#kinda I think it’s just foreshadowing but just wanted to add it just in case

[sntofbirbs]

YALL I AM LOOSING IT THERE WAS A PHASE ONE CLONE HELMET IN THE BEGINNING SEQUENCE

PLUS SABINES HELMET WAS CAST IN A RED LIGHT INSTEAD OF BLUE??????? HUH??????

#Star Wars #star wars ahsoka #ahsoka show #ahsoka spoilers #kinda I think it’s just foreshadowing but just wanted to add it just in case #sw ahsoka #ahsoka series #ahsoka tano #sabine wren #sw clones #ahsoka

[ninma]

I just noticed a very interesting note in Alastor's ad in episode 1...

Who in Hazbin Hotel is the most associated with circus decor?

Lucifer.

Less than 5 min into episode 1 and we already get a hint that Alastor isn't a big fan of Lucifer.

Which is interesting because it implies that Alastor disliked Lucifer before he even involved himself with the hotel. They hadn't even met yet.

It's such a weirdly specific thing to add to a commercial too. Because when I think hotel, circus decor wouldn't be anywhere on my list of expectations.

It's clearly targeted towards Lucifer. An indirect insult Alastor probably had wanted Lucifer to see.

If this is the case, some of Alastor's commentary can be looked at slightly differently.

Lines like "Lucifer's delusional daughter", "Daddy issues" and the other insulting commentary can then also be partly aimed at Lucifer.

Which would probably be effective hits because Lucifer definitely wouldn't be happy about someone offending his daughter, but the "Daddy issues" line would probably make him feel guilt.

It's as if Alastor wanted to pick a fight the first chance he got to potentially reach Lucifer.

But like...why?

In episode 5 we have a reasonable explanation for why Alastor is poking at Lucifer. Alastor likes to be in control and have power over others, however even he knows Lucifer is more powerful than him. Therefore he aims at Lucifer's relationship with Charlie (which is what the dad comments are really about) to regain some of that power.

Which is why it doesn't make any sense for him to indirectly target Lucifer in episode 1.

Why pick a fight with the King of Hell when he barely had anything to hold over Lucifer?

When this ad was made, Charlie had known Alastor for only a week and therefore claiming to be close to her would be weird.

Heck, Alastor is even insulting Charlie and the hotel here, which definitely doesn't give him any favour from her.

Another point could be that Alastor is also partly annoyed at having to make a video. He probably doesn't expect it to air. But that still doesn't explain why he'd deliberately add a note directed at Lucifer.

So.....What's the deal here Alastor?

There isn't a clear reason for doing this.

The only one I can guess that makes some sense is that Alastor just wanted to feel some sense of power by indirectly insulting Lucifer, who is the most powerful being in all of Hell. Getting a chance to hit him where it hurts would probably bring Alastor a lot of satisfaction.

Another option is that it could be related to Lilith, if she turned out to be the one he made a deal with. It could be that Alastor's frustration over his deal makes him want to take it out on Lucifer (since he obviously can't take it out on Charlie). Lilith telling him to do it is possible, but I find it unlikely. Unless her real motive was pushing Lucifer out of his isolation and back into Charlie's life. Still find it unlikely tho.

In the end, it still feels weird for Alastor to be this intent on picking on Lucifer this early on. Taking advantage of the first opportunity to have a message reach Lucifer, despite Alastor neither having power or leverage over him if Lucifer had responded.

So...Alastor...

Care to spill the tea on why you're being so pissy?

(Sorry, couldn't resist-)

EDIT: I just realized how funny it is that despite saying there is no tacky circus decor, the hotel itself is FULL of it XD

Now that I think about it, that might actually be the joke behind the note.

(Admittedly, this might just be a fun bit of foreshadowing and doesn't really have any deeper meaning)

(Also, Lucifer's circus decor isn't tacky. I'd definitely be down for staying at a hotel with his aesthetic and decor. But, maybe that's just me)

(It kinda reminds me of how Vox immediately went to send a message to Alastor on TV the moment he learned of his return XD)

#Alastor is gone for 7 years and only one week after he returns he is already trying to pick a fight with Lucifer #can't wait to see their dynamic in season 2 XD #hazbin hotel #alastor #lucifer morningstar #hazbin lucifer #hazbin alastor #alastor and lucifer

[cerastes]

With the exception of Arknights what are your thoughts on gacha games?

I don't feel like I need to exclude Arknights from the statement, I can criticize things even if I like them.

In general, I don't like that their widely accepted and even defended business model is "Capitalize on FOMO, exploit gambling addictions, create dependent users". I also think that the use of the "game as a service" model, and one that needs to keep pumping content forever and can't risk to alienate the player, severely limits what can be done with the medium in terms of creativity, because you can't kill off playable characters nilly willy (I actually think Epic Seven was cooking with this, Epic Seven will kill off playable characters and remove them from the plot if it feels like it, or at least used to back when I played, don't know nowadays), relationships and dynamics with characters tend to be limited because otherwise your audience can feel like you are cucking them, and I wish I was kidding but just look at the absolute dumpster fire of a drama going on as we speak (22nd of January, 2024) in Girls' Frontline 2 over in China over one of the characters having interactions with a male NPC, and you can't ever bring a true sense of finality to any given arc because everything ends up having to be foreshadowing, set-up, build-up and so on and on and on. In many cases, you also have a mold cast of Must Have tropes in your playable cast: The Maid, The Idol, The One That Worships The Ground You Walk On, The Underage And Underclothed One, The Underage (But We Treat This One As A Precious Child!) One, Foxgirl, The Cold And Highly Analytical One (But Actually, Loves You), Chuuni, etc, so it feels like in every game I kinda already know at least a third of the cast minimum already and I'm kind of primed to not really want to know them, even though there's subversions I end up liking sometimes (Fenny from Snowbreak is an example of an Idol-type I ended up loving despite not liking Idol-types).

On the other hand, even with these negatives in mind, having a game that periodically updates and adds content, and that you can discreetly play pretty much everywhere on the go due to smartphones being their main 'console', games that foster community and something to talk about with your friends that also play and that will always have something new every couple of weeks, as well as inspire fanart, fanworks, analysis, and commentary, and that tend to be more risque and interesting with their designs is honestly good to have. I personally enjoy the community aspect of gacha games, I consider it one of the two most important aspects for me, because I know I can come here, for example, and see people talking about the story, the characters, the music, the gameplay, and more, every day, and the other important thing to me is how discreet they are, since I can just play a few maps or stages in my phone real fast midst a social situation at work, and then hop back in with a renewed social battery or when a topic I like comes up.

I fully get when people showcase their disdain for gacha, yeah, but if we really want to be nitpicky, the majority of the game industry is kind of a cesspool of toxicity, which is not to say "stop bashing gacha" and instead say "bash the whole thing if you're going to be bashing it anyway" (and we should! Game devs and other personnel in the industry have been crying for better conditions for years now!). Either way, if someone decides to sit at the gambling den, it becomes their responsibility. I want there to be more safeguards for people with actual addictions and to protect them, but with this in mind, if anyone still decides to sit at the den, it's assumed they are going to take responsibility for their actions and financial decisions.

So all in all, yeah, predatory games that suffer in quality due to their own trappings, but also good sources of community, inspiration, and effective at being discreet games you can play anywhere and that get periodic updates (this isn't necessarily exclusive to gacha but it is an aspect of them that bears mentioning, which I point out since no doubt people will want to point out there's good non-gacha smartphone game options out there)

[citruscitrushope]

Why Ken Shiraishi is Still Written OK (aka why Vivid BAD SQUAD will never surpass RAD WEEKEND, and why that's a good thing)

An essay I wrote in someone's Twitter DMs as we discussed their belief that Ken's writing has been becoming out of character ever since On Your Feet, and my attempt to present a counter-argument that turned into an analysis of VBS stories up to this point.

1,089 words, warnings for swearing, spoilers, and the fact that this is barely formatted like an essay at all but was just a ramble I thought I gave some good points in and wanted to share.

So bro is openly going against the things that made rw what it was ("ok Toya make all the songs" <- that is not what happened with radder)" and I doubt bro would be full on ignoring it (nor clpl full on ignoring it seeing as they have all of the group's full stories planned from the beginning) and I personally theorize that it's to emphasize the four's strengths as well as to make them come face to face with their weaknesses to grow stronger (I think concerto is the most obvious case of this). Nagi's goal with rw wasn't to make something to be surpassed, it was to pass radder's dream to the next generation to reach the heights they couldn't (i.e. worldwide popularity) and I very much feel like the vbs story has enough backing them going in that direction (Toya's wl chapter, what I've seen of radder flashbacks, even Ken's whole reason for opening weekend garage).

For context, the preceding conversation was about how Ken has been going against a lot of his initial things (Running weekend garage to help the next generation, helping them not work as hard, etc), how he knew Taiga was gonna tell vbs the truth of RAD WEEKEND and that he should first but he didn't, and then how he's been overworking the kids and going against the team effort rw was by radder

Again, clpl kinda suck at writing vbs sometimes but dammit they ain't bad at foreshadowing, they teased Nagi stuff for a year or two before lutf and stuff after all. Plus they've never had a sudden decline with a character, it took two years for Mafuyu's mom to fully be revealed as bad, and even with Taiga that was a solid year. (Now what they do do a lot of are sudden "redemption arcs", sure the Otori brothers' was decent but all the times they've tired to have Shinodad or Toya's dad grow as people has been so bad like bro some people are just shit).

Plus vbs' story has been slower than most of the other units until this current arc (hell they took the longest to end their first arc), slow building blocks to surpassing RAD WEEKEND. So for this current arc to have them saying "our next event will surpass them" so suddenly just doesn't add up. It has to be a red herring. And again, Taiga's been this game's only true betrayal arc, others have been characters going from neutral to bad (Mafumom, one-off characters) or ones meant to be bad that eventually become allies to their respective groups (Arata, Iori, Otori brothers). Taiga going from an explicit ally to an enemy is an outlier, and I've noticed that they usually won't repeat plots and stuff in this game (well outside of Smile of a Dreamer and Our Happy Ending but I think that was on purpose).

I highly doubt that vbs' ending will involve them surpassing RAD WEEKEND, they're probably the only group who's initial goal hadn't changed over time (L/n "I wanna be with my friends again" -> "We wanna be pros that touch others with music". WxS "Let's save this stage" -> "let's travel the world to make our dreams come true" n25 "i need to save mafuyu" -> "she's seemingly saved but shits still tucked"). Even MMJ's which has seemed to always be "Let's be idols and give hope to others" has had steps to go through, it wasn't instantly "Let's perform in the dome" it was "Let's be idols" -> "let's do a live show" -> "let's do a solo show" -> "let's perform in the dome". VBS hasn't been like that, it's always been "let's surpass RAD WEEKEND" and never been anything but that, so their progression has just been them saying "this'll get us closer to surpassing RAD WEEKEND" with little to actually show for it.

It's a lofty, impossible task, and I think Ken and Taiga know that, but they view it in different ways. Taiga sees it as "you'll never live up to it give up stop trying" while Ken's is "you'll never live up to it but that doesn't change that you're still talented performers". Even though how characters always compare each other to radder (An and Taiga seeing Nagi in Kohane, Taiga seeing Ken in Akito) , they're not radder, they'll never be them, and I feel like that's what the story wants to have them and the audience eventually realize. That's what Nagi wanted, right? To have the next generation do what she and the rest of radder couldn't, to keep singing and to be known around the world. They've already contrasted how both Taiga and Ken have attempted to keep Nagi's wishes alive before (i.e. the whole "Don't tell An until she's ready" thing), and Ken handled this better than Taiga but both weren't the best at it, and vbs had to find the strength themselves to keep going. Taiga did it in a brutal and dream-crushing way, while Ken's was gentler and more honest but came too late, and I feel that they wouldn't get rid of that contrast with Nagi's other dream. Taiga ran off and became famous overseas, but never fully processed his grief. Ken is encouraging the next generation, but still isn't doing it perfectly.

So I feel that Ken's plan is to show vbs *their* strengths. The ones only they have. Not in the context of reaching radder's level, but in reaching their own, and truly fulfilling Nagi's wish. He's not doing it perfectly, he's overworking them severely, but I highly doubt that this is purposeful. Again, I just don't think they'd make the dilf have a villain arc.

But nothing anyone has done in response to vbs's dream has been perfect. Even from the main story with akitoya and Kotarou sabotaging Kohane, to Arata in sbd, to Taiga to Arata in bfby, and then lutf is obvious. It's a messy tale of unprocessed grief and unfiltered dreams, things that can lead to both triumph and tragedy. But I truly can't see any malice in Ken's actions, or even Taiga's to an extent. While there obviously was some there, to him I assume it was to protect the legacy of his sister and to not tarnish her swansong.

I don't fully know where I was going with this but all in all I think Ken has good intentions albeit with unintentional extreme expectations, VBS was never meant to surpass RAD WEEKEND, and the vbs story's messy pacing lately is purposeful

#project sekai #vivid bad squad #ken shiraishi #mine ☆ #if the person whose dms this in wants this taken down lmk and i'll do it

[spicyviren]

After reading the case for Viren connecting with the Star Arcanum and him having visions because of it, I made myself a beautiful tinfoil hat.

Humor this giant spaghetti noodle:

This is a vision of Claudia performing Infantis Sanguine.

