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#or you know just living her own life and lorde only knows your fave's involvement
koskela-knights · 4 months
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I’m trying to make my own AW2 playlist of chapter ending songs—do you have any recommendations? Feel like we’re similarly obsessed with the spiral…
Thnx for your question! And well yeah I might be a bit obsessed with the spiral/loops and its endless possibilities & scenarios that could've been 👀
Besides the official ending songs the game already provides, there are some other songs that give me general AW/AW2 vibes or specific feels for certain characters! I've been pondering about songs to share for a while, so this is a great opportunity! Thnx again for the ask!
Also feel free to share your own songs in my inbox if you feel like it :D
It's gonna be a long post so buckle up 😅
This is the moment to share my love for Lord Huron, specifically their Strange Trails album but also Vide Noir one.
Strange Trails is, to me, an album about being lost and cursed and it's about love. Honestly, I don't think The Night We Met is a good representative about the entire album.
Meet Me In The Woods
This entire song just screams Alan Wake to me.
I took a little journey to the unknown, And I come back changed. I can feel it in my bones. I fucked with forces that our eyes can't see. Now the darkness got a hold on me.
(...)
How long, baby, have I been away? Oh, it feels like ages though you say it's only days. There ain't language for the things I've seen. And the truth is stranger than my own worst dreams.
(...)
I have seen what the darkness does. Said goodbye to who I was. I ain't never been away so long. Don't look back them days are gone. Follow me into the endless night. I can bring your fears to life. Show me yours and I'll show you mine. Meet me in the woods tonight.
Like, how can you read those lyrics and not think about our boy Alan.
2. Way Out There
Drifting in a land time forgot If you think that I've changed, you know me not I belong bodily to the earth I'm just wearing old bones from those that came first I been unraveling since my birth
Those lyrics and partially the song in general remind me of Alan in the Dark Place trying to escape. How many loops has he been through? (Thus in this context, kind of wearing 'old bones from those who came first, aka older iterations of Alan himself) Also, the theremin they use is so fitting and it's an instrument often used in horror movies so <3
3. Vide Noir (both album itself & song)
Where can you go when it’s all in your head? These are the last words that I ever said Where can you go when it’s all in your head? These are the last words that I ever said
Tbh, this album also gives off major Control vibes with its themes and songs about the Astral plane & the black void. Many other songs on the album talk about the main character getting lost and drifting in-between time/space and living/dying
4. War by Poets of the Fall
You might be familiar with the song already and its music video 👀
I like how all the Poets were involved in the video as Taken (have you seen BTS shots of Olli with a fake beard?!!) Anyways, the song makes me think of how Alan has to remember that there are people out there who want to help him. That there are people out there fighting against the Darkness, even if he is mainly unaware and might even feel he doesn't deserve external help. It also reflects Alice being Alan's bright light in the darkness, and the reason he wants to keep fighting to get back to her.
In a similar vein, Lust For Life (also PoTF haha) this song could also be seen through an Alan/Alice lens, the shared shoebox mechanic and Alice trying to help/guide Alan back to the real world.
What is lost may be found Safe and sound
5. Hello Cabaret by PoTF
Now this song is maybe one of my faves of the Ghostlight album. Relistening to my fave lyrics of the song, it reminds me of the Koskelas and Ilmo specifically.
For when you come calling Dancing on my grave For all my choices made Judging me for how I played The hand you dealt me Stains the blood that flows
(...)
Of all I once did love but lost Nothing comes without a cost The wise fool said that's just the way it goes
(...)
Most will never comprehend Till' they're in the very predicament
To me, Ilmo at the end of the game is heartbroken and dead inside now that his other/better half is gone. The 'you' in question here might as well be the player or Scratch/Alan and he feels judged by the narrative of his previous actions. He's made decisions and sacrifices and used the Cult as a palpable 'villain' for the greater good. Something many probably didn't/wouldn't understand unless they were in his shoes.
6. Chasing Echoes by PoTF
It's a fun coincidence that in AW2 you have literal Echoes to chase huh.
Is this a role or disguise seeking mercy in creation? Just another device or truly a time when we will rise? Oh one and all, to the occasion And bridge the gap to see the other side?
The more on-the-nose/literal meaning aside, I think this song can be read as another one about Alan trying to escape the DP/spiral upwards toward ascension. Again, there's a 'you' in this song that could be interpreted as Alice who is a light inside Alan's darkness.
7. Brother by Lord Huron
How long have I known you, brother? Hundreds of lives, thousands of years How many miles have we wandered Under the sky, chasing our fear? Considering the spiral and the historical background of the Koskelas and their (indirect) ties to the Huotaris, they might as well known each other/been brothers for longer than what we see in-game. Some kind of trouble is coming Don't know when, don't know what I will stand by you, brother 'Til the daylight comes or I'm dead and gone
(...)
I know we can't stop what's coming But I will try, oh how I'll try Will you fight with me, brother One last time, one last fight
We know Ilmo got visited by the Dark Presence and has had nightmares about killing Jaakko. Luckily, he rose above that (as far as we know) but I think the dread and fear of losing Jaakko keeps lingering just underneath the surface. Personally, I enjoy the thought of people sometimes remembering the previous loop/spiral and that those affected/remembering would try anything to keep the loop from repeating.
8. You Belong To Me by Cat Pierce
If you're a fan of Alan/Scratch, this song has that obsessive/possessive vibe to it that seems to be a dialogue/mix between them.
I've heard allegations 'bout your reputation I'll show you my shadows if you show yours Let's get it right dear, give a good fight dear We'll keep it all up behind closed doors
(...)
I must confess to you, I want to possess you Feels like we're dreaming, we're tripping and reeling Just say that you belong to me I could get lost in the feelings we're feeling Just say that you belong to me
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jlf23tumble · 3 years
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#i have peeped on some truly VILE shit about olivia wilde lo these last few months#and it's typical of the one direction fandom's general misogyny#the larrie fandom's in particular#but will today's news make a difference?#i sure hope so#i hope that it stops some people short#that it makes some people REALLY THINK once more about what they quote know about a situation#or at least slow their roll on the fucking VITRIOL aimed at her for protecting their fave#or you know just living her own life and lorde only knows your fave's involvement#i can't believe i saw with my own eyes someone reblogging a post about her being stalked in the most terrifying way#and the general gist of the reblog was a mix of hahahaha or implying she 'deserves' it or even WORSE oh 'poor harry' end it free him etc#if you are seeing this kind of horseshit on your dash i am BEGGING you to unfollow it#i see it only from lurking and it fucking JOLTS me#to see that just in the mix#i can't even fathom and it's why it's on my list of thou shalt not follow rules#what a fucking toxic horrible vile take#i've always hated the hate that any woman in the one direction sphere endures (and not just girlfriends/beards#but women who have the audacity to interview them or interact with them on social media etc#i truly don't care how old you are if you do it...young fan or older fan#but jesus christ have some compassion just in general#like if you think your fave is in the closet and you're pushing on the person who's helping him maintain it#YOU ARE THE ASSHOLE#not her#never her#ugh i'll shut up but my god am i appalled#on about 28 levels#yes that's for you
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feysandfeels · 3 years
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Sometimes I think of the trigger Lucien must have gotten when he saw Feyre die and Tamlin holding her crying. He probably made a parallel about what happened to him and Jesminda. I believe that's why he didn't help Feyre so hard in relation to Tamlin in the second book, because Tamlin got the opportunity he didn't get.
Of course there's every part of Tamlin being his High Lord and he owes him allegiance, but I believe his trauma has been addressed.
Of course, that's not an excuse, but I can't stop thinking about it.
Hiya Sugar, I know you asked me this like three weeks ago, sorry I'm just getting around to it.
So this mainly has two sides to understand first is what was happening to Lucien. Here we need to take into account his history of abuse at the hands of his family and Tamlin. The second is clearly how Feyre understood the situation from her own place of enunciation. Still I think this is one of those discussions in the fandom where you should tread lightly because I don't think either side is entirely wrong to feel what they felt and every argument has a well crafted response that is enlightening.
Lucien.
I think by this point denying that Lucien is a victim of abusive relationships that showcased their abuse not only physically but mentally and emotionally is just irresponsable and willful blindness. Lucien's family dynamic speaks of a toxic environment if I ever saw one. The Jesminda's death at the hands of his brothers and father is something that has left a scar as visible as the one across his eye. This is an experience that molds how he interacts with other people as friends, as romantic partners, and also how he understands romantic relationships that he is not involved in (Feyre and T*mlin).
From this angle, yes, UtM was extremely triggering for him because yet again he was placed in a situation where the loved one is killed and the other person "can't do much" about it (the quotation thingies are because T*mlin was being useless af here and he should have done more than just beg, Lucien's situation he was magically and physically restrained). He understands T*mlin's nightmares better than almost anyone, and as he told Feyre, T*mlin will never not hear the sound of her neck breaking. I do believe that if T*mlin had talked about this with Lucien, he might have dealt with the whole thing better.
We can't also ignore that Lucien carries a lot of guilt regarding Jesminda. He couldn't save her and seeing his friend die in a similar manner must have brought up his own traumas so its understandable that his full on attention might not have been spent towards understanding what Feyre was going through. We all are dealing with things and it's fair when you don't have the mental space to see what is happening to those around you, even when you are as observant as Lucien is. If your mind is not seeing, it doesn't matter if your golden eye sees it all. This guilt of not being there for the ones he loves (in any capacity) is also shown in WAR when he realizes better what happened to Feyre and he says something about being the villain in her story. As much of an Elucien fan that I am I do think that part of his reasoning for going to fetch the army was to make amends with Feyre. He felt guilty for not being there for her friend. (Yes he had a lot more to address on his plate, there's no doubt of that). In a way I do think he recognized that he could have done more.
On top of this we add that Lucien's relationship with T*mlin is based on a partly on the loyalty earned from saving him from his brothers. I think that it is not for nothing that in ACOSF Eris says that he's the one that sent word to T*mlin about what was happening to Lucien, which implies the existence of a friendship that predates the murder of Jesminda. This means that along with that loyalty there must be some old fashion good hearted feelings that nourish what we see as the friendship these two have. What I mean is that probably Lucien's vision of T*mlin is the friend he used to be way back when and the loyalty for offering a "home".
We don't know when exactly T*mlin started being abusive towards Lucien, but at least we can all agree that during ACOMAF he was. It wouldn't also be a stretch to think that in the pre-acotar days there might have been incidents of physical abuse, but so far we don't know for sure. There is a missing piece of information that we don't have yet because Lucien was more feisty during UtM when his life was at risk, than he was during MAF... this tells us a lot of how T*mlin was handling things with him.
There's also something to be said with how Lucien understood abuse. It's a heavy possibility that he perceived abuse like he saw it in the AC. He had a naturalized version of what abuse is, that for him w abuse looked like and felt like what he lived in the AC, so what he experienced with T*mlin pre-acotar did not seem to him as abuse (even when it was). And after Amarantha he began to understand the multiple faces of abuse and thus started to being afraid of T*mlin. Lucien could have also been dealing with the realization that a centuries old relationship had be tainted with abusive behaviors.
I do think that Lucien thought that he tried as hard as he could with the tools he had. But that does not mean that he shouldn't have done more. The problem is that Lucien didn't know he could. Like if he had fought with Tamlin for Feyre's sake where would he go then? Feyre had the option to go to the Night Court, Lucien did not. I like to believe that if he had known the truth about the NC before and had him and Feyre talked about it they would have said fuck you Tamlin, bye, black is the new spring. But he did not know. So he stayed on the comfortable zone of pushing but not jeopardizing his "home". You can hardly blame him for how he played the game when he did not know he was playing with one hand tied to his back.
I will not excuse though when he tried to grab her against her will during the woods. I understand that he was scared and desperate, but I still think that it was not right.
Feyre.
When I stand from a Feyre point of view there are two things that speak to me above all others. First she died for Tamlin and she bargained her life for his court -Lucien included- so I understand the she expected him to push and fight hard for her too. I know there's a quote about her recognizing that T*mlin had fought for her but that she had fought harder for him, and I think that can also suit her relationship with Lucien to an extend. I'm not saying that Lucien is like T*mlin, because no, not at all, not even in the least; but I do think she would have liked for her friend to fight for her well being like she fought for his during UtM.
Second it is hard to be see your friends still be friends with your abuser. Yes Feyre doesn't know all the variables that affect their relationship, the toxic loyalty that T*mlin saving Lucien created, the genuine friendship that was there before her and before Jesminda... but I understand the pain to see your friend not draw the lines for your sake.
This offers a beautiful arc for Lucien in the sense that only recently there has been a movement of "tell me if I'm friends with your abuser", and this awakening is a reality that a lot of people are facing. Is hard to untangle yourself from a person you have known for x amount of time, because you are trying to see the abusive person in the face you related to kindness or something not abusive. Again, we don't know how their relationship was pre-Feyre, perhaps Tamlin had been nothing but a sugary cupcake with Lucien and it's hard to associate that version of his friend to the version he is post Amarantha, the version that will physically abuse them; perhaps T*mlin had always been an ass but "the good outweighed those few instances of abusive behavior". What I'm trying to say is that sometimes it is hard to make a clean cut when the abuser turns out to be the person who saved you (from an even worse abuser but like you get what I mean).
I will not do him the disservice to say that he might not have connected the dots and thought that T*mlin's behavior was abusive towards Feyre. Even if he was just understanding how abuse can look like and even if he was reliving Jesminda's death I do think he could see that T*mlin's behavior was abusive towards Feyre (here I am making the distinction between reliving the trauma of having his love murdered and him recognizing abuse). Lucien is clever and intelligent. I think he did see what was happening, but that implied also a massive shift of reality for him that he was not prepared to see and did not have the tools to deal with, he was also struggling there.
Final thoughts.
I think Feyre is not wrong to feel a tad of distaste against Lucien through ACOMAF. Speaking from a personal experience it is quite sad and tough to see people who you conceived as friends not stand up to you when you are suffering at the hand of your S.O who happens to be their friend. It sucks a lot because you truly feel alone and you feel that at the end of the day they did not take care of you at the expense of taking care or helping or remaining on the good graces of your abuser.
