of understanding so, to him, this must be very difficult to comprehend and so he will take things at face value. 

I love seeing Marti in his room. It’s SO BLUE but so cosy still. I also love seeing him in his sweatshirt bottoms because he always looks like the cuddliest bean. Bless him. 

We know he hasn’t heard from Nico but when we see that text it’s the first interaction they’d had post-Milan and poor Marti is still so confused and hurt and in the belief that he’s just another ‘someone’ to Nico, just a temporary thing. It KILLS me because we know, even when Nico was at his worst, it was still ALL about Marti. It’s where his heart is. 

AND THEN THE TEXT MESSAGE. Oh god. I am so VERY pleased that I was actually having a nap when this came out because I watched the translated version and not the website version first and when I read the translation of that text it made me cry instantly.

We’ve seen/heard of giraffes 4 times so far:  - The drawing on Nico’s wall - The beer glasses at the Halloween party that Nico loved - Nico’s discussion as to what he’d do as the Last Man - The flip book/horse riding lessons

There had to be a reason why Nico had this love of this animal and brought it up so many times. There had to be something about the giraffe that he loved and finding out what it is absolutely broke me because its SO BEAUTIFUL and SO perfect for his character I am still a little speechless as to how they did this. I didn’t for one moment think that any remake (and I was never down with remakes of the original in the first place until I realised there’d be an Italian one and saw the stunning trailer) would ever be able to match OR supercede the original in terms of layers of metaphor and nuanced symbolism but then THIS SEASON.... good lord. 

First of all, Nico had to make that giraffe. ON AN OLD MOBILE PHONE. To me, that’s almost impossible. Nico, the sweetheart, went to the effort of making that adorable kind of sad looking punctuation giraffe just to send to Marti. 

Then the words - “The giraffe’s heart is far from its thoughts. She fell in love yesterday and she doesn’t know yet”.

I swear, I didn’t think they’d do this. I didn’t think they’d make it THIS meaningful. Nico’s love for giraffes suddenly makes a ridiculous amount of sense. He actually IDENTIFIES with them to explain himself in terms of his illness. What a heartrendingly beautiful and gut wrenching sentiment. AH. I’m so in love with it.

The idea that head and heart are distanced and that love can exist in the heart that the brain may not realise yet just honestly makes me want to cry. 

I’m a sucker for this stuff. I am legitimately ALL ABOUT this kind of thing, the metaphorical and symbolic nature of things that people cling to or use to help them through life and Nico broke me with this. We understand him so much more. I wish Marti would have perhaps spent more time READING that to understand it because Nico is effectively telling him he loves him, that his heart is separate to his brain, that he can feel things but sometimes his brain isn’t on the same page and that his love for Marti is what is real. 

He kissed Marti’s heart. He drew a coffee heart. He puts so much stock in the HEART because he’s literally saying that his brain betrays him and doesn’t necessarily reflect what’s in his heart. But we STILL saw him in his episode and Marti was everything to him. He’s so full of love and it’s terribly sad that he has such a tough time because of his illness.

I don’t blame Marti for blocking his number. It’s really sad that he did but Marti doesn’t understand anything, he thinks he’s being played or used and that his time with Nico is meaningless. Looking at their history and the whole situation where Nico ‘went back’ to Maddalena, his doubts almost have foundation in reality and then Maddalena just confirmed them. I don’t know what will happen with Friday’s clip and the phone but we shall have to wait and see with that. 

And then the focus is all on Marti and his mamma. Oh my. This scene. This beautiful beautiful scene. First off, Mamma Rametta has the most insanely gorgeous hair. It’s just CUTE that we know where Marti gets his hint of red from in his curls. It’s that instant familiarity and closeness you feel when you see them both. ALSO SHE ALWAYS WEARS BLUE. Like mother, like son <3

The way he shouted is something I think many people can understand. He’s not able to share. He doesn’t feel able to be open with her for many reasons but the main two, I think, are that he doesn’t want her to be burdened with this stuff as he doesn’t think she can cope with it and also because he can’t be truthful without explaining his sexuality.