Viren is initially pulled out of his catatonic state when he sees Claudia wade into the water to retrieve the prison and immediately recalls her walking into a red sea. And this would track with his premonition, but the giant orb in the sky and the approaching wave are missing.

Entertaining the idea that this is indeed a vision of the future and not purely metaphorical elements of Viren's own mind, exactly what is the orb in the sky? An eclipse, a dark star, a black hole?

A full moon?

Vision Claudia drags her legs through the water, which trails red behind her (BLOODUH).

IRL, she's squeezing her blood into black pentapus ink...

...and Terry explicitly remarks on it.

The wave I'm less sure about. Aaravos repeatedly invokes the rising sun as kind of harbinger of Viren's death, so my semi-joking, semi-serious idea is that Claudia finds a loophole by somehow managing to prolong the night or otherwise block out the influence of the sun. So first thought was eclipse which, looking at Viren's nightmare revelation, uh-check!!

AND THEN cursory research confirms that the increased gravitational pull of a sun and moon aligned causes bigger waves called spring tide and I was like, yes very good for me that science is on my side for this magical made up scenario in which the rules are made up and the points don't matter!

SO! Wave is there because SCIENCE says so. But also, eh, kinda looks like sound waves! Like, a nice tableau of Claudia chanting the words of a spell in a pool of her own blood to save her father's life.

An additional element which further convinces me that Viren is having Star Primal-type visions is that child Claudia only skips on one side of Viren's footprints, foreshadowing her losing a leg.

I think the biggest question about Infantis Sanguine is whether or not "the sacrifice" is just some blood or all of the blood, and therefore, whether or not it's something Claudia would be able to do and walk away from using herself as The Sacrifice. Alternatively, she does carry with her a blue flower which begins to fall apart into the water, which if I really wanted to, I could maaaaybe buy as representing Sparklepuff (as sacrifice) or as Viren himself (who is also falling apart and dying lol). Could totally be something else though.

As I'm writing this, I'm realizing I don't know the exact cause of Viren's horror at Infantis Sanguine - if it's simply the prospect of using any part of his children as a spell component, or, more plausibly to me, that he's simply operating under the reasonable assumption that "sacrifice" in this context = death.

Generally, I tend to believe that Aaravos doesn't straight up lie, but I do think he obscures a lot by simple implication and is happy to sit back while people stumble through a maze of their own incorrect interpretation. Things Aaravos never says are, "you must kill the homunculus" and, "one of your children must die so that you can live." The only time Aaravos explicitly talks about death and dying is in relation to Viren himself (and even then, he throws in mysterious stuff about death in tandem with the sun rising).

What he DOES say is this: And I will show you how to use every drop of his living essence to restore your own life...AND your future.

I'll admit that I'm reaching a bit here, but the fact that Aaravos is invoking the future with regard to Sparklepuff's living essence (as opposed to Sparklepuff's magical essence) does kind of hint to me that Sparklepuff wouldn't necessarily die as sacrifice. Which might also explain (what I perceived to be) Aaravos's rather muted response to Viren's refusal at what could essentially be a magical blood transfusion.

Last bit to add - the pentapus and ATLA by extension. This isn't my favorite thing to bring up because a lot of the time I feel like TDP is a bit in ATLA's shadow (but they DO keep making references...) so tossing in a tenuous but relevant nod to a character stealing a literal celestial body from the sky AND a solar eclipse blocking out the power of the sun.

#the dragon prince #tdp spoilers #viren #claudia #aaravos #speculation #tinhattery #crackpottery #noodoodlery #INFANTIS SANGUINE #!!! #.......infantis linguine #thanks for coming to my pasta boil

[linkspooky]

Hello! Thank you for taking your time to reply to my ask about Gojo's relationship with other people.

i agree with what you said, it is plausible.

However there is one thing I want to mention regarding Gojo's popularity, it's not that Gege said in his interview that Geto would be a good boyfriend, he said that Geto was more popular with girls back in hs, more than Gojo. And the whole Gojo = popular comes from that scene in HI where he gets gushed at by middle school girls. But i think I'll also slip in the fact that Gojo is also quite popular with fangirls irl lol. (Also on Twitter, someone explained that Gege's comment about "he probably wears sunglasses when he goes to meet a girl" was his foreshadowing to Gojo meeting Riko, as he was also asked sometime before the HI)

To add onto Gojo's personality here, i think it is quite reasonable that Gojo just cannot attract people emotionally because of his outward behavior, he is considered attractive sure but that's subjective until he opens his mouth. Also the fact that he seems uninterested in the world outside the sorcery. Either that or well sorcerers and especially Gojo do not have the privilege to access a more normal life. It has been stated also that Gojo barely, just barely gets any free days off.

Anyways, this is kinda subversive to what you were discussing but i just wanted to let you know, hopefully the information will be useful even though it's majorly irrelevant.

Lastly, thanks for critical analysis and reading of the text.

Nooo, it's fine I don't mind being corrected. I had a feeling I was misremembering exactly what Gege said in the inteview, I just remembered it being along the lines of "Geto is better with woman".  Also don’t worry the information was useful thanks for continuing the discussion. 

Gojo in general seems to take an interest in the outside world more as a tourist than as a part of it, like there's a scene in a Nanami short story in one of the light novels where Gojo goes to great length to Nanami to describe some local sweets from a shop he loves. In the first chapter Gojo appears, he's off sampling local delicacies when Megumi is in the middle of his missions. As Gojo is probably someone who takes no days off outside of his work as there is no one currently in the Jujutsu World who could replace him, Gojo doing what seems to just be goofing around during work hours starts to seem like Gojo just getting a small taste of the outside world. Like "Gojo lives in another world from everybody else", yeah but he still wants to eat really oily and sugary deserts from his favorite shop down the road. He's like a tourist visiting a foreign country who really wants to try the local cuisine and get a feel for the place and doesn't notice he stands out.

As I said a lot of these small behaviors give you hints as to who Gojo is, but we're not really privy to the big details we know very little about what the inside of the Gojo clan is like, or his past outside of the hidden inventory flashbacks. In fact as far as I can recall we don't ever get an internal narration from him. Yuji's thoughts narrates sometimes, Nobara's thoughts, Megumi's thoughts, Nanami's thoughts, we're even shown Geto's internal narration in the the flashback chapters, but mainly what we have on Gojo comes from other people's perspectives. We view him from the outside instead of inside his head. The one exception I can think of is during Shibuya Incident when he fought against Hanami / Mahito / Jogo / Choso combined and even then we're not really told anything about Gojo's beliefs or self reflection. No moments like Megumi's where he's like "the jujutsu world is just a mechanism for dispensing justice." In that case he was only trying to figure out how to defeat his enemies. There is one omake where everyone around the school is asked about who Gojo is, and they all give pretty shallow answers because they like the reader only ever get to view him from the outside.

#askspookies

[prongsmydeer]

Ayesha Liveblogs Business Proposal S1

“Can you believe this ad? You can hardly tell what product they’re promoting.” As much as I am immediately wary of businessmen, I also do sometimes feel this emotion LOL if I have to sit through an ad I’d like to know what it’s for

I don’t yet know Fish Girl but I like her. It was the ponytail and labcoat moment. What can I say, I am easy

President Kang Tae-moo immediately putting poor Sung-hoon in the line of fire to be attacked with a cane by his grandfather

I love how comically evil Park Bribery Incorporated is. They cackle into the night over a box of money in a golf course 

I have not yet seen Min-woo but if these cutaway animations are any indication I think I will adore him:

“You think you’re the only smart one in the world.” said Tae-moo’s grandfather. “You’re just realizing that now?” replied Tae-moo, in what I’m sure isn’t foreshadowing of him immediately doing something stupid ASAP

You know, I think I like Grandpa Kang, he’s funny 

TKJHKJTHKJGHKJG. Min-woo. Who invites someone to a restaurant on their birthday when u are making a cake for SOMEONE ELSE’S BIRTHDAY. I feel like the cake mishap is kinda on you

“And even if I liked men, President Kang really isn’t my style.” 1) I love you Sung-hoon, 2) This is a very bisexual way to respond to this question why do u know ur type LMAO

Subpoint to this: I think Grandpa Kang would be chill if Tae-moo and Sung-hoon were dating. He’d be like, “Great! Marry him. This saves time for all of us.”

Poor Ha-ri, I feel u on the family that rarely puts in effort on ur birthday 

Omg is this ‘I need 800,000 won’ neighbour conflict the reason for what I assume will be a fake relationship between Ha-ri and Tae-moo?? Feels a little imbalanced, I hope it has Ouran High School Host Club energy LMAO 

Young-seo might be the sugar mama in this situation bc she’s paying Ha-ri to go on a blind date in her stead? I feel better about that LMAO

All the little cutaways and special effects in this show are very fun, there is no real reason why Young-seo needs to magically throw outfits onto Ha-ri like she’s Kirby after a power-up, but they decided to add it in anyway and I think that’s very powerful of them

For a guy so meticulous as Tae-moo, you’d think he’d google his dates

LMAO I love how convoluted this scheme has already gotten 30 minutes into the show. Why did Ha-ri not just run away after going to the bathroom. She did not need to come back to the table

Come to think of it. If she wanted to end it with a goodbye. She could’ve just faked a family emergency 

“The one on the left is Samantha and the one on the right is Rachel.” KJHJKGHGKJH THERE WERE SO MANY WAYS TO END THIS DATE ALTERNATIVE TO ‘UR MAKING MY TIDDIES SAD’

I love how many creative options Ha-ri has for getting rid of men though. This must be a pastime for her. Or she’s very quick on her feet. Either way, admirable 

Also. I don’t know if this is a cultural difference but like. What makes u think offering to have sex with a man will get rid of him. Have you met a cishet man

I assume, however, in Tae-moo’s case because he’s Mr. Smarty Trousers, he can tell she doesn’t want to be on the date and he’s gonna proposition fake dating, not knowing she’s not Young-seo

Oh my god. HE DOESN’T KNOW. And I think he secretly liked the date. THAT’S SO FUNNY

“To partners in crime?” “I’m so proud of you.” Ha-ri and Young-seo’s dynamic is perfect. No comments

I want Sung-hoon to find love. I know it’s early to suggest a throuple, but I think he should be in a throuple with Tae-moo and Ha-ri. Bye (bi).

“A regular employee will never run into the President at work,” said Young-seo, in what I assume is again immediate foreshadowing of Ha-ri running into Tae-moo at work 

HA:

LMAO at Tae-moo looking RIGHT AT a picture of Ha-ri and not noticing it’s the same woman he declared he was going to marry just bc she’s wearing glasses and has her hair up. Is he faceblind or does Ha-ri have Clark Kent Syndrome?

“With my face, body, impeccable manners and flawless personality, why would she say no?” Tae-moo said: I got self-esteem baybee <3 

“This goes for you too. Why don’t you get a girlfriend?” Awwww grandpa said I will hassle my honorary grandson Sung-hoon about his relationships too, equal opportunity meddling >:)

It didn’t take Sung-hoon long to find love I guess LOL

“We’re going to get married, so I should know all of your numbers.” JHGKHJGKH Tae-moo ur insane

Well, when Tae-moo decides he’s gonna do something, he commits

Ha-ri is also insane. WHO JUST JUMPS INTO RANDOM CARS!! THAT’S HOW U GET KIDNAPPED

“How do I look like [feathered bird-like dinosaur]?” “Just the overall vibe, especially the nose.” HAHAHAH SUNG-HOON COMING IN FOR THE KILL CASUALLY

Hahahaha this drunken scene has only reinforced my love for both Young-seo and Ha-ri

“Stop saying ‘female employees.’ They’re just employees. Don’t you know that’s sexist? And what, climb up the ladder? The only thing that’s climb is my blood pressure. So stop it, and get those invoices submitted.” I love Ha-ri’s boss Ms. Yeo

Maybe it says something about your personality that you think people would be interested in throwing shoes at your face, Tae-moo?????

