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#leaf in the main character theme ;w;
caitie-likes-talking · 9 months
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Part 4 Critique: Everything I'd Change
I love DIU..however, I consider it one of the post flawed of the JJBA Parts. Honestly, I feel like Araki didn't fully know where he was going with it til halfway, which is why the plot can be so janky. No matter what, let's dive into it. First, characters.
(also quick disclaimer: this is all my opinion and i am biased for MANY things.)
if u diagree w me dont tell me i think it would crush me
Characters [Josuke, Jotaro, Okuyasu, Kira]
Josuke Higashikata
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I LOVE Josuke. I think he's a lovely character concept and his design is really cool. My main problem with him is literally his LACK of screen time!! He is the Jojo of this part, yet his spotlight is constantly stolen by other side characters like Koichi, Rohan, and even Jotaro. This also happened a lot in Part 3, with it basically being the Polnareff show (idk why Araki did this sm in pts3-5...either let the mc have screen time or don't have them be the mc!!)
I think Josuke had some of the most missed opportunities in DIU. Especially with his relationships with other characters. I think this part could've been way more interesting if it chose a solid theme, and one that I think would've made sense is commentating on death & tragedy and how that can impact personal relationships. The reason I believe this is because there's already easy set ups for this in the story. Ryohei's death, The Nijimura Brother's family, Reimi, Shigechi, and Jotaro all have that theme in place, but not enough connecting points or real arcs related to this. What was the point of killing off Ryohei (who was the only father figure Josuke had growing up) if you're not going to show how this impacted Josuke, Tomoko, and how he acts with others besides one single page? Sure, it taught him that his powers have limits and that he can't save everyone, but that was a stupid thing to teach him because Okuyasu doesn't fucking die when he should've!! Like why did we make an arc saying 'hey stands aren't magic they can't bring ppl back to life' just for EXACTLY THAT to happen??
Moving on, I also have problems with his stand. I LOVE Crazy Diamond, I think it has a super cool design and power concept, but personally I wish it's powers were more grounded and had clear limits. I feel like a lot of stands suffer from this treatment of vague power limits (ex: Golden Wind..) but my problem with CD is that there were MANY opportunities to add one! For example: we know Josuke couldn't bring back Ryohei even after using his stand on him. So that bears the question: what can CD not fix? What is the real reason it can't bring a dead person back to life? Jotaro says "No stand has the power to bring back the dead" WHY?? am i missing something? Have I forgotten when it was officially established that stands cant do that? I mean, literally in part 3 there was a stand that could reanimate corpses. So does it have to do with the soul? No matter what, I would've used this moment to establish that CD can't bring back ANY living thing. I actually wrote a short fic abt this and included the fact that he also couldn't "fix" a dead leaf. I feel like overall his stand needed more grounding.
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Also, I have beef with Josuke's backstory, but I'll get into that later.
Jotaro Kujo
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Ok firstly, I have MAJOR beef with his design in part 4. Mainly the fact that he's drawn extremely pale in the anime. Like..obviously he COULD be pale as he is wasian (im not trying to say all wasian ppl look the same), but he is TAN in part 3. Why did they take that away?? Pisses me off to the extreme. At least they fixed it in p5+6. Anyways..
Character wise, I really enjoy Jotaro's personality in p4. I like how he's mellowed out in comparison to p3. However, I feel like he needed a more clear role in the story. He showed up to figure out grandpappy's shit, and then took the leader role when facing Kira. Why don't I like this? Because most of the time Jotaro was just..there. I think Araki wanted him and Josuke to have a mentor/student relationship (ex: rat episode) but just didn't focus enough on them or Josuke training with his stand for this to work.
Also, the fact that it took Jotaro so fucking long to figure out who Kira is WITH the help of all those other stand users is so goofy. Like him and the gang back in '89 found Dio's ass from a goddamn microscopic fly in a photo but couldn't find Kira's identity?? Like ugh he almost redeemed himself with the button thing but then he got blown up like gosh what happened king
When it comes to stands, I forever find it stupid that Jotaro didn't work with his stand to become more powerful. Araki just had to nerf him (which is something he does with most reoccurring characters, ex: Joseph). I don't like it and it pisses me off.
With the death of Ryohei, I feel like it would've made more sense for Jotaro to somewhat open up to Josuke and be a bit more sympathetic towards him about it (or maybe he stays closed off until Josuke explodes, causing Jotaro to reveal the truth about his past.) Either way, I think the two of them could've bonded over shared grief.
Okuyasu Nijimura
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I absolutely ADORE Okuyasu. I think his dynamic with Josuke is really fun to watch and his personality is just overall super enjoyable.
Stand wise I do think Araki slightly nerfed him by making him dumb as fucking rocks, but I let this slide a little more just bc he's a side character..
I honestly think Okuyasu has the best character arc out of the whole part 4 cast. I think he definitely deserved more screen time, but what we got was really solid in my opinion. His relationship with his brother was well developed and it was really interesting to see how it still affected him even after his brother's death. The way he felt a need to get revenge for his brother and still felt like he wasn't enough really hit me in the gut. I love him.
When it comes to Okuyasu's "death" I have very mixed opinions. On the one hand, ofc the goat of part 4 survived. On the other hand, I feel like him surviving goes directly against the idea we've been given since the beginning. You can't save everyone. And on the one hand, I enjoy the subverting of expectations. On the other hand, I don't like how it's still just never fully explained. I guess in JJBA as long as your soul doesn't feel like dying yet, you won't. I wish we saw Okuyasu actually speaking to his brother when he "died" however. I find him and Keicho's relationship really gut-punching and that would've been a fire scene imo.
I have more to say on him, his dad, Keicho, and the arrow, but I'll save that for when I'm talking about the plot.
Yoshikage Kira
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I find Kira to be a really interesting villain. I really enjoyed every moment we got going deeper into his psychology and it's something I really wish we got to see more of. I enjoy his sleek design and he's fine asf tbh.
Im not gonna give commentary on his stand rn bc honestly i dont fully remember how that shit worked by the time he was using the arrow
Character wise I just really wish he was established as the main villain sooner. The build up and hints dropped about him were so addictive, so it's disappointing that they're only there a little before his full introduction.
The psychology of Kira is something I really liked. The way he truly believes he's never really done anything wrong and only wanting to live a peaceful life is something I wish was even more looked into. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but from my memory, in the manga Kira's whole thing with his nails growing quicker when stressed/when his need to kill is getting too strong was only psychological. At least, I don't remember them growing the same way it's shown in the anime. I think this would've been something really interesting to deep dive into. The fact that he believes his nails grow when his need to kill is really high is really intriguing and the overall connection between hands and his killings are something I wanted to be fully developed more. I know it was kind of just a weird ass fetish but like..that's interesting!! this is interesting!!
I'll probably make an individual post to talk more abt him.
Plot
Where do I even begin. The plot of part 4 is all over the place. I loved many episodes, and I enjoyed when it leaned more into the slice of life style, but why the fuck where there like 3 seperate plots? Honestly, cut out Anjuro. His whole plot shit was annoying as hell. Didn't care for him.
Akira's entire plot pissed me off. I only like this arc because of Okuyasu. Overall I found there to be a lot of plot holes and just annoying parts. Everything til Kira was like this for me. Like get to the REAL plot please.
The arrow annoyed me. I've never wanted to rip my hair out more than when Kira's dad got a hold of it. He was SO GODDAMN ANNOYING. I like the concept of Kira using the arrow to get allies or ways to cover up his plot, but most of the stand users that came out of this were annoying and Kira's dad was insufferable in the worst way possible.
I think something I wish was more covered by the plot is the aftermath of Part 3 and Dio in general. This is something that CDDH (best jojo spinoff) covers really nicely, however. Go read it.
I also just in general think more should've been done w Okuyasu's dad, as he is a direct aftermath of Dio.
I feel like a lot of the women in Part 4 were set up to have strong, actually plot-influencing roles, but then were totally side-lined. I'm going to make a full post abt this tho.
Reimi being connected to Rohan never made sense to me. Just narratively speaking, why did you connect the main motivation for catching Kira to a side antagonist instead of the main character? This is slightly fueled by my hate for Rohan but like, c'mon! I think it would've made more sense to 1. just not include Rohan so fucking much and 2. connect Reimi to Josuke's past.
Speaking of Josuke's past, I feel like it just..needed more. Or at least, I think something needed to be done with the boy who saved him. I can appreciate the idea of it connecting to a theme of the general kindness of strangers, but you don't see that theme pop up as much in the rest of the plot. Also, I again would've connected Reimi to Josuke because WHY ISN’T SHE CONNECTED TO THE MAIN CHARACTER OH MY GOD
Overall tho I like the vibes of part 4, i really enjoyed different arcs and characters, and I just wish Araki got more time to flesh everything out and refocus on certain themes and characters.
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boypussydilf · 1 year
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i was not kidding. after hours of work over days i have made ayame mikotoba REAL!!!!!! and thusly joined the ranks of dgs fans who go “…so does this count as an OC or what.” also bonus susato who turned out really well. the joke in the second image i stole from @vacuumtan
bonus & design notes under the cut <3
thats the right way to introduce people to a character you made yourself and barely know anything about right? OK now ill ramble about her design a bit
thats the right way to introduce people to a character you made yourself and barely know anything about right? OK now ill ramble about her design a bit
i decided very early on i wanted her main color to be purple to go w susatos being pink and yuujins being blue but everything else was up in the air until i came up with the impressionist painting-style kimono design… and then i made the maple leaf design and realized i liked it way better. but my first design deserves some love too
the sleeves of that first design are supposed to look like stars. in both my outfit designs for her she has kind of a nature theme going on. i guess that works!
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i went looking in susato’s concept art for inspiration right away and some of the poses i drew were referenced from concept susatos. her hair specifically is based on stuff from concept designs, the way it looks from the front is taken pretty much directly from one. the ponytail also was inspired by some concept art
speaking of which i was never able to decide between the ponytail and the bun or if i should give her another hairstyle completely… when i was coming up with them i worried the ponytail would make her look too young and the bun would make her look too serious, but i think i like them both
oh yeah i gave her a hairclip bc i thought she should have the mikotoba family crest on her somewhere and also bc im addicted to giving characters fun little accessories, but then i only drew it once lol
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designing her face i wanted her eyes to invoke That Kind Look Susato Gives as, like, a perpetual state. i don’t think they really turned out like THAT, but i’m really happy with how the design for her face turned out still. if only i had been able to draw it again after this one time.
OH YES! i forgot to actually talk about Her.
We know… literally nothing about her in canon, so I have to build her from the ground up completely, but there are two places ive looked for personality ideas: the other mikotobas, and mary morstan. because. sure, there’s no reason to make an equivalency between ayame & the wife of john watson from ACD canon. but there’s also no reason Not to? and the kickstart is helpful. not that we really know a ton about mary, either, i think.
but we do know some! she’s described as “sweet and amiable”, “refined and sensitive”, and as the sort of person other people turn to when dealing with Big Painful Emotions. this isn’t much but applying these ideas to ayame makes her slot in nicely with the other mikotobas. family made entirely of beacons of kindness.
being an ace attorney character she will, of course, also be distinctly Weird. i’m just. still figuring out what kind of weird, exactly.
i think that covers everything??? if you read this far thank you i love you
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terrainofheartfelt · 2 years
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Gossip Girl Playlists: Theatre Kid AU edition! —Nate’s
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[Blair's] [Dan's] [Serena's]
I don’t even remember exactly how this started, but it’s @strideofpride’s fault. 
The concept began as: if they were in this world, what would be in the GG mains’ MT books? What would be their go-to song? Their 16 bar cut? And then, I got on spotify, and got wayyyy too carried away (typical me), and it sort of morphed into: what are the NJBC’s (plus Daniel’s) senior musical theatre recital programs? And now I have this: a quartet of playlists of repertoire handpicked by me for these fake people, and I am very proud of them. 
All selections based on my very particular taste, honed from a childhood in community theater, an adolescence in high school musicals, and a 4 year degree from a majority musical theatre school
And, as in the tradition of Glee and all plays within a play, the rep reflects something profoundly personal about the character, because you know I love a theme. 
the meta:
Okay so Nate’s was realllllyyyyy hard to pin down, which makes sense because he as a character is hard to pin down, bc the show really only treated him like a whole-ass person for like 2 seasons. But, the beauty of men in musical theatre is they have much more license to just….do whatever the fuck they want—as opposed to women who get put into teeny tiny uncastable little boxes (but that’s a rant for another day). 
The point is, Nate’s type: because of his looks and talent, people try to put him in the romantic leading man box, but he finds that sooooooo boooooooring. He does play some himbos (bc, why not play to your strengths?) but he gravitates to roles that are more of a stretch. The fun roles, the character roles. The ones that less enlightened folk would say he’s “too pretty to play.” He likes to go for the laugh! He doesn’t want to be Billy Bigelow, he wants to be the Emcee! (I also see him having a great run being one of Les Amis in Les Mis in his 20s; and as the hot boy in Mamma Mia.)
His range is—and I hate that I’m saying this but it really is applicable to men in MT–bari-tenor. He can get up there when he wants to, but doesn’t necessarily want to live in the land of the high belt. He has a great low range that makes him prime golden age hunk material, but again, not really his thing. Also, theatrekid!Nate is a DANCER. He’s good on his feet and he knows it!
References: Hugh Jackman, Jonathan Groff, Derek Klena, Killian Donnely, Matthew Morrison (but like, with a better personality); and a kid in my voice studio who I’ll call Bobby, who had the rich low range of a deep voiced angel but could dance his lil heart out. 
the tracklist:
The Streets of Dublin — A Man of No Importance
A story about an Oscar Wilde stan who’s trying his darnedest to put on Salome with his community theater group. He tries to convince his hunky buddy Robbie to join in, but it’s not really Robbie’s thing. 
I’m Not That Smart — The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
A zany raunchy comedy where grown ass adults play 12 year olds battling to the bitter end for a spot in the national spelling bee. 
Leaf, a homeschool kid, is endearing, if easily distracted.
Joey, Joey, Joey — The Most Happy Fella
I’ll be honest, I just like this one because when sung right, it’s soooooo hot. 
A traveling farmhand (can you guess his name?) explains why he never stays too long in one place. There’s lots of plot happening around him, but his only job as a character is to be sexy and cause problems. 
Try to Remember — The Fantasticks
It’s the world’s longest running musical ever, so it must be doing something right! It’s an inverse Romeo and Juliet. Two fathers pretend to feud for years, to reverse psychology their children into falling in love. There’s also this spanish bandit? Idk. the fathers go a bit overboard with the plot and some strife happens, but there’s a happy ending!
This is the show opener, sung by the narrator/Spaniard-ex-machina El Gallo
Brush up Your Shakespeare (duet w/ Dan) — Kiss Me, Kate
A musical version of Taming with the Shrew is trying to get off the ground. There’s mobsters and divorced exes with sexual tension and lots of nonsense. And this bop. 
Agony (duet w/ Dan) — Into the Woods 
The only good thing that movie version gave me was Chris Pine tearing his shirt open. Ok, whore. 
Two princes, one in love with Cinderella and one in love with Rapunzel, commiserate on their love lives. I’d call them himbos, but they don’t respect women enough. They’re kinda just sluts. 
I’d Rather Be Sailing — A New Brain
See title for why I picked it. 
The show was written from the composer’s experience when he was diagnosed and treated for an AVM. this song is actually sung by the main character’s boyfriend, so it nautical AND gay!
The Song that Goes Like This (duet w/ Serena) — Spamalot
I can so see Serena and Nate just enjoying being little freaks on stage together, they feed off each other and are big hams. 
Sir Gahalad and the Lady of the Lake tick off the box of the broadway love ballad. And they break some glass. 
I Am Aldopho — The Drowsy Chaperone
Severely underrated musical. This and Curtains are both wild, gershwin-y sounding romps where I don’t really remember the plot, but I remember not being able to breathe for laughing. This show is about a grand 20s wedding, but there’s hijinks afoot, and the bride’s chaperone is drowsy because she’s drunk, and for some reason the Spaniard-ex-machina, Aldolfo, tries to seduce her with this song. I can’t not picture this scene without a cape. 
I Don’t Care Much — Cabaret
I just think. Nate would be such a good MC. I want that for him. I really do. 
MC sings this song as narration, when singer Sally fights with her lover Cliff. Lots of shit is going on, but it’s really about the desperation and precipice and uncertainty that the MC and the Kit Kat Clubbers are living in in jazz age berlin.  
You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught — South Pacific
MT guys get cast in this role if they look good shirtless, so. And it’s a better song than Younger than Springtime, like, yeesh. (this is the soldier set. I think Nate could also play that Miss Saigon guy, I don’t know the whole show well but I tried to listen to the guys big solo and I could not. anyway.)