But I think that simply condemning Lucien's actions during MAF without understanding the complicated history of abuse he has, is irresponsable. You are of course allowed to say that he is not fave and that it left a bad taste in your mouth, that's fair, but to condemn him the way I've seen this fandom do without an ounce of empathy or critical reading is just baffling (which to be quite frankly is also something I saw everybody after ACOSF with Rhysand, they condemned his actions without truly taking five second to understand the historical context of them).
Characters are allowed to make mistakes and are allowed to fall short in any given situation, because we as living creatures sometimes fall short in life. What's important to me is that Lucien is learning and when Feyre returned to the SC in WAR we could all see that he changed his approached towards the situation and was there for her. And also you will pry this off my hands but the fact that he is invited to their Solstice celebrations speaks of the state of their relationship right now, they are understanding of what the other is going through and I do think they are making amends and creating a friendship that acknowledges the mistakes they have both made towards the other one.
Yeah this was a long ramble.
Again, apologies it took me so long to answer
Long live Lucien and Feyre. I can't wait for them to grow closer.
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haunted-medievalist · 3 years
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tag game time!
i was tagged by the lovely @contre-qui, with the aim of tagging nine people to learn about their interests - i'm unlikely to find that many people myself but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it! going under the cut because this is a pretty long(ish) one.
music!
fave genre a little bit of everything but right now especially medieval folk & pop rock
fave artist a strange mixture of måneskin, kraftklub, siames, cavetown, and rainbow kitten surprise
fave song hard choice, but probably 'brothers' by siames & eddy capparelli
most listened to song recently either 'coraline' by måneskin or 'king orfeo' from the child ballads
song currently stuck in your head 'happy pills' by weathers
five fave lyrics oh boy, this is gonna take some thought.
"called to the devil and the devil said / hey! why you been calling this late? / it's like 2a.m. and the bars all close at ten in hell, that's a rule i made / anyway, you say you're too busy saving everybody else to save yourself / and you don't want no help, oh well / that's the story to tell" ('it's called: freefall' by rainbow kitten surprise)
"today i coo, today i caw / i have a pistol party and i kill 'em all / i think i might be scared / of the man and the men with their hands inside / and the women, oh, the women all they do is cry / and i, well i lose my mind" ('little pistol' by mother mother)
"so did you pack your bag, or did somebody pack it for you? / take me to the sad, sad party that you're bound to / whether you're a 'have-not' or a 'have', i got a question / are you living dead, or is this some kind of possession?' ('blast doors' by everything everything)
"but what if i run out of fertiliser? / what if the clouds run out of rain? what if lemon boy won't grow no longer? what if beaches dry of sugar cane?" ('lemon boy' by cavetown)
"now they tell you that you're their muse / yeah, they're so inspired / but where were they when they called your name / and they lit the fire? / when the voices came, you cut your hair / but you're stilled confused" ('joan of arc' by arcade fire)
books!
fave book genre fantasy all the way
fave writer bernardine evaristo, leigh bardugo, madeline miller
fave book oh dear, here we go. 'circe' by madeline miller, 'six of crows' and 'crooked kingdom' by leigh bardugo, 'girl, woman, other' by bernardine evaristo, 'good omens' by neil gaiman & terry pratchett, 'the raven cycle' series by maggie stiefvater, 'oranges are not the only fruit' by jeanette winterson, and a whole lot of old norse literature of dubious authorship (but especially 'gisla saga' and 'hrafnkels saga freysgoða', and pretty much all of the eddic poems in the volsung cycle)
fave book series it's a tie between leigh bardugo's grishaverse novels and maggie stiefvater's 'the raven cycle'
comfort book 'the secret kingdom' by jenny nimmo
rainy day book any of my norse books, sagas or poetry
fave characters nina zenik in the grishaverse, ronan lynch in 'the raven cycle', gisli in 'gisla saga' (not sure if that counts as a character or historical figure, dependent on perspective...?), and circe in, y'know, 'circe'
five quotes from your fave books?
"i thought once that gods are the opposite of death, but i see now they are more dead than anything, for they are unchanging, and can hold nothing in their hands" ('circe' by madeline miller)
"'spreader of swords, it is your own sons' / corpse-bloody hearts you've chewed up with honey, / proud man, you've consumed dead men's meat, / eating it as ale-dainties, sending it to the high seat' [...] with the point of a blade she gave the bed a bloody drink, / with a hel-keen hand, and set the dogs free; / she woke the servants, and in front of the hall-door / she flung a burning brand: she paid them back for her brothers. / to the fire she gave everyone who was inside, / who'd come from myrkheim after murdering gunnar and his men; / the ancient timbers fell, the temples smoked, / the buildings burned of budli's kin, and the shield-maids inside; / their lives stemmed, sinking into hot flames." (gudrun avenges her brother in 'atlakviða', a poem in the old norse poetic and elder eddas)
"you aren't a flower, you're every blossom in the wood blooming at once. you are a tidal wave. you're a stampede. you are overwhelming." ('crooked kingdom' by leigh bardugo)
"from the passenger seat, ronan began to swear at adam. it was a long, involved swear, using every forbidden word possible, often in compound-word form. as adam stared at his lap, penitent, he mused that there was something musical about the ronan when he swore, a careful and loving precision to the way he fit the words together, a black-painted poetry. it was far less hateful sounding than when he didn't swear." ('the raven cycle' by maggie stiefvater)
"but where was god now, with heaven full of astronauts, and the lord overthrown? i miss god. i miss the company of someone utterly loyal. i still don't think of god as my betrayer. the servants of god, yes, but servants by their very nature betray. i miss god who was my friend. i don't even know if god exists, but i do know that if god is your emotional role model, very few human relationships will match up to it. i have an idea that one day it might be possible, i thought once it had become possible, and that glimpse has set me wandering, trying to find the balance between earth and sky. if the servants hadn't rushed in and parted us, i might have been disappointed, might have snatched off the white samite to find a bowl of soup." ('oranges are not the only fruit' by jeanette winterson)
hardcover or paperback | buy or rent | standalone novels or book series | ebook or physical copy | reading at night or during the day | reading at home or in nature | listening to music while reading or reading in silence | reading in order or reading the ending first | reliable or unreliable narrator | realism or fantasy | one or multiple POVS | judging by the covers or by the summary | rereading or reading just once
tv and movies!
fave tv/movie genre fantasy, travel/road trip & comedy
fave movie the secret life of walter mitty, supernova, any and all ghibli films, scott pilgrim vs. the world, lord of the rings, the how to train your dragon trilogy
comfort movie the lion king (original), how to train your dragon, from up on poppy hill, kiki's delivery service
movie you watch every year elf, howl's moving castle, love simon
fave tv show she-ra and the princesses of power, skam, bee and puppycat (i guess more of a web series than a tv show?), adventure time, the it crowd
comfort tv show adventure time
most rewatched tv show skam, every october without fail
five favourite characters catra (she-ra and the princesses of power), sana (skam original), marceline (adventure time), moss (the it crowd), inej (shadow and bone netflix adaptation)
tv shows or movie | short seasons (8-13 episodes) or full seasons (22 episodes or more) | one episode a week or bingeing | one season or multiple seasons | one part or saga | half hour or one hour long episodes | subtitles on or off | rewatching or watching just once | downloads or watches online
tagging (absolutely no pressure, this is a pretty long one!): @crowcaves, @the-obsidian-soul, @natscbi, @somehowmags, @gabrilearnelle, @clockwords, @starsspace... and that's it, that's as close to nine as i'm getting, but if anyone else just feels like doing it then feel free to consider yourself tagged!
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azure-steel · 3 years
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 Instructions: Always repost with the rules, answer the 11 random questions left for you and leave 11 more for the people you tag!
MY QUESTIONS TO ANSWER
1.  What to you prefer while writing? Silence? Television? Music? If it’s television or music, what would be playing?
Music, whatever I’m doing be that writing, drawing, working, cleaning, you name it. I need music on in the background. TV tends to distract me and juices just don’t flow if I’m in silence, so the headphones are on and I’m away~
2. What is something specific that you always look for in your writing partners?
Just general friendliness really. I’ll talk to anyone and everyone and I’ll write with them too (even though I’m guilty of being a lil shy and easily intimidated but that’s by the by.) I like to have a good friendly foundation with my writing partners, and typically where there’s a ship involved just so I know what kind of vibe we have, to know my limitations - if any. I like to feel super comfy with the people I write with, and I love to gush about our muses and their shenanigans, without that interactions tend to fall apart for me, you know? And I’m very guilty of not attempting to try again in the future if I feel I can’t come talk to you :/ 
It sucks but it is what it is. 
3. What is your favourite season of the year and why?
I’m European so I LOVE heat. Summer is where I come alive baby~
4. How many blogs do you maintain across Tumblr? Do you roleplay on any other sites?
I have 2 blogs but I only maintain one at a time. I haven’t the patience or the brain to balance more than one muse at a time. I have no idea how you multimuses do it, I really don’t, I envy you ;o;
5. Tell me your favourite food. Least favourite food?
Cake. I love cake, if I could eat nothing else for the rest of my life I would just eat cake. I mean... I’d die but I’d die happy you know? As for least fave foods... sprouts, fuck I HATE brussel sprouts they’re just nasty, soggy horrible leaves and I don’t understand why people go nuts over them at christmas. You can keep em, bleh. 
6. Leave some kind words about one of your mutuals here! Maybe you’ll make someone’s day brighter or help others find a new writing partner!
lol, I’ll pass on this one. I don’t want to upset anyone by giving love to just one person. There are far too many that I heart so bad, even if they don’t heart me so much xD
7. Do you have a favourite ship that you currently write?
I have so many ships that I adore but there’s 2 that I simply cannot get enough of so I will write about both of them!!
Clerith: with my dearest friend @pulchralilium. This ship man... THIS SHIP!! Just, I’d avoided it for so so long and thinking back I’ve no real clue why because these two babs are just MADE for one another. There’s just so much chemistry between my muse and hers and it really doesn’t even matter what verse we plonk them in. They gravitate towards one another and the love they have is undying and so very pure.  I mean they have fun too, teasing each other and generally fooling around. But there is absolutely nothing Cloud would not do for her, he’d die for her if he had to, hands down!!
Cloud x Mercy (Clercy LOL): with the ever so fantastic @mercyxkilling. Okay, it’s difficult to know where to start here because so much has happened already and I am just HERE for this ship. Like, they were ENEMIES when they first meet. They don’t know one another but Cloud works for a rather infamous “Pirate Queen” who sees Mercy as a threat, so that initial footing is already off to a bad start. But things happen, trust builds and feelings develop and they are just... so INTO each other it’s disgusting~ Both of them have had real crappy lives up to this point and they find these missing pieces within each other they never truly realised they were missing until then and watching them come to care for one another, to falling in love, it’s the best thing.  For serious though, these two are the HOTTEST couple in the Milky Way and they damn well know it too~
8. Is there a character that you deeply wish you had a chance to write with one of your own? If so, who and why?
None really come to mind, but I would love to have some father/son interaction with a Denzel one day. I just adore that relationship so much and I always have hours where I hanker for some good wholesome family vibes ;u;
9. Pets! Do you have any pets? Bonus points if you send me pictures of them!
I have two moggies. A black male, Lord Shaxx. He’s an absolute monster~ and Yuni, my oldest best girl. I love my kitties, they are like my kids!
10. What’s your definition of a perfect self care day for yourself?
Playing vidya games, watching crap tv and just generally doing stuff I wanna do at my leasure~
11. If you could recommend a book or television show to anyone reading this, what would it be?
Hmmmm, I haven’t read a decent book for some time, but the A Story Of Fire and Ice series is just amazing. I know GoT got some bad rep for pacing issues and the ending to that show was just TERRIBLE, but the books are a whole different animal and I can’t recommend them enough. 
For TV: Stranger Things. FUCK. THIS SHOW IS SO FUCKING AMAZING YA’LL. If you haven’t watched this already I do HIGHLY recommend!
Tagged: I wasn’t. I stole it from @oflockharted
Tagging: just steal it and say I tagged ya if you want. I ain’t adding my own questions because I’m lazy. 
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orionsangel86 · 5 years
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75 Must Watch Supernatural Episodes in preparation for Season 15
As you might recall, a while ago TV Guide posted an article about their choice of the top 75 episodes of Supernatural to watch as a catch up of the series before the final season. 
I read that article, and found myself absolutely horrified at many of their choices and outraged that many of the all time best episodes (including ones extremely important to the story) were missed off.
Everyone has their own opinions of course, but when I disagree with something that much it tends to motivate me to act out of pure spite - I do love a good spite motivation - and so I have made my own list, for the fandom, of the 75 absolute must watch episodes for anyone who wants to understand the integral story of Supernatural.
I have to hand it to TV Guide, whilst I adamantly disagreed with their choices, I admit that this was EXTREMELY DIFFICULT and having to sacrifice some of my faves so that I could include others that were more important to the story HURT, but that’s how it is.
Full list under the cut. Let me know what you think of my choices and my reasons!
1. Pilot
You cannot start a series catch up anywhere else, and we have to include the pilot episode. Introducing us to Sam and Dean, and setting up the story including the back story with the family tragedy. You just can’t beat a good old fashioned female fridging for man pain. *jokes*
2. 1x06 Skin
I feel like Skin is an important episode to watch as it is our first real look at Dean’s psyche as a character, where we start to realise just how much he is hiding behind his tough macho man exterior. The speech by Shifter!Dean to a horrified and confused Sam is heartbreaking and very revealing. 
3. 1x12 Faith
This is still hands down one of Supernaturals best episodes. It was also the first time Kripke started considering a bigger mytharc involving faith and Christianity. We can all thank this episode for planting the seeds that would later give us the hugely popular character Castiel, and the hugely successful mytharc plots of Seasons 4 and 5. Also, one of the best music moments from the show with the “Don’t Fear The Reaper” chase scene.