WHY ARE YOU CHASING HER. THIS IS SO STUPID. However I love the immediate payoff of mentioning in the previous scene that he was a track and field star hahahahah

It’s a little incongruent with the whole façade of being this v pragmatic president to be chasing an employee wildly through the hallways. But it’s funny so I’ll give it to them

Also. Put your hair up and put on some glasses. He’ll never find you

I wasn’t expecting Tae-moo to actually catch up to her. But I like that every time he meets her in any capacity he’s like, ‘She’s bananas but honest and hardworking. <3 Delightful <3′

Bold of Tae-moo to describe Ha-ri as “the woman he almost married” when she flat-out rejected him and told him looked like a dinosaur

I love how Tae-moo invites himself into Sung-hoon’s apartment and cooks and cleans. Domestic. Maybe they are dating a little

With the added factor of the wig to the outfits and makeup, I guess it’s more of a Hannah Montana situation 

Gfjggfkjhgkjgh Young-seo really did just throw her friend to the wolves LOL

Tae-moo having a personal vendetta against Ha-ri the Fake Young-seo over being called a dinosaur. At least he’s consistent in his petty ego HAAHAHAH

Kang is calling Ha-ri in the middle of the night just because he got mad while watching a dinosaur documentary. Extremely unhinged. I love this for them

Tae-moo must love his grandfather a lot to go on ten blind dates in a row 

HAHAHAHAHAHA WE FINALLY ARRIVE AT THE FAKE DATING PLOT I UNDERSTOOD TO BE THE PREMISE OF THIS SHOW:

“You should thank Mr. Cha. He’s the reason we made up and got back together.” [Tae-moo blinking desperately at Sung-hoon for back-up.] “Yes sir. I tried very hard.” Sung-hoon proving he’s a ride or die homie

Fjfhkfhkfjhkf feels mean-spirited of Tae-moo to put tons of money on the line for someone he knows to be struggling. His motto is truly mansplain, manipulate, malewife

“Rich people are people too.” Grandpa Kang reinforcing to us all that rich people are tone deaf always 

Ohhh my god Ha-min walking in on Ha-ri and Tae-moo accidentally kissing jhgkjhgkg her brother doesn’t know what’s on the horizon

Why are they just chilling, lip to lip? PULL AWAY U DOOFS

Tae-moo fully blackmailed her into being his fake date. Like don’t get me wrong, if I look at other fake dating shows, they’ve also been a little bananas, but it’s worse here cause of the money thing. Eat the rich 

Also: If she signed that contract with her fake name it cannot possibly be legally binding LMAO

Silver lining: Tae-moo catching Ha-ri as she falls asleep and then tossing her at the car window bc he felt an emotion was very funny

“I won’t stop you from living on your own. But leave my credit card behind.” I guess Young-seo is going to have to get another job because only one couple in this show can pay each other to be in a relationship

“What kind of show makes the characters get together after just one kiss?” Enjoying the recurring background plot of their lives being followed exactly by what’s happening on TV

Excited and dreading seeing the Min-woo storyline and Ha-ri’s double life as Geum-hui the Fake Girlfriend collide 

Unclear if Young-seo gets to keep her job at her dad’s company?? But was absolutely certain this would be Sung-hoon’s apartment building so called that one LOL

Awwww poor Ha-ri finding out Min-woo is still in love with his ex. It’s sad girl hours 

Tae-moo pretending he didn’t hear her sobbing on the phone ahhhhh

Also. Girl. How did u get ur phone out of the gutter lmao

“Not her. Her.” Hahahaha Grandpa Kang realizing that Tae-moo likes flashy girls

“On top of that, you know that Tae-moo hates the rain? It was raining that day, and he still came.” I’m going to take Tae-moo’s stricken expression as evidence his parents were killed in the rain and so he has been planning to become Bitchy Batman ever since 

Fhfjkhfkfhkjfh Ha-ri truly drops her bag and belongings everywhere. Realistic. Subscribed. 

I feel solidarity with Sung-hoon and Young-seo over their mutual hatred of bugs

“You put Mr. Kang in a difficult position by sending somebody else on the blind date to fill in for you. So I just don’t think it would be right for me to get to know you personally.” Wow. Sung-hoon IS ride or die

This is the chillest concert I have ever seen. Seems more like a recital than a concert. This is smaller than my high school auditorium 

Min-woo said, unhelpfully: Just in case my comments get selected, I wanted to inform both the band and the audience that Ha-ri is single. <3 Please help this lonely woman <3 

“I don’t regret [falling for Min-woo], though. I was really happy for those seven years.” This is one of the most romantic things this show has said and it’s not even about the main couple LOL

There is something to this whole forced proximity thing like these two coming to understand each other’s sensitive spots a bit more... that’s very sweet

Tae-moo heard what I said about Min-woo and immediately took it as a challenge to be more romantic:

Why does Min-woo look so aghast? Is it bc Ha-ri no longer looks at him with love in her eyes kjghkghgkh

Between the ringtone and Min-woo and the eye bruise, Tae-moo is really having a lot of puzzle pieces thrown together in quick succession. Will his supposed high intellect piece together the truth about Ha-ri Montana? Tune in next episode

“We met when we were 20, so we’ve known each other for 7 years now.” “And you’ve been just friends this whole time?” That’s an inappropriate question to ask, Tae-moo kgjhkjghgjkg

Me: Maybe he’s connected the dots

The show: He didn’t connect shit

Gjlgkghgkjh the fact that Tae-moo and Sung-hoon have been besties literally since they were kids makes the fact they address each other so formally so funny. Imagine if in Boy Meets World, Cory called Shawn, “Mr. Hunter,” that’s the equivalent scenario

Weel weel weel, the ‘accidentally got us roped into a date’ shoe is on the other foot now, isn’t it Tae-moo and Sung-hoon Who Put Fake Anniversaries in their Calendars

Dfhkjghkghkgh Tae-moo counting the rings after Ha-ri missed his call bc he’s cool and chill and not catching feelings

Lmao @ Ha-ri making the absolute worst possible impression on Grandpa Kang while Tae-moo continues to look at every iteration of Ha-ri (both as herself and as Geum-hui) and go: <3 <3 <3 <3

Omgggggggggg they’re giving each other anniversary presents in the form of bruise ointment and fried chicken. I love this <3 

I’m not saying much bc I’m too enthralled in the anniversary date but I am convinced this Young-seo furniture designer neighbour is a stalker 

There was immediate payoff to this comment bc he is now delivering furniture to her unsolicited. Also gjkhkgjh at Sung-hoon becoming suspicious about this guy’s glasses bc he can tell time. He could just have a low prescription or wear them for fashion. Not everyone who wears glasses with relatively good vision is a liar and weirdo. (But this guy definitely is).

We cut back to Tae-moo falling wholeass in love:

Of the two, I don’t know that I was expecting Tae-moo to be the one who wears his heart on his sleeve but every single second of this date he is showing he cares and Ha-ri is internally going [Gabrielle Aplin voice] Please don’t say you love me 

It took him four full episodes and numerous occasions to look at her but Tae-moo has finally connected the dots about Ha-ri Montana by seeing her ID and seeing her chilling outside her house picking up his call

Tae-moo, stupid as hell: I cannot believe she fooled me twice

“She’s going to keep lying to me?” YOU BLACKMAILED HER INTO FAKE DATING U AND YOU’RE HER BOSS OF COURSE SHE’D LIE TO U, WHAT’S WRONG WITH U TAE-MOO

“I’m going to take my time to make her realize just how big of a mistake she’s made.” HEY! TAE-MOO! YOU LITERALLY MADE HER DATE YOU. UR JUST MAD CAUSE UR IN LOVE WITH HER. STOP BEING SO WEIRD AND MEAN

What Tae-moo did not account for in this stupid Ravioli Repetition Revenge is that if he looks directly at her he falls to pieces because he is in love with her. A problem of his own making 

Even if Min-woo and Ha-ri WERE dating it would be none of ur business bc ur her boss and fake boyfriend, Tae-moo. Get a grip, my love 

If he hates lying so much why is he forcing her to lie more by constantly putting her in positions that put her job at risk? EAT THE RICH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If Sung-hoon isn’t saying it, I will. YOU ARE IN THE WRONG!!!!

I fucking knew furniture guy was a stalker. Gross. Hate it. Unnecessary

Also kind of bad vibes that he would give her an award for her work and use it to trap her. Eat the rich x3

“Why are they doing this? They never invited our family members before this.” It’s because your fake boyfriend is coocoo bananas 

You know. If I saw my family dressed in a wig and heavy makeup trying to hide from eyeline. I’d let it go. None of my business 

Hard to tell how much of that was a dream sequence lmao

“Why am I worried about that woman?” [Grandpa, through narration] “Look at him. It’s because he likes her.” I hope Grandpa Kang mockingly narrates Tae-moo for the rest of the show

Tae-moo 🤝 Young-seo 

Expressing their romantic feelings by being as annoying as possible

“I’m Shin Ha-ri. Shin Ha-ri is Shin Geum-hui.” It took Ha-ri one (1) drunken admission and mumbled apology for her to stop every cog in Tae-moo’s unhinged little brain all at once:

“There’s no way I have feelings for Shin Ha-ri,” said Tae-moo, after searching all night for her to make sure she got home safe, releasing her from his ridiculous contract to make her life easier, and literally fleeing the country so he did not have to keep looking at her

The English switches always take me off-guard but what’s most funny about this New York scene is that Tae-moo quite obviously has more of an American accent to his English than either of the white people (who are presumably Korean by nationality) do 

“Are you sorry for being so petty and messing with me because it hurt your pride when I’m not even interested in you?” I love a good romantic hallucination that calls you out for your mistakes LMAO

Well. Furniture stalker finally had his reveal. Yikes. I hope she is able to press charges

Sung-hoon took this opportunity to say: Tae-moo is not the only Business Boy who did track and field! WATCH ME RUNNNNN and catch this creep 

Time for Tae-moo to prove that this ride or die relationship with Sung-hoon is reciprocal!! Go get your boy

“You’ve managed to make this far without getting caught. But unfortunately, you ran into me.” Tae-moo has been waiting his whole life for this Feminist Batman moment 

“Well, who wouldn’t be upset in a situation like this?” said Tae-moo. “Yeah!” replied Sung-hoon, which, while true, is also definitely a product of the fact this secret perv footage thing happened to two women they have feelings for

“Didn’t you hear me? I’ve developed feelings for Ms. Shin.” Surprisingly self-aware for Tae-moo, what a quick turnaround 

I really appreciate how the show emphasized how stupid Tae-moo is for wanting to confess his feelings and ask her out without at all considering that she is and has been his employee this entire time 

I can’t wait to see Tae-moo start to try to be a normal person. Also I guess they’re finally going to start addressing all the loose threads around Min-woo

Min-woo, if you are in love with Ha-ri, as your sad faces when she mentions dating imply, WHY ARE YOU NOT DATING HER

Tae-moo asking to meet Ha-ri outside of work bc he likes her is a blatant misuse of authority but I’ll allow it because I think it’s going to be cute

But honestly, and I hate to say it: Same energy as that guy at my uni who said he was going to hold a debate club meeting but only invited one of the club members so he could trick her into a date. Cishet men do be like this

As much as I really dislike the plotline, I appreciate that they are addressing the actual trauma that Young-seo would experience after being the victim of sex crime 

LOL @ Ha-ri’s coworkers immediately showing up at this theatre. Love that we’ve progressed from fake dating to secret dating

Tae-moo missing the whole event is Karmic Justice both for the False Pretenses Date and for being so snippy with Ha-ri about leading a double life earlier. THE CRAWLING OUT OF A SPACE TO GO UNNOTICED BY COLLEAGUES IS ON THE OTHER FOOT

Sung-hoon proving chivalry is not dead by ramming against the broken bathroom door so Young-seo could pee

“What excuse should I use to call her next?” HOW ABOUT U TALK TO HER LIKE A PERSON TAE-MOO U WEIRDO

“Come to your senses. You’re here for work!” said Ha-ri, proving she was the only one in this relationship who had any concept of work-life separation lmao

“She would be very touched if you told her that you called me here.” “It would be tasteless if I bragged about it.” Awwww if Tae-moo just uses all of these “work meetings” to do very sweet things for Ha-ri in secret just to make her happy then I will forgive him for 63% of his craziness 

Turns out even Sung-hoon has limits to his chivalry:

Tae-moo ending the simultaneous double date by having a rain-induced panic attack and abandoning his lover on the road

Let it never be said that Tae-moo doesn’t double down on his shenanigan's. Immediately after finding her again he decided to volunteer as her fake boyfriend even though he is her real boss and their last conversation was him demanding she get out of the car in the rain, at an isolated bus stop, at night. Perhaps peak unhinged for Tae-moo

It’s definitely peak unhinged. Tae-moo must never have been in a relationship in his life he is acting like he is OBSESSED with Ha-ri it’s a bit much

Also. Announcing he is the President with NO regard for the position that puts her in as someone who 1) has received an award in his name and 2) is an employee that people may look down on for supposedly sleeping her way upwards. #JustRichManThings

You know. I’m pretty sure they didn’t actually have sex but. This broken heart is on Sung-hoon for not thinking about how someone who has recently been victimized would respond to waking up in a strange apartment with hazy memories

Min-woo really wants to have his Yu-ra and emotional affair with Ha-ri too like I know why Tae-moo is being So Much (it’s a character flaw) but your girlfriend is literally right there!!! Chill out or break-up

We’re finally getting Sung-hoon’s perspective about how all of this has been going down:

How many sad businessmen does it take to change a lightbulb

Also is the implication that Young-seo and Sung-hoon DID have sex while she was drunk because if so. Eughhhhhh don’t like that

Falling in love has really tanked Tae-moo’s ability to take a meeting lmao every single one he cancels or spends the whole time thinking about Ha-ri

“If you reject me, I’ll ask you out again and again. Until you finally like me back. So you need to brace yourself.” This is not a flex it is a red flag something that should be documented in case u need to file a restraining order 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩

Ha-ri said: Red is my favourite colour, how romantic 🌹

I’m sure the decision to makeout at a work event with a filming crew around will not immediately blow up in their faces:

Tae-moo to Sung-hoon after being kissed one (1) time: I now believe in love so take some vacation time bestie <3

“Are my lips some kind of column for you to crash into?” Tae-moo said: IT’S DTR TIME HA-RI

Hahahaha the more fun kind of blackmail where Tae-moo only makes Ha-ri go to activities he knows she’ll enjoy

I cannot BELIEVE that Tae-moo is playing River Flows in You lmao. What in the Twilight soundtrack

“There may be some things I don’t do, but there’s nothing I can’t do.” 1) Love this mentality for Young-seo 2) I anticipate her food being terrible lmao

Tae-moo said: The way to a woman’s heart is telling her she has to have fun with you forever in penance for her kissing crimes