Even though he’s in love, Lt. Cable’s deeply entrenched racism causes him to be a total jerk to his wartime love, Liat. Nellie’s same deeply entrenched racism ends her relationship with hot french dilf, Emile, when Emile seeks out advice, this song is Cable’s answer. 
Come Back — Dogfight
Everybody was losing their minds over DEH but the real Pasek and Paul opus is this musical. It only ran off broadway but the feelings! And the songs! 
In SF, a young GI meets and falls for a girl the day before he ships out to Vietnam, also the day before JFK’s assassination. This is the eleven o’clock number. He’s returning home, haunted, and broken, a marked contrast to the kid who left. 
Make ‘Em Laugh — Singin’ in the Rain
A classic! Nate the actor would always be going for the bits 
I Can’t Be Bothered Now — Crazy for You
a role for a DANCER. Bobby is a blue-blood banker’s son who just wants to dance. His mission takes him to a small cow town out west where he puts on a show. Gershwinian nonsense like that. It is very cute, though. 
Moon-faced, Starry-eyed (duet w/ Serena) — Street Scene
Street Scene is technically an opera, but it’s a big extravagant blending of musical styles, from romantic 1900s opera to 1940s jazz. Guess which end of the spectrum this one’s on. It’s the comedic dance break before shit hits the fan in this New York apartment building. I can so see besties Serena and Nate being complete hams in this number.
Mae, a tenant of the building, comes back from a night out with her boyfriend, Dick. They are drunk and they are dancing!
Soul of a Man — Kinky Boots
Nate wearing those shoes. Send post. 
Charlie makes the bold—but sound! —business decision to redirect the family shoe factory to produce shoes designed and marketed towards drag queens. When Charlie snaps from the pressure of running the business, he ponders his family legacy and “what does it mean to be a Man”? Nathaniel-coded!
Not the Boy Next Door — Boy from Oz
I just think….theatre kid!Nate is soooo gay. And being in the “gay by may” MT major world, he grows into himself in a marvelous way. 
Aussie musical legend Peter Allen returns to Australia after his separation from Liza Minelli, and realizes he’s grown out of the place. Also he’s so very Not-Straight.
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kuraitsune · 2 years
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CODENAME: KURAiTSUNE
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FiLE - ...Kuraitsune, writer [ fluent ENG | learning SPA | very litle JPN ]
DETAiLS - ...undercover writer, female, asian, timid, sensitive, considerate.
APPEARANCE - ...long dark hair w/golden tips & blue white ribbons, wide fennec-fox ears, twin fox tails [ black & gold ] w/blue ribbon bells.
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DiSCLAiMER - in no circumstance will i write anything including the following: smut(aka 18+ works), suicidal topics, too gorey stuff(major chara death, cvtting, yandere themes, etc.), and maybe more.
for vtuber fics, please know that these writings are a work of fiction and are the appearance and persona of the character! not the person behind the screen.
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WORDS OF NOTE - "rainy days are much to a dismay. although, staying by the comfort of a fire and reading a book of sorts to stave the cold is quite nice."
"i never quite understood how someone could easily use a leaf into an astounding instrument."
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ABOUT KURA - ...minor, music binger, writing for Luxiem & Noctyx & ILUNA [ x reader or random scenarios ], writing for several indie vtubers, may write for Genshin Impact in the future.
OSHiS [ in order, NIJISANJI ] - ...Ike Eveland, Shu Yamino, Alban Knox, Enna Alouette.
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MAiN TEAM [ genshin ] - ...Ganyu, Kaedehara Kazuha, Hu Tao, Diona
SECONDARY TEAM [ genshin ] - ...Eula, Venti, Fischl/Mona, Jean
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MASTERLiST QUICK LINK - ...includes... 3 NIJISANJI EN groups | miscellaneous [ indie vtubers, etc. ]
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WORDS OF HER OWN - hello!! thank you for reading up to here~ i'm really excited and nervous to be introducing myself, that's why i'm going in for more of an undercover persona. please call me Kura for simplicity!
i am able to write the following: fluff, angst, hurt/comfort [ with or no comfort ], and much much more!
i will share some more things about myself while i'm here. i am a writer(obviously), an artist(for about 3-4 years), an aspiring vtuber(i hope), and gamer(hehe).
my usual typing(like texting friends, just random posts, or aesthetics) will be in lowercase. and it's about the same irl, speaking in lowercase as my friends say. in actual writing works i'll write with proper grammar and english.
speaking of language, it was mentioned before but i speak english fluently and the only one i can speak fluently. i am currently learning spanish and want to practice, so feel free to send something in spanish and i'll try to answer in both eng and spn! and of course, japanese, i only really know basic phrases and i'm not learning JPN atm, i do know how to write in romaji, though i don't think that's really hard lol.
thank you for reading my introduction~
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DO NOT: repost or copy any of @kuraitsune's works! sharing is fine with credits.
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bryan360 · 2 years
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Here’s my note before I’ll get started….
(DON’T YOU EVER COPY FROM MINE OR MY FRIEND’S WORK, CHARACTERS, AND STUFF IF ONE OF YOU ARE IMPOSTERS WHO HAD HABITS OF PLAGIARISM! I WILL BLOCK YOU FROM MY BLOG IF I SEE YOUR POST WITH MINE OR MY FRIEND’S ORIGINAL WORK BEING EDITED ALL OVER! I’LL EVEN SHARE IT ONTO MY BLOG SO IF EVERYONE WILL SEE THAT YOU TRYING TO COPY MINE OR MY FRIEND’S THINGS FOR NO GOOD REASON WHATSOEVER! That will be all….I mean it.)
🇵🇷Me: Guess who already changing this header image for my blog today? As expected from yesterday that I said to you guys about changing this after my P-pal letting me. So here it is; my main OCs while getting ready for this year’s 🍁🍂Autumn season! However, I’ve added to his name that he made for me, so don’t confused that it was mine.
🐰🖌Maxwell: Mhm! Now if you excuse us, we’re having to jump on leaf piles to celebrate for this year’s season with fun and caramel apples. Here’s to you, friends! 😉👍
🐰👊💥May: Especially to the Speedster friends, Cude, Murukir, and the newest family member Miya!
🦊⚽️Sam: Have a good Autumn season, by the way! 😁
This remake drawing from my 2016 Autumn artwork belong to my P-pal @murumokirby360
Maxwell, May, and Sam (in their A/W clothes, hats, gloves, and their themed masks from Spot, Riya, and Cude) created by me; BryanVelasquez87 (Bryan360)
Tagged: @carmenramcat @alexander1301
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aidendh · 2 years
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RAU! Abigail/Adrik Harris [P2]
RAU! Adrik Harris
(RAU! Fyodor → Abigail Harris)
His handwriting is terrible in the English alphabet, but can be decently neater in Russian/Japanese
He'd seem very Chuunibyou with how he still feels connected to ppl like Nagisa
Alongside normally having a ginger cat called Simba, he would beg his Mother to let him keep one the Simba's little sisters
She would be a spotty grey cat
He'd call her Teress (Tigeress/Atsushi)
Teress would love climbing and laying on his shoulder, even when she out grows it
Especially his face
She wouldn't be cuddly, but would be very clingy/'My Human!'
His fave animal are Otters
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In his Palace his Shadow has frail Butterfly Wings under their Kimono
The main rodent security shadows are Otters
The only time the treasure is out is during a preaching, the preacher varies
The strength of the brainwashing pull depends on who's preaching and can result in lost time/
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(Book)
Crime and Punishment, by Adrik Hinata
[Russian]
A slice of life story with vauge character descriptions
Each character would have a nickname instead of proper names
Eg, flurry, Tea Leaf
It was published not long after the author's passing
Its mainly a collection of many different short stories
The book overall is decently long
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Persona: Pfeiffer
(The Pied Piper)
A figure that plays a flute with many different types of rodents chained to follow him
Ice/Brainwashing
Weakness is Bless
Mask: Asylum Mask
Theme: Fyodor
Code name: (Mi')Lord
Because of an inside joke between him and Diamond
Weapons: Flute / Water Gun
(Different ammo shoots different liquids (eg, Gasoline))
Awakens when he decides to forgo his secrets to save those he cares about
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Cognition!Abalynn fight
Because of a friend from secondary school, he also has a pet rat named Daisy
-:Revamp:-
Adrik Harris (Secondary School)
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A popular kid with a skill for cooking and a high intellect
Quirk: Quirkless
Confidant: Judgment
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Adrik Harris (Casual)
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An Incarnate struggling with their suppressed psychotic urges
Ability: Crime and Punishment
Diagnosed with Schizophrenia
Death: Killed by K!Mori
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Shadow! Adrik
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A Distorted Soul that just wants to rebuild their legacy
E: Psy/Curse/Bless, W: Fire
Treasure: Библия → Преступление и наказание
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Lord
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A Persona-User finally letting himself loose
Persona: Pfeiffer (Judgment)
E: Ice / Brainwash, W: Fire
Weapons: Erhu / Water Gun
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sexysilverstrider · 3 years
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hehe i like this picture
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dushman-e-jaan · 2 years
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The lack of thematic weight with Sakura “fix its”.
Another reason why these “girl-boss” outings don’t work is the lack of a decisive theme that’s missing in the grand scheme of things. It’s fairly easy to type out your over-simplistic “Kishimoto wrote trash, man; but I’m a great writer, so I can do so much better!” diatribes and variations of this Wildean criticism, but it’s a bit hard to look beyond these self-defeating clichés.
For one, there isn’t any main character in the manga whose abilities didn’t have a theme attached to him—and that’s more true for the Uchiha. Why did Tsunade invent this separate field? Her abilities come with a history: she wanted to save her brother and lover, but failed; her Byakugō tries to grant her a temporary invincibility (of sorts) on this front; it’s also a Jutsu that mimics Hashirama’s healing; hence, she carried on his legacy in a way. Jiraiya? He’s thought to be a failure and that’s illustrated fairly perfectly in his abilities: he learned Rasengan from his student, and he’s an imperfect Sage; he’s a second-rate version of both of his students. Orochimaru? His abilities allow him to escape death, something he feared the most.
Chiyo’s and Sasori’s puppets? The former carries baggage, literally in the shape of Sasori’s discarded puppets (imitations of his parents, a legacy he’d cast aside), which is of political nature, as well; and Sasori? His quest to live out his childhood stands in sharp contrast to his grandmother’s need to pass on her legacy to him, which he’d denied in the past; his obsession was such that he ended up transforming himself into a puppet, to preserve a self that he’d lost; and that’s why, his own toys, playthings he’d created in loneliness, ended up becoming his undoing. They’re not just toys with string at their backs. Suna’s upheaval is realized through them. 
Lee’s and Gai’s Taijutsu creates this familial bond between them, especially since Gai’s own father was something akin to what Lee was; the only difference between them is that he had the talent to create; Lee didn’t. That allowed Gai to make something more out of Lee, not let his passion for learning go to waste. The Gates are that, a potential to be something more than you are. That’s exactly what Dai’s theme was, and Gai passed that theme onto Lee.
Haku’s and Kimimaro’s Kekkei-Genkais aren’t simply there for show. Haku’s ability Ice and Kimimaro’s, Bone-Manipulation present windows into their pasts: they escaped ethnic-cleansings at Kiri’s hands, but couldn’t escape their fates due to the luckless mistakes that they made as Haku made his purpose to protect Zabuza and nothing more and Kimimaro wanted to live through Orochimaru, a man he was willing to lay down his life for. Haku’s Clan was driven to extinction due to fear harbored by the populace, and Kimimaro’s was crushed as they rebelled against Kiri and wanted to overthrow the establishment—sounds familiar? Because it is as in Sasuke you see these two put together. All their themes were there as a ground-work for Sasuke to overcome; where they relented, he didn’t; where they chose subservience, he didn’t; where they left things off half-way, he didn’t (well, if you take out the final two or three chapters, that is). These aren’t there just for show. (Lee was there, too, as a stepping-stone for Sasuke, but let’s keep this short as I’ve already elaborated on that in a separate post.)
Hashirama’s Mokuton? It’s isn’t just there as a show for power. The clan translates into “a thousand hands”; and it fits him. He can pull out a large Buddha to dispense judgement in the name of the tree, the Leaf, that sprung from the seed he sowed. Granted that the rest of the clan has very little no depth, but that’s … the point? They’re there to assimilate into the village, blend in, merge with the forest that’s meant to hide his Leaf. He’s a forest all by himself that encroached upon a land, made it his, and his alone. A lot of implicature is there, but as I said before: I want to keep this simple as I’ve spoken about this before at length. That’s why Hashirama is shown to be force of Nature to Madara’s force that’s meant to temper it. It’s not accidental. 
What about the Sharingan? Kakashi’s Sharingan is lesser as he lives his life as a man who’s forever in the other man’s shadow, who’s known for a moniker, a tool that isn’t even his, which is the simplest explanation of his mask (I’m shocked that people miss something so obvious and write pointless theses on this guy which aren’t even canon); and that brings me to the Uchiha, wielders of the Mirror Wheel Eye.
All Uchiha with the Mangekyōs reflect their themes. Obito? As a more to Kakashi’s less, the real to his unreal, the true to his untrue, his eye allows him to slip; and guess what? He wears a complete mask, unlike Kakashi, quite literally and figuratively as he passed himself off as two different personas, both of which were lies! It’s Kakashi who’s copies Obito, not the other way around, which is why he’s a “copy ninja” in every sense of the word. (The fact that Kakashi Fandom has never realized this bamboozles me.) Therefore, his “mask” that literally covers his entire face, unlike Kakashi’s, not only completes Kakashi’s half-hearted themes but grants them the completion that they require. That’s why he “slips” from the Space/Time: he doesn’t have a set persona. Again, very obvious.
Madara? He wanted to protect Izuna, yet he failed … miserably; so that’s why it’s Susanoo that he exploits the most. He excels at it, creates clones of it, wraps it around the force of nature, Kurama, to get even against Hashirama’s Thousand Hands, an entire forest—Nature against Nature!
Shisui? He’s known for an ability that’s meant to mold the mind. What did he fail at? The exact same thing: he couldn’t change anyone’s mind and fell prey to a man who he thought he could trust. His Mangekyō presents an irony that carried on through Itachi—in more ways than you realize. Itachi? He’s a fucking liar; and which Mangekyō ability does he exploit the most? You guessed it right: it’s Tsukuyomi; and you know what? He’s Shisui’s irony personified as he represents the very thing that he failed at: Itachi made Shisui’s failure a reality, a warped reality of it, Shisui’s greatest irony. Either that’s a coincidence that Kishimoto didn’t think through (and, yes, the man’s a damn good writer, but I’ve said it many times that Itachi is this narrative’s undoing in many ways—his single greatest fumble as a writer, though most of it is Itachi’s wankers’ fault)—or I don’t know. You be the judge of that; however, Itachi’s lies are manipulatable to be more than lies as nothing you see is real in a Genjutsu, something which is more true with the Sharingan given its tendency to cancel out or alter the outcomes in Izanagi and Izanam; a fated fall through an illusion; a son that was an illusion for Fugaku; a Genjutsu that was his and the clan’s erasure—it’s no wonder that Itachi represents Izanami to Sasuke’s Izanagi, a Genjutsu to defeat Izanagi, a Genjutsu that doesn’t just change the outcome; it alters the perception completely at the cost of the previous one; but as he can be crafty with the lies, that makes his Mangekyō a clear extension of his persona.
Sasuke? He’s the most self-explanatory out of the Uchiha as he’s all about vengeance, getting even, hitting where it hurts most. Which ability of his dominates his skill-set? It’s the fire that consumes, Amaterasu; and it’s an ability that he can combine together with his predecessor’s sentinel, Susanoo, to make it more offensive rather than simply defensive. His Genjutsu-eye, “eye that lies”, facilitates his Amaterasu; his lies are weak as he’s very straight-forward, unlike his sibling.
Kaguya and her sons? A god-like fool who’s done in by her own; and Hagoromo? A short-sighted man who only wanted to fix his mother’s mistakes, not establish a legacy; and what’s his legacy? A creation of Tailed-Beasts from Rinnegan, Samsara eye that’s beyond humanity, beyond their reason; and that’s why strife plagued the world because of his short-sightedness as he’s a man lost in the Samsara cycles, not anything tangible.