4. 1x14 Nightmare
This episode introduces us to the Special Children story line which was of paramount importance to the first two seasons. It gives us the first glimpses of Sam’s powers to come, and is also the first time we get some hints of John Winchesters abuse of Dean.
5. 1x18 Something Wicked
I chose this episode because it is the first time we get to see more of Sam and Dean’s childhood, and how horrific it was - especially for Dean. A brilliant episode that once again clearly demonstrates how John Winchester is not a man to be messed with. If at this point you aren’t itching to call child services on his ass you probably need to read up on your understanding of child abuse.
6. 1x22 Devils Trap
The Season 1 finale gives us the show down between John Winchester and the Yellow Eyed Demon Azazel, some heartbreaking moments between father and sons, and a cliffhanger that leaves Baby and Dean both broken.
7. 2x01 In My Time of Dying
I love this episode. Dean’s out of body experience at the hospital, Sam’s grief, John’s deal, Tessa’s introduction to the show. C’est magnifique!
8. 2.05 Simon Said
I just think Simon Said is a great episode that further develops the special children plot whilst being both funny and dark at its core - classic SPN.
9. 2.15 Tall Tales
Our introduction to Gabriel - well, to the trickster as he is known here. This episode is gloriously funny and a must watch!
10. 2.21 All Hell Breaks Loose: Parts One and two
Okay I’m cheating a bit and putting these two episodes together, but in my opinion they count as their own feature length episode as you can’t watch one without the other. The climax of the special children arc, the deeply emotional Sam death scene and Dean’s bedside vigil, and Dean selling his soul. This two part season finale packed a lot of punches and is a definite must watch.
11. 3.03 Bad Day at Black Rock
How can anyone forget Sam’s run of bad luck in this hilarious episode. He LOST HIS SHOE!
12. 3.10 Dream a Little Dream of Me
This is another must watch episode for the deep dive into Dean’s psyche. We also get more of a backstory to Bobby Singer, but the real brilliance happens when Dean spends part of the episode talking to his own dark mirror, revealing all sorts of subconscious fears and insecurities on his part.
13. 3.11 Mystery Spot
I couldn’t not put Mystery Spot on the list. This infamous episode of Supernatural will have you singing “Heat of the Moment” over and over again whilst sympathising with poor Sam every time Tuesday comes around. Don’t let Dean eat the funny tasting tacos!
14. 3.16 No Rest for the Wicked
In lots of ways, Season 3 was a weak season. It was drastically shortened due to the writers strike at the time, and Kripke & Co didn’t get to tell the story they initially planned for, instead they had to come up with an alternative which gave us this dark finale in which Dean is condemned to hell. That can’t have been a fun hiatus for fans watching live... Still, it was a memorable finale and that is why it is on my list.
15. 4.01 Lazarus Rising
This episode. Here begins Supernaturals “golden age”. Enter Castiel, Angel of the Lord and future fan favourite right up until 2k19. How many people out in the world saw that now famous entrance and immediately fell in love? 
*holds up hand*
If you do nothing else, and you’ve never seen a single episode of Supernatural before, just watch this one, and I guarantee, I GUARANTEE, you will want to keep watching.
16. 4.07 It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester
The problem I have with season 4 is that I want to put basically every episode on the list. To this day it remains my favourite season of the show (and not just for the extreme DeanCas sexual tension). I kept this episode on the list simply because I love the Halloween theme, I love the frankly horrifying Samhain, and I LOVE the journey that Castiel goes through in this episode alone. Bonus points for Sam Winchester fangirling over Castiel proving he is no different from the rest of us. :P
17. 4.16 On the Head of a Pin
I say season 4 is my favourite season, and On the Head of a Pin is one of my all time favourite episodes. This is Supernatural at it’s finest and it’s not surprising as it was written by the great Ben Edlund. It is a perfect blend of horror and angst as we watch every character painfully spiral downwards. Sam hungrily drinks Ruby’s blood much to the audiences horror, Castiel faces his internal and external conflicts as all starts to unravel in the heavenly plans, and Dean plays a terrifying game of wits in an outstanding performance with the demon Alistair, his hellish torturer. It was a performance that Jensen Ackles should have won an Emmy for in my honest opinion. This episode has forever ruined the song “Cheek to Cheek” for me, but it was so worth it.
18. 4.17 It's a Terrible Life
It’s one of the classics. This AU world in which the angels flex their power over the Winchesters is another well loved fan favourite and quite frankly deserves to be here purely for the hilarious scene that many office workers all over the world would wish they could reenact as Sam quits his job in the most Sam Winchester way possible. 
19. 4.20 The Rapture
I had to keep this episode here because it is so important for future story lines. As Castiel gets closer to Dean, heaven takes action and we meet Jimmy Novak, Cas’s tormented vessel, and in Castiel’s own future words “his greatest regret”. It’s a deeply emotional episode that proves even angels have their dark sides.
20. 4.22 Lucifer Rising
The Season 4 finale is still one of the most epic in my opinion. Sam and Dean’s dramatic fight in the episode before has left them both vulnerable to the angels and demons that are manipulating them for their own purposes. Ruby’s villain reveal speech is still one of the best, and as she shows her true colours to a horrified Sam, Dean makes an angel fall for him. In every way. 
21. 5.03 Free to Be You and Me
This episode is another classic and many fans of Destiel would put it among their top episodes. As Sam and Dean go their separate ways, Dean grows closer to a now fallen and socially awkward Castiel.
22. 5.04 The End
Another epic from the mastermind that is Ben Edlund. The End has inspired much extremely angst ridden fanfiction over the years (and a very romantic song in a future musical episode) and is notorious for breaking fans hearts the world over. As Dean is unwillingly sent to a future apocalyptic world, he meets his harsh and brutal future self, and a drug addled hedonistic human Castiel. The most memorable and painful moment being his confrontation with a sharply dressed Lucifer wearing his brothers face. Tears flowed freely from fans the night this episode aired. 
23. 5.08 Changing Channels
Changing Channels is another of those infamous episodes that even non fans of SPN are aware of for it’s sheer lunacy. Sam and Dean once again find themselves up against the trickster aka the archangel Gabriel, who puts them into a TV world where they must “play their roles” in order to survive. 
Highlights include Sam’s herpes commercial and Dean’s heart eyes for Doctor Sexy MD. 
24. 5.16 Dark Side of the Moon
Dark Side of the Moon is a beautiful episode. The race through heaven and through each Winchester’s memories gives us a far greater understanding of their complex and troubled relationship. The heartbreaking scenes of Dean’s heaven with his mother that Sam could not be part of were especially painful to watch. The climax reveal that God wasn’t listening and Castiel’s subsequent loss of faith only added to that heartbreak. Another must see episode.
25. 5.18 Point of No Return
As is the case with season 4, it was so difficult not to just put every season 5 episode on this list. I do think that both seasons just need to be watched in full to truly grasp how brilliant they were. Point of No Return needs to be on this list though because this episode is the breaking point, the tensions remain high throughout as each character makes desperate choices as they all spiral towards the Endtimes.
26. 5.22 Swan Song
Swan Song is often considered the number 1 top episode of Supernatural. It is always at the top of these “rank the episodes” lists in the media, and that is why it is on my list too. It is brilliant in many ways, but if I am being completely honest it doesn’t even come close to the top of my own personal list ranking SPN episodes. It is certainly emotional, and there are some extremely heartbreaking scenes. Lucifer plays his hand, Dean plays his right back with the power of love, Sam makes his swan dive. It’s heartbreaking, it needs to be watched, but the “endings are hard” meta moan by Kripke always felt slightly too pretentious for my tastes. Don’t make excuses dude, this episode didn’t need them.
27. 6.11 Appointment in Samarra
I’ll be honest, I didn’t like season 6. Whilst some of the individual episodes were good, the mytharc was weak and I think the season struggled to find it’s feet for many episodes at the start. I didn’t like soulless Sam, preferring my Sammy to be the compassionate caring sweetheart he always was before. That being said, Appointment in Samarra is a brilliant standalone episode simply because the character of Death is so very compelling. Dean’s time playing Death was fun whilst also being a deeply emotional exploration of cause and effect in the universe. It’s a must watch.
28. 6.15 The French Mistake
I couldn’t not put this episode on the list. If Season 6 did one thing right, it was this ridiculous episode.
29. 6.20 The Man Who Would Be King
The only other thing Season 6 did right. 6x20 is Ben Edlund’s masterpiece and without it, frankly, the entire mytharc plot of the season would fail miserably. This beautiful episode told from the point of view of a hugely conflicted Castiel not only birthed an entire new generation of Destiel shippers, but canonically confirmed that Castiel’s every decision was motivated by his love for Dean. 
*Ouch my shipper heart*
30. 6.22 The Man Who Knew Too Much
The season 6 finale is on this list purely for two characters: Sam and Cas. Sam’s journey to put himself back together inside his own head is as enjoyable as it is emotional. Castiel’s spiralling through into utter villainy is simply soul destroying - especially for those of us who are heavily invested in this character. 
31. 7.01 Meet the New Boss
I had to keep the season 7 premiere in this episode as it is the only hint we have of what could have been an AMAZING season story line! Sadly, it was not to be, and Castiel’s run as God lasts this episode only before a very misguided showrunner wrote him off the show (thankfully she saw reason and brought him back dramatically later on, even though the damage and huge drop in ratings was already done.) Worth watching purely for enjoying a power drunk Castiel wipe out a homophobic preacher - he really doesn’t like those homophobes!
32. 7.10 Death's Door
The first time I watched Death’s Door I sobbed for 20 minutes straight. Bobby Singer was the best father Sam and Dean (and Castiel at times) could have ever had, and this heartfelt goodbye to the character as he fought against his reaper and his own memories really packed a punch.
33. 7.17 The Born-Again Identity
The episode that turned it all around. The Born-Again Identity sees a desperate Dean take a chance on a mysterious healer to help a haunted Sam. That healer turns out to be everything Dean has been waiting for. Castiel’s dramatic return to the series answered both Deans, and many fans, prayers. 
34. 7.20 The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo
The introduction of Charlie Bradbury was a must on this list. She immediately became a fan favourite with her upbeat quirkiness. Created to be an avatar for fandom in many ways, she was a breath of fresh air compared to the previous fan avatar the show introduced us too who the less we mention the better. This episode was a lighthearted fun episode in an otherwise downright depressing season.
35. 7.23 Survival of the Fittest
It’s a must watch for the dick jokes alone. In all seriousness, I like this episode, even if it is another weak finale compared to others. The dynamic between Dean, Sam, Meg, and a Castiel who isn’t quite himself, is enjoyable, even if the villain of the season isn’t all that interesting.
36. 8.02 What's Up, Tiger Mommy?
Where the season 8 premiere focused on the present day, and what Sam had been doing in the year between the season 7 finale and now, episode 2 focuses more on purgatory. Dean’s time in purgatory desperately hunting for an AWOL Castiel is definitely worth the watch, especially when their purgatory reunion was so heartbreaking. Bonus points for Sam being worthy of Mjolnir!
37. 8.07 A Little Slice of Kevin
I make no secret of the fact that Castiel is my favourite character in Supernatural, or my love of Dean and Castiel’s relationship. This episode is on my list because Castiel’s return to the real world and an emotional Dean gets my fangirl heart pounding. This episode must use every romantic trope in the book on these two heartbroken dumbasses and it will always be a favourite.
38. 8.08 Hunteri Heroici
This episode is another one of my favourite. The boys finally bring Cas along on an otherwise regular monster of the week hunt, and it is hilarious. Not to mention the hunt is extremely loony and for that reason alone, it is a must watch.
39. 8.11 LARP and the Real Girl
The reintroduction of Charlie Bradbury is a delightful episode where the boys get a taste of LARPING. This is one of those memorable episodes where we get to see the Winchesters both out of their element, and also embracing a bit of fun outside of their normal dark lives. It is a joyful episode to watch.
40. 8.12 As Time Goes By
An integral episode that ends up being a game changer for the show. Thanks to a time travel spell, the boys find out their grandfather was part of a secret organisation. This episode is a must watch for the introduction of Abaddon, the Men of Letters, and the Winchester’s new home base that will see them through to the end of the series - the Bunker.
41. 8.17 Goodbye Stranger
Goodbye Stranger is one of those episodes that will break your heart and leave you screaming. Castiel finally breaks free from heavens grasp - but what broke the connection?
42. 8.23 Sacrifice
I adore the season 8 finale. Crowley’s confession, Sam’s heartbreaking speech which kicked off a long ongoing arc over the next 6 seasons exploring the darker side of the Winchester’s codependency, Metatron’s betrayal, and Castiel’s fall to humanity. The final scene with the angels fall to Earth is beautiful and emotional and I just love everything about it.
43. 9.01 I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here
The season 9 premiere is another deeply emotional episode which explores the aftermath of Sam’s trials to close the gates of hell. Sam is once again on deaths door, but Dean has ideas to save him - and his choices drastically affect the course of both brothers, and Castiel’s, lives for the next several seasons of pain and downward spirals into darkness. 
44. 9.06 Heaven Can't Wait
The first ever episode written by our angst goblin king Bobo Berens and what a first episode it was. This episode was like a twisted mix between tragedy and romantic comedy but it worked brilliantly. Fans of Dean and Cas both laughed and wept at it’s perfection. It also was the episode that birthed a thousand fanfics thanks to one well placed “fanfiction gap”.
45. 9.11 First Born
This episode is one of the highlights of Season 9, with a brilliant performance by Timothy Omundson as Cain, this episode sees Dean make the terrible mistake of signing a contract before reading the terms and conditions. Bonus side plot of Sam and Cas getting some Bunker bonding time.
46. 9.18 Meta Fiction
This Castiel focused episode from the genius mind of Robbie Thompson is another must watch. The villainous Metatron manipulates Cas into playing a role in his own scripted story. Bonus guest appearance from fan favourite Gabriel adds to the appeal of this episode. (Following the season 14 finale I can’t help but wonder if this episode had some influence on the current writing team - could we even call it foreshadowing?)
47. 9.23 Do You Believe in Miracles?