What both Sung-hoon and Tae-moo are demonstrating with the hiking and bumper cars is that their love language is quality time/including their lover in their interests

I’m sure as pay-off for Young-seo trashtalking Tae-moo, he will be the one to get them out of this dangerous mountain excursion

LMAO finally Tae-moo’s exploitative contract has come back to bite him in the ass also Min-woo why the FUCK are you rifling through Ha-ri’s drawers get some help dude

“If you don’t have the money, pay it back with a kiss.” Min-woo must be reading this as some version of escorting vs. what it actually is, which is Ha-ri and Tae-moo’s fucked up little version of foreplay

Ha-ri playing dodgeball with a broken wrist to win a date with a man already in love with her while Tae-moo is being forced into yet another date. Both sides of this relationship aren’t doing well atm

Hoo boy on Sung-hoon going on a “date” with Young-seo’s cousin

“I’ll pay you back for that kiss with a kiss.” They decided to be emotionally forthright and then made out on a bridge. Good for them

They’re hitting their relationship’s honeymoon phase, I think:

Young-seo’s Yikes Cousin Yu-jeong announcing she’s dating someone as if Sung-Hoon hadn’t full ass told her had a girlfriend and wasn’t interested in dating her. I knew this subplot would happen but it’s still annoying to watch 

God. Young-seo inadvertently encouraging her cousin to go after her boyfriend. What a mess

“And I also think it’s about time we got married.” Yu-ra and Min-woo BOTH seem to know he’s in love with Ha-ri at this point I don’t know why they don’t just break up

Also Min-woo has had SEVEN YEARS to act on his feelings. Was he concerned about losing a friend? It’ll certainly be hard to maintain his friendships if he two-times them, emotionally or physically

LMAO @ SUNG-HOON AND TAE-MOO BOTH COWERING BEHIND EACH OTHER IN THIS SCENE BUT FOR DIFFERENT REASONS:

[Text message sent to group chat] “You’re being harsh, babe. Do you think I copied it? You made me look bad in front of Ms. Kim.” Ongoing subplot that I have yet to mention: Mr. Gye and Ms. Yeo, the two older/supervisory members of Ha-ri’s team, have been background dating for like a few eps also in a semi-secret way and now that’s finally coming up as well

No one in this company cares about office power dynamics LOL

Kay I had to stop watching for a few days because this scene of Grandpa Kang YET AGAIN finding Ha-ri locked in the bathroom was too much for me but we back

“But why is a woman in the men’s bathroom?” “She must be in here by mistake. If you do this, she’ll be too embarrassed to come out. You should go to another bathroom.” This is the most rational thing Tae-moo has said over the course of this whole show and he says it with unbridled panic bc he KNOWS his girlfriend is in that stall lmao

There was absolutely no reason for Grandpa Kang to insist she be the one to come out. If I were here I would stonewall him. Bathroom filibuster. I’m never fucking leaving

I love how Tae-moo has only half a brain cell and chooses to think with his heart. What possible rationale does he have for crashing the Food Research Team Dinner LOL

“I love bomb shots.” HAHAHAH Tae-moo looks so happy and relaxed. He’s like ‘See, baby, I fit in!’ hahahaha

In other updates, Sung-hoon tried to introduce Young-seo to his nun mother and, predictably, Cousin Yu-jeong brought the whole event to a crashing halt 

“Do you know what’s most infuriating? It’s how you ignored me and blindly did as Kang Tae-moo said. Are you that family’s servant?” There are a couple of flaws with this, despite the fact that Sung-hoon is clearly in the wrong for lying. 1) Tae-moo is like family to him, so of course he wants to help him out and 2) He does work for them, so yeah, there are blurred lines and 3) He’s known Tae-moo for like.... his whole life. You’ve known each other for what, a few months? Romantic love or no, of course he protects the more established bond. All of this can be summarized by “bros over hoes,” but I digress

“I want to be loved by the person you love the most too.” Ha-ri is SO GOOD at romance. I am also a little in love with her, Tae-moo

GJfigjjfdhkjghkgh loving Ms. Kim catching Ha-ri and Tae-moo covert holding hands LOL

I also appreciate Tae-moo’s hair arc. The lovey-dovey messy bangs are doing a lot for me

[Forced laughter] “I should get going too.” “Yes, it’s late, so you should.” “Yes, goodbye!” [Continued forced laughter on exit] For two people who have been deceiving Grandpa Kang for nine episodes, Tae-moo and Ha-ri act like they’ve never told a lie in their lives

“I’ll introduce her to you soon.” I really look forward to Tae-moo and Ha-ri trying to explain even HALF of what the fuck they’ve been up to together 

The friendships in this show really are delightful:

Awwww Sung-hoon and Tae-moo orphanage backstory is getting me. Young-seo bonding with nun mum. Their little brothers and sister there. Call me sentimental but I love a cliché

Side note: It’s really drawing my attention that Sung-hoon isn’t wearing his glasses. Wasn’t that his entire reason for suspecting the Furniture Stalker that he could see without glasses? What, you’re the only man in this city who can wear contacts? 

“One day, we’ll be able to tell each other about these things. Once we get closer with time.” YOUNG-SEO COMING IN WITH THE ROMANCEEEEEE. The women of this show have wooed me

Tae-moo’s “Thank you for accepting my feelings,” and “When you feel ready, let’s tell him,” are also up there in what has been a very swoon-worthy episode so far

Insane that while Ha-min has embezzled chicken funds and disappeared now the two couples are just having a double date running the restaurant LMAO

Tae-moo and Young-seo are finally bridging the divide between them LOL that’s growth 

[Ha-ri, laughing] “Of course I don’t want to watch [Tae-moo changing his clothes]. Go to Ha-min’s room--” [Tae-moo, sincerely] “No, I’ll show you.” TAE-MOO PLS

HAHAHAHA I culturally relate to being a grownass woman who outright refuses to explain her dating life to her relatives. Western TV could never LMAO

Tae-moo is SO happy to be in Ha-ri’s room. He’s living his dream

“He’s very kind and gentle,” said Sung-hoon to Ha-ri’s parents, as if Tae-moo had not tricked their daughter into signing a contract to fake date him with untenable financial penalties and then subsequently tried to punish her for being dishonest with him mere episodes ago

It makes me laugh that Ha-ri is still calling her boyfriend “President Kang” even as he is hiding in her cupboards 

The physical comedy of Sung-hoon, Young-seo and Ha-ri trying to sneak Tae-moo out is killing me

The Boyfriend Boss is out of the bag for brother. Bet you can’t say that five times fast

“Go buy yourself some clothes, brother-in-law.” HAHAHA Tae-moo has one act of service in his love language repertoire and it’s giving people money

Also his smile at being called brother-in-law was VERY CUTE

Lmao @ Tae-moo’s instinct when Sung-hoon is drunk crying about his girlfriend being to film it for future blackmail. He really did say mansplain, manipulate, malewife

Young-seo’s dad can mind his own damn business. Firstly, Sung-hoon is a key role in the company and presumably is quite rich himself by merit of that. Secondly, she doesn’t live with you!! You leave her be, Scrooge McFuck 

“Can you please get out of Min-woo’s life?” We circle back to Min-woo whenever people are feeling too happy

They really wanted Yu-ra to have no redeeming qualities. That she dated him initially out of spite, cheated on him, and then is blaming Ha-ri for the fact Min-woo doesn’t feel the same about her? You should maybe get some therapy Yu-ra

“Now that I’ve seen how you act, I can understand why Yu-ra’s acting that way.” I MEAN. I FEEL LIKE THEY’RE BOTH BAD PARTNERS, HA-RI

WAHHHHHHHHHH Tae-moo being able to focus on Ha-ri instead of his rain-induced panic attack :’)))))))))))) They’re working through it together ahhhhhhhhh

The callback to the rainy day story she made-up when they were fake dating. STOPPPPPPPPPPP

The way she makes sure to distract him from the rain by going into the flower shop to delay going outside or sitting beside him and rambling about work when the rain gets heavy. I love Ha-ri. I can’t handle it, it’s too sweet 

The way that they brought back the campy little animations to crumble the bouquet in Ha-ri’s hands. I knew this was coming. Damn u Second to Last Episodes of Asian Dramas 

“Stop seeing Tae-moo. I don’t think you want to be in a situation that other people may misinterpret.” Honestly. Even if you interpreted it correctly, I don’t think it would leave you with the best impression

Tae-moo said: If I cannot be with Ha-ri, I will waste away inside the Go Food building like Businessman Midas with only his Golden Kimchi Ravioli for company

I wasn’t expecting Tae-moo’s Batman origin story to affect me as much as it did, but Tae-moo and Ha-ri crying together while acknowledging that the accident was not Tae-moo’s fault really got me

Yu-ra REALLY needs some therapy. What the fuck. Ha-ri has been decent ALL THE WAY THROUGH and she just decides to make up shit for the whole internet to see about this fake love triangle!!! HA-RI HAS CLEARLY SHOWN THAT MIN-WOO HAS MISSED HIS CHANCE

Well. At least Tae-moo will be confronted with the inevitable implosion that follows all of his unhinged dating-his-employee antics. It’s really a lesson to be learned 

“I won’t tell him, for Sung-hoon’s sake.” Cousin Yu-jeong does not believe in bros over hoes (or sisters over misters)

“Let’s not talk badly about something we know nothing about. Also, Ms. Shin is way prettier than you.” Mr. Gye said Team 1 is Ha-ri Support Squad no matter how rough our work situation is <3 

Young-seo spent her month’s salary on preventing Ha-ri’s parents from hearing about the rumours. Great friends all around <3 

Meanwhile, Tae-moo and Sung-hoon have circled back to people thinking THEY’RE in a relationship. I think Tae-moo should be allowed to be mean if he does it by flirting with Sung-hoon. It tickles me:

I cannot BELIEVE that 1) Tae-moo continues to be short-sighted about how this affects Ha-ri’s career and 2) He was gonna propose by payphone. Not even half a braincell on this day, my love

“But once people find out you’re dating, do you think she’ll be able to come to work? The employees will gossip about it. You might be fine, but she’s just an employee.” UNBELIEVABLE. GRANDPA KANG HAS TO SPELL IT OUT FOR HIM!! TAE-MOO!! STEP OUTSIDE OF YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES

The other shoe finally dropped on Tae-moo being in the loop about their supposed scandal. But I love that he’s doubled down on defending Ha-ri and didn’t believe for a second the rumour that she had two-timed him 

“There he comes! The handsome young owner!” “You must’ve been mistaken. That’s my daughter’s coworker.” HAHAHAHAH I fullass forgot that Tae-moo already met Ha-ri’s parents under the fake name of Mr. Gye. Oh my god 

“If love is a crime, then yes, I’m a criminal. But resign? I can’t resign, sir!!” HAHAHA GRANDPA KANG DESERVES HAVING TO JUGGLE THESE BATSHIT TWENTYSOMETHINGS 

“I’ll explain everything later! Mother and Father.” HAHAHAHAHA I KNEW HA-RI’S PARENTS WERE GONNA BE LIKE ‘WHAT THE HELL AREN’T YOU 40?!’ BUT IT’S STILL FUNNY

Point of clarification if for some reason you’ve gotten this far in the liveblog and haven’t seen the show: Tae-moo’s not 40. He merely cosplays as 40something-year-old in his spare time

“I know how stubborn and arrogant I’ve been. But I don’t want to be on bad terms with my only daughter anymore.” Well damn, an unexpected turnaround from Young-seo’s dad

Everyone on this show is coocoo bananas. Ha-ri and Tae-moo at least have the reasoning of wanting to protect each other from rumours/scandal and having been fake dating prior to their real dating. You two have only been together a month. What’s your excuse for getting married!!!!!

I say this. And Tae-moo proposed to Ha-ri after one (1) date without even knowing her real name. So. We arrive again at coocoo bananas

Ha-ri coming down the N Seoul Tower while Tae-moo goes up so they meet halfway is poetic cinema 

Thank you for ending this episode much more kindly than it started:

Well, Young-seo’s dad’s turnaround lasted all of 10 minutes, I guess

HAHAHAHA @ Ha-ri and Tae-moo immediately getting caught on their walk of shame 

“Ha-ri is the first woman I’ve met who is a joy to be around and always makes me laugh.” Tae-moo <3

Loving everyone finally being able to hang out honestly ahhhh <3 

Also Tae-moo constantly telling people he fell in love at first sight while we as the audience know that Ha-ri spent that time trying to get rid of him and anthropomorphizing her tiddies which go by the name of Samantha and Rachel. LOL

“You were with Ms. Shin or whatever, right?” Power move for Grandpa Kang to call Ha-ri this as if you had not met her at length a number of times lmao

“Ha-ri, when I get back from my trip, do you think we could go back to being close friends like before?” Min-woo said when the going gets tough, the tough sell their restaurant and go to Europe

“Do you think you can you do anything without the privilege that my name has given you?” “Actually, I think I can. I’ll prove it to you. That I’ll be just fine, without using your name.” <3 <3 <3 Young-seo, love of my life 

Ghkjghkghkgh Ha-ri being defensive about just having regular work conversations with Tae-moo while Tae-moo is like ‘where have we landed on cuddling in the stairwell?’