I can list more examples, but there’s no reason to type out anymore. Sakura Fandom considers none of this: it’s only concerned with turning her into this “badass girl-boss” caricature who takes “no shit from no one” … because that’s sexist? That’s a very absurd argument, one without merit. Sakura in canon formed her identity through others, which is why her skill-set mirrors that as it’s not original. Where Tsunade wanted to protect a brother and lover who shared a love for the village, Sakura just wants to protect … Sasuke, who doesn’t care for the village? And the theme of “legacy” falls apart there and then. As unlike Naruto who is carrying his predecessors’ torch—Jinchūriki from mother; skill and spirit from father; and the ability to succeed where his mentor failed—there’s nothing of the sort here. And Sasuke? He harbors so many themes single-handedly that it’s impossible to list them all, but for argument’s sake, he’s the collective legacy of all the people who failed when they stood against a political adversary. Sakura has none of that, either.
So how do you mitigate this issue? What would you accomplish by giving Sakura Mokuton, Sharingan, a nonsensical Kekkei-Genkai you’ve created, or some other pointless Doton ability? Nothing. What would making her learn Flying Thunder God (FTG) accomplish? Tobirama turned the tides of the warring period with it; Minato did the same. For both, this was a win on a political scale, not just a “win”; their win was ideological that changed history—Shinobi History. All Sakura Fandom does is create a fucking gimmick out of it that her Chakra Control (CC) is good so she can learn anything. That’s not what CC even stands for; it’s maximum results with precise control. That’s it. It’s not a cheat-code to learn all the Jutsus you can manage. It’s not.
You’ve given her FTG—now what? That’s it? She’s “badass”, so she can beat up forces (it’s mostly men who “wronged” the “girl-boss queen” in canon, so let’s be real here)? And what else? All I hear are sounds of crickets afterwards. The political, regional, and historical changes that resulted in Konoha’s supremacy in the world as we know it? Tobirama’s FTG isn’t just a flashy Jutsu; with it, he helped his brother crush the Uchiha into submission, from which sprung the entire conflict that you see in canon; it’s an ability that birthed the conflict that drove the manga; it isn’t for Minato, either, hero of the Third Great War who utterly erased what remained of Iwa’s strength, a victory that propelled Leaf into a military juggernaut. They don’t do anything about the aforementioned aspects that they just skip over with a fucking stupid “Kishimoto’s bad, man!” one-liner. There’s no ideology to be backed here. No political force to hammer out the other one. No regional control to manage. She’s just … very good at CC, so she learned it, O-K?! That’s not good enough in regard to your canon “criticisms”.
Sharingan? She doesn’t even fit into this role—come on! The Uchiha are a canonical metaphor of the masculine martial roles that governed China and Japan for about two millennia, and Sasuke single-handedly carries that and the Japanese interpretative aspects of mono no aware; which is another reason why Sarada’s Sharingan makes no fucking sense; but they gave her the American “daddy issues” treatment, so it makes sense in regard to Boruto’s literary peaks that she’s scaled. Truly, there’s nothing you, as a very sloppy FF writer, can do to match that—let alone overcome the vast socio-cultural history from which Kishimoto draws very heavily (that’s the main reason why Gozen in Kill Your Heroes is nothing more than a cheap “girl-boss” fad-statement and not anything decent in regard to the female Gozen that was made famous in the past; it’s a title, by the way, not a name as it was given to men and women both). As much as it hurts your feelings, the Uchiha are a masculine clan. There’s no feminine lore behind them in regard to vengeance, military, and clan—all of which are very Confucian (Edo Period was the peak of this philosophy); and trust me, no matter how good of a writer you believe yourself to be (or your cock-suckers say that you are), you’re not even remotely skilled to turn a cultural history onto its head. (Yes, there are some very minor feminine aspects in regard to the Shinto mythos, but even that are promptly assimilated into the masculine.) You’re way over your head here. Sit yourself down, and don’t overestimate your Fan-Fiction (FF) “skills”. Leave this delicate task to good writers. Get what I’m saying?
So what can the Sakura Fandom manage? Easy! Play into her flaws and create a character out of her that mirrors … Kabuto! Yes, Kabuto is what you’d call a young man without an identity. Sakura is … somewhat similar, but at a very surface level; and Kishimoto played at this “Orochimaru’s crooked protégé to Tsunade’s straitlaced one (sort of)” comparison for a little while, but he didn’t go anywhere with it beyond that vague similarity. Kabuto’s identity issues spring from a military perspective (his entire backstory is Leaf’s exploitation of child soldiers and the erasure of their identity). You can make sure that Sakura excels in poisons and do something with this identity crisis of hers, without the “fad” of turning it into a rut from which she absolutely has to climb out of. That’s not good writing, because all you’re doing is turning her into more of a caricature that’s not good at being a caricature, either. Identity crisis isn’t something you can overcome (I haven’t even heard of anything like this; have you?) as all people form it by aligning the Self with something, be it people, culture, history. There’s always something that defines their identity. What’s a man without one? You can write a fiction that explores this idea, though I doubt you’d ever be able to put out something that treads even slightly in the direction of Paradise Lost, a cosmic tale of a man-like creature without a bearing. You can die and be reborn ten-thousand life-times and still, you’d be an abysmal writer by comparison to Milton. Sorry, but it has to said.
However, you can still try out this … “thing” within the confines of the Naruto verse. Stop being obsessed with over-coming things and start being concerned with illustrating things. You can’t shove Sakura into any of the above without either going with what Kishimoto laid out for you or creating a myth for Sakura to match canon’s myth, though you lot have no talent for the latter—I’ll be honest—because if you did, you won’t be churning out “wholesome girl-boss” FFs in a “dawk and gritty” world to show what sort of hard-edged “military freak” Sakura’s tragedies (lol?) turned her into. (Man, you people can’t even get any form of tragedy right, Greek, post-Greek, Shakespearean, Modern, or post-Modern; really, you people have got no fucking clue about any of this despite repeatedly penning western tragedy forms, a structure from which Japanese tragedy is very different to begin with.) No, you’d be writing original stories and, perhaps, making money.
That’s why Sakura as a hard-ass Anbu makes no sense. She’s an OC and carries no semblance of the canon character. You can swap her name for Ton-Ton, and it wouldn’t make one bit of a difference. Deflecting this with “it’s making Canon better by being canon divergent” doesn’t mean anything when the Sakura you’ve created is just … some character with her name. It no longer has anything to do with her canon counterpart; hence, how’s she .. better than canon if she shares no resemble to it beyond her spat-out-bubble-gum-pink hair, name, and some minor canon events? It’s a different character; and without getting into this inane characterization debate (your “Sakuras” aren’t better than her Canon version, I can assure you), I can make an easy claim that a million other characters are better than your version. What now? What have you made better? What have you accomplished by changing one gimmick for the other?
The thing is, if you're writing Sakura's character from scratch, then she's not Sakura: It's just your OC on whom you've slapped the Sakura tag. You're not making anything better. You've essentially created an OC. Own up to this shit in lieu of giving it some literary spin. The issue with Sakura Fandom isn’t that they write FFs—no, it’s that they try to be in everyone’s face about their neo-liberal feminist shenanigans and consistently attack Kishimoto, people who support his work, or the people who write FFs by keeping her character canon-consistent; they make it seem as if they’re altering the world’s socio-cultural landscape via these purposeless, fruitless, and senseless self-aggrandizing stories that are no more than horrendously lackluster displays of a “naïve girl who rises above it all” power-trip. It isn’t as if their ideas are shattering your mind; it isn’t as if they’re doing anything novel with the female-hero trope; and it isn’t as if they’re going anywhere beyond these infantile authorial tricks. No one expects any one of you to be like the Wachowskis in regard to the philosophical construction and deconstruction of the messianic-hero trope (I’m only referencing the trilogy here). No one thinks that you’d ever write anything even remotely at that scale. No, all FF readers ask from you is a coherent story that makes some fucking sense; that it doesn’t cave in on itself with the slightest poke; and that it doesn’t turn into a parody of its own themes—unintentionally at that. Can you lot accomplish that, at the very least? Till you don’t, no one looking for a good story is ever going to read yours; because if all of us were looking for petty self-insert power-fantasies, we’d just turn on the next Marvel Cape-shit as, at least, they’ve got better production-values (and thus, better visual-grammar) compared to the frustratingly horrible syntax that’s on display in your narratives.
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‘always and forever, lara jean’: a bungled mess of my thoughts while watching the movie
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Alright, cards on the table: I never finished reading the book. I got bored a couple of pages in, so I just read up the summary on Wikipedia and called it a day.
Not gonna lie, I expected better from the movies. I loved the first movie; it was cute, it was fun, it hit all the right places. The second movie was… eh. Jordan Fisher is cute, so that’s a plus.
And then we got the third movie; the final in the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy.
And it was somehow even worse.
Maybe I’m exaggerating. Despite its shortcomings in the plot and character development-related departments (the fact that Lara Jean wrote addresses for letters she never meant to send is something that will bother me on my deathbed), the movies have their merits. They’re cutesy and charming and enjoyable, overall; movie-LJ is sweet and unashamedly a girly-girl, which is a refreshing change from the #NotLikeOtherGirls, pick-me girls and bruh girls we had in loads of other YA movies growing up. Peter’s pretty cute, too; he’s not a possessive freak like so many other love interests (The Kissing Booth, After, Anna and the French Kiss), and his and Lara Jean’s dynamic is cute, too. Not to mention- we finally have an Asian lead whose Asian-ness isn’t the whole focus of the story!
Again, maybe I’m being extra with all this. The series is, at its core, solely for entertainment purposes. Not every piece of media has to have an underlying message and you shouldn’t need to read between every goddamn line to find something worthy of enjoying. They’re certainly helpful for whiling away a couple of hours; perfect for bingeing with a pint of ice cream in hand, and all of this is in good fun.
Also, it goes without saying, but: spoilers ahead.
The film beings with Lara Jean scribbling a postcard to Peter while she’s in Korea with her family. The inclusion of that little snapshot of Asian culture made me so happy- seriously, fuck everyone who says diversity in media doesn’t matter. I’m not even Korean, and I was overjoyed at seeing a couple of scenes just from the same continent I’m on. The K-pop music in the background was a fun touch, too (although all Korean music isn’t K-pop, but that’s a rant for another day).
(Also: Blackpink has so many more suitable songs than Pretty Savage that go with the theme of the movies. Kill This Love in the second movie while Lara Jean is getting ready to go to her boyfriend’s match is bad enough- they’re supposed to be in love in that scene, goddammit.)
One thing that bothered me throughout the movies is how obviously non-Korean Lara Jean and Margot look. It’s like whoever chose the cast went for any random Asian- Lana’s Vietnamese and Janel Parrish is half-Chinese, and it’s so obvious. You seriously couldn’t find two Korean-Americans who even vaguely resembled each other so they could pass for sisters? The actresses do a stunning job and I don’t want to shit on them, but I just wish they didn’t go with the ‘all Asians look the same, what’s the difference?’ mindset.
Also, a nitpicky thing I’ve noticed in movies with characters who read a lot: no one holds their books up while they’re reading. Your arms start to cramp, which is why you keep your book in your lap while you’re reading, or you rest on your belly and hold the book in front of you. My spine and shoulders didn’t suffer years of torture as a chronic reader for you to include characters who hold their books up while reading.
A major gripe I have with Always and Forever, Lara Jean is how the characters are almost jarringly out of character- not from the books, but from the two previous movies, too. Lara Jean didn’t have much of a character to begin with, so I can’t say much about her (she dissed Oasis at one point; it’s okay for me to be mean to her), but the rest of them are either caricatures of themselves or just totally different people.
Movie Peter >>> Book Peter. He’s almost too perfect (except for the fact that he unironically loves The Fast and the Furious, which… ew), almost too much of the ideal boyfriend. Not that my perpetually single arse would know. How do boyfriends even work? I wouldn’t know the first thing to do with one; how often should you feed it? Do you need to take it on walks?
(In the notes I’ve written towards the end of the film, I’ve complained about Peter being immature and making Lara Jean feel bad about following her dream to go to NYU. He confuses me.)
Not to mention how distractingly adorable Noah Centineo is from some angles and under certain lighting conditions (other times, he reminds me of the human version of Shrek and that bothered me). King of weird Tweets and Instagram captions though he may be, he’s got a really nice smile, and his gravelly voice is both parts sexy and disturbing.
But I digress.
I’ll never forgive the directors for what they did to Kitty and Chris- two of my favorite characters, from both the books and the movies. Kitty’s annoying to the point of being borderline unlikeable- gone is the occasionally snarky comic relief we all came to love; in her place is an annoying brat whose every line comes out forced. Also, making soap is fun; fuck you, Kitty.
Chris is essentially Dixie D’Amelio’s character from that TikToker Grey’s Anatomy ripoff; the main character in One Direction fanfiction from 2012 who doesn’t want to go to the concert but her best friend gets a ticket for her so she can’t bail but Harry Styles sees her in the crowd and falls in love at first sight and 50k of mutual pining and misunderstandings late, they get together. She’s cynical and snarky and hates capitalism and consumerism and prom (because of course she does), but secretly, she’s into it (because of course she is). My guess is that she’s there to appease all the arseholes (including myself) who accused the characters of being too one-dimensional, but it seems too out of place in a movie that doesn’t have much plot to begin with.
I really, really hate how Lucas was done dirty- throughout every single movie. Of course, it’s Lara Jean’s story so not every side character has to be fully fleshed out- but you’d think three. entire. movies. would be enough to give Lucas a bigger role than the GBF and the token black guy for the diversity brownie points. Every single time Lucas shows up, it’s to push Lara Jean and Peter’s story forward. I would’ve liked to see a romance for him pushed forward instead one for Chris- especially because he says, at one point in a previous movie, that it’s hard to find other gay boys, so it would’ve been sweet to see him find love- and Chris’s character arc could’ve been focused on reconciling with Genevieve. Instead, we see the OG Reggie from Riverdale be the one to show Chris the bright side of monogamy, and Lucas gets a date to prom as an afterthought (another darkskin black dude, so no one thinks the film is racist).
Genevieve’s character in this movie gives me whiplash. Look, I’m all for girls supporting girls- healthy female relationships are something way too many YA movies lack- but she goes from bitch queen extraordinaire to friendly the moment the next scene calls for it. Her character isn’t consistent. A redemption arc should be executed cleanly and believably; you can’t have a character be a total prick one moment and then suddenly be, “Hey, if you get into NYU, let me know,” the next.
And Genevieve’s still an arsehole to Chris; at one point, in NYC, while they’re at the NYU campus grounds (I knew that Lara Jean was going to go to NYU the moment she saw all the banners; I fucking called it), Genevieve tells Chris, “University is for people who actually have a future,” and I recoiled. I’m not the nicest of people and yet that was going too far. Chris doesn’t hesitate to shoot back a, “You peaked in high school,”, but still. Y i k e s. You can’t convince me someone’s turned over a new leaf when they say something like that.
Lara Jean’s dad (forgot his name; gonna call him Dr. Covey) is as unremarkable as ever, and his new wife (forgot her name, too… Trisha? Trina? Eh, something like that) is… unsettling. I mean, I get that they’re all loved up and twitterpatted, but there’s something about all the smiling they’ve got going on that chills me to the bone.
Also, Trisha/Trina kinda looks like TikTok’s ThatVeganTeacher and it bothers me.
Another huge problem with this movie even being made is that the series never had enough plot to continue onto a trilogy. Lara Jean’s letters are what the plots of the first and second movies revolve around; the third only mentions them in passing. The final love letter from Peter was a cute callback, but there’s a massive continuity issue with the first two movies and this last one- both character and plot-wise.
Maybe I’m not articulating this clearly enough, so I’ll use an example: take Harry Potter, for example. Harry’s main goal throughout the series is defeating Voldemort. And it takes all seven books for him to get there, to finally achieve this.
Lara Jean’s goal in the first movie changes midway; from keeping up the façade with Peter so she can avoid the crap with the rest of the letters getting out, to making her fake relationship real. It forms a bridge with the second movie; the letter that went out to John Ambrose, and her dithering between Peter and perfection (I’m not sorry). But what does the third movie have to do with any of this?
There were way too many music montages. You couldn’t go five minutes without a random pop song playing in the background, and it was annoying as hell. Don’t Look Back in Anger was w a s t e d on this stupid film. The artsy scenery shots were even worse- no, I don’t give a fuck about the New York skyline or a bird’s eye view of whatever vehicle Lara Jean is in. A few shots of Seoul would’ve sufficed; the rest was overkill. This movie is way too damn long already (almost 2 entire hours!!!); cut out a couple of those. No one cares.