The season 9 finale was another very strong episode which must be watched if only for the huge cliffhanger ending. Dean spirals into his own darkness under the effects of the Mark of Cain, and pays for it with his life. Thankfully Crowley is there to make things “better” and take the wayward Winchester under his demonic wing.
48. 10.03 Soul Survivor
Like many others, I feel that we were robbed of a longer Demon!Dean arc. I also feel like the show could have gone far darker with the character given everything we know about poor Dean’s psyche. Whilst episodes 1 and 2 took a lighter touch the demon, Soul Survivor was as close as we got to a truly evil representation of Dean and this episode shook me with the truly brilliant yet terrifying performance Jensen gives us. 
49. 10.05 Fan Fiction
Fan Fiction is one of those episodes that you will either love or hate. Created as a love letter to the shows fandom, Robbie Thompson poured his heart into this episode and I do think it is a necessary watch even if just for the beautiful rendition of Carry on Wayward Son at the end. Some may find it cringeworthy in parts - many in fandom don’t exactly like the show drawing attention to their “dirty laundry” and I don’t think anyone will forget a fangirl telling Dean Winchester directly that “you can’t spell subtext without S-E-X” nor the break-the-forth-wall look Dean gives the audience upon hearing that. Nevertheless, we can officially say that both Destiel and Sastiel have been mentioned directly by the Winchester brothers - funnily enough Sam seems totally cool with the concept of hooking up with Cas; Dean though, well, as the saying goes “the lady doth protest too much”.
50. 10.14 The Executioner's Song
Like with First Born, this episode is a must watch for Timothy Odmunson’s performance as Cain, and how brilliantly he and Jensen work together. A haunting and tense episode with a heartbreaking conclusion. It’s dark and deep and pretty damn epic.
Bonus Episode Shout Out - 10.16 Paint it Black
I am not actually including this episode in the list, as it is a generic MOTW for the most part. But I do want to give it an honorary mention for one scene in particular. If you are new to the show, and are planning on using this list to catch up, then for this episode, go to YouTube and search “Supernatural 10x16 Dean’s confession”. TRUST ME. If like me, you love analysing Dean’s character to death, his church confession in this episode is like being given the key to figuring out the meaning of life. 
51. 10.22 The Prisoner
I have chosen this episode over the Season 10 finale because this episode depicts Dean’s spiral into total darkness, whereas the season 10 finale always felt like a particularly weak episode to me. Following Charlie’s horrific (and highly controversial) death, Dean lets the Mark of Cain consume him and goes on a killing spree. The ending of this episode ripped my heart to shreds as Castiel promises that he will stay with Dean forever, only for Dean to beat him to near death and only stop at the last minute thanks to that final shred of humanity left in him. If the shot of a bloodied and heartbroken Castiel staring at the angel blade that narrowly missed his head doesn’t make you cry, then I don’t even know why you watch this show.
52. 11.04 Baby
Another fan favourite told from the point of view from the Impala which at this point is definitely its own character and so much more than just a car. Baby is an extremely well put together episode which confirms that there is more than a little bit of magic in that sleek 1967 muscle car.
53. 11.11 Into the Mystic
Into the Mystic introduces us to Eileen Leahy, a character who we all immediately fell in love with, and not just because she is literally PERFECT for Sam Winchester (yes I ship it), but also because she is a badass female hunter and this show is most definitely lacking badass female hunters. It also keeps us on the edge of our seats as Lucifer disguised as Castiel infiltrates the bunker and manages to trick Dean. Epic stuff.
54. 11.17 Red Meat
A well known controversial episode, Red Meat penned by Angst Goblin Bobo Berens delves into the darker, more toxic parts of the Winchester brothers relationship, and highlights just how horrific their codependency has become. Love it or hate it, you can’t deny that it highlights that these boys have some serious issues, and this episode marks a turning point from which both brothers, but especially Dean, start to move upwards, towards a more healthy bond.
55. 11.18 Hell's Angel
The fight to save Castiel from Lucifer’s clutches would be so much easier if the depressed angel actually knew how much he was loved by his Winchester family. Unfortunately for him, Dean is a dumbass who never uses his words. Hell’s Angel is heartbreaking but a must watch if you have any doubt in how much Dean Winchester cares for his angelic guardian. Lucifer’s mockery of his desperation is a particularly nasty knife twist, but then again us fans lap this stuff up. 
56. 11.20 Don't Call Me Shurley
The dramatic return of Chuck AKA God. Another must watch episode which explains in some way what the hell God has been doing all this time, whilst Sam and Dean fight to save a small town from a deathly supernatural fog. The tear-jerking song “Fare Thee Well” sung by Rob Benedict at the end not only foreshadows God’s “death” at the end of the season, but also the departure of fan favourite writer Robbie Thompson from the writing team. Emotional indeed.
57. 11.23 Alpha and Omega
The season 11 finale marks the first time in the shows history that a finale doesn’t have a single death. The uplifting ending in which the boys manage to save the world and reunite God and his sister is a one off for Supernatural, especially when it ends with another shock character resurrection - symbolising a new direction for the show and a new showrunner. This was an epic finale that I thoroughly enjoyed.
58. 12.01 Keep Calm and Carry On
The Season 12 premiere saw the return of Mary Winchester, an awkward introduction with a shocked and overjoyed Castiel, and a dramatic race to save Sam from the British Men of Letters. It sets up a far more human mytharc plot than the previous seasons world ending battles between Gods, but with Mary’s introduction, and Andrew Dabb at the wheel, the story is about to get a whole bunch more personal.
59. 12.10 Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets
One of my all time favourite episodes, Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets gives us a very small peek at Castiel’s pre-Winchester past, and his beautiful female former vessel (no matter what form Castiel resides in, he is always beautiful - a fact referenced in show almost as often as out of it!). It also confirms that no matter how much Cas and Dean may bicker with each other, no one else insults Dean Winchesters angel and gets away with it! Bonus points for long suffering third wheel Sam Winchesters epic bitch faces and eye rolls throughout.
60. 12.11 Regarding Dean
This episode is one of those rare beauties which gets the balance between humour and heartbreak just right. As Dean rapidly loses his memories under a witches spell, Sam and Rowena fight to save him. Regarding Dean explores deep themes including Dean’s loss of childhood innocence at a young age, and how a life shrouded in darkness has effected him. Pure heartbreak. Bonus points for THAT scene on the bucking bronco. 
61. 12.12 Stuck in the Middle (With You)
Another all time favourite, directed by our very own Richard Speight Jr in a highly stylised homage to Reservoir Dogs and other Tarantino movies. Castiel takes the role of Mr Orange in this gruesome tale, much to the distress of Mr White AKA Dean. One absolutely devastating love confession later and there isn’t a dry eye in the house. DO NOT SKIP THIS EPISODE.
62. 12.19 The Future
The episode that shook the fandom to it’s core thanks to one tiny moment. A desperate Castiel makes some bad decisions, but not before first using Dean’s love for him against him. The knowledge that Dean at one point made a tailored mixtape of his favourite Led Zeppelin songs and gave it to Castiel as a gift BROKE ME. To this day I am still not over this information. To this day I cannot quite get Dean’s soft voice saying “it’s a gift, you keep those.” out of my head. Just remembering the scene as I write this makes my heart flutter and I STILL can’t believe that the writers took the show in this direction. It’s beautiful.
63. 12.22 Who We Are
This heartbreaking episode reveals the importance of Mary’s return to the show, as Dean goes into his mothers own head to try to save her from brainwashing. A truly epic performance from Jensen Ackles (once again) in which Dean finally admits his own burdens, explains how he was robbed of his childhood, and how he was forced into the role of parent to his younger brother when he was 4 years old. Ah that character development is truly delicious. 
64. 12.23 All Along the Watchtower
The season 12 finale packs a lot of punches. The imminent birth of Lucifer’s nephilim son causes a rift in the universe, opening a doorway to another world. As the tension builds to a dramatic conclusion, Lucifer plays his hand, unwittingly trapping himself in the AU world with one beloved character, as another sacrifices himself and a third tragic death leaves Dean shattered and broken on the ground. 
65. 13.01 Lost and Found
The season 13 premier was everything I have ever wanted from a Supernatural episode - namely PAAAAAIN. The last 10 minutes of this episode in particular had me ugly crying into @margarittet and @tinkdw‘s laps. In fact, every time I rewatch this episode I cry again. As we are introduced to Jack, we say goodbye to Castiel, and my god, I will never get over watching Dean Winchester wrap the body of his angel in preparation for the pyre and try so hard to keep it together. Same Dean. Same.
66. 13.05 Advanced Thanatology
Where Lost and Found broke my heart, Advanced Thanatology stamped on the shattered pieces until the final seconds in which it magically pulled me back together again. This episode was the climactic end to a 5 episode mini grief arc for Dean who just couldn’t get over Castiel’s death. In this episode, we realise just how badly that death has affected Dean, as he foolishly risks his life in his desperation for any kind of win he can get. Episode highlights include a brilliant performance from Billie who has assumed the role of Death as she knocks some sense into Dean, and the final dramatic return of Castiel, proving that “it’s never too late to start all over again”.
67. 13.06 Tombstone
Following 5 episodes of extreme angst and pain, the audience is finally given some relief in this joyful episode which sees the reunited Winchesters take their new son on a trip to cowboy country. Honestly it’s worth watching purely for Castiel’s attempt at playing cowboy to make Dean happy, and Sam Winchesters knowing looks as he pointedly calls out Dean’s dramatic 180 turn from uber depressive to ecstatic happiness following his angels return to the world of the living. Bonus points for this episode getting the hashtag #brokebacksupernatural trending on Twitter. 
68. 13.10 Wayward Sisters
The episode that should have kicked off a whole new spin off were it not for the idiotic decisions of a group of suited white guys with no concept of what decent TV is nowadays. Yes I’m still bitter, Yes Mark Pedowitz can go to hell. Wayward Sisters was a brilliant episode that gave us a whole new generation of badass hunting women, and a story that I was 100% invested in seeing more of. It’s a damn tragedy this never got picked up for its own series.
69. 13.16 Scoobynatural
I can’t write a list of top episodes without adding Scoobynatural. The three Winchester boys find themselves zapped into TV land and meet the Scooby Gang. This episode was just hilarious and brilliant. Bonus points for Castiel’s bond with Shaggy and Scooby, and only a minor deduction for Dean’s over the top flirting with Daphne.
70. 13.21 Beat the Devil
In true Supernatural fashion, as the end of the season gets closer, the tension builds to extreme levels. In the apocalypse world the Winchesters try to find and save Jack and Mary, but Lucifer is on their tails. An unexpected attack leads to a highly traumatic and shocking scene in which Sam is killed and a distraught Dean is only pulled away from further danger by a terrified Castiel. The final scene of this episode in which Lucifer resurrects Sam in a truly horrific display of power over his former victim and vessel is haunting and brilliantly acted by Jared Padalecki. The fear he radiates around Lucifer being the only thing that allows me to continue to take the devil seriously at this point in the show. 
71. 14.08 Byzantium 
I know what you are going to say, I have skipped a BIG chunk of episodes in my list. I have to be honest here and admit that the season 13 finale was possibly one of the worst episodes in Supernatural history and I can’t in good conscience add it to this list. I also think that the writers struggled to pull themselves back up to the high standard of early season 13 after that dreadful finale, so the first half of Season 14 always felt a bit dull for me, however Byzantium does make up for it, in it’s emotional story of how Sam, Dean, and Castiel all deal with the death of their son. The highlights of this episode have to be the scenes in heaven, where Jack reunites with his mother Kelly, and Castiel finds them both in her own piece of paradise in another tear-jerking scene. Castiel’s deal with the creature from the Empty leaving Cas fans everywhere horrified and distraught, but also rather excited at what exactly may trigger the deadly deal. Hopefully this plot point will be picked up next season, as it is definitely highly anticipated.
72. 14.10 Nihilism
Another dream episode for any Dean fans who like to analyse his beautifully deep and layered psyche. Sam and Cas must dive into Dean’s mind in order to free him from the archangel Michael. What they find is worth several essay’s of analysis on this fascinating and wonderful character. Dean’s bar; surrounded by symbols and hints of his life and a very apt song put on repeat - Will Dean ever get his rainbow ending? Only one more season to go until we find out.
73. 14.14 Ouroboros
Following all the drama and separation of the Winchester family, they finally all reunite in this episode to hunt a gorgon. I always prefer the episodes where Sam, Dean, Cas, and Jack all work together, and this episode explores the group dynamic perfectly. The gorgon is a charismatic villain who taunts our heroes and has them all fighting to keep up with him. Put it simply this is just a fun episode and exactly what we want from our MOTW episodes in the new Supernatural era.
74. 14.15 Peace of Mind
Just like the previous episode, Peace of Mind is simply one of the more fun and enjoyable episodes of the season. So much so in fact that I have probably re-watched it a dozen times because I loved it so much. In a rare team up between Sam and Cas, they find themselves stuck in a Pleasantville type place. Hilarity ensues, and poor Sam gets himself stuck in a 1950s style marriage and a sweater vest. Castiel reads some raunchy erotica and enjoys it. You will find yourselves laughing at “H-E-double hockey sticks” for hours afterwards. A must watch lighthearted episode in an otherwise dark season.
75. 14.20 Moriah
The season 14 finale was certainly one of the more epic finales we have had, and a meta masterpiece penned by showrunner Andrew Dabb. As Dean’s anger and grief following Mary’s death only deepens, and the rift between him and Castiel continues, it is Sam who discovers that all this time, for their entire lives, they have all been nothing more than characters in a world created by a cruel and manipulative writer God. Chuck’s return and reveal as the villain of the entire show came as a shock to many fans who saw him as a beloved fan favourite, but to many others, myself included, this reveal harmonises this entire story and the Winchesters long and traumatic journey and blows my mind at just how perfect it all is. God Was Never On Your Side, and this has always been a show to stress the importance of free will in a Godless world. 
*chef’s kiss*
Bring on Season 15.
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sophieakatz · 3 years
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Thursday Thoughts: Cute Asks
I’m in a funk today, so this week’s Thursday Thoughts is responses to questions from this ask post.
1: When you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk?