It’s clear that Tae-moo’s penchant for theatre is an inherited trait considering Grandpa Kang’s hospital antics 

Young-seo immediately sharing her emotions about cutting ties with her dad and Sung-hoon offering to invest in Young-seo’s start-up!! The communication has improved leaps and bounds 

“Wait, isn’t she supposed to be taking care of me? Where is she?” Hahahaha Ha-ri has won over Grandpa Kang in one (1) hospital visit. They are now doing a sing-a-long to music shows 

I like that they’ve found an opportunity to drop her K-Pop history into this show LOL

“You’ve always been like a mountain to us. So please be healthy and stay that way, Grandfather.” “Being sick is kind of nice. I never thought I would hear you call me that.” SUNG-HOON <33333333333333

I thought this episode was going suspiciously well so it’s fitting that we’ve arrived at the Long Distance Parting at the Playground

I am generally not for time-skips if used to change character motives but I am ABSOLUTELY for time-skips if they are to show everyone getting advancement in their career goals and romantic endeavours and generally softening over time. I can’t wait to see all the married couples and reunion

“What if they get a divorce?” AHA, MS. YEO IS NOW MRS. GYE

Love that Sung-hoon’s ultimate form is househusband. Good for him

The campy little animations make their final triumphant return via taxi sign:

Title reference (affectionate): Young-seo = Business, Tae-moo = Proposal 

#ayesha says things #ayesha liveblogs business proposal #liveblogging #television #korean television #business proposal #long post

[lonewolflink]

How do you decide when to end a chapter? Do you aim for an approx word count or is the division of chapters solely based on content? Really enjoying hockey AU!

hi anon! glad you're enjoying hockey au :)

i'd say it's sort of both approx word count and content? sort of a vibes based approach that incorporates both? it's mostly content/serving the story properly, but the content so far has tracked a pretty consistent pattern.

like most of my chapters have been around 5k words plus or minus 1k. i haven't been AIMING for 5k, but the content of the story has tended to divide pretty nicely into 5k chunks like that. i anticipate most chapters will be around that length, just because that seems to be where i like to end a chapter instinctively.

however!!! i already know that there will be some bigger chapters (i have them labeled "monster chapter" in my organization document). those are gonna be significantly longer, and i want them together in one chapter because it i don't want to disrupt the flow of the action by breaking it up into two chunks. i think it would do a disservice to the story. so in those cases, content very clearly trumps any consideration of length, and i even know that in advance.

i can say more about my thought process specifically for this last chapter, but i'll put that under the cut.

in the case of ch. 4 (just posted) and ch. 5 (upcoming chapter), i basically realized i wanted to add a bunch of scenes before training camp to flesh out the world, keep characterization consistent, and do a better job setting up some of the dynamics in training camp itself.

like it didn't make sense to me that jihyo, who i'm characterizing as a great leader, wouldn't reach out to ryujin even once before training camp even though she put in all this effort to give the freshmen mentors, welcome packets, etc. obviously she's not gonna baby ryujin in that same way, since she's a junior, but there's no way she doesn't put in some effort. so that's why i wrote the first part of ch. 4.

the middle/last part of ch. 4, lia's social guide to jypu hockey, was something i realized i needed to make for a couple of reasons. first, it makes sense for the characters; ryujin has gotten a lay of the land hockey-wise, at least on paper, but she's still kind of a social outsider.

at this point in the story, ryujin is very much in like...a data gathering phase, so that she can figure out what she needs to do to find success at jypu (both on and off the ice). we've seen that she's not too prideful to ask for help/info from chaer, so i think there's no way she wouldn't ask one of her two new friends about the personalities of her teammates at some point before training camp. and she had just started becoming friendly with lia, so i kind of tried to kill two birds with one stone there; get ryujin the information she wanted/needed (esp. re: lily, sana, and dahyun), but also solidify her friendship with lia like i did her friendship with chaer in ch. 3.

plus, the set up of the party scene allowed me to put in some easter eggs, a little bit of foreshadowing (some of which people have caught, some of which people absolutely missed), and even give a taste of lia's dynamic with chaeryeong (feeding my own need for this to be an OT5 fic lol). in general, i want the ensemble cast to be at least somewhat fleshed out before the season starts in earnest with yeji in ch. 6, so ch. 4 and 5 are both doing that in different ways.

initially, the content of ch. 4 was just gonna be kind of the introductory section of ch. 5, but then those scenes hit 5k and i was like "oh this is actually kind of an independent set up chapter, and the fact that i just hit the 5k mark is a clear indicator of that. i want the training camp chapter to really be its own thing, but if i leave these together as a monster chapter it's kinda too long and the flow is weird".

so, i ended up deciding to split them up, which i still think was the right call because ch. 5 as it currently stands is already past 7k and i still have another long-ish (...ryeji!) scene left to write.

anyway that's my long ramble, hope my thought process isn't too hard to follow lol

it makes sense in my head i swear!!

#anon #asks #wsc #wheel snipe celly #hockey au

[sapphires-and-silver-linings]

Damn, the moment I have energy again (and am not drowning in homework), I wanna leap right back into The Betrayer.

I feel like my chapters are just gonna keep getting longer with the way things have been going lately, though, so I don’t know how long this will take me to write lmao.

Also I keep remembering little scenes and plot points that come up later and I’m like… this fic is DENSE.

Can’t wait for small details I mentioned earlier on coming back fully into play. Laying down those blink-and-you-miss-it lines that end up being major foreshadowing is kinda difficult to do justice imo, but I think I’ve been playing it well. Guess we’ll see in due time. 😈

Chapter 10 has been fun to write so far, but 11 and 12 are where I think things are gonna be really exciting to write. Wesker makes an appearance again in chapter 11 (at least that’s how I’m currently planning it). I’ve been enjoying my time with Chris, but I do miss my blond psycho. 🥰

And I have a general idea of the overall plot, but later plot lines are a lot less detailed. I really hope I can add more depth to them as time progresses. I’m sure it’ll come to me as I get closer, though. Usually the case with my writing, anyway lol.

I will literally be shocked if anyone is able to guess where this fic is headed at this stage, because there are so many moving pieces that haven’t been introduced yet, lots of side bits for levity or character development, and forays into the past that really frame, parallel, and give context to the present.

EEK, just chatting about it gets me excited. I love this story so much even though it’s taking me forever to write it lol.

The RE4R is making me want to add more Leon scenes than I had planned, though… or I guess I could try to branch out on my “one fic at a time” thing I tend to do and work on some Leon fics cos he’s so babygirl. I also had ideas for a couple of Bo Sinclair fics, a Rafe Cameron fic, a Lloyd Hansen one, and one for Ransom Drysdale.

Maybe I’ll make some brief plot point posts of these potential fic ideas. I technically have before, but maybe I need to make a specific tag for em or something cos they’re definitely lost to my blog somewhere right now lol. Might even dive into headcanon posts for fun. I just have a lot of ideas lol.

Idk, let me know what you guys think!

#the betrayer

[official-kenralie-fanbase]

Hi! i'm new to the tumblr kotlc fandom (but i've been a fan of the books for years) and i checked out your character ask game. it doesn't look like you've done alden yet, so i wanted to know what you think of his character and development, and specifically your thoughts on the Alden Neverseen theory. the theory is that alden is the unknown telepath in the Neverseen and the behind-the-scenes leader, which could explain some unrevealed plot points (like what the vacker legacy actually is, cause the troll breeding was sorta anticlimactic imo) and some of his more questionable actions (like why prentice called swan song before getting mind-broken, or why he was using fitz and alvar --fitz was six, mind you!--to search for sophie when ninety-five percent of the elven world didn't believe she even existed pre-series).

disclaimer, i haven't read stellarlune yet, so idk if said leader/telepath is revealed already! (i've ordered it but it hasn't arrived yet)

Hello Val! It's so nice to meet you, I'm relatively new to the kotlc tumblr fandom as well so I'm glad that you went to me to check out my ask game! Alden is such an interesting character and you gave me a lot to talk about :)

(Sorry this took so long! For all I know, you might have finished Stellarlune by now, but in case you haven't, there won't be any spoilers in this. Alden isn't really in Stellarlune at all, and I honestly can't recall any times when he's even mentioned, so I know just as much as you do about his involvement)

This got long so I'm putting it under a cut

My honest opinion of them: I honestly got whiplash from how fast I went from liking Alden to not liking him. Like a lot of people, I started disliking him when I read the Keefe short story, but then I began to realize how messed up were lots of the other things he'd done. You mentioned a lot of them, but I'll add some: Asking a young girl who'd only been in their world for less than a year to help him with a very traumatic assignment, never apologizes to Prentice after his mind is healed even though Alden's mind broke because of his guilt, and he was denied Spyball approval. (Also, the way he calls her "good girl" always makes my skin crawl.) I think he's a really fascinating character with a lot of depth and complexity that hasn't been explored- and I think that theory would show a lot of that depth.

Who (if anyone) I ship with them: I tend to respect when characters are married/established together in books, so Della I guess? Even though she is way too good for him. And though I don't ship him and Alina, I think their backstory is really interesting and adds a lot of drama.

And what I think will happen with them in the next book(s): I actually really support the Alden-is-the-Neverseen-leader theory that you discussed. You described it really well, but it would explain a lot of his questionable actions. I think the likelihood of him being the Telepath that erased Keefe's memories is very strong. I think that this theory is very plausible- especially now that Alvar is kinda just... gone. For the most part, I think it would be fascinating for Fitz's character more than Alden's. To see how he reacted to his father betraying the family after everything he went through with Alvar would be a chance for some incredible depth. I also think the Vacker legacy will be revealed, and as for predictions on what that is, I have absolutely no clue. You're right when you say the troll breeding was anticlimactic, and I think that's probably only part of the true Vacker legacy (if it's at all related). I also think there's a suspicious amount of connections between him and Kenric, especially how you mention Prentice calling Swan Song. A theory I have that's very not thought out and just a theory is that Prentice discovered Alden's involvement and that's why he called Swan Song before his mind break, and then maybe Kenric discovered it as well and that's why he was killed. In short, I think there's been way too much foreshadowing for him involved in something for him to be as little involved in the last book as he was in Stellarlune. At this point, it might feel a bit anticlimactic for him to be the true leader, but I think that might just be because everyone's been theorizing that for such a long time/had such a long time to think about it. At least, I know that if it had been revealed at the end of, say, Legacy, I would have had no idea it was coming.

Send me any KOTLC character for the ask game!

Thank you so much for this ask! I had such a fun time answering it, and it's great to meet you! (Sorry again that it took so long but don't hesitate to send me more asks if you have them!)

#valentinerose529 #thanks for the ask! #it's so great to meet you :) #alden vacker #kotlc alden #kotlc ask game #kotlc #kotlc theories #kotlc discourse

[surely-galena]

Notes on Main Story 6.1

Excluding 6-01 and 6-15 because I didn't really have anything to say there

6-03

Neil left a month after Artem joined the NXX, which he says was Oct 2029

And oh I've only just realized this, but the dub I listen to has the voice actors pronounce NXX as "N-two-X" when I've been saying each letter (like DNA). I'm... probably still going to continue saying it as NXX though

At that point, he tells MC it was only Neil, Vyn, and Giann -- so we can assume the order of member accumulation goes Vyn -> Artem -> Marius -> MC -> Luke

Whoa Neil and Giann disappeared within two weeks of each other? Ouch

Oooh MC did know Neil 'personally' in the sense that she was in one of his classes! Nice to have that confirmed

Okay okay also I knew that Artem's father was a judge because spoilers but the highest title? *immediately adds Artem to the list of practically Stellis royalty*

Huh, Artem's parents' English names are Kimberly and Bryan? Okay, cool

"if we get into anything dangerous during the investigation," artem says. ha. foreshadowing (and then MC saying his identity makes him a target ohhh)

But also it kinda makes you think, if Artem hadn't been brought up as this kind, respectful person, he might have ended up as someone who'd have no issues using their parents' names to get what they want

North Stellis is a no-go area. Got it.

6-05, 6-07

MC getting mad over Jovi trying to guilt trip Artem (even if she didn't actually say anything due to the current situation) is so sweet

Also MC wanting to laugh over the idea of Baldr's involvement is so funny to me

6-09

Oh? cutting to Marius for a quick second, cool

Nooo not MC forgetting to eat again!! I love that she's dedicated to her work, but she needs to take care of herself or we'll get SR 'In Sickness or in Health: the Sequel'

MC: we need to do this now! and this! and this!! It's very urgent!!

Artem: no.

MC: ???

Artem: we need to eat 🤨

"regarding nutrition intake, you currently have a reputation of 0" OOF

Artem telling MC to prioritize self-care? I can respect that

Also him telling MC he'll take care of her work meals is tugging at a found family fic idea for me... I'll just throw that into the ToT fic google drive folder

6-11, 6-13

Artem? With Velcro sneakers? GOOD CHARACTER AMMUNITION, I'll find a way to sneak that into a Marius insult somehow (also Sam if you're reading this, I see what you mean by your light up shoes post and I nod enthusiastically in agreement)

Note for future reference: Artem's books consist of law, philosophy, filmography, sci-fi, and foreign books (not too sure what the latter means but he speaks German I think so they're probably just books in another language)

The Artem Swimming Thing (slightly later addition because I forgot I had thoughts on this) (is this 6-15? maybe I do have thoughts on 6-15 after all)

3 minutes 42 seconds? THAT'S VERY SPECIFIC FOR *cough* PLOT PURPOSES

Artem swimming a lot actually might explain the broad shoulders! I swam a lot when I was younger -- less so now because covid -- but you can tell because my shoulders broadened as I grew up (maybe possibly due to genetics but swimming was at least a partial factor as well). So that's interesting!