I thought they’d pull the whole Aladdin trope with character-A-keeps-trying-to-tell-character-B-the-truth-about-a-lie-B-believes-in-about-A-but-B-keeps-interrupting, but Lara Jean (typing her name out is annoying, why couldn’t she have a single name, like both of her sisters?) comes clean earlier than I expected. Peter’s reaction about LJ not getting into Stanford is… uncharacteristically mature? No “Why did you lie to me?”, no accusations, not an ounce of betrayal. Which I did not expect from a guy who’s a little bitch for the greater part of book one (I really don’t like Book Peter, in case you couldn’t tell). I know fuck-all about book three’s Peter, so I can’t tell if he really did adopt this mature, well-adjusted persona, or the movie did it to make Peter seem like less of a dick (like they did it with the sextape-that-wasn’t-a-sextape in the first installment).
On a sidenote, how do these main characters in YA books get into really good colleges with zero to no visible effort? These arseholes fuck around for the entirety of the story and have way too much going on to actually do schoolwork, but they waltz into Ivy Leagues at the end. And apparently, I’m not the only one bothered by this.
There’s something to be said about how the movies don’t really sexualize minors (characters who are minors, to be fair. None of the MCs look anything like teenagers), though. It’s almost weird to see them not getting drunk and partying and having sex all the time. Maybe that’s why Lara Jean trying to get her hand on Peter’s dick felt so stilted and awkward (I cringed so hard when she kept trying to touch him and he kept pushing her hand away, holy shit).
And the kissing. It’s to be expected from a romance film, but there was so. Much. Kissing.
The amount of product placements (… actually, I could count only two: Apple and a pair of Beats headphones Lara Jean puts on at one point, but the movie shoved so many iPhones in my face that I’m obligated to exaggerate) would’ve made anti-capitalist Chris mad.
I’m guessing this all takes place in a parallel universe, sans the coronavirus. Still, being in quarantine this past year and being socially awkward for every other one, it was agonizing seeing everyone so close together in NYC. When Peter kissed the ball (lol) (I have the sense of humor of a straight boy in middle school, don’t judge me) when him and Lara Jean go bowling, I had a visceral reaction. And what are the odds of Peter meeting his estranged dad at the very same bowling alley?
Speaking of Peter’s daddy issues (I’ve written “Hardin but diluted” in my notes; I watched this movie at, like, 1 AM; I’m not entirely sure what was going through my head at that point)- I hated how they guilt-tripped Peter into giving his father another chance. In the wise words of Hannah Montana, everybody makes mistakes- but leaving your wife and two kids for another woman is pretty far from a little oopsie on Mr. Kavinsky’s part. I don’t blame Peter for hating him, and I’m not in a place to judge whether Mr. Kavinsky (does he get a first name?) should be forgiven or not, but I feel like they let him off too easy and made Peter seem like a misunderstood teenager with anger issues for not accepting Mr. Kavinsky’s (crappy) apology at once.
And it adds nothing to the story at all; Mr. Kavinsky peaces out after having one (01) coffee with his firstborn, and he’s never seen again. If you’re going to introduce a subplot, make it tie into the main storyline- the very least you could do is make it an important enough part of the story to have more than 10 minutes of the run time. It makes no sense as to why they’d bring up Peter’s dad in this last film, when he’s already gone through two perfectly fine. I guess it was a ‘tying everything up’ part… even though no one cared.
Lara Jean’s handwriting is surprisingly ugly for someone who’s written that many love letters. And her styling took a definite nosedive; her outfits in the first movie were so effing cute, but now they’re just… meh.
There are so many conversations and lines that the writers must’ve thought sounded good enough for someone to type out the quote in curly font and slap it on a screenshot from the movie to post on Instagram, but when it comes to the actual delivery, they just sounded… weird.
Peter says one time near the beginning of the film, “You know what I’m looking forward to the most in college? Never having to say goodnight,” because he expects him and Lara Jean to get into the same college.
But I guess the word they should’ve used was ‘good-bye’, because this just makes him sound stupid.
At one point, Lara Jean asks Kitty how much Kitty’s gonna miss her when she goes off to college, and Kitty says, “A four.” Later on, she confesses, “I’m gonna miss you a twelve, Lara Jean,” and all I could think was, “But we’re endgame, Archie!”
(In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t let people know I’ve watched Riverdale; it lessons my credibility.)
Still, there remains some good to be found: all the baked goods looked very delicious and made me crave chocolate chip cookies. Peter wearing the socks Lara Jean gifted him at the beginning of the movie was a cute gesture, and Lara Jean giving Peter her teal hatbox? The one she kept her love letters in? Was so? Cute? Help?
And hey, it’s a cliché that’s been done to death, but I’m always a sucker for that part in movies where the girl walks down the stairs in a pretty dress with her hand on the banister and the boy turns around and his mouth falls open and all he can say is, “Wow,”- and this film did not disappoint! Not to mention how cute both Lara Jean’s and Chris’s prom dresses were.
Dr. Covey and Trisha/Trina’s wedding was cute, too- I struggled to decide whether Kitty wearing a necklace that says ‘feminist’ and a tux is a bit too on-the-nose, but I’ve decided that it’s nothing to get my knickers all in a twist about (for clarification: it’s not the necklace or the crossdressing that made me debate this; I just wish they didn’t make a big deal out of it- I wish they didn’t have Kitty and Lara Jean get into an argument about her not wearing a dress, if that makes sense?).
And the final letter- the one from Peter to Lara Jean- I ate that shit up; it was so, so, so cute.
In conclusion (why is it so easy for me to crank out 3k about my thoughts on a Netflix movie and yet when it comes to English Lit. at school, I’d stare at a blank sheet of foolscap for ages?), did I enjoy the movie? Not really. There were parts of it that I liked, but it was overall too boring and I kept wishing I’d watched the new SKZ Code episode instead every few minutes.
But that doesn’t mean that it was bad. I kinda feel a little sad, actually, now that Lara Jean and Peter’s story has come to a close; To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, the first movie, is one of my favorites, and bitch though I might about them, the kinda grew on me… like an innocent plant, at first, but then like a fungus. Not a parasitic fungus, just not mutualistic, either… kind of like a commensal.
Maybe I should stop with the biology similes.
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muthaz-rapapa · 4 years
Text
Categorizing Precure by Themes
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Uueeeee~
V( ̄▽ ̄)V
Note: This post will be continually updated w/new Cure additions and seasons. 
For this one, let’s not beat around the bush and just keep these simple things in mind:
“Theme” as in an idea or concept intended to be represented through a character.
Any Cure who outright states that she represents “_______” in her intro line or something similar qualifies. For example, Cure Dream announces herself as “the great power of hope” so she goes in the “Hope/Dreams” section. It does not matter how well the Cure actually embodies the idea or if she’s shown to do so effectively in the story. If she says she’s “______”, then she goes in that category. :P
Certain Cures require more interpretation of the context and are included with explanations below.
Frankly, a lot of Cures are still on the debate table so if you don’t see them here now, it doesn’t mean they’re entirely dismissed. I just need more time to think it over on whether they should be included or not.
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Love - The biggest offender of them all. :P
Of course, since there are so many types of love, you’d expect that.
Hope/Dreams - Coming in close after Love, “hope” and “dreams” almost always go hand-in-hand together so they’ve been merged into one category.
Furthermore, this post sees the return of the sub-tiers but there aren’t many of those so I don’t think I need to say much for them.
About Flora, there should be no argument that she belongs here along with Scarlet, who is the literal Princess of Hope herself. Though Go!Pri’s slogan is “strong, kind and beautiful” and Flora’s meant to represent the “strength” portion of that among the starter Cures, we’ve all seen her fight against despair as much as Scarlet did, albeit in different ways.
And just like how Dyspear was Scarlet/Hope Kingdom’s greatest nemesis, Close was the same for Flora. Made more obvious at the end of the season when he inherited Dyspear’s mantle and had the final one-on-one battle with Grand Princess Flora, symbolizing the forever ongoing struggle between hope and despair.
Yea.
Energy - A growing category among lead Cures but I still believe Lemonade was the starter of this trend...sorta.
I mean, effervescence’s definition is “vivacity and enthusiasm” which is very similar to “energy” so...
Knowledge/Wisdom - The Blue Cures would have a monopoly on this one if not for Custard.
I was honestly expecting more to appear in this category so color me surprised when this was the outcome. Though I shouldn’t be that surprised because while a lot of Cures are smart, not all of them have knowledge/wisdom as the main trait of their character that’s being showcased.
Ah, also, I have to add “knowledge” onto this as well because while they all claim to be the Cure of Wisdom, wisdom isn’t the same as knowledge. Frankly, most of the girls are more academically adept than they are actually wise (which comes after experience) but since both terms are within such close range of each other, mind as well merge them. *shrug*
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Life - Yea.
Passion - Yea.
Happiness - Ye-..., ok, about Happy.
I cut out 3 of the 5 Smile Cures because I didn’t think they represented any of the listed themes in this post quite strongly enough but it goes without saying Happy does belong here at least?
Not just because of her name but also because Smile Cure had fairy tales as its motifs and she was always going on and on about everybody being “ultra” happy and getting their good endings. Or something along those lines.
Anyways, that’s my reasoning on that.
Courage - Yeap.
Strength - Brute force or muscle power first comes to mind with this term but like “love”, there are many types of strengths, too. Especially emotional or psychological strength.
In fact, strength and courage can both fall under the umbrella term of “fortitude”, if you think about it.
However, that would mean every Cure qualifies so we’ll just keep ‘em separate to spare me that monstrosity. ^^;
...this is also the reason why “kindness” is not a listed theme because almost every Cure can be classified under there as well. >.>;;
Beauty - Like strength, physical appearances might be what pop up into your head initially but if you know your Precure, the series emphasizes a lot on what’s inside that counts, rather than external factors.
But since these three were assigned with “beauty” in particular, then they are the ones who dealt with the topic more directly so there.
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Other - Themes that only have one Cure to represent it (for now).
Honestly, I’m thinking of changing Pine’s to “Faith” instead because the four leaf clover has a different meaning for each leaf and obviously, “prayer” is a reference to the “faith” part.
Maybe I’ll do that when I update this next time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Update log:
3/13/20 - Post published.
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ilovemygaydad · 5 years
Text
part 3/? of punk!patton gets adopted by single parent logan
part one - part two - part four - part five - ao3 version - masterlist (includes asks)
pairings: one-sided pining moxiety, eventual logince, background pining remceit, mentions of past thomas/female oc
warnings: swearing, lots of emotions, anxiety, worry, sympathetic deceit (his name is DC), jealousy, sadness, one-sided pining, rivalry mentions, depression mentions, divorce mentions, being held back a grade, arguments, anger, crying, unhealthy coping mechanisms, embarrassment, like some angst (sorry buds but emotionally closed off patton is an angst fest), food mentions, possibly something else
***feel free to send me questions or comments! i’ll answer them to the best of my ability, and everything is tagged under “punk!patton au”
a/n: this one is.... so long
(a clarification: logan and patton aren’t really father and son--they’re more like legal guardian and child. neither of them were looking for a father/son relationship, so they agreed that it wasn’t for them. i just didn’t clarify)
a few weeks had passed since the whole clothes incident, and patton and virgil had actually become real friends
which was why patton was unnerved when virgil’s foot wouldn’t stop tapping in their first block class
patton scribbled out a quick “you okay?” on a piece loose leaf paper and nudged virgil’s leg to get his attention and passed over the note
a few moments later, the paper is passed back to patton, and virgil’s neat writing reads “yeah, just nervous”
“about what?”
“well... i was going to ask you if you wanted to join my family for our twice-monthly disney marathon on saturday. dad’s college friend comes with his son, dc. he’s a senior. everyone wears onesies, and we just chill and watch cartoons for the night. you don’t have to come if you don’t want, but i thought you might enjoy it.”
and patton’s like
oh
okay
this is... a thing
so he writes back, “sure. i think dc is in my photography class?”
and virgil passes the note back one last time, but the timing went poorly, and the teacher sees
she’s like “mr sanders. mr summers. are you passing notes?”
and patton rolls his eyes as he takes the paper and clips it into his binder “no, ms w. virgil thought that he’d missed some of the notes yesterday by accident, so i gave him my sheet so he could double check.”
and the teacher is like ,,,,,,, fine and goes back to teaching, but virgil looks over at patton and gives him this small, thankful smile
and if patton has some weird, fluttery feelings about it, then that’s fine
even though he doesn’t
(the note says “7pm--last house on zora lane downtown. you’ll know the one ;)” and patton finds it really cute)
so saturday rolls around, and patton picks out some pajamas to go in because he doesn’t have a onesie
logan had offered to buy him a onesie, but patton looked up one that he thought he might like, and it was nearly forty dollars. he refused to let logan spend so much money on something so stupid
he settles on a black muscle tank and black jogger sweats because there’s no way he’s going to break his aesthetic for a disney marathon
he does wear his glasses, though, because he doesn’t want to deal with the hassle of taking out his contacts before going to sleep and then putting them back in before anyone wakes back up, and he’s too blind to just go without
and he hates how the huge, square frames look on his face, and the lenses are so damn thick
but he wears them anyway because he has to
logan drives him to virgil’s house and it definitely wasn’t because logan was hoping to catch a glimpse of virgil’s dad what???
virgil was right--his house was so easy to find. it had a ranbow flag flying by the door, and about twenty little rainbow pinwheels stuck around the garden
it was either the sanders’ house, or it belonged to the world’s most excited five year old
the thing is, virgil didn’t mention that it was huge with gigantic fucking windows and a chandelier that was visible from the fucking street
patton gives a quick goodbye to logan and goes up to the door. he rings the doorbell, and almost immediately, the door swings open. there’s a tall man in a stitch onesie and round glasses smiling at him, and all patton can choke out is a small “hello”
and this man squeals
like
squeals
and then he says, “you must be patton! virgil has told us so much about you--come in!”
it isn’t like patton is just going to say no, so he walks inside and follows this stranger through the house, looking around as they go
the place is just as big as it looks from the outside. there’s a formal dining room to the right and a large office to the left
patton wouldn’t really call the dining room “formal,” however, since all the chairs and the table are random colors and sizes and styles
but that doesn’t even mention the vast foyer with floating stairs to the second level on the left side of the hall and bridging to the upstairs on the right
patton couldn’t believe he was somewhere so fucking nice
they keep going and patton gets a few glimpses of the shiny kitchen and lush living room as they head through a door to the basement
disney music filtered up the stairwell as they descended into the finished basement
it smells like cookies and popcorn
they round the corner and there’s a little entertainment area with a rainbow of giant, fluffy bean bag chairs and a very large flatscreen tv that was currently on the main screen of winnie the pooh
there was also a bookshelf full of disney DVDs (and even a few VHS tapes of the classics)
virgil, roman, and dc were sitting on a couple of the bean bags, but virgil immediately hopped up and threw himself at patton when he noticed that he was downstairs
“you actually came! and you have glasses!!!”
patton huffs out a laugh as he wraps his arms around virgil and hugs him back “yes, i did show up, v. i wasn’t going to stand you up. and, yeah, i do have glasses. i didn’t want the hassle of bringing my contacts and solution and shit, so i just wore my glasses even though they look stupid”
“that’s bullshit!” virgil almost shouts, but he quickly corrects his volume “the glasses look really nice, pat. i swear.”
and there’s that stupid fluttery feeling again
patton rolls his eyes as virgil releases him from a hug, and he’s actually able to get a good look at his friend
virgil’s wearing an eeyore onesie, which matches the disney onesie theme of roman’s mushu onesie and dc’s beymax onesie
patton almost feels left out in his regular pajamas, but he cuts that shit out right the fuck away
virgil gestures to the man who brought pat downstairs “that’s emile. he’s dad’s college friend, and you said you know who dc is already” he still points to the boy who was draped over his bean bag upside down and staring at them with his heterochromatic eyes—the gold one standing out against the darker birthmark around his eye. dc flashed a peace sign, and patton waved back
virgil turns his gaze to the cookies and popcorn set out in the middle of the floor by the tv “those are free to eat—just don’t get between dad and the snickerdoodle ones. he’s vicious. and, i’m only telling you this because i know for a fact that i’m speaking too fast for him to understand”
so they all sit down and watch the movie
patton decides to not notice when virgil moves from a pink beanbag to a purple one right next to patton’s blue one
the movie starts, and it’s all goofy and fun in the basement. the sanders and picanis are quoting the characters and singing along to the little songs
even roman, who signs along with a soft smile on his face
patton is kind of in awe at how relaxed everyone is
he’s also in awe at how freaking cold it is in the basement
he can feel himself curling up and shivering, and he totally regrets wearing a tank top
patton doesn’t know how, but virgil sees him shivering and hops up from his chair, whispering a hasty “i’ll be right back” before sprinting upstairs
when virgil returns, he’s holding a bundle of gray fabric that he tosses to patton
when the bundle is unfolded, patton sees that it’s a hoodie with cat ears and paws and a big pouch in the front
“sorry that it’s so cutesy,” virgil whispers. “it was the most black thing that i own...”