The way Fede plays this though is so pitch perfect. He’s stressed, tearful, frustrated and heartbroken. It’s a heady mix and I adore Fede’s performance. He’s wonderful. 

But I ALSO adore Mamma Rametta’s persistence. She won’t leave. I got a true sense of her as a mother here and a little of Martino’s fierceness. She was not going to let her son make her leave because she KNOWS he isn’t ok. 

That door slam, the door handle hitting the floor and Marti pressing his head to the other side of the door hurt like hell but it was so well done. 

AGAIN WITH THE SYMBOLISM LUDO. Just as Nico stood on the other side of bars, Marti is on the other side of a door to his Mama and she CAN’T GET TO HIM. She can’t open the door herself. Marti has to open the door for them. He has to take the first step to find their connection again and I loved how that was all shown in the way the clip was shot. YET AGAIN, this show stuns me with the way it uses cinematography to convey a message. UGH, so great.

I felt Fede’s acting in this moment. I’ve been in this moment. I’ve felt as he felt and he. was. wonderful. You could feel his frustration and sadness and instant regret and his little voice “are you sitting there”?

But then you see Mamma Rametta and she’s sitting alongside a quote written on Marti’s wall:  :Joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself”

Oh Marti. I don’t know when he wrote that but the fact he did tells me he’ll be ok. To have his Mamma sitting next to THOSE WORDS is so meaningful and is a summary of this entire season. God, has Marti suffered and fought and been brave... It’s a summary of his bravery. He’ll TRY. SO GOD DAMN BEAUTIFUL. I keep using that word. Damnit. Haha. It’s so true though. 

“We’re so happy in this house, huh?” - and isn’t that just the thing you say to a loved one or someone close? That self aware, self deprecating thing you can say even in difficult moments? He recognizes for them both that they’re both sad and it’s a little moment of connection even if they can bond over the sadness, at least they can bond. 

The tears. I was a little emotional by this point what with the GIRAFFE of it all but those tears. Marti looks so exhausted and forlorn and just worn down. I miss his smile every single time it goes away. 

His almost bitter laugh and eye roll at the knowledge that his father has betrayed his trust was perfectly played by Fede because COME ON. His dad did that? That’s not ok. He asked him not to, specifically. There was nothing there in his chat with his dad to suggest that Marti was in trouble or upset that may have prompted his father to tell his mother so it seems pretty awful to me that his father did this and still hasn’t contacted Marti about it, hasn’t responded with any words of comfort or love. I don’t know where that’s going but it’s really sad for Marti. 

And then the bit that breaks me ever single time. God there are tears as I’m writing this. When Marti says he doesn’t know if his sexuality matters to his Mamma... MY GOD, the way she says his name. Her broken voice through tears is just gut wrenching. 

“You’re the most important thing in my life”. The words Marti needs to hear and, by the sound of it, the words his mamma needed to say. She can hardly get them out. Marti’s reaction kills me because it’s full of relief. He SMILES. Her words get through to him and the way, from this point onwards, he SMILES is like a plaster to the heart, it’s so soothing and comforting to see that kind of relief. It’s so comforting to also see a mother who is struggling but trying HARD (like the quote says) and who still is taking the opportunity to tell her son that no matter what, he is what’s important to her. For any person who struggles with their sexuality or who has to perhaps face a moment of honesty with a loved one like this..... well, for me, it’s really damn emotional and full of hope. 

Mamma Rametta needs all of the cuddles and love. I’ve adored her since we first saw her but GOD, look at her trying so hard. I love that her first idea is to spend time with her son, to talk. She’s offering him that and effectively telling him that she’s there for him and that she WANTS them to reconnect. He looks grateful.

And that’s when you truly believe they’re family and see their mother/son bond because there’s this banter between them even in the midst of all of this sadness and heartbreak and confusion.... 

Vediamo. 

Ah god, it’s simply so cute. She knows her son. Her little joke makes him smile and even laugh because he knows it’s true... and just like that’s there’s so much WARMTH. They’ve made a connection and I love that Marti looks up at the handle because of course he’s going to let her out of the room and HE is going to be the one to remove that barrier between them. 