I’ve been eating cereal dry for a while now, so, much more cereal than milk, because there is no milk.
2: Do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day?
Nope! I have loved wearing this facemask all winter!
5: Are you self-conscious of your smile?
Nah. I used to be, but I grew out of it. I have a darn cute smile.
8: What artistic medium do you use to express your feelings?
Hi, my name is Sophie, and I’m a writer!
9: Do you like singing/humming to yourself?
Incessantly!
10: Do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach?
I usually fall asleep on my left side, but I often wake up on my stomach.
11: What’s an inner joke you have with your friends?
You know that bit in Phantom of the Opera, during “Down Once More,” where the Phantom says, “Down a path into darkness deep as HEEEEEEEELL!”
If I’m chatting with two of my best friends, and I say something thoughtful/philosophical (again, hi, my name is Sophie, and I’m a writer), they’ll sing that line at me. “Deep as HEEEEEEEELL!”
12: What’s your favorite planet?
Earth. It’s the only one with chocolate.
13: What’s something that made you smile today?
The weather got cold again today and so there were lots of little kids at work in teddy bear onesies.
15: Go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is!
One million Earths could fit inside the Sun.
Of course we shouldn’t put one million Earths into the Sun, because then all the chocolate would melt.
16: What’s your favorite pasta dish?
Tuna noodle casserole. Tuna, macaroni, a heck of a lot of shredded cheese, and onion soup. Bake at 350 for 20-30 min. Mmmmmm.
19: Do you keep a journal? What do you write/draw/ in it?
I do. Since middle school, I’ve rarely gone without a notebook on me somewhere. I write everything in it - random thoughts, what happened that day, bits of stories or poems or things that will turn into stories or poems, random math problems when I need to multiply something... I also put stickers in it, because I want to keep them.
22: Are you a morning person?
Absolutely not.
23: What’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations?
A day with zero obligations? What’s that? If I had it, though, I would read a book!
24: Is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets?
Yes. My mom and dad. I trust them with everything.
30: Think of it: Have you ever been truly scared?
Yes. And someday, when everyone involved is far enough away from it, I might write about it.
32: Tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends.
I don’t think it was quite to 3am yet, but it was very late at night, and I was at Steak n’ Shake with high school friends (some of whom were a year older and in college already; the high schoolers of us had gone to their campus to see one of them in a play), and I was very tired and had become very silly, and I remember one of my friends telling me, “Sophie, you will never need to get drunk.”
40: Think of a piece of jewelry you own: What’s it’s story? Does it have any meaning to you?
I have a little silver elephant necklace. It was a present from my mom. She bought it off of a friend of hers. That friend got a silver elephant necklace from her boyfriend, and then she went to the gym and lost the necklace, but she didn’t want to tell her boyfriend that she’d lost it, so she bought a new one that looked just like it, and then the people at the gym found the necklace and gave it back to her, so she fessed up to the boyfriend about getting a duplicate necklace, and my mom bought the necklace off of her and gave it to me, because I love elephants. I’ve been wearing it for years, and if I were allowed to wear jewelry at work, I would.
56: What are some things you find endearing in people?
If they get wholeheartedly enthusiastic about something they love. It doesn’t matter if I know anything about the thing. I just love watching and listening to people’s passion.
Also, if they remember things about me. I’m ridiculously bad at remembering things about real people (but story details are locked into my brain forever), so it means a lot to me when someone remembers something I said.
60: Do you like poetry? What are some of your faves?
“I’m nobody! Who are you?” by Emily Dickinson. Also “I have a bird in Spring” by Emily Dickinson. I really like Emily Dickinson.
65: Is there anyone you haven’t seen in a long time who you’d love to hang out with?
Everyone... Thanks, COVID-19.
72: Are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you’ll forget it?
I don’t trust memory. I took too many psychology classes in undergrad to trust memory. It’s all a reconstruction of what we think must have happened. But if I write it down, then I remember!
73: What are some of your worst habits?
I pick at my skin on my fingers, my face, my shoulders, and my chest. And I stay up too late.
79: What’s one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you?
For my birthday this year, my family filmed themselves singing parody versions of “Bella Notte,” “Baby Mine,” “Do You Want To Build A Snowman,” and “Part of Your World,” with lyrics about me and my life, with baby pictures of me interspersed throughout the video. They made me cry. It was great.
80: What color are your bedroom walls? Did you choose that color? If so, why?
They’re white, and no, I didn’t. It’s a rental.
87: What are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives?
Hello have you heard of our lord and savior WALL-E?
89: Are you close to your parents?
I am! I’ve gotten closer to them as I’ve gotten older and come to understand them more. We fought a lot when I was little, ‘cause I was a stubborn brat, but they’ve had my back my whole life.
92: Are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch?
What is pasta if not a vehicle for cheese? A yummy, yummy vehicle...
100: If you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? Why?
I wouldn’t, unless I knew for sure that I could get back to the present again. I’d like to go five years into the past and give twenty-year-old Sophie a hug.
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When you get kidnapped
((I’m getting unusually hooked on Sherlock feels and I need H E L P))
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SHERLOCK HOLMES
If Sherlock somehow got a S/O, it’s because he saw something in you, something sparkling, like a combination of intelligence, charisma and empathy that he doesn’t even realise caught his attention in the first place, but it definitely did.
He didn’t even realise it until John told him one day and he felt like all reality shattered around him -
He is a high functioning sociopath, he couldn’t POSSIBLY be having romantic feelings for another human being...Right?
But he did, and it took a hella long time (and persuasion) to admit it, but finally he did, and asked you out.
After this important step, the other even more important ones followed, which involved accepting that he, SHERLOCK HOLMES, actually had a relationship, and even more, he LOVED it more than he could have imagined.
All the hugs, the little touches, the cuddles, the casual talks, the emotions, the warmth...
All these things and even more made him feel like he was in touch with reality, and despite feeling vulnerable, he felt alive.
Not like when he is chasing after Moriarty or other intriguing cases that only he would be able to solve, but in ways exponentially more calming and soothing.
He was finally able to relax, smile and be content with sitting next to the person he calls his Significant Other.
However, all this came to an end and it was like the whole world crumbled down on him, when he got a crypted message saying that you were kidnapped and he only has 72 hours to save you before you’ll be publicly executed.
Sherlock went insane with rage hearing that and without a second thought he dragged John out of the house and went to Mycroft and Greg because NOBODY in this life is going to harm the only person who showed him empathy.
He is going to make sure you are rescued, safe and sound and at home as soon as possible.
He won’t bother with even one blink of sleep, being too stressed and drinking way too much black coffee - He would forget to stay hydrated and eat, so much that everyone around him will get worried for his health and try to help, but would get rejected anyways because Sherlock is Sherlock.
Hell, he would even go back on drugs and heavy nicotine just to get rid of the stress because it is absolutely killing him - Knowing that you are in danger would make it very difficult for him to concentrate and think objectively or access his mind palace.
And exactly because Sherlock is Sherlock, he’d have her rescued in 2 days tops, but his aggressiveness would show off very clearly, beating the kidnapper until he falls on the ground, unconscious, then calming down, taking deep breaths, and running to your side, hugging you tightly to his chest, whispering reassuring words in your ear - Words that seemed to be more of a way to reassure himself that you are okay, but worked either ways.
He would carry you home bridal style and won’t let anyone get close to you for a long time, especially not when you’re still under shock and fear.
He would be very attentive with you - Like breakfast in bed, tea, hot chocolate, books near you at all times, playing the violin whenever you looked stressed, asking Mycroft for extra security around the house and around you, just in case something like this happens again
And of course, he’d get more protective, not wanting anything like that to happen ever again, especially if Moriarty happens to be in the picture during those times
He knows you are his weakness, but bloody hell, love isn’t an advantage, but it feels very good nonetheless.
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James “Jim” Moriarty
Jim getting an S/O? Well that's gonna be interesting. 
I can imagine you met at a Karaoke pub or something because DAMN this boy L O V E S his 80s and 90s songs more than he loves  (almost) anything else in this world. 
If he goes to a pub to have fun one night and one of his fave songs is gonna play, you bet he'll go right to the mic and sing his heart out. 
Please, at any time, go right to the stage and have a passionate duet with him because no matter how you sing, he will melt.
He will take an interest in you, your love for cool stuff that he’s also into, then your charisma, your sense of humour and of course, your intellect.
Oh boy, if he hears you making super dark jokes, he’ll have the biggest grin on his face and will try to see just how far your jokes/puns will go (Hopefully very dark)
He will ask you out in a very clichee way, with great classic rock songs playing in the background.
Maybe at a vintage pub or some outdoors cinema ‘cause it’s super romantic and lovely and he lives for having fun.
He’d take you EVERYWHERE and ANYWHERE with him - From then on you’re his Queen and he’s going to make sure you and everyone else knows it
All his associates know better than to say anything about you, or there will be hell to pay.
“Somehow”, even life at work/University got an infinite times better and it looked like everywhere you went, flowers bloomed, butterflies flew around and life was wonderful, just like a Queen Deserves.
But you’re not just any Queen - 
You are HIS Queen.
And if anyone dared disrespect his Queen, the whole city would burn.
And that’s exactly what happened when he came home, expecting to see pancakes, maple syrup, popcorn and Lord of the Rings prepared in the bedroom, as you talked before, for a perfect evening of relaxation and fun, but instead found your apartment a mess.
It was pretty obvious to Moriarty who dared kidnap you, of course, competition, a petty underground mobster who thought he could bait him to get what he wants.
Of course, that won’t work for Moriarty because he would die before letting anyone foil his plans, which means that he literally burnt and skinned alive anyone who went in his path of rescuing you.
As soon as he got to the place where you were taken, he made sure to make a very grant and dramatic entrance, worthy of remembering - Lots of explosions, screams, fire and him being a King.
If the kidnapper even dared touch a hair on your head, he would wreak havoc and torture him to death no joke, but first of all, he’d make sure you are alright and get you home, preparing the perfect evening at home, just as you dreamt to do before getting kidnapped.
After that, he’d pamper you even more than before, but he’d ask if you’d want to move in with him, because his home is more secure, and when you need to leave the house, you will be assured that security guards will always be there to save the day.
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Mycroft Holmes
Mycroft, the “Ice man” Holmes, the one known to Sherlock and his friends as the “British Government” , is also a human being and has his own elegant and fancy hobbies.
And one of them is exactly the way he met his S/O, despite not even realising it at first, or rather said, not wanting to believe that he fell in love so easily.
Whenever he has enough free time to take a break from being such an important person, he goes to the same small vintage cafe where the smell of aromatic tea and cake fills the air and the sound of classical music helps him relax.
There were never too many people there so he never felt cramped or uncomfortable, but one day he went there and he found only his reserved table empty, only to quickly find out from the waitress that there was a holiday and it was only natural for there to be more people than usual.
Sighing, he went to his usual seat by the window and waited for the tea to get brewed, only to hear the door bell clink again, and a gorgeous woman in a beautiful dress entered the cafe, rather shy and unsure, looking rather lost like a meerkat, then went to the waitress, asking if there were any empty seats.
Feeling bad for you, since you were a regular there, much like Mycroft, so the waitress humbly asked him if he was okay with you staying there, and he agreed with no second thought.
Feeling shy and awkward, you softly give your thanks to the man in front of you, promising that you won’t bother him, then took out your book, “Pride and Prejudice” and started reading from where you left it.
Unknown to you, Mycroft’s eyes were on you as soon as you took out your book because, despite not wanting everyone to know it, he loved such books.
As you kept reading, the gentle rays of Sun lit up your face like you were a Goddess and Mycroft found himself enchanted by your presence, until the waitress came and brought you two the tea and cake you ordered and the funny coincidence was that you both ordered the same type of cake.
Smiling at each other, you started conversing lightly about casual topics that went deeper with each “accidental date” you two kept having each time you kept buming into each other at the cafe, but let’s face it, from Mycroft it was never accidental.
It took a lot from him to ask you out, but after many dates that involved casual walks through the parks, library dates, cafe dates, opera dates and so on, he just couldn’t not do that because....
Because you are special.
And he would threaten everyone with his umbrella sword if they dared come close to you, with evil intent.
Of course, he is a gentleman and he doesn’t get jealous easily.
On the other hand, when he first showed off his Umbrella sword, you got super excited and asked him to show you how to fence, because you wanted to be a fencing princess - A lady with many tricks up her frilly sleeves.
Unfortunately, no amount of fencing classes or sword umbrellas could save you from being kidnapped during your walk through the park, when you were about to meet Mycroft.
Since you were extremely punctual, and if something happened, you’d call in advance to explain the situation, the elder Holmes started worrying when you didn’t arrive and wouldn’t pick up your phone either.
He kept pacing around until he received a phone from his subordinates who informed him that you got kidnapped and the evil man asked for a huge Government favour and a pretty significant ransom.
He was livid with rage, but as usual, he wouldn’t show it.
Instead, he called his younger brother to help him solve the case and find where the kidnapped was hidden so he could rescue you faster and make sure you weren’t harmed in any way.
He’d make your safety his top priority, letting Sherlock and the rest deal with the kidnapper before he would ensure he never sees daylight again, but until then, you must relax and get tend to.
If you were hurt, he’d bring the best doctors at his home to make sure you’re okay.
If you were okay, he’d make sure to stay and reassure you for a long time, taking a mini-break from work, watching movies, walking through parks and listening to music with you, just so you’ll regain some trust in the world around you.
When you’re feeling better, he will of course have to return to his busy and hectic life style, but would try to keep you around his office more often, instead of staying home alone - Because let’s face it, his office is like a gorgeous old school library - And the security would be SO much tighter.
There is nobody in this world who would dare touch Mycroft’s S/O, because they will get obliterated before they could even think about using such a pure and angelic being as a bait to get him to do something against the Government and so on.
He treasures you to infinity and beyond and wants you to know that, even though he doesn’t say it too often, but he’s a man of actions, not words, and so, you never feel neglected.
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ruoyeming · 4 years
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My Fav Books, another chaotic list
Another quarantine review fest! I know I ranked my top anime but this is seriously too hard so I’m just going to list them to avoid hours of debate. Enjoy!