and patton just laughs a little because,,,, virgil’s thought process is really adorable and weird sometimes
like any hoodie or blanket would have done, but virgil absolutely had to get patton the darkest colored one
pat puts it on and instantly feels much warmer
after winnie the pooh, they change to black cauldron
roman whines for a little bit because “there aren’t even any songs!” but eventually concedes because it’s virgil’s favorite and he isn’t going to not let his son watch the movie on disney night
after that’s done, the adults decide they’re going to go to sleep
emile says it’s because they’re old, roman says it’s because he has yet to meet his prince charming in his dreams, and he is looking forward to it
as soon as the adults are gone, the teenagers move closer to the food in the middle
“so,” virgil starts. “it’s time for our gossip session. patton, you’re completely free to sit out if you feel uncomfortable”
“what, uh, does this ‘gossip session’ include...?” pat asks because honestly ???? he’s a bit afraid of what he might hear
dc decides to answer, saying, “usually it’s about what teachers are being shitty again, how classes are going, do we have any annoying group partners. that sort of fun stuff”
and patton just nods because that’s not bad at all
and then virgil does that cute thing like in the movies where he crosses his legs and rests his elbows on his knees and he puts his chin on his hands and he leans forward
you know
that thing
and he says, “sooooo dc. what’s up with that cute boy from school that you like? oh, what was his name? ryan? ray???”
dc rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, and his voice comes out clipped and low
“i don’t have a crush on remy sanders, who you already know because he is your cousin. first of all, stop doing that every time you bring him up. second, stop fucking bringing him up”
virgil just kinda goes “aw, bud, you totally have a crush on him!”
and dc flips out
“you fucking know how much i hate your teasing about crushes, and then you go and tease me in front of someone i barely know? at least i don’t do that! actually, you know what? maybe i will tell patton who you have a crush on because, fuck it! we’re letting all of our secrets out, anyway! virgil has a crush on—“
virgil cuts him off with a loud “STOP” and patton swears that time froze in that room as everyone stares at each other
“i’m sorry,” he continues. “it was so uncool of me to tease you in front of patton without your consent. i just—i think you and remy would be good together, even if it’s just as friends”
dc stands up and starts to march to the stairs “remy and i were nothing more rivals in school, and now that he’s out of the competition, we don’t have anything to connect us. just fucking drop it. i’m going to bed”
patton doesn’t really know what the hell is going on with this remy guy, but he knows some major shit just went down
he decides to focus on virgil instead of the twinge in his chest at the mention of virgil having a crush on someone
really softly, patton asks who remy is
“he’s my cousin,” says virgil “he’s technically the year above, but he got held back last year because of some personal stuff that messed with his school work.
“ever since we were kids, remy and dc were rivals in school. they were both smart and athletic and talented, and they wanted to be the best. they had a lot of chemistry despite the constant bickering, and i tried to get them to become friends instead of rivals. it never worked because remy spends weekends with his moms, so he couldn’t do disney nights, and on the days he was with his dad and could hang out, dc was busy with gymnastics.
“then, after rem got held back, they pretty much ceased all contact. i knew that both of them were hurting because they lost the thing that fueled them to be the best that they could be, but it was pretty obvious that they were missing each other, too.
“i just want them to be happy!” virgil ends, hunching in on himself
patton hesitantly opens up his arms
“do you... do you want a hug”
virgil doesn’t even answer; he just launches himself forward and pretty much tackles patton to the floor in a hug
he’s sobbing now, and patton doesn’t really know what to do, so he pats virgil’s back every so often and whispers nice things to him
eventually, virgil’s breathing evens out and he’s just sniffling into the soaked cat hoodie
patton slowly releases him and rubs virgil’s arms gently in a reassuring gesture
“i’ve never actually done this whole sleepover thing before,” pat says with a sheepish grin, trying to play up the act (even if it is partially real). “would you mind if i slept in your room?”
virgil looks surprised for a second, but then his face smooths out into a tiny smile
“yeah, sure. it’s getting kinda late.”
they pack up the leftover food and stick it in a cupboard by the stairs before going upstairs
virgil grabs patton’s hand as the make their way to his room because tbh he needs the comfort
patton doesn’t mind
virgil opens the door to his room, and it looks just how patton expected
the bed is straight ahead from the door and placed at the bottom of a large window with pink curtains. the blanket and pillows are floral patterned in pastel colors. there are tall, white bookshelves on both sides of the bed that are filled with books of all sizes and colors; however, they look to be organized by age and genre, starting with children’s books and ending with adult fiction and nonfiction. there’s a door that leads to what patton assumes is an en suite bathroom and double sliding doors to the closet. the walls are painted a very light purple, and the remaining furniture are all a slightly darker purple. there’s a wooden desk strewn with tons of office supplies and a vanity with a large mirror and makeup neatly organized in small plastic drawers
everything just screams virgil
while patton is busy ogling at the room, virgil had gone and grabbed a sleeping bag and extra pillow, setting them up on the floor
“i’m gonna go brush my teeth, so make yourself comfy in the bed!” virgil said as he walked into the bathroom
“woah, wait—i’m not sleeping in the bed! this is your house. you get your bed!” patton argues as he takes off the wet sweatshirt and looks for a place to put his glasses for the night
“nuh uh!” virgil sticks his head out the doorway, toothbrush in hand and toothpaste all over his mouth. “you sleep in the bed”
“you aren’t sleeping in that sleeping bag. i refuse to let you do that.”
“fine!” virgil went back into the bathroom, and patton assumed that the argument was over, but virgil came back out with the same fiery look in his eyes. “if i can’t sleep in the sleeping bag, neither can you. get your ass in that bed before i tackle you”
patton had never been so afraid of a 5’7”, 130 pound boy before
he quickly slid under the covers with virgil following after he flicked off the lights
within just a few minutes, both boys were fast asleep
there is so much warmth when patton starts to stir in the morning
he’s just so warm, and he loves it
he curls into the warmth, and for a second he thinks about falling back asleep
and then there was a soft giggle
patton jolted back, opening his eyes to see that he was face to face with virgil
he had been cuddling virgil
and virgil was laughing at him
“awwww, pat! you’re so cute when you’re asleep! you kept trying to cuddle me.”
“shut the fuck up,” patton grumbled, putting his glasses back on and slipping out of the bed
“but it was so cute!!!”
“and if you tell anyone,” patton growls (although, there isn’t much bite behind it) “i will end you. I have a reputation to uphold, and i won’t let you ruin it”
virgil just laughs and follows patton downstairs, teasing him the whole way to the kitchen
roman’s already there, sitting on the counter and stirring a bowl of something
“morning, dad!”
“morning, starshine. why does patton look so grumpy?”
patton slumps into a chair at the table all emo and grumpy, and virgil softly sighs
“i was teasing him, and he got a bit grumpy at me. i’m sure he’ll lighten up as soon as we have pancakes to eat.”
surprised, patton glances over at virgil. he was expecting virgil to completely expose him like the older kids at the orphanage had done, but virgil hadn’t. the smaller boy smiles gently and winks, sitting down next to pat
there’s this strong urge in patton to lean close to virgil, but he squashes that feeling down right the fuck away
“hey, has dc been down yet...?” virgil asks, and patton can see that he’s genuinely still worried and upset about what happened last night
“i am now,” dc announces as he walks into the kitchen
patton is Extremely uncomfortable right now
dc and virgil are just staring at each other when virgil speaks up again
“look, dc, i’m really sorry. it was super selfish of me to try and force your life a certain way based on what i wanted. i’ve always just wanted you two to be happy, but i let my own emotions get in the way”
there was a long pause, and for a second, patton thought that dc was going to throw hands or something
“i forgive you, virge,” dc sighs, and he sits down next to virgil. “i’m sorry, too. i was about to deal a low blow, and that was equally shitty.” he groaned and hid his face in his hands. “and you were right”
“right about... what, exactly?” virgil asked
“i have a crush on remy”
“oh. oh! oh my gosh, dc! that’s sweet! aw, i’m proud of you.”
patton has NO clue what’s going on, but he thinks it’s a nice family moment, so he decides not to intrude
dc and virgil chat for a few minutes, and patton stares at the table silently
it feels a bit like breakfasts at the orphanage where everyone else would laugh and talk and be normal kids
and he would just
sit
alone
all the while, roman had been cooking, and he shouts out, “alright, every-gay--i mean, except patton?”
“nah, i’m... i’m gay, too.” 
“sweet!” roman says with a sigh of relief. “every-gay, it is time for... cinnamon roll pancakes!”  
a huge--like, at least thirty--pile of pancakes was set in the center of the circle, and everyone immediately began to set pancakes on their own plates and slather the frosting on top
dc and virgil began to banter with each other and, against his better judgement, patton joined in
and it felt...
really nice
patton was getting to know virgil’s friends and family better, and it was so interesting to finally be part of some sort of family dynamic for the first time
then he looked over at virgil, who was stuffing pancakes into his face and
the feelings kind of hit him straight in the face
he’s in love with virgil
virgil, his best friend
virgil, who tried to defend him even after he’d been a total asshole
virgil, who... had a crush on someone else
patton almost drops his fork as a sick, sad feeling twists inside of his stomach
he can’t be in love with virgil because virgil doesn’t love him
for the rest of the morning, patton’s all fake smiles, and he keeps quiet
he says a quick goodbye to virgil when logan shows up to drive him home, and he sits silently in the car as logan chats with roman for a few minutes
he doesn’t turn around to wave at virgil
when he gets home, he immediately goes to his room and cries into his pillow
life was a lot easier when he stifled his emotions...
to be continued... in part four
asks are loved and encouraged 💖💖💖
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narashikari · 5 years
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An Analysis of the Phase 2 Main Riders’ Names
So, before, I made a post about the names of the two-in-one Riders, and it got me curious as to if everyone else’s names were significant in the same way. So, with a little help from Wikitionary, Google Translate and the Kamen Rider wiki (for the kanji in each Riders’ name), I looked at what each of the names mean and if they had any significance to the story arcs in the show. Buckle up ‘coz it’s gonna be a long one....
HIDARI SHOUTARO 左    翔太郎
Shoutaro’s last name is an obvious allusion to him being the left side of W. The first kanji of first name, aside from being a homophone for the kanji in Ishinomori’s first name, means “to fly, to soar”, while the last two is a typical suffix for a boy’s name.
Fittingly, the last form W receives is CycloneJokerGoldXtreme, which is formed from the complete unity of Shoutaro and Philip- emphasizing their growth as partners in the series- and also from Fuuto, the city they love and protect, empowering them with her wind. And of course, CycloneJokerGoldXtreme gives W wings. 
Even better? This proves that Shoutaro doesn’t need to be alone to reach his full potential. And he doesn’t have to change who he is, either. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. To live up to his name (literally), he should stay the exact way he is... and he should have Philip by his side. 
PHILIPフィリプ/ SONOZAKI RAITO 園咲 来人
As explained in the series itself, Philip’s name is derived from Narumi Sokichi’s favorite character, Philip Marlowe, the main character of Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye (as well as various other works), who is a detective. Beyond that, there’s not much significance to the name itself. The name does mean “lover of horses”, and as stated in this post, being a motorcycle rider is as close as one gets in the modern era. Kinda.
His real name, however, is quite interesting. “Sonozaki” means “garden of blossoms”. Which, on the surface, is pretty ironic because he’s a self-described devil, while the rest of the family are literal monsters and the villains of the season. But, it’s also quite fitting because a garden needs proper tending to achieve its true beauty- which is exactly what happened to Philip. He became the best version of himself because he had someone like Shoutaro caring for him. While his sisters, who only had Ryubee, withered away.
His first name, Raito, means “person who comes”- i.e., a person who comes back to his partner, no matter what. Nothing stopped him from coming home to his true family- not his blood family taking him away, nor the doubts his mother plant, nor death itself. 
HINO EIJI 火野 映司
“Hino” means “field of flames”. Already, his link to Ankh, who is affiliated with fire (TaJaDor is red and themed after a phoenix, after all), is established. But more than that, the name becomes ironic for Eiji himself- because, as stated in the series itself, the one thing Eiji lacks is a desire of his own. And what element is usually linked to desire? 
Fire, of course. So it’s fitting that in the finale, when he remembers what his desire is- to help everyone whose hand he can reach- the last form he ends up using is TaJaDor. Ankh’s form. 
(Also, yes, that is also the surname of a certain Sailor Scout. Are they related? Hmmm...)
The kanji for Eiji means “to reflect” and “to rule over”, respectively. It’s an allusion to how Eiji is a mirror image of the King, the previous OOO. The King was a selfish despot who wanted power for the sake of ruling over everything; Eiji wants nothing and is selfless to almost a fault, and even forsakes his political family. Even in Zi-O, where he does become a politician, he’s still kind and wants only what is good for the Japanese people. 
KISARAGI GENTARO 如月 弦太郎
You might notice that the kanji for “moon” is present in Gentaro’s last name. The kanji that precedes it means “likeness, to seem, as if”. So... it’s as if Gentaro is the moon itself. Which is rather fitting for a Rider whose home base is on the moon and is themed after space. It also forms a nice pair with Kengo’s last name, Utahoshi (歌星), which has the kanji for “star”. What do you mean you don’t ship it 
His first name, however, is rather peculiar. The first kanji means “bowstring” and is also used to refer to stringed instruments (when combined, oddly enough, with the first kanji of Kengo’s surname). In Chinese, it could mean “crescent”- another moon reference- so that might be closer to the actual meaning.
SOUMA HARUTO 操真 晴人
So, funny story. When I plugged Souma into Google Translate, it was set to read for Chinese rather than Japanese- and the English meaning came out as “fucking”. I bet the Chinese subbers were at a loss as to how to explain why Wizard’s real name is a curse word. 
Anywaaaaays, Souma actually has a way more morbid meaning in Japanese! The first kanji especially- when combined with certain other kanji, it could mean “to control”. And the latter kanji means “truth”. When I plugged them both into Translate, it came out as “manipulation”... which describes what the White Wizard/Wiseman was doing to him to a T. 
However, the individual kanji themselves are quite benign. The first kanji, by itself, means “faith”, “fidelity” “chastity” and “honor”, which are all virtues, just as “truth” is. Surely, as a Kamen Rider, Haruto has all of these. 
His first name means “a person who clears up (the weather)”. Or, in his case, clear the skies of an eclipse that will turn even more people into Gates. Not to mention, Haruto is the Magician of Hope- and clear, sunny skies are associated with positive emotions... such as hope!
KAZURABA KOUTA 葛葉 紘汰
So.... Kazuraba means “mulberry leaf”. Which is a pretty odd name to give to a fruit-themed rider. Mulberry leaves are known as the favorite food of silkworms. The irony of a man being named after a leaf whose claim to fame is being overfed to larvae becoming a fruit-themed god is rather hilarious. However, the first kanji alone does mean “creeper”, i.e. vines... like the Helheim plants!
His first name is... somehow the most nonsensical thing I have come across. Pasting the whole thing into Translate spat out “moth” (i.e. what silkworms become... ironically enough), while looking up the individual kanji makes no sense- the first kanji doesn’t mean anything, it’s just a given name... while the second one means “to scour”. Whaaaaat?
Gaim’s name makes about as much sense as the season, I guess.
TOMARI SHINNOSUKE 泊 進ノ介
So, the kanji itself actually means “night”, but when read as Tomari, it’s just a surname. It was chosen mainly because it’s a pun on 止まれ (tomare) or “stop”. Of course, as a police officer and Kamen Rider, he’s stopping bad things from happening... 
But also, he’s a car themed rider. His main form and his Rider machine, a car (which becomes the armor for his final form) are red. What color does red represent on traffic lights? Stop. Tomare. Tomari. Get it?
For his first name, what really matters is the first kanji since the last two is a generic suffix for boy’s names. That first kanji means “to advance, to make progress”. And if that isn’t his entire character arc in a nutshell, I don’t know what is.
Shinnosuke starts out Drive as a lazy, basically exiled former elite due to his demotivation over what happened to his partner Hayase and his demotion. His father’s death still haunted him despite how long it had been. However, when Belt-san and Kiriko recruited him to be Drive, he was able to get back into “top gear”, as he’d say. He got over the guilt of what happened to Hayase, he solved his father’s case and laid him to rest. Eventually, he moved past all his ghosts and regained his status as an elite police officer... and he moved on to form his own family with Kiriko.
TENKUUJI TAKERU 天空寺 タケル
Takeru’s last name means “sky temple”, which is quite fitting for the owner of Daitenku Temple... which is literally just Tenkuuji with the word for “big” in front of it.  Of course, it also fits with Takeru being Ghost, since... well, he’s dead for the majority of his series. The Great Eyecon also usually appears in the sky as a sort of heaven stand-in.