It’s the first step to repairing their relationship and it’s simple but such a truly meaningful moment and absolutely one of my favourites of the entire season. I KNOW we will get to see more of Marti and his Mamma and I can’t wait. 

Now, I need a tissue <3

#skam italia #thank you for your lovely messages and for those asking for this #here you go #thoughts etc #ep9 #marti and his mamma #mamma rametta

[trinuviel]

ALL IS SUBTEXT – A Case for Jon and Sansa (part 2)

This is the second part of a series where I’ll take a look at the odd romantic tension that permeates the scenes between Jon and Sansa in seasons 6 and 7. In my previous post, I made the argument that there is indeed a romantic subtext in the show when it comes to the relationship between Jon and Sansa – an argument supported by the observations of professional entertainment writers.

The remainder of this series of metas will be devoted to analyzing exactly how the show establishes this subtle and romantic subtext between the two characters. However, first we need to ask the following question:

What is subtext?

Briefly put, “subtext” is content that is articulated beneath the surface of the text! Thus, is plays out underneath the dialogue. It is a set of meanings that are not made explicit through dialogue or surface description.

This means that a subtext easily can be overlooked by the audience – either because the audience doesn’t engage critically with the text or it only pays attention to the surface of things – or because preconceived notions make people blind to the subtext in question. The latter aspect certainly comes into play when it comes to Jon and Sansa since they have been presented to us as a pair of half-siblings, albeit ones with a very distant sibling relationship that the audience never got to witness before their reunion.

Subtext was originally a literary term but it pertains to other forms of storytelling. In fact, I’d claim that it is a concept that is especially well-suited for television and cinema since a subtext can be articulated on a pure visual and auditory level. 

If the subtext works exclusively on the visual level then it is much easier to overlook because people often consume visuals uncritically.

The audience often pays more attention to the spoken dialogue while also enjoying grand visual spectacle whereas the more subtle issues of mise-en-scene (stage setting), framing, editing, non-verbal acting, etc. often are overlooked.

In Game of Thrones, the romantic subtext between Jon and Sansa plays out entirely on the visual level! The scenes between the two characters has already been dissected minutely in the fandom and I doubt that my conclusions about individual scenes cover any new ground. Rather, I’ll attempt to analyze exactly HOW the show establishes a possibly romantic subtext between Jon and Sansa. What kind of techniques of visual story-telling does the show employ?

READING FACES

How do we discern what the characters feel in cinema and television, especially if they don’t explicitly voice those feelings? We discern emotion by reading faces and body language. This isn’t just confined to cinema and television. We do this every time we interact with another human being. However, a important part of visual story-telling rests upon the audience reading non-verbal cues from the actors. In fact, it is an aspect of visual story-telling that has been used for centuries. Thus, in the 17th century the French artist Charles le Brun (court painter to Louis XIV) created The Expressions of the Passions, a codified system that matched specific emotions with very specific facial expressions along with directions on how to draw/paint said expressions:

(Charles le Brun, Tearfulness, 1688)

In modern cinema and television, the non-verbal expression of emotion rests upon the ability of the actors and the use of close-ups.

However, reading faces can be tricky – especially if the non-verbal cues are subtle. Furthermore, our wishes and prejudices can get in the way of a correct reading, either because we want to see certain things or because we don’t want to acknowledge something that makes us uncomfortable. I’ll not dispute that many of Jon and Sansa’s scenes can be difficult to read for subtext for exactly this reason, especially because the scenes are somewhat ambiguous.

MTV’s Rachel Handler found the fireside scene between Jon and Sansa in episode 4 (season 6) rather flirty. This interpretation is hotly contested within the fandom with one side denying any flirty vibe whereas another side firmly believes that it is there.