1) The Skulduggery Pleasant series
This whopper of a series (now at 15 books jesus christ I didn’t know there were that many I’ve only read about twelve) has a special place in my heart. I was FULLY obsessed with it throughout my tween - and teen - years, and for a reason. This shit just butters my bread like nothing else. The story follows a young girl Valkyrie Cain (who eventually becomes a young woman through the series) and her partner in crime, a fashionable living skeleton called Skulduggery Pleasant. They’re MAGICAL DETECTIVES!!!! Bitch!!! They use elemental magic - water, earth, fire, air - to fight off magic-wielding bad guys and look good doing it. The duo is hilarious and seriously shaped my sense of humour, the dry wit and comedic writing style stuck with me and influenced my own writing style to this day! As the series progresses we get a massive cast of characters but to me they’re all memorable, likable (mostly) and well-developed so that’s not an issue. I have no fukcing clue how Derek Landy comes up with his stories because every book in the series has an absolutely wild (yet unique) plot with its own twists and turns. It gets REALLY dark and depressing at times, gory, brutal etc etc especially in the later books I have no idea why this is labeled as a kids series.
10/10 for badassery, humour, and MAD codependency issues
2) The Feverwake series
This bitch is one hell of a YA series. It’s actually only a 2 book-series which is rare, but that’s not the only thing that sets it apart from other creations of its genre. It’s hard to explain the setup without waffling so I’ll just quote the blurb of the first book: “In the former United States, sixteen-year-old Noam Álvaro wakes up in a hospital bed, the sole survivor of the viral magic that killed his family and made him a technopath. His ability to control technology attracts the attention of the minister of defense and thrusts him into the magical elite of the nation of Carolinia.
The son of undocumented immigrants, Noam has spent his life fighting for the rights of refugees fleeing magical outbreaks—refugees Carolinia routinely deports with vicious efficiency. Sensing a way to make change, Noam accepts the minister’s offer to teach him the science behind his magic, secretly planning to use it against the government. But then he meets the minister’s son—cruel, dangerous, and achingly beautiful—and the way forward becomes less clear.”
As you can tell from this, the series is heavy on its politics but in a grounded, realistic and relevant way which is different to many other YA series. Marxist theory is brought up, and you can make some pretty strong links between the books and real events. The magic also has a semi-scientific explanation which is cool and adds to the realness. Anyways this series is action packed and full of twists, plus there’s a bisexual main character and queer romance at the core!! Wig!!! Very good for moral debate - how far is it acceptable to go to protect the oppressed before you become one of the oppressors? Dark and exciting series.
10/10 queer representation and political themes.
3) Spin the Dawn
It’s probably obvious that I’m biased towards YA books but they’re just so exciting and cool! Anyways this is about a girl living in a kind of alternate universe ancient China where magic exists. Maia Tamarin is a skilled seamstress who dreams of being the Imperial Tailor, a position that can only be held by a man. She poses as her brother to go to the royal palace and enter a competition full of skilled tailors, all vying for the role of imperial tailor. She also meets Edan; a mysterious, annoying, but SEXY mage who seems to know her secret identity? Oho? IMO this would be an elevated book if Edan had been a girl but that’s just me being gay. As the final challenge Maia is tasked with making 3 dresses from the sun, moon, and stars - a mission that takes her to the ends of the world in search of these magical materials (obvs Edan goes with her and they kiss kiss fall in love). It’s a fairly classic YA plot and characters but the combination of Project Runway, Mulan, and kind of Lord of the Rings(??) vibes makes for a very entertaining read. It’s also really fun to imagine what the clothes look like, plus the romance between Maia and Edan is very cute. Second book is yet to be published but sounds lit.
10/10 magic fashion and romance (despite its heterosexuality)
4) Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Usually I steer clear of angsty gay stories because I’ve consumed too much of the depressing narrative which is all about suffering because of being gay, but fuuuuuuck this book is like the definition of bittersweet. Mostly bitter to be fair but it has a happy ending which was lovely after the emotional torment of the book. It’s about two teen boys - Aristotle is angry and repressed, Dante is eccentric but kind, and the two eventually form a strong friendship after meeting at the local pool. It’s kind of obvious that Ari is in denial about a few things, which leads to some real sad boi hours. There’s also a devastating moment around halfway (not sure) through with a car accident which makes the whole thing 10x heavier. Despite all this, the book has its sweet moments - parents play a big role, but not in the way they usually do in queer stories - and like I said the ending is the bandage for your broken heart. I’m not sure what it is about the writing style, maybe the way it just cuts between scenes randomly or perhaps the way the dialogue and actions are so realistic, but it’s so different to any other book I’ve read that it’s stayed in my mind for a while after reading it.
10/10 really good philosophy plus supportive parents
5) The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue
Okay if this was a ranked list, this bad boy would be on its way to the top spot. It’s got everything: historical setting, gays, pirates, alchemy, humour, adventure, angst, character development, and some healthy second-hand embarrassment. It’s not complicated or philosophical but reading this book all in one go is like taking five shots and diving into a pool. It’s exciting and witty, but deals with darker themes like child abuse too. One of the MCs also has a disability and doesn’t treat it as something to be cured, which is a lesson our protagonist has to learn. Speaking of protagonists, Henry ‘Monty’ Montague is a great main character. He’s obnoxious, oblivious, and hedonistic yet quick-witted and passionate, and he has a good heart. Sometimes you just want to grab him by the shoulders and shake him for being such an ignorant idiot, but throughout the book he grows and learns to open his mind more (as well as becoming more humble). He’s a great example of a flawed yet likable main character. He is also a bisexual icon.
Oof forgot to even talk about the story. Monty embarks on a tour of Europe, usually taken by lads his age to get all cultured before they settle down and inherit the family company or whatever. With him are his younger sister Felicity, a girl with a brilliant mind for science who isn’t taken seriously by anyone because of her gender, and the lovely Percy, Monty’s lifelong best friend (and crush). Monty ends up stealing a very valuable object that turns the Tour into a manhunt across Europe, and drags the trio into a big ol’ conspiracy involving something that may or may not be the philosopher’s stone????
Issues of race, gender, and disability in historical context are really well done, and it’s an absolute banger of a book.
10/10 very exciting adventure, plus GREAT GAY ROMANCE
6) Heaven Official’s Blessing
HOOOOOO BOY. This is probably my absolute fave on this list. It’s a webnovel (originally Chinese but the full translation is online). Set in ancient china in the cultivation world (difficult as shit to explain if ur not into all of that but I’ll try), basically there’s three realms - the heavenly realm, the human/mortal realm, and the ghostly realm. If a mortal reaches a certain point (good deeds, power etc), they ascend to become a god - or if they fall far enough, they become a ghost. 
I’ll just quote the author’s description again cause I don’t have the brain cells required:
 “Eight hundred years ago, Xie Lian was the Crown Prince of the Xian Le kingdom. He was loved by his citizens and was considered the darling of the world. He ascended to the Heavens at a young age; however, due to unfortunate circumstances, was quickly banished back to the mortal realm. Years later, he ascends again–only to be banished again a few minutes after his ascension. Now, eight hundred years later, Xie Lian ascends to the Heavens for the third time as the laughing stock among all three realms. On his first task as a god thrice ascended, he meets a mysterious demon who rules the ghosts and terrifies the Heavens, yet, unbeknownst to Xie Lian, this demon king has been paying attention to him for a very, very long time.”
It’s hard to describe the enormity of this story and all the emotions it encapsulates, you really have to read it for yourself. But bitch the undying, pure, Hozier-devotion-level LOVE is by far my favourite part of this story. If you’re looking for an epic, god-tier gay romance, then this is it baby!! This story has comedy, action, and downright harrowingly depressing moments, but throughout is this achingly beautiful love between fallen god and last believer.
I don’t wanna give too much away cause there are some big ol’ plot reveals, but oooh this shit made me cry. The protagonist is MY FAVOURITE EVER I didn’t think it was possible to like a protag so much!! He’s legit my fave character! At first he seems oblivious and carefree but he’s just doing his goddamn best after all he’s been through and he’s so fukcing kind and just wants to help everyone for fuckcs sake excuse me I need to go have a breakdown.
Okay I’m back, anyway there’s a great cast of characters, even the background characters are all incredibly memorable and all given their time to shine and develop. My faves include Quan Yizhen, a rowdy himbo who just wants to fight, and Shi Qing Xuan, a friendly genderfluid god who controls the wind. Read this shit I’m not joking it’ll change your life. 
10/10 for everything
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harrietvane · 6 years
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do you mind talking about why you dislike Love Actually and Richard Curtis's romcoms? I've seen you mention it in some of your tags and I'd love to hear your thoughts :)
Long post, so scroll now, ye who care not.
OK, so like better voices than mine have articulated Why Love Actually Sucks Balls, but you were kind enough to ask for my view, so strap in I’m gonna talk about Jane Eyre, and the 1990’s Fran Drescher sitcom The Nanny also. It’s coming up on western civilisations’ holiday season, so why not, it’s a good time to tell this movie to choke, because it’s about to be repeatedly thrust upon us once again. (Disclaimer: I acknowledge Richard Curtis is responsible for Blackadder and Vicar of Dibley, so whatever else, we’re still cool on that basis. But I have spite and to spare, so there’s plenty to go around).
My main beef is actually the context. Technically, if all of the below bullshit was in an offbeat movie from any other movie market (I’m thinking maybe a French, or Spanish movie from the 90′s boom, Almodovar style?), the focus would probably be a black humour take on ‘Lord What Fools These Mortals Be!’, sort of look at the inherent ridiculousness of mankind, and how we get in our own way, blah blah, might have been cute. I’d buy that. This movie? A british movie for the american market? It’s sold with a big holiday sticker on it saying ‘ROMANCE’, and specifically ‘ADORABLE ASPIRATIONAL ROMANCE THAT YOU SHOULD ADORE AND ASPIRE TO’. Also the context *inside* the movie itself (through a narration voiceover no less) is that all of these narratives is somehow proof that ‘Love, Actually is all around’, and specifically in a good, wholesome, happy way, overall at least. These stories are redeeming, even if they’re not all happy, they’re Good™ or whatever. The context outside the movie is the same: british TV advertising, hard copy packaging, holiday specials, outdoor gala screenings: they all say over and over: THIS IS SQUISHY HOT PINK NEON LOVE, wholesome, healing, and healthy. You should want this, aspire to this, think this is the cat’s pyjamas! It’s a wide and varied look at the beautiful power of love from all angles, comic, tragic, the lot. 
Is it fuck. The ‘positive’ romance stories range from Stage-5 Creeper to Crotch Puppet Afterthought, the ‘melancholy’, thwarted romance stories seem to say ‘if you’re a woman who’s not readily/immediately bangable to your allocated straight dude, romance is over for you I’m afraid’. Let’s recap, shall we:
Much has already been said about Andrew Lincoln’s character BLANTANTLY SHARKING ON HIS BEST MATE’S WIFE being uhhh, less than fresh. I don’t even feel like I need to justify this one, it’s so over-the-top. The main point is that movie itself maintains this as a tragic, swoony, thwarted, heart-string-tugging missed connection, rather than The Worst Friend Ever (meaning: it assumes we’ll be 100% onboard with Keira Knightley skipping secretly away from Chiwetel Eijiofor to grant his best mate one treasured kiss, as opposed to saying ‘what the FUCK Mark, why are you telling me this, this is super inappropriate?? and my only wedding video is just you zooming in on my face? Pls get help’.
We all love National Treasure Colin Firth and all, but like is Love, Actually fixating on a woman who literally can’t speak to you? Has said nothing understandable to you? About whose own life you’ve never yet, and could never have asked about? Whose main interactions with you have been to wordlessly clean your room, bring you food, and tidy it away after? Your ideal woman, who you meet immediately following a break up, is one who silently meets all your domestic needs, while making zero emotional or intellectual demands on you whatsoever? WOW, SHOCKER. (Oh but it’s cute or whatever, they have him propose, and there’s a mix up when her sister appears, but she’s Ugly™, so it’s funny that the sister is not getting romance. I mean, how could she, an uggo?? Classic joke. Good times.)
The Prime Minster and his tea lady: more on Curtis’ Domestic Servitude Kink below, whoo boy.
Laura Linney would really really like to sleep with Rodrigo Santoro, and god bless her who wouldn’t, but she is tragically unable to, because she has family commitments as being the sister – not even fulltime carer, just RELATED TO -  a brother living with disability. Sorry folks, romance is OFF THE CARDS, FOREVER for Laura here. How can she??? That’s the nature of love, actually. Can you have sex right now this moment? No? Whelp, sorry, thanks for playing, back to the Tragic Assisted Living facility for you. Gosh it’s unfortunate that’s a truth universally acknowledged that any whiff of disability = no romance for you ever. (Don’t start me on 4 Weddings* [edit: *it’s totally Notting Hill, not 4 Weddings, thank] and how that husband is like The Best because he continues to love his wife even though her legs don’t work. What a champ, honestly, do they have an award for that?) I have to stop now before I get sarcasm poisoning, but my eyes will continue to roll.
How could I say anything bad about the Liam Neeson widower and his adorable lovestruck son storyine? Lol, I’m gonna. Have you seen the Buffy episode The Zeppo? Xander is convinced the only way girls (as a concept, not in the specific) will like him enough to sleep with him is if he has A Thing. The Thing is posited as ‘being cool’ by having an object or skill that alone will be the magic bullet to romance. Musical instrument prowess is considered, and he ends up just getting a car to be his Thing. This just seems like a redux of that logic. This kid could get some genuine direction from the movie to get to know this girl, learn her interests and share his, see if she likes him as a person by being A PERSON, but the narrative just backs away from that and eventually DOES just say ‘play the drums in the show, she’ll like you’ and that’s …it. But it’s cool, teenagers don’t learn key interpersonal dynamics at this age or anything, she kisses him for some reason, whatever. (Bonus points for gifting his dad with a literal supermodel as a punchline, after making that an actual joke earlier about the shallow nature of attraction, and love is about filling a one-sided need.)