(Which, in turn, explains why Takeru has this angelic sub-theme to him. In the OP, his precious people are represented as feathers. Then when he gets his final form, it debuts with him surrounded in pure white feathers to go along his white suit and glittery helmet with rainbow horn.)
Takeru’s name is interesting because it’s written in katakana, not kanji like everyone else before him. The wiki actually says Takeru is the first ever title Rider to have this distinction*. It also makes it damn near impossible to know what his name actually means, since Wikipedia lists five different individual kanji and at least ten two-word kanji that could be read as Takeru. 
Although, given his status as a Rider and how his dad was a general bamf, it most likely stood in for 武, meaning “warrior”, or a derivative thereof. Seeing as this kanji is also in the word 武士, which means “samurai”, and that the Luminary most loyal to Takeru is (Miyamoto) Musashi, a famous samurai, it fits.
*Philip’s was written in katakana, but it wasn’t a Japanese name to begin with, so it would be written in katakana regardless and thus doesn’t count.
HOJO EMU 宝生 永夢
So the first kanji in Emu’s surname has a bunch of different meanings, but it basically boils down to “(something) valuable”. The second kanji, likewise, also has various meanings, among which is “life”. And together, they describe Emu perfectly: it fits with his beliefs that every patient’s life is precious.
However, it becomes ironic when one considers how little Emu values his own life. He often fought to his breaking point, and even maimed himself even in the Gorider special... then there’s the implication of him committing suicide as a boy...
His first name, on the other hand, means “eternal dream”. Put together with his last name, and you get a pretty good description of who Emu is as a person and why he ended up in the profession he did.
KIRYUU SENTO 桐生 戦兎/ KATSURAGI TAKUMI 葛城    巧  
Sento’s last name, as explained in the series, was derived from the name of a barbershop Evolt just happened to see. The two kanji together doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a common last name (for example, Sento shares this with Kyouryuger’s Daigo, aka King). Also explained in the series is how Sento’s name is derived from Rabbit Tank, only in reverse, as an amusing joke to Evolt. It emphasizes how Evolt saw Sento as a war machine first, and a living creature second.
(Not to mention, it’s actually one of our first hints that Souchi isn’t who he seems to be- why would he name Sento after Rabbit Tank if he supposedly gave Sento his name before he trusted him enough to wield the Build Driver? Honestly I don’t know why I didn’t figure it out sooner!)
But. Sento, in actuality, is Katsuragi Takumi, right?
So, the first kanji in Katsuragi is actually the same as in Kazuraba, just with an alternate pronounciation, while the second means “castle”. Or in the Japanese context, “fortress”. So... a “fortress of vines”? It does describe his creepy (pun intended) yet closed off personality quite well. Takumi, on the other hand, means “clever, skillful”. Pretty self-explanatory, given that both he (as himself and as Sento) and his parents are pretty dang smart.
TOKIWA SOUGO 常磐 ソウゴ
“Tokiwa” literally means “a rock that doesn’t change over time”, but figuratively means “eternity”. Of course, this is a reference to him being the eternal king (if Woz had his way), and the eternal Rider, the only one who stood the test of time, as the rest of the Heisei Riders have been lost to history. Additionally, it’s a pun of 時 (toki, ”time”), 時計 (tokei, “clock/watch”) and 時は* (toki wa, “time is”). 
“Sougo”, like Takeru, is in katakana, meaning it can lend itself to a variety of meanings. Unlike Takeru’s name, which is a popular boy’s name, Sougo’s is unusual enough that it doesn’t have a list of commonly used kanji for names. When I looked it up, the words and meanings Google gave me were all over the place. 蒼梧 means “firmiana simplex” (a kind of tree), 双​互 means “reciprocal”, 齟齬 means “discrepancy, conflict”, 総悟 (which is the name of a Gintama character... portrayed by Kamen Rider alum Ryo Yoshizawa... alongside Masaki Suda...) is a riff off a famous samurai’s name. 
This uniqueness may be an allusion to his unique position as a Rider: not only is he a Rider able to use the power of all the Heisei Riders, including his own allies’ powers. He is also the final Rider of the Heisei era, and the first of the Reiwa era. 
Edit: as pointed by @kr-shinkuu, Tokiwa Sou is also the name of the place Ishinomori lived in!
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zaffrenotes · 5 years
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Trick or Treat
Players: Liam, Drake, Katrina, OCs Rating: NS*W, M, 18+ (language/swearing, sexual innuendo, mention of oral sex/intercourse) Summary: Katrina and Drake attend a friend’s Halloween party Author’s Note: *All main characters belong to Pixelberry, I’m just borrowing them* This is a fluffy, smutty one-shot just for the hell of it. Enjoy! Forgive me if my Greek isn’t correct – I just plugged in what Google Translate gave me. Word Count: 3352
*special shout out to @mind-reader1 for giving me the Drake FC that I didn’t know I needed! Bless you FTC lady!
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“No way, nuh uh. You cannot go out wearing that… that… that.”
“Are you serious right now? That sounds like something my father would say!”
“I don’t care, Liam’ll kill me if you leave the apartment looking the way you do.”
“Drake, it’s a costume party. There are going to be women dressed up as sexy whatevers, passing off lingerie as a costume. This is just a dress.”
“That is not just a dress when you wear it, Bailey.” Drake sighed and threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. “Part of me wishes I had a real ax to scare off any guys that might try to hit on you tonight.”
“You look threatening enough, Lumberjack,” Katrina teased. “We should get going, our Dryve will be here any minute.” She put her phone in her purse and secured the golden leaf crown on her head.
“The things I do for you,” Drake said, grabbing a jacket from the coat closet. “Come on Tree, let’s get this spectacle over with.” They walked out of the apartment and he locked the door, shaking his head at her.
Katrina sat in the car silently, taking note that Drake kept glancing at her more than usual. Admittedly the dress she was wearing was something better suited for a date rather than to a party, much less a costume party…but she got talked into going at the last minute, and didn’t want to spend much money on a costume. Her friends Sarah and Charlie were hosting the party for Halloween, but the drawback was that it was a couples theme. She asked Drake to be her plus one since Liam wouldn’t be visiting until Thanksgiving.
Drake agreed on the condition that he spend zero dollars on a costume. After going through his wardrobe – if it’s possible to own too much denim, he’d win an award – she finally settled on making him a lumberjack. He already had the jeans, red flannel shirt, and suspenders. His work boots would suffice, and he borrowed a red wool hat from her to complete his costume. Even the new beard he’d been growing out helped to emphasize the overall look.
She opted to dress as a tree to coordinate with his costume, crafting together a leaf crown and she planned to wrap a matching leaf garland around her once they got to Sarah’s house. The body con dress she wore was a bit much for a house party, but it was the only brown dress she owned. It hugged her body and featured cutout panels in the back and décolletage. The last time she’d worn it was on a date with Liam, and he could barely hold a conversation through dinner before sneaking her into a powder room to have his way with her.
The Dryve car pulled up to the destination, and they could see pairs of costumed couples walking up either side of the sidewalk. “See? Sexy cop and prisoner, sexy nurse and normal doctor, sexy cheerleader and quarterback,” she said, stepping out of the car with Drake. “Two of those guys are just wearing hospital scrubs.”
“Don’t care, I’m not looking out for them,” he replied. “You’re the one I promised to keep an eye on.”
“Ugh, okay Daddy,” she retorted, rolling her eyes.
Drake froze and his mouth dropped open in surprise. “Wha…you…” He shook his head. “Don’t call me that. Ever again.” Even in the dim street lighting, Katrina could see a blush creeping up Drake’s neck.
“Then stop talking to me like I’m a child,” she hissed. “You can ease up on acting like you’re Bastien. Just try to have fun tonight, okay? Otherwise I’m going to find Tessa and tell her you’ve got a crush on her.” Katrina tried to sound threatening, but she laughed at the end.
Drake’s face fell at her suggestion. “You wouldn’t dare, Bailey! Have you seen her eyebrows?! I just…how?! Why would be so mean to me?!”
Katrina burst out into laughter. “That’s more like it.” She hooked her arm with his and they walked up the steps to Sarah and Charlie’s house.
“Katrina! You made it!” Sarah squealed with excitement, hugging Katrina. “You look amazing, but…what are you supposed to be?”
“Oh! Right,” Katrina replied. She took the garland from her purse and haphazardly wrapped it around one arm and across her torso. “I’m a tree, and Drake here is—”
“Hot damn,” Sarah muttered under breath. She eyed Drake as he joined them.
“Sarah,” he said. “Nice costume…Princess Buttercup?”
“Good guess, lumberjack,” Sarah replied. “The beard uh…suits you.”
Drake ran a hand across his face. “Thanks. Something I’m just trying out, never thought to try before.”
“Was there some rule about being clean shaven where you’re from?”
“What? No, I…most guys though, they…we…”
“Rashad sported a little facial hair,” Katrina piped in. “At most, some of the men in your…social circles…would have stubble for a few days.”
Drake shrugged. “To each his own, I guess. I’m going to get something to drink, I’ll bring you…”
“White wine, thanks,” Katrina replied. Drake walked off in search of alcohol, while Sarah tugged on Katrina’s arm.
“Ho-ly hell girl, your friend looks like sex on a stick!” Katrina shook her head and giggled at Sarah. “Seriously, that beard just made him ten times hotter, and he was already hot and broody before! How are you two just friends?”
“I told you, I’m engaged…well, pre-engaged…to Liam, and they’re best friends. And you–” she pointed at her friend, “are with Charlie!”
Sarah waved her hand to stop Katrina. “What the hell does pre-engaged mean? I thought you either were engaged, or you weren’t.”
Katrina held her left hand out, displaying the blue London topaz ring Liam had given to her at the end of the summer. “It’s a promise ring,” she explained. “Liam proposed earlier this year, but there was a lot going on. I told him it wasn’t a no, but I didn’t feel right saying yes under the circumstances…and I intended to come back here to study. So this is a promise that he’ll ask again when the time is right, and I’ll say yes.”
“You make him sound like a prince,” Sarah said, grinning. If you only knew. “I hope we get to eventually meet your mystery man.” She glanced over her shoulder, noticing Drake returning from the kitchen. “So Drake is…���
“Single, as far as I can tell. He hasn’t mentioned anyone or brought anyone home.” She winked at her. “So tell your single friends.”
“He won’t make it out of here alive,” Sarah giggled.
---
Katrina and Drake spent most of the evening drinking and socializing with people at the party. Drake seemed surprisingly relaxed for once. She knew that he disliked socializing in general, but maybe it was because he’d been under the microscope of being surrounded by nobles at courtly functions. Now, Drake was at a party with grad students that knew nothing about him, drinking cheap liquor and beer, where he could be himself.
She ironically spent the majority of the night watching him as he was constantly flanked by no less than 3 ladies at a time. Drake barely knew what to do with himself; he was so used to sulking near the bar, being ignored by everyone around him. At times he looked slightly overwhelmed by the attention, but Katrina would dutifully step in to whisk him away for a break, or just check in on him to change the topic of discussion. They’d gone to a few informal gatherings together, but she was pretty sure the extra attention was thanks to the beard that had finally grown in.
Drake had always been a little rough around the edges, but there was no denying that he was an attractive man. Where Liam was handsome and regal, Drake was sultry and smoldering. Drake had a ruggedness to him, amplified by his new facial hair, and she wasn’t the only one that thought so. He looked particularly flustered as someone she vaguely recognized from a few classes flirted with him, dressed in a Fifth Element costume.
Katrina surreptitiously snapped a photo of Drake while he was chatting. Fifth Element stroked his fake ax suggestively and Katrina giggled to herself. Drake shot her a pleading look across the room, and she walked over to join his little fan club.
“You look like a hard worker,” Fifth Element said. She leaned close enough to whisper, but spoke clearly for everyone to hear. “I have an opening you can fill.”
Drake nearly did a spit take of his whiskey, coughing harshly into the glass. Katrina bit her tongue and tried to keep a straight face. “Mind if I steal my friend here for a dance?” she asked, pulling him away before Fifth Element could protest. Once their backs were turned, Katrina bowed her head and laughed.
“I owe you one,” Drake sighed. He gently placed his hands on Katrina’s waist as hers linked behind his neck, and they swayed to a slow song in another room. “She was coming on strong.”
“Why Drake Walker, I believe you’re blushing,” she teased.
“Shut it, Bailey,” he warned, then softened his gaze. “It’s just odd. Being the center of attention.”
“You deserve to feel that way, you know. You’re not in Liam’s shadow here.”
“I know…it’s still weird though. Good weird, I guess.” The song transitioned to an upbeat track and they parted. “Feel like another drink?”
“I’m going to see if Liam’s up,” she replied. “Meet you back in the other room? I’ll be your guard again,” she teased. Drake shook his head as he headed to the kitchen, and Katrina walked back to the living room. She found an empty spot in the front window seat and took out her phone – 12:48 AM. Liam was probably awake by now. She pulled up the photo of Drake to send, adding a caption of ‘Drake + beard = chick magnet. Been like this all night, wish you were here xoxo’.
A moment later, her phone pinged back a response from Liam.
L: I’ve never seen him look so happy to entertain. What is he supposed to be? K: Lumberjack. didn’t want to spend money on a costume so we had to improvise. L: What was your costume? K: I’m a tree L: I think I need to see proof of your creative endeavors.
Katrina grinned at Liam’s response. She opened the camera app on her phone and quickly posed for a photo. Out of the corner of her eye Drake gave her a curious look as Sarah approached him with two of her friends. Katrina mouthed “Liam” as he nodded, his shoulders falling as he put on a polite face at the new acquaintances. Within seconds of sending the photo, Liam’s name popped up on the caller ID. “Hello?”
“Just what are you doing wearing that dress, Love?”
“Not you too.” She rolled her eyes, even if Liam couldn’t see her reaction.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Katrina sighed. “Drake got after me as well, don’t worry. In my defense, it’s the only brown dress I own, and I wasn’t about to drop perfectly good money on a gross rented costume or a cheap polyester getup.”
“That’s fine Love, I’m not upset that you wanted to use something you already own for a costume.” Liam’s voice had lowered an octave.
“Then what is it?”
“Your photo made me think of the last time you wore that dress…and how I couldn’t keep my hands off you.”
Katrina felt blood rushing to her cheeks and she fought the urge to smile. “I remember.”
“Where are you right now?”
“I’m at Sarah’s party, in the living room.”
“Find somewhere private where we can talk,” Liam said, his voice low and clear. Oh shit, that’s his King voice.
“Liam, this is not the time,” she warned.
“I’m going to keep going whether or not you find a room to speak to me in private.” I bet that ass is smirking at me right now.
“I could hang up on you, you know.”
“You would dare to hang up on your King?”
“I don’t want to…but I would, if you’re going to do what I think you’re going to do.”
“You look so sexy in that dress, Love. The way it hugs every single curve of your body, the way your back is exposed,” Liam crooned.
Katrina felt her center beginning to pool with heat. “Liam, that’s not funny.”
“I’m not trying to be funny. If I were with you now, I’d slip my fingers across those beautiful thighs of yours and hike your skirt up around your waist.”
“Liam…” she warned. Her eyes darted around at the other guests, who were absorbed in their own conversations.
“Just listen,” he said, his voice low. “If you can stay right where you are until I finish talking, I’ll give you a prize the next time I see you.”
“And if I lose?”
Liam chuckled into the phone. “Then you’ll owe me something in return.”
Katrina smirked. “Go on then. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
“Describe the room that you’re in to me.”
“It’s a living room,” she began. “Hardwood floors, umm…wall of built-in bookshelves, a pair of couches facing each other with a coffee table between them…a cozy armchair in one corner for reading. Music playing from wifi speakers on the bookshelves for ambience. I’m sitting in a window seat facing the street.”
“Where was I,” Liam hummed to himself. “Ah yes…your skirt is bunched up around your waist, and I pull down the bits of lace covering your sweet little pussy from me. I’d set you down on the window seat, kneel before you, and part your legs with my hands. You’d watch me leave a trail of kisses up your thigh, my hands inching closer to your center, already wet…begging to be touched.” Katrina felt her breaths quicken as Liam spoke, and she tried to focus on breathing slower.
“My eyes are on you, watching you watching me, and you shudder as I exhale against your skin…my breath hot against your folds. You bite your bottom lip, waiting for me to make a move…and then you feel my mouth on you. My tongue pressed flat against you as I taste your sweet nectar, my tongue darting against your skin, making you moan and squirm. I put one, then two fingers inside you, feeling your walls grip them in place, but I move them in and out of you as my mouth licks up every single drop of you. You taste like heaven, Love. I could spend a whole day with my mouth between your legs, making you come over and over again. My fingers hook around inside you, and your back arches in response. My tongue moves across your clit, already sensitive, and you grip my hair and try to clamp your thighs together, but I push them apart, moving my tongue and fingers faster to give you that sweet release you crave. Are you still with me, Love?”