Other thoughts

Chapter 6 has a very clear focus on Artem. Nothing wrong with that, but it's interesting to me because the story so far has taken the time to make sure MC has at least one case with each boy so far (partially to introduce the reader to each of their characters)

We have ch1: Luke, ch2: Vyn, ch3: Artem, ch4: Marius, and ch5: Luke again. This led me to believe that it was a cycle and character focus would go in that order, but this chapter proves that is not true at all

Which means the character cycle is broken (perhaps slightly ironic, considering the chapter title is 'A Vicious Cycle')

I have my own theories as to which of the remaining two (Marius and Vyn; the order of the cycle may be broken but for equality reasons the story can't favor one character too much -- and thus all four must be covered before the cycle restarts) ch 7 and ch 8 will be focused on, but that's spoiler territory so nothing to say there

Also here is my Zak ToT bingo card so far (link to the plain template)

Overall 6.1 was fun! Looking forward to 6.2 in two weeks :D

#tot spoilers

[stellocchia]

Alright, now that I got some sleep, time for an overly long analysis on Tommy’s second prison visit!

I’m only talking about character in the rp from here on out, not the cc’s unless explicitly stating otherwise

-

First of all, a clarification is in order: was it Dream’s plan from the very start to get put in prison to end up in this situation? No. Does this mean he couldn’t have caused this to turn things in his favour? Also no.

Dream has proven before that he’s a rather flexible character (kinda has to be with a nemesis like Tommy), he’s been put multiple times in unexpected situations and managed to come out of top. We don’t know if he expected L’Manburg to be reborn after the 16th, and yet he managed to have the whole cabinet wrapped around his fingers. He didn’t expect Tommy to threaten him with Spirit, and yet he spun it around on him. We also know he didn’t expect Tommy to leave Logsteshire (he was talking about it with Punz, it’s the reason he went to check on him shortly after because he realized he may have stepped too far and broken Tommy out of his manipulation there) which offered him the opportunity to frame him for the community house disaster later on.

He is nothing if not resorceful.

Another thing we have to discuss when talking about the visit is the themes of their relationship:

- Dream’s possessiveness/obsession

- The whole Dream finding Tommy “fun”

- Their “game”

More under the cut

- For the first point, when I say “possessivness” I mean that Dream literally regards himself almost as Tommy’s owner. Don’t believe me? Let’s talk about how he treats Tommy’s canon life then!

Remember all the way back during exile? To keep Tommy in line Dream consistently threatened to take his last life, implying that he would have been fine with Tommy dying, yet, as soon as Tommy showed signs of wanting to take his own life, Dream bust out the line “it’s not your time to die yet”, 2 times in fact. Why? Well, Dream wants control in all things, not only that, but he clearly thinks he’s in the right in wanting it. Of course the life of his favourite toy is no exception. Also let’s not forget about the terrifying scene on top of the obsidian grid where, when Tommy said that their story would be over soon, Dream immediately took control again assuring him it would never be over.

There is also Tommy explicitly stating that Dream was “borderline his owner”, in case we needed an additional affirmation, in the stream where Mexican Dream made an appearance in exile. 

Also, I have to mention that during the first Prison visit Dream, when talking about what he missed, grouped Tommy together with “his stuff”... can’t get much clearer then that

- Dream’s describing Tommy as “Fun” has been a reoccurring creepy theme between them. But is it soley done out of manipulation or does Dream actually feel that way in his twisted world view? I’d say a bit of both to be honest. 

Clearly there is a level of gaslighting with it were he used to say it at the very start of Tommy’s exile to get him in the frame of mind of considering Dream his friend and trying to convince him that they always had fun together (trying to get him to switch his anger from being directed at Dream to being directed at his old friends), but that’s not all. 

Dream, in cutting all his known attachments, is left with only Tommy as an attachment, Jack is right on that one, which is the rason why his obsession seems so extreme. That said, it’s pretty obvious that he does sort of find his relationship with Tommy “fun”. It’s the reson why literally everyone else is a replaceable pawn, but Tommy isn’t. Don’t get me wrong here: he doesn’t see him as a human and, despite him “caring” in his twisted way, there is NOTHING healthy about their relationship. But it is still important to point out that Tommy is extremely important to Dream.

- Their game is something we’re all well aware of. They are regarded by so many people as the hero and the villain of the server, even though neither of them accepts their assigned role. That said they both view the other in the role assigned to them. Dream doesn’t see himself as a villain, but he does see Tommy as a hero and vice-versa. And, just like that, the stage for their “game” is set.

Only problem? Only one of them is playing the game. We know this from the season 2 finale: the reason Dream kept coming down and trusting Tommy was because he thought Tommy was as attached to their “game” as he was, but he was wrong. Tommy HAS other attachments, plenty of them, he’s not dependent on Dream and that’s also probably why Dream is so obsessed with him in the first place: everyone else is predictable, easy to use. They aren’t surprising, they aren’t “fun” (remember that? Remember Dream goning “Tubbo isn’t fun” when Tommy said he had as much value as himself? Because I sure do) they are boring pawns. 

You’d think he may think differently of someone like Techno but, despite him acknowledging his strenght, he has no reason to think he won’t be able to use him every time at the smallest promise of violence as it worked every time before. George and Sapnap? When’s the last time Dream showed them he cared in any way? He used them time and time again and then left them behind when the relationships required work on his side to mantain. He didn’t even speak to Sapnap during his visit! He regards Quackity as barely an annoyance (remember what history left on him in the Lost City of Mizu? Just a Fool). Punz and Sam were both people he paid, only means to an end. They ALL played his game and followed his rules, which is what made them predictable. It's what makes them so replaceable.

-

Now that the themes are established, let’s move on to the analysis of the visit itself!

First of all: big foreshadowing from Sam with the missing books (which Tommy admitted to not remembering the content of) and from Tommy saying how much he trusted and appreciated Sam. It doesn’t have much to do with the analysis, but we all pointed it out.

That said, what was Tommy’s objective with this visit? Closure. Tommy wanted to make their game finally stop for good, he wanted to reclaim the control over his life that he hasn’t had for a while now. Not over his literal last life nor over hid day to day life. Both used to be controlled by Dream. 

Dream “loosing” his clock is the first information we learn. But, remember during Bad’s visit when Bad convinced Sam to give Dream one last chance to get his clock back if he behaved? And then again with Sapnap? Dream wanted the clock to go, that’s why he kept burning it despite the warnings. Why? Could it be that he was planning to get someone to stay with him in there? Isolation affects you much harder when you’re not aware of the passage of time after all...

“That’s the Tommy I know!” from the start of the visit Dream is trying to re-establish their “bond” and get Tommy in the mindset of them being “friends” again. I mean, it’s not a coincidence that he’s never been this talkative or friendly in any of the visits from other people. 

Other point in favour of Dream having planned this long stay is the sheer number of potatoes he had stored. Also, may I add that he immediately started giving them to Tommy? He started before the tnt and explosions, before he should have known Tommy was gonna stay. He never did this before during any of the visits we’ve seen. Establishing his role as provider again like back in exile I see...

Dream also started immediately demanding for Tommy to visit him more, but Tommy does turn it down just as quickly by explaining that that would be the last visit (if Dream wasn’t planning to act this time, he changed his mind in this moment. He’s very adaptable remember? And his main accomplice was online...). Of course, Dream isn’t happy about it. 

We already established that Tommy is the only one he finds “fun” (as far as we know), having him stopping visitations entirely wouldn’t be good for Dream. There is also the fact that Tommy is deciding to move on on his own. It’s Tommy’s choice under Tommy’s complete control and Dream has already shown he’s not too kin on that being a thing.

“Anything you want to say to me now, you have to say to me now, because I’m not visiting you again” “Why?” I’m highlighting this piece of dialogue because I think it’s pretty indicative of Dream still being convinced that they’re both still playing the game. Sure, Tommy outplayed him for now, but the game is not over, is it? Tommy can’t just decide to drop him can he? They both have so much “fun” after all... 

Of course though, to Tommy the “why” should be obvious. Because of Dream he’s struggling with severe ptsd. He’s afraid of plains biomes, of lava, of heights to a certain degree, of black stone (both because of the Attachments vault and the Final Control Room on this one), of tnt, of small holes (big enough to drop your items in as he said), of giving up his stuff and of Dream acting Friendly. Dream hurt him a great deal to the point were he’s not managing to settle down even now, he’s still afraid. How can Dream not see how he hurt him? How can he not understand? In Tommy's mind it just doesn't make sense.

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES (had to add this because it was just funny... why are there always bloopers with this 2?)

Potatoes again. Again the tnt had not started to go off yet. And Tommy eats them again immediately, of course. I can’t stress this enough, but this is done again to re-establish the dependency tommy had on Drem during exile. While he didn’t entirely depend on dream for food (he barely ate and he had Mushroom Henry), he used to be entirely dependent on him for protection, getting to the point where he would hardly defend himself from the mobs when they attacked him even when Dream wasn't around. Of course Dream can’t provide “safety” while he’s in prison, so he has to find something else.

“You had all this shit coming” “I did but... you know... maybe one day” “No! Have you seen this prison? It’s kind of the most secure thing ever” They are talking about two different things here. Dream is implying that, maybe, they’ll let him out in the future while Tommy, having already decided to move on and not worry about Dream anymore, is implying that the only way Dream is getting out is if he manages to escape, which he won’t. Quite different from the first visit were Tommy showed quite a bit of hesitance when asked if he would ever let Dream out.

“Unless you have extreme therapy” Tommy recognizing the importance of therapy I see! No, but, more importantly, this goes to show that Tommy is moving on from his exclusively vengful mindset he had at the start (which was more then understandable, btw). At the start of this visit he said he didn’t think that Dream deserved to die anymore and now he’s recognizing that he needs help, Tommy however also knows he’s not the one who should be helping him, he can’t. Still, he’s empathizing with him, because he can’t help doing so. Despite everything, Tommy always tends to see others as their own individuals, even when the same is often not true in reverse. 

“I mean exile wasn’t that bad... right? I mean, we hung out” again, tying it back to the themes in their relationship, this fits so well. Of course exile wasn’t that bad, right? After all: why would Tommy have needed anyone else when he had his Best Pal Dream? And here’s the thing: we can’t know how much of what Dream says is just manipulation and how much of it he believes, but Dream has shown enough signs of being dependent on Tommy as his only attachment that we can assume there is, at the very least, some level of truth in this. I mean, if you remember back when he blew up Logstedshire, he didn’t even wanna believe that Tommy was suicidal. Tommy told him directly, but was dismissed. Why? Not because Dream wasn’t extremely opposed to him taking his own life, he’d already shown that not to be the case. Perhaps because he actually didn’t think it was that bad? Maybe he didn't want to admit he pushed him too far? Did he actually view himself and Tommy to be Dream’s own twisted version of “friends”? It’s a possibility and it’s what this visit seems to imply. 

“When I’m around you I feel like my brain is conditioned to be your friend, but also when I have a knife I wanna just plunge it into your heart... you don’t make me a good person!” This seems to be a rather recurrent theme with Tommy and the mentor figures in his life. Wilbur trying to convince him (albeit not managing to) to just blow it all up and give in to his aggressive nature. Techno wanting to “bring him to the side of evil” and making him more violent in the process. Now we have confirmation that Dream himself makes him lash out more (though we could see this already when he was in exile in how he lashed out at Jack Manifold without the latter having done anything to deserve it). There is also the confusion to point out. While Tommy is trying to move on he’s clearly in no way “healed”, he’s still very much suffering from the consequences of Dream’s abuse and manipulation. He still doesn’t know exactly how to feel about him because, despite everything, he feels compelled not to hate him entirely. 

“You’re a bad guy” “Well I did bad things, but everyone thinks they’re right from their perspective” “That’s not true” I haven’t seen almost anyone talk about this exchange, but it’s such an important one! As we said, Tommy views Dream as a villain, Dream doesn’t (he admits to having done bad things, but not to being bad because of them). Dream also sees Tommy as a hero, but Tommy doesn’t (Tommy doesn’t even view himself as “the good guy” in his own story, which ties in to his big self worth problems). It’s an interesting dynamic to be sure. 

“Well I think I’m right. I did bad things, but I did them for good reasons” “What good reasons?” “I wanted to bring the server together you know? Make it a big happy family” This is the second time Dream brings up unity as his ultimate goal (the first being with Punz). Of course we know that the “unity” he wants it’s under his complete control. It’s not an objective that we can see as positive, but he does, or, at least, if he’s telling the truth about it, he may actually believe in it. Now, while this is the second time he brought up “unity” directly he did also strongly imply in the season 2 finale that that was his intention when explaining he was doing everything to get the server to “how it used to be”, back in the idealized past with no conflicts that never existed. Dream is deluded in the literal sense of the word, I would say it’s pretty probable there is at least some truth in his declared objective (truth in the form of him actually believing the bs he spews).

At this point Tommy is done. He’s drawing an end to the visit and Dream started getting more frantic. He started insisting on how he’s “changing” and insisting for Tommy to go visit him again. Ngl, I think this was probably to buy time for his accomplice (who is very possibly enderwalk!Ranboo) to get there. Because, if he let Tommy go, their game would truly be over, and Dream can’t stand that.