I could go on, but I have very little to say about Freeman falling for a girl whose tits he’s been holding for a week, the no-homo pop star Nighy plot, or the guy that goes and has sex in Wisconsin with Bond Girls, and can’t be bothered, which leads me to…
Richard Curtis’ Domestic Servitude Kink. Must I kinkshame Richard Curtis in his own home?? Nope, I’m kinkshaming him AT WORK in his narratives, surrounded by his nubile, pliant, adorable female employee characters. Oh Mr Curtis, I seem to have dropped a pencil!
OK, so like a M/F Domestic Servitude romance is an extremely old trope, and extremely common, and I’m not here to tear that up, because done well it’s amazing, lot of petrol in that King Cophetua narrative tank. I’m a fan. The most famous in-context historical example being Jane Eyre, for instance: he’s her boss, she’s his paid subordinate, they’re both 100% aware of that. It’s a great way to explore the real-life class and power dynamics of these 2 train wrecks of human beings, and they vomit their ridiculous drama llama feelings all over a 600 page novel. Super fun, they’re both awful humans, I love them. Mid-century you might have The Sound of Music, and in more modern times you get 1990s sitcom The Nanny, both extremely well-developed romances involving paid employees, and part of their value is that the shows KNOW THIS. They’re aware it’s the basis for their dynamic, that they have to directly play with that, and develop beyond to go anywhere. Watching Fran Fine in her runway-fresh Moschino minidresses jump on Maxwell Sheffield’s desk for the 800th time making him super uncomfortable (and not a little turned on) is always such a treat. It’s right out there on the label. The problem with Love, Actually, is Curtis doesn’t want to admit that naughty secretary seems to be a cornerstone of what gets him going, romantic-stylez. 
One (1) time in the movie would be ‘sure, why not’. Literally the highest political office in the land, making overtures to the woman who brings him tea, i guess might be a bit off, but let’s say it’s done well, and maybe Hugh Grant and Martine McCutcheon’s charisma gets us over the line (his behaviour is cute because her last man didn’t like her body, but the prime minister DOES like her body! so it’s cute!). Whatever, seen worse. Two (2) times however is making a point, and Colin Firth is driving his silent portuguese maid home - not a french maid but so close! - and deciding he’d like her to bring him tea and clean his toilet for as long as they both shall live, and that also seems to be her greatest joy. Ah, l’amour. OK, I guess you like the thing, everyone has a thing, but at least you’re done now. Wait, you mean there’s a third (3rd) one? Everyone’s Fave Alan Rickman drives the plot of his own marriage’s tragic romance because he’s having stiffening feelings about his own Naughty Secretary halloween costume, after all. All the beautiful speeches about Joni Mitchell give Thompson some nice things to do, but it still assumes the Nature of Romance is to want to plough the help. A man can’t help it! It’s how romantic attraction works! Once would be whatever. Three times and there’s a tag on Ao3 for that, so please just scratch that itch and stop selling it to me in a heartwarming christmas movie as the Universal Nature Of Romance, so varied, so vast, the full spectrum! Just 2 hours to tell a story: but 3 whole narratives and 7 actors devoted to the variants on the naughty maid story. My point is be upfront about it and I’d be all for it - pretend it’s not A Thing You’re Doing and my creep-meter goes ping. Steven Shainberg’s ‘Secretary’ has a scene where the boss literally puts a saddle on his employee, and I find it to be one of the most genuinely moving romances I’ve ever seen. Love Actually makes me feel like Curtis is sending me a ‘u up?’ late night text about his secretary fantasy.
Anyway, I fucking hate this film, and not necessarily because of the content, but because of the context. The movie tells me to love it as aspirational romance. My culture tells me to love it as aspirational romance. Everyone tells me to love it as a varied and full exploration of reasons to get up in the morning, because it’s an aspirational romance. It makes me want to claw my own face off.
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dihidean · 6 years
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The Sinking of ‘Ships
I’ve shipped quite a few couples in the years that I’ve been a TV fanatic and I have to say: I’m really getting tired of my ‘ships getting screwed (and not the fun way) in the end. And it leaves me to think, what is so wrong with “happily ever after?” in fictional TV?
A history of my ‘ships...
My first ‘ship (dating myself here) Joel and Maggie on “Northern Exposure” saw a sad, truncated ending when the actor who played Joel left the show a year before it officially wrapped. They separated (for seemingly ever) and Maggie implausibly cozied up to the only other available male on the show, with an implied happy ending for them (a character she’d been strictly friends with for years). In this case, real-life issues influenced the ending. Did I see these two going the distance? Most likely not, since they were very Sam-and-Dianeish in their love/hate relationship. Still, the ending was rushed, odd, and broke my young shipper heart to pieces.
Did it stop me from shipping? Not in the least. Next, I adored the cool, forbidden love of Michael and Nikita from USA’s “La Femme Nikita.” After finally getting together, they were separated (rather nonsensically) in a season-ending cliffhanger (after it was revealed--ugh--that Nikita was a double agent and had been screwing over (and not in the fun way) Michael for years). And THEN the show was unceremoniously canceled. Fans clamored for & won a truncated final season where M & N got to sporadically interact (the actor who played Michael only did a few of the eps) until being separated...for seemingly ever.
Thank God for Netflix or else Luke and Lorelei’s ending would have been a quick “kiss and most likely happily ever after.” This after my beloved Amy Sherman-Palladino actually did--on a network show--the “secret kid from a previous relationship” trope favored by afternoon soaps (rumor at the time was this was done out of spite since her and her hubby’s contract demands weren’t met and they unceremoniously quit their own show). My heart broke again until it was finally stitched up haphazardly by the reboot on Netflix (oh, the L/L story was glorious and that wedding(!!) Love it!). I do say haphazardly though since Rory’s story’s end (or is it?) was again, kind of a downer. Taking the story back to its beginnings, but still, why did the daughter have to repeat the sins of the mother? Sigh. I wanted her with Jess.
The one shining star in the bunch? My beloved Emma and Hook from Once Upon a Time. Although I did have some quibbles with their storyline over the years (ahem, the ridiculous rebooted 7th season with Wish Hook), those two ended up together, married, and with a kid. And frankly their storyline was really well done. Nicely paced. Romantic. Sweet. Sexy. Adventurous. Conflicted. It had it all. I loved how both characters grew and ended up finding a good, stable life together. Finally, one of my ships had sailed!
Eric and Sookie from True Blood. I just...ugh. I can’t even bring myself to talk about the ridiculous ending to their story...both in the books and the TV show. Again, not sure they would have gone the distance but goodness, they couldn’t even have let it end on an open-ended note? 
And now to Klaus and Caroline from The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. Spoilers are out about their ending and, sigh. Of course. Rumors have it, no endgame and in addition to that, the death of Klaus. The immortal big-bad hybrid who was supposed to be finding redemption due to his unexpected daughter is going to commit suicide? I know I should be happy that we even got continued interactions between Klaus and Caroline. After their last interaction in season 5 of TVD and with the writers literally saying their story was over for good...I guess anything after that is icing on the cake, right? Still the way they were written in season five of The Originals and Klaus’ contention that he would be Caroline’s last love, I thought we might at least be left with the open-ended idea that that might meet up later...yet that doesn’t seem like it’s meant to be. 
I guess I don’t get it, from a writing/show runner perspective. Isn’t entertainment the goal of your shows? Is it so wrong to give your fans what they want? Why is fan service so bad? Why finally have the Ted character on “How I Met Your Mother” meet the mother, have her be awesome, and then kill her off? In my shipping experience, only the show that was literally about “finding happily-ever-afters” Once Upon a Time, actually respected its audience’s feelings and gave them a happy, joyful uplifting ending. Why all the death? Destruction? Why the “gotcha” endings that strain the credibility of the storylines, character motivations, and character relationships you’ve spent years building? Surprising your audience is a completely different thing than surprising them with something that goes against character and established narrative just to upset them or leave them without a sense of resolution.
Writers and show runners can certainly do what they want, but death is no longer shocking. And frankly, at this point, it seems over done and like a cop-out to me and certainly a way to purposely hurt your audience and diminish their sometimes years-long investment in your work. My fave finales: The Wonder Years, The Office, Parks and Rec, ER, Friends, The West Wing... these honored what came before but also paid off viewers love of the characters and how they had grown throughout the series. Some death may have occurred, but nothing that ruined the shows for me (ER expertly rebuilt its character base over the years so when beloved characters died, there were ones still living that you could still root for). 
I want to ‘ship again, but I may need some time off. I tend to involve my whole heart and it just ends up getting hurt in the end. Real life is crazy and upsetting and disappointing and heartbreaking...and TV shows can be as well. But when they end for good, I just wish more would take the route of happily-ever-after. Lord knows that as an escape from the hurts and disappointments of real life and an increasingly conflicted and hurting world, a happily-ever-after in fiction might be the salve we all need.
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mushairaandchill · 6 years
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hiii im interested in getting into bollywood and indian films, could you rec some of your faves and anywhere they might be with english subtitles? thank you
Hey there :D
Honestly, I lean more on the 'artsy' / parallel cinema side of things lol, but I'll try my best to make a balanced list. This is sort of semi-divided by theme/tone, director and genre but not rly organized. I'm providing the best links I can find, otherwise Netflix and Amazon might have these available to stream too.
Raavanan (a modern adaptation of the Ramayana that sort of reverses who is the protagonist and antagonist, but you don't really need to know that story for this to make sense. The wife of a cop is kidnapped by an anti-government tribal leader, and although she at first hates and fears him and his community, she begins to realize that her own husband and the police force he works for have done far worse.)
Vishal Bhardwaj's entire Shakespeare Trilogy:
Maqbool (adaptation of Macbeth, moves the story to Mumbai's criminal underworld)
Omkara (adaptation of Othello, moves the story to gangland Uttar Pradesh)
Haider (adaptation of Hamlet, moves the story to Kashmir during a period of extreme turmoil and violence under Indian occupation)
Kaminey (estranged twin brothers, each with a different speech impediment, live markedly different lives in Mumbai. One is a thug who dreams of running his own betting establishment, one is a college student and social worker who tries to live honestly but has gotten himself into trouble after impregnating a gangster's sister. Fate fucks with them so hard that their stories converge again)
7 Khoon Maaf (a woman marries, and then murders, seven men. They all deserved it)
Gangs of Wasseypur Part I and II (a rather graphic and relentlessly violent multi-generational saga of gangsters and politicians who are indistinguishable from another. In the 1940s, bandit and hired thug Shahid Khan starts a feud with the Qureshis and Ramadhir Singh that far outlasts him.)
Black Friday (a film that deals directly with real life events. After bomb blasts throughout Bombay kill hundreds of people, police begin a manhunt for those responsible. What they find is a rabbithole, full of gangster involvement, communal violence, religious extremism, and the greatest depths of human despair. It's a film that honestly emotionally disturbs me, so even tho I'm recommending it lol I'd say be careful if you watch it)
Ishqiya and Dedh Ishqiya (Two conmen/criminals, who happen to be uncle and nephew, steal money from their boss and go on the run. Along the way they run into rather dangerous women, fall in love, get in further trouble. The female characters in these movies are fuckin amazing)
Bajrangi Bhaijaan (an Indian man helps a little Pakistani girl find her way back to her country. It's a moving and incredibly heartwarming film omg)
3 Idiots (two college friends go on a roadtrip to find another college friend who mysteriously left during graduation and never contacted them again. Throughout it, they reminisce over college-era hijinks while getting into hijinks in the present day too)
Main Hoon Na (a profoundly campy film that nevertheless is one of the best films I've seen in my life. A soldier goes undercover as a student at his estranged half-brother's college to protect an army general's daughter. Along the way, he tries to connect with his brother and stepmother, without letting them know who he really is. He falls in love with a teacher who's actually his age so it's fine lmao There's a India-Pakistan plot going on, a rogue former army general is planning havoc, a million Hindi cinema tropes are lovingly lampooned as well as played straight. It's great)
Jab We Met (a straight laced, joyless man, depressed after being rejected by the girl he loved, boards a train intending to throw himself off it. A bubbly, extremely talkative woman saves him from doing so. They end up stranded after the train leaves without them. They go on a journey that changes them both. I LOVE this movie lol)
Mughal-e-Azam (the first sweeping epic of Hindi cinema, it's passed into legend in the decades since it first played in theatres. During the reign of Emperor Akbar, a dancing girl named Anarkali and the emperor's son, prince Salim, fall in love but their relationship is opposed by the Emperor, which leads to tensions and violence between father and son, threatening the very foundation of the Mughal Empire.)
Meera (a young woman faces great obstacles and scorn because of her deep spiritual love for and devotion to Lord Krishna. The story explores the various restrictions, responsibilities and burdens society places on a woman in the framework of spirituality and religious devotion.)
Baahubali Part I and II (AMAZING fantasy/action films set in ancient India about a young man who discovers that he's actually the heir to a kingdom that his uncle acquired through cheating, and who then sets out to reclaim it and avenge the wrong done to his family. Completely shattered box office records in India when it came out)
Jodhaa-Akbar (another film that takes place during Emperor Akbar's reign, but this time focuses on Akbar's relationship with Jodhaa Bai (irl Maryam-uz-Zamaani), Salim's mother and a Hindu Rajput princess. Their marriage is arranged for political reasons, but they eventually take a liking to each other. Unfortunately, many obstacles stand in their way to happiness)
Bajirao Mastani (a Maratha general and a Muslim princess fall in love, even though the general is already married. She's hated and discriminated against because of her religion by his household, but she pursues the relationship anyway. It's an indescribably beautiful movie - visually. But plot-wise there's a lot left to be desired lmao)
Devdas (from the same director as BM but with a slightly better script lmao. A man devolves into alcoholism after his childhood love is married off to someone else. A courtesan falls for him, but he can't forget his first love. It's one of the most visually stunning films ever made.)