“Y-yes…” Katrina answered quietly, her voice trembling. She desperately wanted to go upstairs and find an empty room, but she was determined to win the game.
“mmm, good,” Liam breathed. “I love hearing you come…the way you gasp and moan, the way your legs tense up and suddenly release as you come undone before me. I love licking up every delectable drop of you…it gets me so fucking hard, baby. It makes me want to drive myself into you so I can feel your walls grip me as I stretch you out, making your body ache as I move in and out of you. You’re so warm and wet and tight, every single time. I love feeling your hips rise and meet mine with every thrust, taking me deeper and deeper inside you. I love watching you as you ride me, pressing your body against my chest, and the way you grind against me while I put my hands all over your prefect breasts and ass…the way you soak me with yourself as you ride me into oblivion, for anyone passing by to see. I love the way your head drops back as you get close, and I tug on your hair…and suck on your sweet little nipples as you call out my name. God Trina, I…love…you…” Liam’s voice trailed off, and he breathed hard into the phone.
Katrina felt like her face was on fire; she was in a room full of people and she’d never been so aroused in her life. She wanted to run into a dark room and touch herself so Liam could hear her, but she stayed glued to her seat, listening to him pleasure himself. He made silent panting noises as he touched himself. “Baby, I’m so close…say something, please,” he begged.
Katrina cupped her hand over her mouth and the phone, speaking as low as she could. “éla gia ména, vasiliá mou,” she whispered. Come for me, my King. One of the few phrases she committed to memory over the summer.
“Fuck! Trina!” Liam moaned into the phone, and Katrina bit her lip, feeling her inner walls flutter and ache at the familiar sound. She could hear Liam panting on the other end of the phone, completely spent. “Hey,” he said; his voice was raspy, and he sounded a little nervous.
“I believe I’m owed a prize,” she said, grinning to herself.
“I can’t believe you stayed in the room for that,” he laughed.
“It wasn’t easy. Also,” she said, lowering her voice to a whisper. “…you are a dirty, dirty boy. I can’t believe you just had phone sex with me while I was at a party!”
Liam laughed again. “You didn’t stop me.”
“Because I would have lost the bet!”
“Well, thank you for indulging me. That was one way for me to start my day.”
“And one hell of a way for me to end my night,” Katrina chuckled. “Seriously.”
“Is someone feeling wound up now?”
“You have no idea.”
“You can always call me when you get home tonight. I’m happy to take care of you.”
Katrina smirked. “I’m holding you to that.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“I love you, you deviant.”
“I love you too. Should I let you get back to the party?”
“Might be wise, Drake’s getting that flustered look again. That woman dressed as the Fifth Element has all but groped him tonight.”
“Alright Love. Call me later.”
“Love you, Li.”
“Love you too.”
Katrina ended the call, shaking her head. She slowly walked over to the kitchen and poured a generous amount of wine into a glass, taking a long sip from it. Her phone pinged with a message from Liam, and she leaned into the corner of the counter so no one could see the screen. She blushed as she stared at his selfie – he was shirtless in bed, winking at her. She replied with a kiss emoji and walked back to the living room to check on Drake.
---
“I appreciate someone who’s good with their hands,” Fifth Element cooed at Drake. “You know, I’d polish your wood any day of the week.”
Drake couldn’t hold his liquor that time, spraying whiskey out and onto the floor, as Katrina sidestepped the spray. “Bailey!” he exclaimed, setting his nearly empty glass on a coffee table. “Time to go!” He hooked his hand around her elbow, walking quickly to the door as she laughed.
She saw Sarah and Charlie chatting at the bottom of the staircase. “Great party, guys!” she called out. “See you in class, gotta go!” Her friends waved, looking bewildered as Drake hurried out of the house. He steadied her as they walked down the steps to the street and walked until they were a block away.
“Please never invite me to another party if that girl plans to be there,” Drake said, shaking his head. “I just…did you hear her?”
Katrina laughed. “And here you thought my dress was going to cause a scene.”
Tagging: @alj4890 @annekebbphotography @bella-ca @bowful @brightpinkpeppercorn @coldcollectornight08 @cordonianredruby @fullbeaumonty @furiousherringoperatortoad @hhiggs @hopefulmoonobject @i-choose-liam @liamxs-world @lodberg @marywrites-things @missevabean @museofbooks @mynameiskaylabella @nekkidmolerat @pixieferry @romanticatheart-posts @sarwin85 @sleepwalkingelite @smalltalk88 @thecordoniandiaries @umccall71
Also tagging (just this once): @speedyoperarascalparty @ooo-barff-ooo @likethetailofacomet @endlessly-searching-for-you @cocomaxley
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169pd · 5 years
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If anyone’s still here, I have this sheet of Smash Bros styled alt costumes for some of my characters.
Mr. Morris: The main star of the show, being present since the S64 era, and changing over the years to reflect my interests. He is associated with the M6D Pistol, M7 Caseless SMG, and H&K MP5. 1: Since blue is my favorite color, I thought it'd be appropriate to have it as his default outfit color. 2: He wears the colors of his national flag, complete with maple leaf. 3: He wears his outfit with a CADPAT camo pattern, used by the Canadian Army. 4: His outfit is a tan color, based on flat desert camo. 5: His armor is on full display. 6: His armor is gold plated, which is an idea I have for a side-scrolling platformer which he will be playable. 7: Based on an outfit he had during the Gaia Online Prom. 8: Based on a winter themed outfit he has from Gaia Online.
Vanessa: She's been around from at least, as far as I'm concerned, the Era of the 7 Power Stones, with origins stemming from some MTV Cribs style show. 1: The colors and outfit I imagined that she would wear by default. 2: Borrows some colors from Usagi Tsukino. 3: Borrows some colors from Ami Mizuno. 4: Borrows some colors from Rei Hino. 5: Borrows some colors from Makoto Kino. 6: Borrows some colors from Minako Aino. 7: Borrows some colors from Queen Serenity. 8: She wears a Mario-esque outfit originally designated to Mr. Morris. The hat has a V in the white circle.
Mikey: He hit the scene during the Azu Theft Halo: The Homestar Park era. He is associated with the M19 SSM Rocket Launcher. 1: A color often seen on Chevrolet Corvettes, his favorite car. Also based on the maroon armor color from Halo Multiplayer. 2: A color swap with Mark, and also based around the orange armor color from Halo Multiplayer, associated with Grif from RvB. 3: An olive green color associated with Spartan 117. 4: Based around the cobalt armor color from Halo Multiplayer, associated with Church from RvB. 5: His armor is on full display. 6: He wears an outfit similar to Eric Cartman from South Park. 7: He wears an outfit similar to Kyle Broflovski from South Park. 8: He wears the colors of the US Flag.
Mark: He debut during the Azu Theft Halo: The Homestar Park era. He is associated with the MA5B Assault Rifle, and was once called Stinker. 1: A color sometimes seen on Dodge Challengers, one of his favorite cars. Also based on Halo's orange color in Multiplayer. 2: A color swap with Mikey, and also based around the maroon armor color from Halo Multiplayer, associated with Simmons from RvB 3: Based on the Blue Team color from Halo Multiplayer, associated with Caboose from RvB. 4: Based on the Teal armor color from Halo Multiplayer, associated with Tucker from RvB. 5: His armor is on full display. 6: He wears pants similar to Patrick Star from Spongebob, with a matching pink shirt. 7: He wears an outfit similar to Stan Marsh from South Park. 8: He wears the colors of the US Flag.
Reiner: He was added to the cast during the Azu Theft Halo: The Homestar Park era. He is associated with the M90 Shotgun, and later became a medic thanks to Team Fortress 2. 1: His color is based on scrubs worn by surgeons. 2: His color is based on scrubs worn by doctors. 3: His color is based on scrubs worn by nurses. 4: He wears a lab coat with pants that are the same color as the Medic's pants from TF2. 5: Based on the "Unlicensed Doctor" alt costume for Dr. Mario in Super Smash Bros. 6: His armor is on full display, with a lighter color to indicate his role. 7: Based on the purple armor color from Halo Multiplayer, associated with Doc from RvB. 8: An army-style uniform, with ribbons arranged to look like the German flag.
Joe: The big man who joined during the Azu Theft Halo: The Homestar Park era. He is associated with the SRS99C-S2 AM Sniper Rifle. 1: No real basis, aside from the common color associated with the Wild West. 2: Based on the Red Team color from Halo Multiplayer, associated with Sarge from RvB. 3: Based on the flat Navy camo from Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. 4: Based somewhat on outfits worn by UNSC troops from Halo 2. 5: Based on Wild West outlaws, which was his initial base design. 6: Based on a tuxedo seen during weddings. 7: He wears the colors of the US Flag, mainly on his hat. 8: Based on Waluigi from the Mario universe.
Chihiro: A character who became the focus of the Azu Theft Halo: The Homestar Park era during the tail end of 2004. She was once associated with the Covenant Energy Sword. 1: She wears colors based on her initial sprite design, but with a refreshed outfit. 2: Wears an outfit based on a commission by StarPyrate. 3: Wears an outfit based on a commission by Geekbot. 4: Wears an outfit based on a commission by Magikarpdoodles. 5: Wears an outfit based on a commission by Danica Brine. 6: Wears an outfit based on a commission by Kinda W. 7: Wears an outfit based on a commission by EmiMac3D. 8: Based on a gym uniform worn in Japanese high schools, which was her most common outfit.
Kaori/Karin: She hopped on the bandwaggon of the Azu Theft Halo: The Homestar Park era, and might just be the most litigious character here. 1: Her current design, which is also seen in a commission by wyrmskin. 2: Based on a gym uniform worn in Japanese high schools, one of her common outfits. 3: Based on an outfit during a summer break episode from Azumanga. 4: Based on an outfit during a new years episode from Azumanga. 5: Based on an outfit during a field trip episode from Azumanga, but with a red shirt to keep with the team colors theme. 6: Based on her pajamas from the same new years episode. 7: Based on a design made by @geibuchan based on a dream he had. 8: Based on her initial outfit before the rework and restructure of the universe.
Sprites by Gonzo233, FRAG, Foxx and myself.
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houseofgriffons · 6 years
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Ok, so it was quick to review and comment on all Kdramas I’ve watched because I’ve only fully watched 10. I have hover watched 22 in total, but the remaining 12 I’ve only watched halfway or a 3rd of the way.
This can be explained by my very low attention span and also by the fact that I’m a boring person who only likes romance and uses Kdrama to rub my itch for cheesiness. As such I usually stop after the romance gets resolved and at the first signs of the final Drama™. Or the romance wasn’t interesting enough so I just lost interest.
I will then be reviewing the 10 dramas I’ve watched completely, which are all good and that I like otherwise I wouldn’t have watched ‘til the end. Then I’ll give a quick look on the ones I haven’t watched ‘til the end cause you might like them. I’ll also tell which ones I want to watch, and give you some nimes of popular dramas that look kinda cool but probably won’t retain my interest. Also tell you about the 4 korean movies I’ve actually watched rofl
All of that under the cut !
Part 1 : The good (aka. Things I could watch all the way)
Loosely ranked, but the last 5 are my absolute favourites and I wouldn’t really be able to rank them from 1st to 5th. Chief Kim isn’t in there although I love it because it’s not as deep.
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Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo
About a collegiate weightlifting student (Kim Bok Joo, played by Lee Sung Kyung who is ♥ ♥ ♥) and a collegiate swimmer (I only remember two names in that drama, not his lol. The actor is Nam Joo Hyuk and he’s also bae). It’s kind of a slice-of-life show, but it follows their struggle both as athletes and as people. Deals with eating disorders in a pretty underwhelming manner. There’s also my wife in it, Lee Joo Young who plays Bok Joo’s best friend, Sun Ok (the only other name I remember). While it was funny and heartwarming, and the characters were interesting, it was lot of drama on top of drama, and miscommunication and lies are often used as plot devices (it is VERY often the case in kdramas I’ve noticed) and that’s just annoying to me. I basically sped through the last 4 episodes cause I just wanted to be done with it. It was very popular though, and it’sstill a good watch.
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Love in the Moonlight
It starts with my favourite plot: a girl who has to dress up as a man. It also has my least favourite plot point: main guy has a gay scare because he thinks girl he likes is a man. But that’s just me. The heroine dresses up as a guy and finds herself enrolled as a eunuch in the palace, where she starts serving the prince. Shit happens and there’s stuff about rebels and all. I wasn’t really paying attention. I think it’s visually lovely, there lots of beautiful scenes. It also has Kwak Dong Yeon who’s one of my fav. I mean. Get a load of this :
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How was he not the protag ? Anyway, it’s a nice watch but like a lot of other dramas I think it suffers from unbalanced pacing. The change of tone from the last arc compared to the beginning of the show is also kind of disturbing. The thing is, when you start watching a sweet romance thing with light themes you’re not really in the mood for a heavy political/action plotline by the end, you know ? I rushed through the last episodes cause I just didn’t give a crap lol
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Witch’s Court
We’re getting to the good stuff. I didn’t even have to take a break before watching the end of that one !
Yi-Deum is a prosecutor. She’s a selfish and ambitious woman who would do anything to get ahead. But one day she does like one good moral choice and it leads to her being demoted to a new unit which deals in sex crime. As such the show is pretty heavy, but I thought it handled the themes pretty well. She becomes partnered with a newbie who’s a former psychologist. Her mom also disappeared when she was like 16 so that’s something.
Although there are overarching plots, it’s usually a one cas per episode/2 episodes type of deal, which I think helps to keep a balanced pace, while not undermining character developpment.
Character development is HUGE in this show by the way. Cause Yi Deum is a BITCH. And when I say that I don’t mean “Booohoooo she’s mean to the cute guy :’(” no I mean she’s a heartless money grabber with no morals and no empathy AT ALL. Even when she does something good, she does it in a “bad” way. So it’s really enjoyable to see her slooow progress towards being a worthy protagonist. Love her.
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W
You know, Take On Me’s music video ? Yeah.
Oh Yeon Joo is an intern in surgery, and the daughter of the famous author of the webcomic W, which tells the story of Kang Chul, a prodigy olympic shooter who was wrongly accused of the murder of his family and turned a new leaf after being proven innocent. He then became a millionaire by creating a crime solving network channel and he catches bad guys yada yada yada. Anyway, he’s not the real star of the show, Yeon Joo is. One day, the two world start overlapping as the forces of two different creative minds collide.
I have found that Korean Dramas are really good with mind bending concepts, and they make for very smart and thought provoking plot points. I watched this with my best friend who got me into Kdramas (it was the secon drama I watched). My friend and I thought the ending was very disappointing though, but I’d say the journey is worth the mediocre destination, and well, opinions might differ.
Yeon Joo carries the show. She’s one of the greatest heroine I’ve ever seen. She’s smart, brave, resourceful. She’s not a ditz but she still retains a girly charm, and she’s got such a strong spirit. It’s a delight to see her and Kang Chul interact, mainly because they’re on equal grounds most of the time. She doesn’t let herself be intimidated by him at all, and she saves his ass as much (if not more) as he saves hers.
Also her and Lee Jong Suk are so fucking hot like omg what a power couple. The good thing is that they are always honest with each other. Because of the fact that the comic is a thing, there is no reason to lie, and even when it’s not because of the comics they remain truthful with each other and I don’t remember miscommunication ever being used as a plot device.
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Chief Kim
This one is not about romance at all, it’s about accounting and frauds. It’s hilarious. Kim Sung Ryung is a small time accountants, expert swindler, who works for small town mafiosos. He manages, somehow, to get hired as the director of the accounting department of a large company after the former attempted suicide and ended up in a coma. At the same time, former prosecutor Seo Yool (played by my ABSOLUTE FAVE OF ALL TIMES LEE JUNHO), specialising in frauds, start working as a director at the company, ready to cover all the dark dealings of the company, despite accountant Yoon Ha-Kyung’s effort to uncover the truth behind the suicide attempt. 
How does something about accounting manages to be so funny and still full of suspence ? This got me on the edge of my seat all the way through, and still managed to make me laugh my ass off. The acting can be a bit over the top sometimes, as it is still a comedy show, but Junho and Namgung Min are incredible as a duo. It’s very rare to see a friendship or rivalry take the center of a show instead of a romantic one but their interactions are always so fun to watch. 
I really liked it, I don’t know... I like office stories. The female lead is super cool. She’s smart, level headed, soft hearted, empathetic, and her friendship with Sung Ryung is the kind you rarely see in dramas. 