And cue the explosions! 

So: Dream managed to buy enough time and, by the prison's protocols, Tommy is now stuck with him up to 7 days. He can’t leave which means Dream gets another chance to force him into continuing their game. 

Quite a few people pointed it out, but, from this point onwards, Dream gets much more assertive and controlling in his demeanor. He drops the whole “insecure” act that he had going on in his enunciation and general behaviour and goes back to being like the old Dream (you would almost think that all that talk about “having changed” was just absolute bs, though he keeps insisting on it throughout) 

Tommy’s behaviour also changes. He gets much more paniked (no doubt a combination of way too many of his triggers being present at once) and pliant. He starts calling out for Sam and asking to be let out but, of course, that doesn’t happen as Sam has to take care of the security breach first and foremost. 

Dream starts immediately harping on Tommy being stuck there (probably to increase his panic, as he's easier to influence when he's distressed), first pointing out how “Sam can’t hear him” and then that the tnt must indicate a “security problem” (which he then explains he knows the consequences of because he wrote the book). By now he’s dropped his meek act entirely and he’s showing to be much more smug and self assured (a big contrast with Tommy having a very obvious panic attack). As we already said: he got what he wanted, he basically won already. All he needs to do now is get Tommy back to how he used to be in exile (”when they had fun” in Dream’s words...). 

At this point there is only one question left to be answered: Why did he do all of this? How does this benefits dream?

Clearly this didn’t help him to get out. The security may actually increase because of it. Right? Well...

“I mean... if you want a way to get out, let’s get out together! We can work it out, we can-” “Fuck off” “Then there is no way out” I’m going out on a limb here and saying that, perhaps, Dream may know a way to get out provided 2 people cooperate on it. Tommy wouldn’t help him yet, but, who knows what he may do after spending way too much time locked in a small room, with a lava fall on the side and Dream to top off the list of his worst nightmares... 

“Are you trying to get out?” “I’m not trying to get out, I’m not trying to get out!” a bit of a contradiction here, considering he proposed getting out together like 2 minutes before (coupled with his insistence on “one day...”)... however “I’m not trying to get out (yet)” may be a way to interpret his words more truthfully. If he just needed an accomplice to get out, he would have probably used Ranboo, but there is something else he wants as well... 

(btw, potatoes AGAIN multiple times, especially every time Tommy is particularly distressed, and Dream also brings up Tommy being on his last canon life again in the context of this being “just like exile”... man do be trying hard with those parallels...)

You see, he already told us that he still sees his objective as good. He still wants control. He still wants his game to go on. And there is one person he elected to be the key to everything...

“I’m telling you you’re stuck in here for a little while with me, were we can bond, we can talk, just like old times, right? You know... just like exile” “Tommy this is the best thing that’s happened to me since I got in this prison, because now we can be company, we can stay together!” “Fine, fine, you’re done with me in a couple days, when you get out of here” “Tommy it’s not that bad! We can- we have lot’s of time to bond” Ngl... something tells me his other objective is very obvious... and we talked about it to death by now. But, in case it wasn't clear to someone, he wants to get back what (or who in his case) he considers to be his most cherished possession (again, do NOT interpret this as a "good" thing. It isn't. Dream literally treats Tommy as his toy, it isn't healthy and I've seen way too many people in chat trying to imply otherwise and calling it "cute". It's not cute, it's abuse)

“Tommy you’re stuck in here with me wether you like it or not, ok?! Wether you like it or not you’re in here with me for a WHILE, we’re gonna talk, we’re gonna have lot’s of fun” I just wanted to point out again how much Dream’s demeanor changed from the start now that he’s back in control. He’s not asking Tommy to talk to him, he’s not giving him a choice in it. Tommy already said how he doesn’t wanna talk and “get to know him better”, but that doesn’t matter. He has no power anymore. He doesn’t have the power to leave NOR the power to ignore Dream, as much as he wants to. Also, after this, Dream seriously ramps up the whole “We’re gonna have so much fun!” shtick...

And you want to know the saddest part of the ending? Tommy is already cracking (honestly, not surprising. He’s been through WAY too much by now...) 

He started asking Dream for confirmation of whether all of this was “serious” (just like he needed to ask if things were real back in exile... or generally Dream’s opinion on everything). He also asked for more potatoes in a dejected tone (I know it may not seem that serious, but, as I said, it is just another way to create the dependency that Dream wants), showing a beginning of acceptance for Dream’s role as provider once again. Together with the very obvious “I can’t do this” and the black screen right after it creates a very worrying picture.

In conclusion: Dream is already dependant on Tommy, but the opposite not being true was a big part of his downfall. So, before he can get out, he has to work on getting Tommy back to exile!Tommy only this time he’ll be even more careful not to do some dumb mistake probably... 

-

As anxious as I am to see how this will develop I do also think it’s one of the most interesting outcomes they could have had!

Also can we please take a moment to appreciate how WELL cc!Dream anc cc!Tommy manage to handle this incredibly serious scenes? Like, they bounce off of each other perfectly and, as someone who’s done theater themselves, I cannot commend them for managing to do so well in IMPROV enough!

They are honestly so great! Let’s get some serious love and appreciation for them to close on a positive note!

Also @mysweatymakerstudentworld

#tommyinnit #dreamwastaken #tw suicide #tw abuse #tw manipulation #exile arc #dream smp #Dream smp spoilers #long post #my post #analysis #relationship analysis #this is the sequel to rapunzel where she's stuck on the tower with mother goethel #I can't imagine it ending well...

[volvolts]

i love van zieks but kinda bummed that his racism is more of "one japanese guy betrayed my trust and now im a bigot even though i feel guilty about it" but then he also says he hates everyone as if the story felt the need to show that he's "less racist" by saying "i hate everyone but i hate the japanese a bit more so"

like he says he doesnt trust anyone or the justice system after the professor case but rarely do we see him deride the british justice system and when he does it feels more to discredit ryunosuke and it feels more that he's just being a bigot or "you think youre safe from me? i want the truth" but he actually enforces the law by doing this because the people he demands answers from people who use loop holes (being a juror, info is top gov secrets, stronghart said no) and van zieks is like "you cant hide from the law" and i feel if the narrative had it more of van zieks being "the british people always try to find loopholes or appeal to emotions to avoid the law and i feel that we let that happen too much" and NOT try to make it about the japanese somehow id feel that his trust issues would feel a bit less tacked on?

also i remember this part from that one tumblr blog that analyzed van zieks throughout the game (i cant for the life of me remember their blog name but its pretty good) where they said that it would have been better if some of van zieks' more racist sentiments came from stronghart and i think itd be really interesting because not only would it make van zieks feel less like he was ready to be racist just but needed an excuse but it also shows van zieks' and stronghart's closeness (which was alluded to but never felt fleshed out imo) and foreshadows stronghart's villainy. like if ryu and susato first come to england and stronghart says an offhand racist comment but it isnt acknowledge and then van zieks could say the same thing but meaner in the courtroom it could immediately add a connection between the two and set up for the second game.

#talkin #ace attorney #the great ace attorney #barok van zieks #this isnt barok hate btw if you have genuine hatred over van zieks thats ur opinin but i dont want your comments on my post please #honestly tho i think the racism thing is kinda hard to properly write in a way to have the bigot be properly redeemed and #lets face it ace attorney has never made a great redemption from a prosecutor #and because if constraints in the story we just have to accept that their redemption is good enough #it couldve gone worse but i feel that van zieks reaches enough redemption as he actually apologizes up front and actively tries #to change his prejudice with what little interaction he would have with ryu off court #and even though he could have he never makes a racist or petty remark to asogi despite #fully believing kazuma's father was a serial killer like i dont think he ever says anyting racist about kazuma #not even when he found out he was watching over a japanese man for 3 months does he seem pissed about it #so idk #but anyway if you only comment on this post just to hate on barok just dont #im not really in the mood to see one of my favorite characters get hate on my post

[gracestone]

Maybe it's just me but in some ways the Season 1 love triangle between EJ, Nini and Ricky reminds me a little bit of the love triangle between Gaston, Belle, and the Beast. EJ represents Gaston. Nini represents Belle and Ricky represents the Beast. Both EJ and Ricky were in love with Nini and were fighting over her just like how Gaston and the Beast were fighting over Belle. EJ gave Emily a deviled egg so Nini can get the lead role and Gaston just happens to have an obsession over eggs. Part 1/2

In Season 1, E.J. was in love with Nini who didn’t love him back just like how Gaston was in love with Belle who never love him back. Belle and Gaston never dated while Ejini did. Nini changed Ricky which made him joined the musical for her just like how Belle changed the Beast by taking him out of his comfort zone. E.J. said he want to ask Gaston’s future self if he could learn to love anyone after Belle because she never loved Gaston back just like how Nini never loved E.J. back. Part 2/2 About my ask about how the Season 1 love triangle between EJ, Nini and Ricky is similar to the love triangle between Gaston, Belle and the Beast while E.J. basically represent Gaston in his love story with Nini who was basically his Belle that is not the case with Gina. It’s actually the complete opposite because E.J. basically represents the Beast in his love story with Gina who is his true Belle. Gina sees the best in E.J. just like how Belle sees the best in the Beast despite his past. 1/2 E.J. lets Gina go but it’s only temporarily because he loves her just like how the Beast let Belle go temporarily. E.J. didn’t think he would earn Gina’s love in return and basically lost all hope on love until Gina chases after him and asks him if he would be her first kiss implying that she has feelings for him just like how Belle chased after the Beast in the end to confessed her love to him after he has given up on love. Part 2

The points you made!!! I'd say that Ricky was inspired by Nini to change, rather than that she (actively) changed him, but I agree with everything else!! The similarities between Beast/Belle/Gaston and Ricky/Nini/EJ in season 1 kinda make it seem like the writers already knew they wanted to do Beauty and the Beast in season 2 while writing season 1, cause they feel like deliberate similarities. They then casted EJ as Gaston to show how much he'd changed from his season 1 self and Ricky as the Beast to show how he was regressing to the Ricky we met at the start of the show, and how he struggled with making a transformation to a better and changed version of himself.

I really don't have a lot to add to the specific points you made, because I think you laid it all out really well. But I did think of something else today that I wanted to add to my answer to this ask!

The fandom has talked about Portwell foreshadowing during Belle on Gina's end before (I mentioned that earlier today in this post), but I think there's also some meaning behind the line they gave to EJ:

Essentially, this line is about how Gaston feels like Belle is the only woman/person he knows who is the same as him in the way that matters to him the most. Since Gaston is a very superficial person, of course his "affections" for Belle are very surface level: it's all about her looks. That's all that matters to him.

As we've established, season 1 parallels EJ to Gaston, while season 2 contrasts the two of them.

In season 1, I'd argue that EJ's love for Nini is similarly superficial, though less so than Gaston, because EJ does genuinely care about Nini and supports her true passions. He admires her for how real she is, because he secretly wants to be able to be real too. But what he focusses on when talking to her is how talented she is. So he repeats a similar sentiment to her as Gaston does to Belle in that song:

Earlier he also tells Nini that "all the talented senior girls graduated last year", meaning that Nini is the most talented girl now. So essentially, he's thinking that "here in town there's only she who is talented as me". While he secretly wants to be who he truly is, he's still letting himself be defined by his achievements, and that kinda extends to Nini too. But what EJ really needs is a love interest who is like him in a deep and meaningful way. And that's where Gina comes in.

Portwell both parallel and contrast the sentiment that Gaston expresses in Belle. Gina is indeed the only person EJ knows who's the same as him in ways that matter most to him. But it's not superficial at all: it goes all the way down to their cores.

Gina is the one who voices this similarity, but EJ's response plays into this too. Because while Gina sees EJ's never giving up on being doing the right thing as a good trait of his, she views it more as a coping mechanism for herself. Or at least that's the sense I got when she said something similar about herself during her speech to Carlos in 2x05:

Because to her, she keeps pushing just because there's nothing else to do. But then EJ calls her brave for it, and she's able to reframe the way she views that aspect of herself in her head. The way they see each other not only shows how deep their understanding of the other is, but it also helps the other see themselves in a new and more positive light. It's similar to how the Beast encourages Belle to read more, instead of looking down on her for it like the town and especially Gaston did.

In Beauty and the Beast, the curse says that "If [the Beast] could learn to love another, and earn her love in return by the time the last petal fell, then the spell would be broken." And that's exactly what EJ did. By being himself and staying true to the good person that he is at heart, he "earned" Gina's love. Starting in 1x10, when she watched him let Nini go and then heard his selfless reason for buying her the plane ticket. He always showed up and stayed around for her, which is why he's a worthy love interest for Gina, and why she fell for him.

Just like how Ricky earned Nini's love in season 1 by letting her go post-1x04, fully committing to the musical instead of coasting, and by finally voicing his love for her. He met her wants and needs in a relationship. His regression in season 2 undid a lot of that growth, but the S1 Rini storyline does hit similar storybeats as the S2 Portwell storyline, and similar storybeats as the Beauty and the Beast storyline.

#hsmtmts #ej caswell #gina porter #ricky bowen #nini salazar roberts #portwell #rini #portwell meta #hsmtmts meta #ask #anouk rambles

[smellycinnamonthundahfudge]

fuck it. have the five page essay-ish thing i wrote on hoax.

it's so underrated and contains so many references to taylor's one great true love... that she lost.