The scene in question is playful and sweet – but is it low-key flirty? Is there an odd romantic subtext to this scene that on the surface looks like a moment of bonding between a pair of previously distant half-siblings? In order to answer this question, I’ll engage in a little experiment. First, let us look at the scene in real time:

Then let us take a look at the scene as it is broken down into individual shots through this series of GIFs:

(GIFs by @timothchallamet)

A lot of people have tried to explain away any odd romantic vibes between Jon and Sansa as the result of chemistry between the actors. There’s no denying that Kit Harington and Sophie Turner have great on-screen chemistry, which is partly due to them being close friends in real life. However, what many people fail to realize is that “chemistry” between actors is always framed for the audience through various cinematic techniques. It isn’t unmediated! First of all, you have to take the mise-en-scene into account, i.e. the stage-setting, lighting and the blocking (the positioning and the movements of both the actors and the camera in a scene). The hearth fire and the soft candle light sets an intimate mood that is underscored by the fact that Sansa wears Jon’s clothes (trousers and his season 1 cloak).

Furthermore, any “chemistry” between the actors isn’t just captured by the camera and then transmitted unfiltered to the audience – the footage isn’t presented to “raw”. There are several processes in play between the actual filming and the finished product – the editing is an incredibly important aspect of film-making and the editing can influence the meaning of scene greatly.

To continue my little experiment, let us see what happens if I remove a couple of shots from the fireside scene:

What a difference a little editing makes! The shot that adds a flirty vibe to the whole is exchange is this little gem:

This single shot contains two non-verbal cues that can be interpreted as flirty: The licking of the lips and the way she lifts her gaze, looking at him from beneath her eyelashes. Both elements are common romantic tropes, both in literature and cinema.

FRAMING AND EDITING

Another scene that has a strong romantic vibe is the scene on the battlements in the last episode of season 6 where Jon places a tender kiss on Sansa’s forehead. Is this scene platonic or is it borderline romance? During the course of the seasons, the audience have been presented with a number of forehead kisses – between parent and child:

Between a romantic couple:

Between siblings:

The latter example is particularly interesting in the context of the forehead kiss between Jon and Sansa since the show has Viserys express an openly incestuous interest in his sister Daenerys. In a scene before this one, Viserys fondles his sister’s naked breast yet the way he kiss Dany on the forehead is decidedly more platonic than the when Jon does the same with Sansa.

In all of these examples, the forehead kiss is contained within a single shot and with a limited use of close-ups. The forehead kiss between Jon and Sansa is shot, acted and edited in a markedly different manner than all of the other forehead kisses in the show. It is a fairly long scene (10 seconds from the moment Jon touches Sansa’s face to the moment he disengages) and so is the kiss itself (4 seconds) and it involves more than one frame with shifting close-ups of Jon and Sansa, registering their expressions and thus turning this simple act into an emotionally laden character moment between them. This alone gives the scene a narrative weight that all the other forehead kisses lack. It isn’t just a random sign of affection but rather an intensely meaningful moment between Jon and Sansa.

But is it romantic? Let’s repeat the experiment from above with the JonSa forehead kiss:

(GIFs by @hollywood-movies-and-tv-fanatics)

Now let’s see what happens if I remove some of the frames:

This is just to show that if the scene had been edited differently, it could have been shorter and the emotional “tone” rather different. There is one particular shot that lends this scene a decidedly romantic vibe:

(GIF by @akscully)

The way that Jon tilts his head and leans in makes it look like he’s about to plant a kiss on her lips. It is subtle but it is there and you have to wonder why this particular shot was chosen. 

It is important to remember that they film several takes of each and every shot that appear in the finished product that we see on the screen – and several people are involved in what the final product looks like: the showrunners, the director and the editor. Thus, this particular shot was seen and approved by several people and I seriously doubt that all of them were blind to the non-verbal nuances and the romantic vibe they convey. If you still doubt that this shot could be interpreted as romantic, then it is a good idea to compare it with scenes from other productions where the actor (Kit Harington) acted in explicitly romantic scenes. Luckily there’s a good example from the movie Pompeii:

(GIFs by @tiny-little-bird)

I rest my case.