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Page Turner
The shortest drama on the list. It’s only 3 episodes long and IT SHOULD BE LONGER. 
Yoon Yoo Seul is the daughter of a piano teacher, and attends a musical high school. She’s a prodigy pianist rivaled only by her mother’s former student Seo Jin Mok, a rich spoiled brat who hates Yoo Seul bc she’s just that good. Because of an accident, Yoo Seul may have to give up on her mother’s dream of her becoming a famous pianist. Meanwhile, promising athlete Cha Sik faces the same situation and gives up on ever becoming a professional athlete, but he starts considering the piano instead, although he’s never touched a piano ever in his life.
It’s heartwarming, it’s beautiful, it’s raw and soft and it’s hopeful. It’s short so I can’t say much without spoiling stuff but if you need to watch something, watch this. 
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While You Were Sleeping
Lee Jong Suk always has good romances. 
Nam Hong Joo (Suzy the Bae ♥) has always had dreams where she foresaw the future. She lives with her mom, who runs a pork restaurant. One day, they get new neighboors; Jae Chan, a newly appointed prosecutor, and his younger brother. AAND honestly I won’t say much more than that because the first episode alone is such a RIDE that it would be spoiling it.
The three main characters are AMAZING. They are funny, resourceful, quirky in unexpected ways, honest and good. And because premonition is a thing, lying and miscommunication is rarely used as well ! The characters are honest with each other, and their relationships develops naturally and “organically” without stealing the thunder of the main plot.
As I said in W, they use the concept perfectly and intelligently. It keeps you on edge and you’re excited to see what will happen next. Also, Jae Chan being a prosecutor, there’s a bit of that case-by-case element going on that I like which helps balancing the pace. I watched it in one go and did not even take a break at some point !
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Goblin
If you have ever looked at the Kdrama scene, you’ve probably heard of Goblin. That show’s been a huge phenomenon. I’ve seen it referenced in other dramas a lot, and it’s basically become a cult. And it deserves the praise.
When General Kim Shin was slain by the king he was serving, he became Dokkaebi, a powerful and immortal entity which can only be killed by the goblin’s bride.
900 years later, Ji Eun-Tak is a high school student (she’s 19-20, the age at which korean usually finish high school !) with the ability to see ghosts. Her mother died when she was 10. On that night, she met the Grim Reaper.
And as you can expect from me presenting this to you in such a way, Eun Tak is the Goblin’s bride, though she does not know of the duty that comes with that role. 
The show is funny, beautiful, heartwrenching. The characters are PHENOMENAL, and not just the main protagonists, but you’ll see what I mean. The concepts presented in the show are so interesting ! Especially their vison of death, reincarnation, redemption... It’s an incredible and emotional journey all the way. It doesn’t shy away from sadness and tragedy when it is needed or expected (unlike W *cough*)  and yet manages to leave you elated and smiling (through the tears). A classic that you NEED to watch. And that I wanna rewatch too.
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Scarlet Heart : Ryeo
I’ve just noticed that my top dramas are all super sad. 
It’s based on a chinese Drama. After a terrible break up that left her in a ditch, emotionally and financially, the heroine almost drowns during an eclipse. She wakes up in the Josen period as Hae Soo, a young lady in waiting to the wife of one of the 8 princes of the kingdom. As she gets accustomed to this new and strange setting, she gets to know the princes, the schemings of the court, the rivalries and the dangers of that period.
Lee Ji Eun (aka IU) is phenomenal. I think this was her second or third role ever, and her first big role and holy crap she is incredible. Her character is just perfect and it’s really great to see her evolve, grow and try to keep up against this cruel time.  I don’t want to say much about it because i really don’t want to spoil anything.
The story spans over like 15 years if I remember correctly. And what might seem like a cutesy quirky romance period drama turns into something darker and heavier while never losing its spark. It will make you cry, but like, in a good way. That was the first drama I watched with my best friend and it’s awesome and now I kind wanna rewatch it.
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Just Between Lovers/Rain or Shine
Rain or Shine never pretended to be cute or happy. It deals with trauma and survivor’s guilt, and it also involve disabled characters. Lee Gang Doo (JUNHO!!!!!) and Ha Moon Soo were both involved in the collapse of a shopping center as teenagers. Now grown up, the experience still haunts them and those around them. Now the site of the incident is going to get rebuilt again, and they will have to face their past.
 I binge-watched this so hard I barely slept. The characters are incredibly human and vulnerable. They bare their soul to the viewer in a way that leaves you completely shaken. And yet amidst all that, what I remember from it is softness (and tears, lots of tears). I think Gang Doo is the most outstanding male protagonist of all the dramas I’ve seen. He’s vulnerable, like. SO VULNERABLE. He’s a coward, he cries, he runs away from his problems, he keeps everything to himself. Moon Soo seems like she’s just a quirky shy girl but she turns out to be so strong, she’s the exact opposite of Gang Doo in a way, but somehow they work together so well. 
As a sidenote, I’d like to add something that striked me when I watched it, pleasantly so. The disabled characters are mentionned retain their agency. One of them is an autistic man, although he might seem like he’s infantilized during the series, in the end he still retains his agency as a person and as an adult and I thought that was really great to see, especially in a Korean drama. The other is a paraplegic woman, and she’s incredible. Despite her situation, she isn’t completely desexualised, she still retains romantic and sexual agency and she is also completely independant, as a successful webcomic artist.
I had a hard time deciding between that one, Scarlet Heart and Goblin for my favourite, but I think that one is closer to my heart. It really touched me in a way I didn’t expect, and I felt so close to the characters, because they were so well written.
Part 2: The Bad (aka Not really, I probably just got bored bc of the aformentioned reasons)
A Korean Odyssey (AKA discount Goblin): it’s an interesting take on the tale of the Monkey King. woman sees ghosts, woman meets weird magical entity. There’s someone killing someone else involved. It’s a bit cheesy, it’s kinda funny. I stopped because it was just drama atop drama and quiproquos and “I’m not gonna tell him/her because I wanna protect her/him but that’s just gonna make it worse !!!!” and that sort of stuff. In my mind it was kind of cheap plot devices. Interesting concepts though, and you could definitely make a nice mash-up with Goblin.
Radio Romance: It’s a cute romance, the cast is good, the heroine is cool, the male lead is cute. I was watching it weekly and at some point I just lost interest. I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it. Girl wants to be a writer for the radio, famous actor agrees to hos her show. Drama happens. It’s cute you should watch it if you have a longer attention span than me.
Temperature of Love: Woman meets a guy. She wants to be a writer, he wants to be a chef. One day he disappears, she becomes a writer, he becomes a chef. They meet again. It’s very cheesy, BUT it’s super hot. Yang Se Jong is super cute and he’s really popular atm. I just didn’t care enough to watch completely but I don’t have any real complaint.
Hospital Ship : I ALMOST watched til the end, until there was like a ridiculous plot point because we can’t just let the protags be happy, it needs DRAMA. I love medical dramas. My favourite show is actually Grey’s Anatomy. I love when there are different cases every episode and having the characters try to figure things out. Like, the medical is my favourite part of Medical Dramas, the drama not so much. So I bailed when it was TOO MUCH drama for me. The heroine is cool. It’s a bit on the cheap side, but it has a nice feeling to it.
Doctors : The heroine is a kick ass (litterally), but I didn’t like the romance, and it focused more on the drama than the medical imo. Lots of people like it though, and Park Shin Hye is a phenomenal actress.
School 2017: SCHOOL’S OUT FOREVER. Apparently School 20-- are a popular series and each season as nothing to do with the other. This one was great imo, it adressed the pressure in the korean educational system, the corruption, the privilege of rich students, adult indifference, abuse, bullying... And the main protags are great. The heroine is cute and hilarious and strong willed, the male lead is hot, awkward... I didn’t finish it because ... I don’t know, I just interest. Also... Yeah ok spoiler ! So I learned that there wasn’t actually a kiss between the main couple in the show (which has probably to do with the fact that the actress is an idol. Ugh) and so I was like “UHM WHAT’S THE POINT THEN ???” I’m shallow like that
My Secret Romance: Girl has a one night stand on the beach, leaves the guy naked in a car and bails. 3 years later he’s her boss. It’s hot, but SUPER cheesy and SUPER cheap. Like honestly the only reason I watched it was for the romanc but DAMN BANG SUNG HOON IS SUPER HOOOOOT. But hotness can only keep you going for so long and when the plot devices you would expect in a cinderella story happen you’re just like “ugh bye”.
Ms Perfect: I need to finish it. A mom of 2 gets fired, she learns her husband is cheating on her, the mistress dies mysteriously, and also a weird psycho offers to live in her house. I need to finish it but I guess it just got a little too much for me. There’s Sung Joon in it, he’s really cute, i like him a lot. He’s also in the two next dramas.
Madame Antoine: A woman pretends to be a medium channelling the spirit of Marie-Antoinette and teams up with a psychologist (Sung Joon) who’s also conducting an experiment on her. Cheesy. Not that interesting, but the case they study are interesting sometimes. There’s Hwang Seung Eon in it, she’s super hot.
High Society: Basically about the korean Jet Set. Watched for Sung Joon initially. It’s an older one, and I think it’s a bit tacky. It’s also a lot of clichés, and I don’t like the heroine. I love her best friend though, and her relationship with Sung Joon’s best friend in the show, played by Park Hyung Sik. But yeah, it’s not a high IQ show.
Strong Woman Do Bong Soon: this also has Park Hyung Sik in it. I think he’s really cute. Bong Soon was born with super strength and she wants to work in the video game industry. She meets video game company CEO whatshisname (Park Hyung Sik) and he hires her as his bodyguard and huh stuff happens. It’s cheesy, but somehow super creepy as well cause there’s a serial killer who kidnaps women in it and he’s soooooooooooooooo creepy. But it’s also infuriating cause it’s like “Oh no, a young woman got kidnapped for the fourth time in that area ! *cut to another young woman not giving a shit and walking around that area at night also the police doesn’t patrol the area for some reason*”. It was really popular, but I didn’t really like it.
Tomorrow with you : guys can travel in a few years in time by using the metro, and he tries to set things right using this power. It’s a bit of a mindfuck and it’s kidna complicated to follow. I need to finish it !!!
Hwarang : There is no use watching this. Don’t. The cast is great but that’s just not enough. Terrible pacing, terrible romance, the side characters are way more interesting than the main ones but they get easily sidelined. The pacing is terrible. It has the dumbest death I’ve ever seen, and it was used for shock value.
Shopping King Louie: Fashionista and heir Ji Sung/Louis loses his memory in a failed assassination attempts, and ends up living with country bumpkin Bok Sil, come to Seoul to find her missing brother. I stopped watching in the last lap, basically the final obstacle was showing its head and I was like “yeah that’s enough for me”. It’s really cute. 
I almsot forgot
Hit the top: artist from the early 90s travels in time to 2017 and starts living with a young man who dreams of becoming an idol who is actually his son. Didn’t like the way the romance went. Like. I really was against it. The male lead is annoying. Minjae is better.
Hip Hop Teacher: it got cancelled but FUCK IT WAS USPER GAY IT HAD LEE JOO YOUNG IN IT AS A TERRIBLE MUSIC TEACHER WHO RAPS AT NIGHT AND YURA WAS LIKE jdsiughergegreg there’s only 2 parts but watch them if you can cause it makes my wlw soul live
Part 3: The pretties, aka things I wanna watch
My Mister: just because IUs in it. She looks incredible.
Mr Sunshine: it has Kim Tae Ri !!!! Aka the handmaiden from The Handmaiden !!! It takes place in 19th century Joseon ! It adresses japanese ccupation !!!! Rebel princess !!! Korean victorian drama !!! The hot dad from Memories of the Word is there !!!!
The Great Seducer: Minjae just looks super hot in it idk but I bet he doesn’t get the girl and I’m gonna be mad.
Memory and Wok Of Love cause Junho’s in it lol.
The Ghost Detective, Something in The Rain, cause it jas Lee Joo Young in them
Part 4: Things you might want to watch
These are pretty popular, but I’m not that interested myself, you might like them.
Juggles; office romance, looks kinda steamy, the male lead is super hot
The Bride of Habaek; based on the comic Bride of The Water-god. Reallyyyyyy hot. Has Nam Joo Hyuk in it. IDDK I heard it’s good
Fight for my way: i have no idea what it’s about, but the main characters’ relationship looks cute
Legend of the Blue Sea: modern take on the Little Mermaid. The male lead is a swindler who uses hypnosis, the heroine is funny because she looks very mature and hot but she’s a mess of derp
Descendants of the Sun: it’s about a female doctor who gets sent to Afghanistan I think ?????? Everyone always praises it
Part 5: the movie
Royal Tailor: the tailor of the royal family seeks the help of an innovative tailor who usually works for prostitutes. It’s not a happy movie. Beautiful
Pirates: You wanna see kickass women kick asses ? This is for you. Your more typical martial arts movie
Memories of the sword: If you like women kicking ass too, but you also want to cry. It has Kim Go Eun, and also Junho !!!!! And the guy from Mr. Sunshine. Loved it. But super sad. Not a happy movie at all. But very cool and visually pretty.
The Handmaiden: I mean I don’t even need to explain it. If you haven’t watched it, just know that, as Park Chan Wook movies tend to, it is VERY WEIRD and unsettling. 
The Last Train to Busan: ZOMBIE MOVIES !!!! It has the main actor from Goblin in it !!!! It is super cool because it’s not just “UGH zombiiiies ! Smash heads ! Violence ! Scary ooooh !” it is also a critic on greed and selfishness (and not as something stupid like “yeah zombies are actually a metaphor for consumerism”) it makes you think, it keeps you on edge, it’s not overly scary but it’s still manages to give you good scares and has some very tense moments. LOVE IT.
WOOOOOOOOOH I AM DONE. This took me 3 HOURS TO WRITE can you believe it ??? I hope this was helpful. Don’t take some of my critics to heart, I’m harsh when it comes to that sort of stuff, and very particular. If you need to watch somehting. Go for my top 5 ! Thank you for trusting my opinion that much <3
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mutogamingco · 6 years
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✤ Either Naruto or Pandora Hearts :)
[……How did I know you were going to do this to me?! xD I know you know that I have only absorbed my knowledge of Naruto by osmosis so the best I could do with that one is probably design and outfit for him and I don’t know much else. Yuugi would probably be one of the healer types in profession, and as far as villages are concerned I’m just gonna make it easy and say Hidden Leaf. >w> 
Now Pandora Hearts on the other hand…more like Pandora HURTS. OUCH. MY HEART. I rambled a lot while coming up with this and the idea changed halfway through so I’m putting it under read more. If you’re curious about how I come up with ideas on the fly with friends check it out~ and hey if anyone is actually interested in this AU I might try to actually make it a thing!
Oz deserved better and if you think I’m going to put Yuugi through that hell then you’d probably be right or maybe I would make it worse. It also doesn’t help that the whole Oz and Jack thing for quite a while actually seemed to be falling in step with the Yuugi and Atem protag-with-spirit-that-sometimes-possesses-him theme. So it looks like that’s probably where I would be going with it. I probably would have Yuugi’s narrative match up with the PH canon for this one just because it was so masterfully done and I loved it even as it made me cry ;-; Grandpa would me more in Uncle Oscar’s role as head of the dukedom, but I will keep his mother around since he does not have any siblings (sorry Ada I love you ;w;) Since we have no clue about Yuugi’s father in the Yugioh canon and I have my own that I’ve spoken here about before, then he’s open to be a lot like Xai. Sorry Yuugi you get sent to the Abyss because that’s a huge plot point and I need that contract with B-Rabbit to happen because now this is making me want to draw him wielding that scythe! 
On second thought; I could make this even more fun and scrap the original themes Pandora Hearts had–where it was based off of Victorian France and had Alice in Wonderland themes, and go straight for Yugioh’s themes with Egypt and have the Abyss more based off of that sort of aesthetic and the main setting still be in Japan. In this case I am unsure what Yuugi’s chain would be, as I would have to develop what the chains are based off of. Of course I would keep it game related. Heck, the chains could even just be duel monsters and his chain would be Gandora. Which means I can design a human version of Gandora since Alice was B-Rabbit! Gil’s character would be very tricky, but I see it being possible for Jounouchi to fill that role because best friends who have unconditional love for each other need to stick together. 
Now you know that as much as I ADORE this manga….the ending hurts too much for me to make this AU end that way. No way in hell am I going that far. GIVE ME MY HAPPY ENDING. Okay I know it was bittersweet and I loved it I’m just being melodramatic and how dare you make me think about this verse because now I actually want it.]
I hope my rambling wasn’t too much for you!
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