(but there's also a bit about what the album cover means since i just think it adds to the evidence of something)

Let me take you on a journey, more specifically, the journey taylor’s music brought me to.

But fine for irl context, and disclaimer as well, I’m a new swiftie.

Yes, folklore was the one that really really pulled me in.

I’ve always loved her music, those that I knew of anyways, and she’s always held a special place in my heart and some part of me always knew that I was always going to explore her discography someday… and those days and months of exploring aforementioned music finally arrived.

So, for context, I’ll say that I mostly loved her bops. I always knew and loved her as that teenage girl feeling of wanderlust, and just wonder, and sweetness, and love…

That was what taylor was to me, the feeling of love.

It’s only when I very quite recently really really grew up and at the same time, taylor’s most popular music at the time, folklore, also happened to be really grown up, is when I realized and found out that taylor always had this depth to her.

So, for me, debut to speak now and half of red will always have that child-like wanderstruck look of awe and love vibe and feeling to me, cause nostalgia, it’s what I spent my life thinking of it and her as.

Also it’s been some time since I fully listened to those albums, so the journey/throughline narrative that I see from taylor’s discography is

Debut – young kid figuring it all out, emotional but sweet

Fearless – growth, ambition, dreams, complexity of wanting someone you know you’re not supposed to

Speak now – cinematic movie like quality of storytelling, these are fantasies, epics, novels all on their own, legend

Red – reckless abandon, intense extreme adult love, and also growth

1989 – true love, actual adulthood, scandal, gossip, hiding, protecting what’s important, dwindling mercurial highs

Rep - …

One thing that I started to notice only on 1989 and then it looked to be the case for the ff albums too, is that the latter half of one album oft bleeds onto the next one

So like the sound of I know places and even kinda wonderland to some extent, is very similar to reputation’s sound.

Then idk, new year’s day being a really sweet love song transitioning into lover

And then it’s nice to have a friend’s simple acoustic nostalgia & daylight’s nature imagery transitioning into folklore

And theeenn I’m betting the lakes as a positive song is a foreshadowing for the more softer positive outlook evermore is going to have, compared to folklore at least

But I honestly believe that if you look at the albums themselves, debut to speak now and red all seem to be about fleeting romances that pass and go

But 1989, that’s when things start to get real, and I believe, that’s when taylor really starts to get her muse…

Cause if you look at from 1989 to folklore evermore heck even to the rerelease of fearless and red…

These songs seem to be stemming from one relationship

A relationship that’s secret, that’s fragile and delicate, and complicated and complex

And correct me if I’m wrong, but…

Is king of my heart the first time taylor ever used the term, the one???

The one real thing you’ve ever known?? All too well

One touch you are in love??? One step one night

Point is, I think starting from 1989, most of the songs taylor wrote and sung about could all be attributed to just one person.

A tumultuous complex but nevertheless real and true love.

And I bring up the one connection because the one clearly parallels king of my heart

And all at once, YOU ARE THE ONE I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR

why would taylor write about losing someone that she thought she was the one if the person you think it’s about is still supposedly with her when she wrote it?

And finally, in taylor’s announcement of folklore, she wrote about an exiled man walking the bluffs of a land that isn’t his own, wondering how it all went so terribly, terribly wrong.

And in its music video, you get the same imagery?

…

…

…

You know where, … you… also… get… the same… exact… imagery…?

The folklore album cover.

Where it’s taylor, walking, in the middle, so small in the grand vast bluffs of a land that wasn’t her own.

In every single music video for every folklore song, the only ONE, THE ONLY ONE, where you get the same imagery, the same color palette as the album cover, is exile.

Which is about someone, a man walking the bluffs of a land that isn’t his own.

So if taylor is the man, then she’s

I can see you standing, honey

With his arms around your body

Guess who she has a close relationship with, who betrayed her, who got married to someone else?

*regina george anger screaming*

Me is a breakup song.

Taylor rereleasing red second has so much more weight to it now.

“In the land of heartbreak, moments of strength, independence, and devil-may-care rebellion are intricately woven together with grief, paralyzing vulnerability and hopelessness.”

moments of strength, independence, and devil-may-care rebellion – me, I PROMISE THAT YOU’LL NEVER FIND ANOTHER LIKE ME.

WATCH MISS AMERICANA AND I DARE YOU TO NOT SEE ME AS A SPITEFUL/VINDICTIVE/REBELLIOUS BREAK UP SONG

grief, paralyzing vulnerability and hopelessness – FOLKLORE.

Then I guess, fine… we’ll get to why hoax is so fucking meaningful yet you don’t understand why it is.

Yes, my only one.

Smoking gun.

I saw someone call this a reference to the fire and ash in mtr, but I also think of this as someone being your one weakness…

Think about it like this, in reputation

And what if the one person who kept you alive through all that

Betrayed you too.

Taylor talks so deeply and passionately over how much this person matters, they were her smoking gun.

Because they were what kept her going through the death of her reputation.

When no one trusted her that one person did.

They were her smoking gun.

My eclipsed sun.

Lover ended with daylight.

Taylor called reputation as night time.

And now what once was daylight has now been eclipsed over, by betrayal grief sadness desolation.

(darling this was just as hard as when they pulled me apart, folklore is as dark as rep)

Winless fight – ma & thp, fight that someday we’re gonna win.

They or she didn’t.

Frozen ground brings me back to holy ground and to doht, my love had been frozen

The imagery of hoax’s lv, is of a cliffside overlooking an ocean

Which brings me back to gorgeous, of OCEAN blue eyes looking in mine, I feel like I might sink and drown and die

Screaming, similar to mtr’s I still talk to you when I’m screaming at the sky

(sidenote might not related to taylor references, but that line gives me hopelessness give me a reason to live vibes, and what with gorgeous’ line of sink and drown and die and this is me trying’s Pulled the car off the road to the lookout Could've followed my fears all the way down…

Anw… the sidenote is cause that feeling of hopelessness just really resonates with me personally, kind of the type screaming at the universe, at whatever’s out there why… sigh…)

Faithless love – false god

Hoax – illicit afairs

Blue… rep (delicate)

Best laid plan – dbatc, paper cut stings from our paper thin plans

Sleight of hand???

Five whole minutes pack us up leave me with it???

Could barren land also be bluffs of a land that isn’t his own?? Idk… *shruggie*

Ash from your fire mtr

New york, DBATC, 1989, false god, cornelia street

Hero died, remember when I said I’d die for you? False god

What’s the movie for, exile, I think I’ve seen this film before

You knew it still hurts underneath my scars from when they pulled me apart

Like I said, reputation… who was her saving grace/smoking gun from all that

THEY WERE THE ONE, THE ONLY ONE, TAYLOR HAD WHEN SHE WAS PULLED APART

SO THEY KNEW, THEY KNEW HOW MUCH IT HURT HER

BUT THEY BETRAYED HER ANYWAYS.

Password let you in the door, I knew you’d come back to me, front porch light cardigan

What you did was just as dark, just as hard

Why wouldn’t it be?

They were the one she had throughout all that turmoil… yet they betrayed her too…

Kingdom come undone – komh, we rule the kingdome inside my room

Beaten my heart – KOMH, dbatc

The feeling of thinking you found the one, the one you’re going to spend the rest of your life with… the one you would throw away all of this for…

Don’t want no other shade of blue but you, no other sadness in the world would do

You don’t want anyone else but them if they were the one you were going to throw it all away for…

You don’t wanna say goodbye…

You just wanna keep feeling the pain, the love, the conflict that you had with them…

You don’t wanna say goodbye

#hoax #folklore #hoax taylor swift #taylor swift #i love you taylor #gaylor swift #writing #songs #music #love #<3

[mymostimaginaryfriend]

QoTS 5x02 Reaction Post

My brain has basically been Jeresa airhorns since the episode aired lmao but I’m going to try to add some Thoughts to my liveblog from last night.  Here goes:

First of all thank you to @gild-and-fire​ for making this tag meme for me that is ALREADY coming in handy.

Iiiiiiiinteresting that the moment James’ name is cleared the Ice Queenpin of last week thawed quite a bit, right?  Sure the trademark cool under pressure business dealings were there for Teresa (including a bit of ruthlessness) but in very calculated, ultimately successful way rather than terrifying.

James is back like what? 48 hours and already throwing up speed bumps for the descent of Teresa’s soul.  It’s gonna be a tough job, but if anyone can do it....

How to say I love you without saying I love you: Some guys bring you flowers, some bring you a personal army.

This episode was a Jeresa Callback All U Can Eat Buffet

There were SO many from the greatest hits: Take Care of Yourself, You too / “Smart” / You Deserve That / I Want You to Stay etc.  to even visual cues from past Jeresa scenes - the talk outside about going to NYC / 2x04, the lunge into the kiss from 3x09.  And of course the cigarette scene that @medievalraven​ goes over in her great meta.  It was an episode tailor made for parallel gifsets. 

I’m kinda shocked they didn’t add a driving together scene for old times sake.  Still holding out hope for a S5 Jeresa adventure episode too.

These two, as ever, are so so soft and so so stupid lmao.  But even with the interruptions of their private scenes, they packed SO much in. And I loved how you could both tell they’d learned from their past miscommunications.

They were a little rusty at first - doing that thing they do approaching it from an angle instead of head on - T: “You didn’t have to come back.”  J: “Yeah I did.”   T: “Are you staying?” J: “Do you want me to stay?” But right out of the gate James is like this is what I feel, I need you to verbalize what you want from me. Which by end of the episode Teresa does.

But then he says “these Russians are animals” and you can practically SEE Teresa visualizing his death in her head so she’s like "you should go”.

LOL at James playing the emotional game of chicken with THE master of the game Teresa Mendoza.  Him being like “Okay I’ll pack...this is me walking to the bed slowly...packing...to leave...this is me leaving....and I’m going to wander around the house...slowly... in case anyone needs anything...just in case...do a shot with Pote...get to know Chicho...oh hey, I’m already packed let’s go to NYC” lol.

“I’m a quick healer” If only, my friend.

The laugh!!! the smiles!! the heart eyes!! the “people who you love” meaningful eye contact!!

The KISS - THE LUNGE - THE WAY JAMES CUPS HER HEAD WITH HIS HAND AND THEY TILT THEIR FOREHEADS TOGETHER - THE WAY JAMES TOUCHES HIS LIP AFTER LIKE WE’RE IN GODDAMNED PRIDE AND PREJUDICE!

The smoking scene.  Poor James was probably thinking of a victory celebration a la 3x09 like “will my stitches hold for that?? Lets find out” and then

Teresa comes out with a CLEAR “I want you to stay”!!!! growth.gif

Only to  drop the (albeit heart eyes included) hammer of “You and me can’t happen.”

I love how James didn’t technically agree.

Can’t wait to see if Teresa caves physically or emotionally first....

Just gonna leave these lines here: “I thought we could be like normal people” / “Get lost for awhile, get these hands clean” / “[change] is the only way to survive in this life” / “we can’t happen...maybe in some other life but not this one.”  Mmmhmmmmmm.  

Non Jeresa stuff:

I really like Oscar the Dominican so far.

Teresa’s “We can double our business or go to war. These are my terms.” CLASSIC Teresa smarts with Queenpin power...I loved it.

The judge: “You’ll be the next Mexican I set on fire”. He can’t just die now, his death better top Cortez’s death by chainsaw b/c this had me ready to drive to NOLA and do it myself.

I loved the expression on James face when Oksana said “[Kostya] wasn’t sure you’d save my life.” LOL like saving other ppl’s lives is kinda what Teresa does, if only I could get Teresa to save her own.

Is the Oksana stuff legit?? It felt really convenient that the “sleeper cell” was dead before Teresa could talk to them.  Were they really rogue or did Oksana just kill off everyone who knew otherwise?  We’ll see. Kostya agreed to her new terms for now.

I loved that of all the many conflicts introduced in the first ep (James, NYC Russians/Dominican rivalry, waterfront $$, the kill team, etc) so many had some sort of resolution or solid movement FORWARD in this episode.  That’s something I really missed from the earlier seasons: mini conflicts that had a 2-3 episode arc instead of *cough* dragging out all season (s4).

Speaking of which, Boaz’s sixth sense of when things are going too well for Teresa remains unparalleled lol.  But I can’t wait to see what JT does next. He’s killing it. Maybe literally...

And now.....the baby news.

At first I was too happy to get an extended James and Pote conversation to care but is anyone else kinda irked that it was POTE who shared the Tony story? I get it story wise w/ his own Tony redemption opportunity on the horizon with KA’s pregnancy they wanted to get that “this world is not for a child they make you weak and vulnerable” ominous foreshadowing in there but oof.  I wish it had been a Teresa/James convo first. 

A baby can be a catalyst for a lot of things (as if Teresa isn’t already feeling the pressure to get legit fast) but what I’m wondering is this:  If it comes down to protecting pregnant Kelly Anne or Teresa, in the heat of the moment, who will Pote choose? He violently reacted to the incarcerated teen boys and that was before he knew KA’s news.   

I’m glad James stayed.  Teresa needs someone who is focused on HER safety alone and as evidenced many times this episode, she definitely will need it.

CANNOT WAIT TO HAVE MARCEL BACK NEXT WEEK!

#queen of the south #qots #qots spoilers #qots lb #my reaction posts #qots season 5