To be continued…

#jon x sansa #meta #all is subtext #jonsa #actuallyjonsa

[hendersonatlasalle]

Ian Henderson’s Blog Marketing Insights

A Refreshing Spending Spree

The post pandemic spending spree is officially underway.  What a refreshing thing to hear.  After all, I think we all have grown tired of the complications that have come about as a result of Covid-19.  A few items that have been sold at higher rates recently are champagne and shaving kits.  One question that immediately came to my mind was why these products have seen a spike in sales recently.  Shortly after pondering this question, it all began to make sense.  Champagne is a drink that is commonly purchased when people are planning to meet up with friends and family.  With restrictions decreasing, people now have the ability to interact socially more often.  With social gatherings increasing, it makes perfect sense that this alcoholic beverage has seen an drastic increase in sales.  With people beginning to interact with others more often, it makes perfect sense as to why shaving kits are selling at higher rates.  When the country was essentially on lockdown, many people did not see much reason to keep up with their physical appearance as much as they had previously.  Additionally, many men viewed the lockdown as a time to experiment with their facial hair.  Because of this, many men grew out their facial hair and did not have need for shaving kits.  With places beginning to open up, many people have recognized the need to adjust their physical appearance.  One way in which many people try to do so is by shaving.  This is a large reason why shaving kits are experiencing high sales at the moment.  According to SyleSage’s Elizabeth Shobert, “People are making plans.”  She went on to say “there was just nothing to buy stuff for - aside from comfort gear like sweats and what you would wear when you’re working out on you Peleton this year.”  Her words on this topic were very accurate, and they served to remind us that people had no need to buy products that would boost one’s physical appearance during a time when human interactions were limited.  With more people being vaccinated each day, we can expect sales of products like champagne and shaving kits to continue to rise.  According to the Commerce Department, sales in retail rose by a total of 9.8% in March.  One big reason for this spike in sales was that many consumers were granted with a $1,400 stimulus check.  With shoppers beginning to spend more money, some of their tendencies have remained the same while others have changed quite drastically.  From February to March, sporting goods stores saw their sales increase by 23.5%.  This was the largest increase out of all industries.  In March, clothing stores also saw an increase in sales as their sales improved by 18.3%.  This is further evidence of the point I made earlier about consumers being more focused on their physical appearance with Covid-19 restrictions decreasing.  According to Marshal Cohen, the chief industry analyst for market researcher NPD Group, the type of merchandise that people elect to buy serves to represent “how we’re going to spend in the short term, as we navigate our way out of this whole mess.”  He goes on to add that this is a good indicator of the “consumer’s psyche.  To no surprise, sales of skirts and dresses have risen dramatically.  In March of 2020, the average monthly sold out rate for skirts was 11%.  A year later, the average monthly sold out rate rose by 10% to 21%.  According to Jeff Gennette, dress sales have also been on the rise.  He goes on to allude to the fact that people now have proms, weddings and more special event to dress up for.  Sales of denim jeans have soared recently.  Jay Schottenstein, CEO of American Eagle Outfitters said “we’re still in the pandemic, but when it goes away, we could be looking at the “Roaring 20’s.”  This author of this article does an excellent job discussing some of the products that are beginning to see a rise in sales as a result of the pandemic slowing down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnYqGJGn11U

FOMO In the Workplace?

FOMO, which is an acronym for fear of missing out, is a term commonly used by people when debating whether or not to attend a social event.  Often times, individuals might be in the mood to relax as opposed to attending a social event, however fear of missing out causes them to go to the social gathering.  While I have never heard this acronym referenced in when the topic of discussion was work, this author of this article does a fantastic job of making the title make sense.  According to Andy Cohen the CEO of Genseler (the world’s largest architecture firm by revenue), FOMO will cause employees to suit up and drive to work when face to face interactions are allowed.  He adds that people will elect to drive into work “at least for a couple days a week.”  He adds that “Information shared in person contains rich layers of nuance and context that simply cannot be conveyed through a computer screen.  People want and need face to face interaction to excel at their jobs.”  I am of the belief that working face to face is crucial to maximizing the potential success of a company.  The Genseler Research Institute annual conducts a survey to figure out how workers divide their time between four different activities: focus, collaboration, socializing, and learning.  In recent years collaboration has decreased drastically.  In 2019, collaboration was at 43%, however this number decreased by 16% just one year later.  This study also showed that the companies that are the most success are the most collaborative.  Only 19% of people want to work at home full-time.  Working at home is draining for individuals of all ages, however it has the greatest impact on young workers.  After reading this article, a certain question came to mind.  I would like members of the audience to think about teams and groups that they have been apart of.  Were you most effective when collaboration was high?  I know that any successful team that I have ever been apart of has excelled in communication and collaboration.  So while Zoom is a great tool, I believe that we must not lose sight of the fact that face to face interaction is an integral aspect of collaboration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvPYqeV3l8I

Covid-19 Has No Limits on the Businesses it can Impact

At one point, running shoes were worn strictly to go for run, and basketball shoes were only worn while playing basketball, but the times have changed quite drastically.  It is now common to see such footwear on runways.  The times have really changed!  In the most recent year, Nike’s footwear sales reached $23.3 billion.  Nike has built its brand by mastering the art of many marketing tactics.  One of their greatest advantages is their ability to reach endorsement deals with prominent athletes who will draw consumers to the brand.  For example, LeBron James, widely known as the best basketball player in the world, is the face of Nike. But the brand does not stop here.  I believe that Nike’s most prominent athletes do an excellent job of recruiting other stars to join the company.  Something that many people do not know is that Nke started off as an enterprise licensing Japanese running shoes company for the American market.  In the 1070s, Nike gained more notoriety in the US through iconic silhouettes.  According to the author of this article, the sneaker market is “constantly moving between innovation and nostalgia.”  It is crucial for shoe brands have an understanding of what shoes their consumers desire.  Failure to get an idea of the wants and needs of consumers is a recipe for disaster.  As successful as shoe brands like Nike, Adidas and Puma have been, they were still negatively effected by the pandemic.  In each of the aforementioned companies, footwear sales declined in 2020 for the first time in years.  To   This just goes to show that no brand is immune to complications caused by Covid-19.  I often find myself wondering what Nike does that allows the company to dominate the sportwear industry the way it does.  I also have a question for the audience.  Do you guys feel like companies that are at the top of different industries share similarities? For example, Netflix dominates the streaming industry and Nike dominates the footwear industry.  Obviously, these companies are selling vastly different product and services, however they may run similarly in terms of their strategies and goals as an organization.  Despite a minor sales drop in 2020, I can confidently say that this company will flourish in years to come.  After all, it’s very difficult to bet against a company like Nike.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vclauwjChRU

[zoetekohana]

Asking this because of that top notch Michi rec post you made: Top 5 Michi Fics.

Oh, thank you so much! I’m really pleased to hear youliked my Michi rec post. ♡ (*Here* it is for those who want to check it out.)

To be honest, it’s really not easy to make a top fiveof Michi fics for two reasons: 1. I love way more than five Michi fics and it’dbe difficult to rank them. 2. I’ve been reading Michi fics ever since 2004.Granted I haven’t read every single one of them. And there are so many stories that I really, really loved but have been deleted in that twelve year time span. (I’m going to include those anyways, though.)

Let’s give it a try…

I’d first like to discuss a few Michi stories I reallylike that just didn’t make the cut to my top five, but still deserve a special mention:

⚘Thin Lines byHemsee Apparently this got deleted? I only found out about this yesterday, because I started checking the links on my Michi masterpost, but evidently it’s been deleted instead. Which is unfortunate because I was really eager to know how the relationship between Taichi and Mimi would further develop. Plus, Hemsee really has a clean, beautiful writing style that is so wonderful to read. I hope she creates a new multi-chaptered Michi story, though. 

⚘ All Good Things by Hemsee Luckily, her Michi oneshot is still there. It tells the story of how Mimi and Taichi’s relationship developed throughout the years since their childhood and how they gradually fell in love and got together. 

⚘ anchor me back down by dianaagronSimilarly to “All Good Things”, this story follows their relationship from the very beginning, since kindergarten, in a wonderful will they/won’t they-kind of way, to their mid-twenties. While I do love both stories (what can I say, I’m a major sucker for slow-burns), I do prefer ambd over agt. Plus how can anyone dislike a story inspired by that beautiful song by Mindy Gledhill?

⚘ Snow by hello heartbreak I recently re-read this story and loved it just as much as I did ten years ago. Ngl it hurts seeing my beloved Chosen in such pain, but this story is so touching. I also believe this is the fic that generated my headcanon that Mimi would have trouble transferring back to Japan and have trouble speaking/studying the language. Lo and behold, ten years later that headcanon actually came true in tri! 

⚘ Buttons by BenignUser This story is just so adorable! It makes me melt every time I read it. (I believe I’ve read this oneshot five times. What is my life, haha?) But really, it’s so fun, so cute and definitely worth your while. 

⚘ keep it classy by hellyeahayumichan This is a collection of four (slightly nsfw) drabbles for Michi, Sorato, Takari and Kenyako. It’s just such a great read! I really admire the subtle descriptions. Hellyeahayumichan has such a way with words. (And even though it’s not fic, I highly, highly recommend checking out her Michi art! Each and every one of her drawings are amazing. I envy her colouring skills in particular.)

⚘ Parallels by Scripturiens There are no words to describe how amazing this artwork is. And I stress the word art, because it’s really an interesting exercise in writing by putting the different pieces out of order so that all the nuances of the thoughts and the actions of the characters come together with such care. Amazing structure aside, it’s a nice piece that so wonderfully conveys emotion, especially heartbreak. I love it so much, and now I want to go re-read it….

⚘ Whispers at night by ribbonedcuriosa To this day I’m still so happy I requested a Digimon story set in the Star Wars universe from ribbonedcuriosa, because she took it and fabricated this lovely ficlet. She merged both franchises so fluently, it’s inspiring. The Michi is subtle here, but I love subtle implied pairings when it comes to the adventure genre. I honestly crave more of this story. Forever crossing my fingers for a continuation.

After contemplating long and hard over it, I now present you my TOP FIVE MICHI STORIES:

05 ⚘What Women Want by StarlillyWe start of with one of the most popular Michi fics on FF.net. And that’s understandable, because this story is so much fun! I believe I started reading it not long, just a couple of months, after it was completed. I’m even planning on re-reading after finals, so my little review here is based on my memory of when I read it late 2005. 

First there is something I have to confess (again, I’m sure I’ve stated this before, but just to be clear I’ll state it once more) that I don’t really like it when authors use the dubbed names in fics. I prefer reading Taichi Yagami over Tai Kamiya, very much so. I didn’t like it back when I started reading Michi fics in 2004/2005 and I still don’t now. That said, I won’t turn a fic down because the author chose to use the dubbed names. I do like to give it at least a try. (I sound so picky now…) And in this case: I loved the “What Women Want” film back then (still do, I rewatched it this year), so there was no way I wouldn’t read a Michi fic based on that film. And honestly, Starlilly took the premise and really made it her own while developing the relationship between Taichi and Mimi so well. 

04 ⚘ Falling’s not the problem by ribbonedcuriosaAhhhh, this story is so good! I was eagerly awaiting the next part to beta each time because it’s just so good. I absolutely love how curiosa jumped back and forth from past to present to showcase how Mimi and Taichi got to the point where they were in the beginning and how their lives further developed since then. And she did it so fluidly. Also her characterizations of both Taichi and Mimi are so well-done. 

03 ⚘Come to Me by Pied Piper + Only Alive by Pied PiperI’m sure you all knew beforehand that at least one Pied Piper story would make my top five, and here’s the first one… Sorry, first two. Okay, I know I’m cheating here by putting both these stories on the number three slot and therefore haven’t whittled my list down to five fics but six. But for the life of me, I can not chose between these two! 

I’ll talk about Come to Me first. I really love this story so much because it’s so real, so relatable. There were so many moments where I just nodded understandingly, because it was so realistic. And I talked before how I love slow-burns, well, this fic is one of the ultimate slow-burns I’ve ever read. I really enjoyed reading about their journey from how they became friends first to actually falling for each other, but being apprehensive first considering they were still dealing with their heartbreak from a previous relationship, to finally arriving at their destination together which felt so earned. It was so beautiful beyond comprehension. (PS: I still have a half-finished fanart of it lying around.)

Moving onto Only Alive now… I’m confident my good friend Sunny is going to love the fact that I included this fic into my top three. Back in the beginning of 2009 when we discovered our mutual passion for digimon as well for Michi through a meme on my livejournal (we befriended over Avatar first), she told me that this was her most favourite Michi story. Somehow I hadn’t read it then yet. (Seriously, what was wrong with me?) So, at her recommendation, I read the first chapter and I immediately wrote back to her that I was in love with this story already. There was a certain passage in the first chapter that stood out to me, because it was the perfect Michi interaction:

So he asked her to dinner, sending a written apology note down to her small cubicle several stories below his feet.

She replied almost instantly: Jackass. 

He responded: Pick you up at eight? 

She agreed: Buy me flowers, too. 

Ah, Mimi, Mimi. How he missed someone who could talk back without fear. Welcome home, he grinned to himself.

To me, Michi is so compatible, because their personalities just go well together. They’re both headstrong but they’re both also very passionate and kind. I love seeing them portrayed with the whole “love to tease you” dynamic. And that passage in OA is an excellent example of that. Honestly, Pied Piper has such an exquisite grasp on these characters. I knew then that this fic was going to be splendid, and boy, did it deliver! I read it in the course of three evenings.

I will forever love both these stories. Then again I will forever love all the stories Pied Piper wrote. Just thinking about them makes me want to re-read every single one of them (except that I sadly lost a couple over the years…) 

02 ⚘ Creative License by R.vdPI’m kind of cheating again, haha, because technically this wasn’t really Michi. Daikeru, a ship I love so much next to Michi (thanks to this fic actually), was the main pairing of this story, but Michi was definitely heavily featured. But I just loved this story so much! Unfortunately it was deleted several years ago. (Around 2007, iirc.) 

That being said, I still feel lucky to have read this story. I can’t begin to explain how amazing it was! It was so cleverly constructed. Each chapter focused on a certain aspect of the story, and with each chapter we learned more and more what happened to these characters in the past and how they’re ultimately connected to other characters. It was all intricately interwoven. The writing style was also so crisp, so poetic, so inspiring. Plus, while the Michi was very angsty, it was very hot. I still haven’t read a nsfw Michi that came close to their scenes in this story. 

01 ⚘ My Captain’s Lady by Pied PiperIs there any surprise that MCL is my ultimate favourite? 

The truth is: This isn’t just my favourite Michi fic. This isn’t even just my favourite Digimon fic. This is my ultimate favourite fic ever.

It was the very first fic that got me so hooked. I started reading MCL after chapter fifteen or so (don’t remember the exact chapter anymore, since y’know, it was eleven years ago) and kept checking for the next update. It was really bad with the final chapter, because it was New Year’s Eve and I continuously pressed refresh so eagerly awaiting the update and then when it was finally there I read it between the different courses of dinner. 

I loved it so much that I was raving about it non-stop to my best friend that she, who hadn’t watched a single episode of digimon, even wanted to read it. So I lend her my binder of MCL and I like that she texted me her thoughts a few times. I kept those texts, even after ten years, until I had to buy a new phone last summer. 

Sentimental experiences aside, the story itself is just so epic. It had everything: an intriguing plot, an amazing build-up, lots of suspense and action, and of course a compelling romance between Taichi and Mimi. Once again, the journey of the characters and their relationship was so moving and so captivating. And I loved every step of the way. 

#digimon #michi #taichi x mimi #mimi tachikawa #taichi yagami #my rec post #anon #inbox #meme me up scotty #you can expect an update of the michi rec post soon though :D #i'm checking to see if all the links still work #and adding so much michi greatness that was produced in 2016 #i hope 2017 will be as amazing a year as 2016 was for michi #(lbr 2016 sucked except for all the michi goodness) #also dear nonnie #i'm so sorry this came so late #but it wasn't easy formulating a top five for michi fics #i wanted to take my time #but it was so much fun talking about my favourite michi stories!! #so thank you so much for this ask :)