Here's some older movies that I really love but idk if them being old would be off-putting:
Pyaasa (Honestly one of the best films ever made, and that's really a widely held opinion among both critics and viewers. A poet struggles in a world that devalues his work and his humanity. The only person who understands him and appreciates his poetry is a prostitute, herself an outcast in society. The film examines the world through the lens of an idealist whose worldview crumbles with every blow he's dealt.  I'm terrible at describing it lmao it really needs to be watched to be understood)
Kaagaz Ke Phool (a sort of spiritual successor to Pyaasa, this film is about a director who falls from grace as his personal life disintegrates. It also sort of defies easy description ;v;)
Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (a country boy newly arrived to the city begins an unlikely friendship with the sad, neglected wife of a land-owning aristocrat and has to watch as she is slowly to lost to her despair and alcoholism)
Guide (a tour guide falls in love with a married dancer and throws himself into building her career, but gradually becomes hedonistic, self-absorbed and jealous as she becomes a star.)
Shree 420 (an honest and idealistic young man is lured into a world of gambling, conning and exploitation after he comes to the city and finds it difficult to get by on his values and education. This movie is socialist propaganda and I love it)
Mandi (centers on the inhabitants of a brothel as they're caught up in puritanical political outbursts against their profession and an effort by the state to evict them from their home. Sounds dramatic but is actually mad satirical and a dark comedy)
Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (two hapless photographers get caught up in a tangled web of real estate corruption and politics after they accidentally photograph a murder)
Aandhi (a politician runs into her ex-husband and it opens a floodgate of memories for them both. A really good depiction of a woman's struggle to reconcile her career with all the expectations and responsibilities foisted on her as a wife and mother.)
Rajnigandha (a young woman is torn between her fiancee and her college boyfriend after she reconnects with the latter during a trip to Bombay. Honestly one of the most poignant films I’ve ever seen.)
I’m gonna end this here bc I’ve gone on waaay longer than I intended to lmao ;_; Sorry that this got so longwinded! Anyway, I hope this helped you, I tried to provide concise summaries so you could decide whether the premise appeals to you but I might just have made things more confusing? xD I hope not!
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livingcorner · 3 years
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The Secret Garden
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Average rating 4.13  · 
You're reading: The Secret Garden
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Start your review of The Secret Garden
Aug 08, 2009 K.D. Absolutely rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Recommended to K.D. by: TFG Top 100 Favorite Books (2011)
I am now confused. I do not know anymore what is my preference when it comes to books.
When I was a kid, I wanted to read only books with pictures like the illustrated “Alice in the Wonderland” or “Rip Van Winkle”. Until I read “Silas Marner” with no pictures and I said, wow, books with no pictures are also great!
When I was a teenager, I said I don’t like to read books that are hard to understand and read by adults until I read “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov and I said, wow, I did not know that th …more
100 days into 2021 and 100 books have been read. Check out my latest BookTube Video to see which ones are my fave!
The Written Review
Orphaned Mary Lennox had a sour face, bitter temperment and dismal dispostion.
But could you blame her? Nine years old and she was barely shown an ounce of affection.
Her parents saw her as an accessory (to be paraded about for parties) and when they died, and Mary shipped off to live with a distant uncle…she felt just as alone as ever.
She spent her time on t …more
Love love love Also: counting this as my first BookTubeAThon read even if I read only 2 pages during the actual readathon, I NEED ALL THE BOOKS I CAN GET
Jan 04, 2021 Ruby Granger rated it it was amazing
I cannot believe this took me so long to read.
In the spirit of A Little Princess, this story recognises the characteristics we must prize most as human beings. The book follows contrary Mary Lennox as she learns a very important lesson from a very secret garden.
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden is a children’s novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published as a book in 1911, after a version was published as an American magazine serial beginning in 1910. Set in England, it is one of Burnett’s most popular novels and is considered a classic of English children’s literature. Several stage and film adaptations have been made.
عنوانها: «باغ اسرارآمیز»؛ «باغ مخفی»؛ «باغ راز:؛ نویسنده: فرانسیس هاجسن برنت؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیس …more
Read more: What Is a Raised Bed, Anyway?
Jun 25, 2014 Lisa rated it it was amazing
“Two worst things as can happen to a child is never to have his own way – or always to have it.”
As a child, I read this book at least four or five times, along with Frances Hodgson Burnett’s other childhood stories about Sarah Crewe (Little Princess) and Cedric (Lord Fauntleroy). They represented a rite of passage for me as a person and as a reader. There is magic involved in coming-of-age stories where children strive to find the kind of life they are meant to live, against all odds, and I fel …more
Book 16 of 30 for my 30 day reading challenge.
Two sickly, arrogant, lonely neglected little children from wealthy families both ten cousins, live continents apart Mary Lennox in hot, steamy colonial India and Colin Craven, he in rainy, cold, Yorkshire northern England a cripple just before the start of the First World War, they don’t even known the other exists but will soon both like to show contempt to servants by yelling at them, while giving orders . Mary is spoiled unhappy and angry her beautiful mother loves parties, doesn’t look kind …more
This book is so magical! I love it so much!!
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I have a special edition coming that I hope to share with y’all.
Mel
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…more
Nov 23, 2009 Manybooks rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: ANYONE
I first read this wonderful and evocative absolute and utter gem of a story at around the age of twelve (and it was likely one of the first longer novels I read entirely in English, not counting those books read entirely for school). And I simply adored Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden when I read it as a young teenager (or rather, a tween), I continued to love it when I reread it multiple times while at university, and I still massively loved the novel when I reread the story for the …more
Dec 26, 2020 Maureen rated it it was amazing
A favourite from many years ago, fantastic to reconnect with it in 2020! Wonderful.
Aug 22, 2007 Todd rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: parents
I know this book seems out of place among the fare I usually read, but hey, all I can say is that I like what I like. There is some intangible quality to this book that really strikes a chord in me. The whole idea of that sickly child being healed with love, attention, and (forgive me an LDS joke) wholesome recreational activities, just somehow speaks Truth to me. I think this book has strong application to today’s problems with the rising generation. I really believe that kids these days are ge …more
Genre: Fiction, Classic. Publication Date: 1911
“Ofcourse there must be lots of Magic in this world” he said wisely one day “but people don’t know what it is.”
– Begins as a slow story of an unwanted and ugly child, who grew up to be very disagreeable (Mistress Mary quite Contrary). – I felt that the curiosity element in this book is the strongest, which makes us curious too. – Description of the moor, its plants, its breeze, its dampness, its animals and birds is heavenly. (Its saddening to me that …more
Actual rating 4.5/5 stars.
I have vivid memories of reading this renowned children’s classic when I was very young. I can distinctly recall my shock at reading a book with such an initially dislikable protagonist, the likes of which I had not yet discovered during my few years of reading. I was intrigued by the petulant Mary Lennox and was enchanted by her discovery of the secret garden. This, I believe, was my my first introduction to dark and brooding main characters, and probably even honed my …more
This was an absolute joy ride and like my friend Karin put it, it was ‘lovely and heartwarming’
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The Secret Garden is a “lovely” story in every sense of the word. Primarily, it’s about three kids: Mistress Mary, Dickon, and Master Colin–and how just thinking a little differently can change a person completely.
There’s a lot of subtle things Frances Hodgson Burnett does right: The way she relates the Garden to Colin’s mother and how that affects his relationship with his father–and how all of these things have made him a horribly spoiled brat. That thinking a little differently, and getting …more
this is probably magic.
Frances Hodgson Burnett probably made a deal with the devil, or was BFFs with a fairy, or indulged in some light witchcraft.
i can’t imagine another way to make a century’s worth of indoor kids think hanging out in a garden, being outside at all seasons, and engaging in manual labor on a regular basis sounds fun. no one who reads children’s classics is outdoorsy.
but she did it, because i, a kid who had to be forced to spend time in nature, read this book approximately one …more
Re-read this, after many years, as part of my children books experiment. Several revelations so far: One, the plot is basically JANE EYRE, with an asexual Rochester who keeps, not his wife, but his son, in the attic. Two, it’s surprisingly easy to read the characters of both Mary and Colin as being on the autistic spectrum. (Her rudeness; her insensitivity to others, her obsessiveness: his tantrums; his introspection; his obsessions.) Three; the pantheism and everyday magic of the story is a lot …more
One of my most cherished books.
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Somewhere around the age of seven or eight I came across a beautiful book in my local library that contained both The Secret Garden and A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I instantly latched onto it and completely fell in love with the two stories. Over the years I checked that book out again and again, and eventually got my own copies.
There is something about The Secret Garden that is so hard to capture in a review. From that first reading, and for e …more
Read more: Beginners Guide to Companion Planting – Heeman’s
Book 27/100 of 2015
I had to read this for class, but I’m happy that I did! I read A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett when I was younger and loved it, so I’m pleased that I had the chance to read this for a class. Definitely recommend this to anyone wanting to read an easy classic as I love her writing. …more
A favorite from grade school era.
Note: On +61404532026 received this B&N leather-bound copy for my permanent collection of all-time favorite books. (Christmas came a little bit early this year)
Where, you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow.
Originally published in 1911 The Secret Garden is a true children’s  classic.  One that adults should read as well.  
Mary Lennox was born in India.  A plain little girl she was not wanted by her mother or father and consequently handed over to the servants to raise.  Because her Ayah and the other servants feared her mother would be angry if she was disturbed, Mary was consequently given her own way.  She soon became a bossy, nasty, littl …more
MISTRESS MARY, QUITE CONTRARY. HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW? WITH SILVER BELLS AND COCKLESHELLS. AND MARIGOLDS ALL IN A ROW.”
This delightful children’s classic, first published in 1911, pulled me right in with the cholera outbreak and continued with a bit of mystery, lots of magic and some pretty important learning experiences for both children and adults alike.
Not surprising this wonderful work is on the “100 Books Everyone Should Read At Least Once” list. Enchanting super-fast read with a beauty …more
Feb 21, 2008 Amy rated it liked it
I guess I didn’t miss much by not reading this book as a child. I don’t really understand why it became a classic. It starts out interestingly enough with a very gothic setting. A little British girl named Mary survives a cholera epidemic in India and is sent to Yorkshire to live with her distant relatives. The author gives a vivid description of the beauty of the moors and the mysterious mansion that the girl goes to live in. The only other interesting part is really when Mary discovers the boy …more
Feb 17, 2013 Merna rated it did not like it
1 star for a popular and beloved classic? What a scandal. Well, I think this is the first classic that I’m giving a 1 star for so it’s a fairly big deal. Although I did not finish this, I already know how the book wraps up. (view spoiler)
Here’s the thing: Many classics deal with universal ideas. The Secret Garden deals with kids who have been neglected emotionally by their parents, and even though it’s overdone now days, I can under …more
Is there anything better than cocooning in bed on a cold and rainy night, listening to The Secret Garden?? Just PURE BLISS.
Martha & her mother & Dickon & Colin & Mistress Mary… How very charming!
Seriously I got serious deja vu reading about Dickon. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Dickon were to grow up to be Edmund!! (from How I Live Now)
Audiobook narrated by Karen Savage …more
This is a beautiful children’s book which somehow I’ve missed reading as a child. It is very unfortunate, for I would have been really enchanted by it. The book brought back my childhood memories. My childhood home had a large garden with lots of roses. My mother tended to them and I used to help her. When I was a little older (younger than Mary Lennox in Secret Garden), I wanted my own thatch, so I got a nice square corner at one end of the garden with my own tiny garden tool set. I remember ho …more
“There’s naught as nice as th’ smell o’ good clean earth, except th’ smell o’ fresh growin’ things when th’ rain falls on ’em. I get out on th’ moor many a day when it’s rainin’ an’ I lie under a bush an’ listen to th’ soft swish o’ drops on th’ heather…”
I’m such a sucker for dark atmosphere, overly passionate tempers, and a manor on the moors (my enduring love of Wuthering Heights is a testament to this). The Secret Garden was worth the re-read not only for these elements, but also because it …more
I wish I could give this 1,000 stars.
Feb 22, 2019 Garg Ankit rated it it was amazing
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a lovely book. I had a jolly time reading it, and so will you.
The best part about this book is the detailed description of the childish nature of the protagonists, which is bound to bring a smile on the lips of the readers. No matter how sad you’re feeling, or how depressed you are, The Secret Garden is sure to lift your mood. The way the author has described the garden, the creatures, and the nature in general, is heartwarming.
It is a perfect book …more
Source: https://livingcorner.com.au Category: Garden
source https://livingcorner.com.au/the-secret-garden/
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thesundowncrew · 6 years
Text
The Sundown Crew’s rp plotting cheat-sheet
Want new-and-exciting plots for your character? Long to reach out to more of your followers, but don’t know where to start? Fear not! Fill out this form and give your RP partners both present and future all the of juicy jumping off points they need to help you get your characters acquainted.
Be sure to tag the players whose characters YOU want more cues to interact with, and repost, don’t reblog! Feel free to add or remove sections as you see fit. Template here.
Mun name: Dee OOC Contact: Tumblr IM
Who the heck is/are my muse(s) anyway:
In the main crew, we have Sammy, a nerdy ghoul boi who is the embodiment of Samhain (of the Celtic calendar) and Guardian of the Veil; Nightshade, his soul-sister and cat-turned-human witchy familiar; and last but not least Axel, the sadistic, cannibal crow mythos who’s only interested in revenge and fucking people (up).
They’re all super old and supernatural and 2/3 are always happy to meet new people!
Points of interest:
Samhain & Nightshade: guarding the Veil, keeping the balance, protecting innocent humans and mythos alike, adventuring and exploring new places, meeting people and learning new things. Sammy enjoys reading, treasure-hunting and getting lost in his research. Nightshade enjoys cooking, eating, listening to music, and keeping up with the latest memes.
Axel: looking for the biggest, baddest, toughest rivals he can fight to the death with, enjoys challenges, exploring new places, witnessing genocides and mass-murders, causing genocides and mass-murders, fucking people (up) psychologically and physically.
What they’ve been up to recently:
Samhain & Nightshade: their work and responsibilities as Guardians of the Veil. Though the Veil is at its thinnest during Hallow’s Eve (31st Oct), they work 24/7 by hunting malicious spirits and whatever dangerous creatures threatening both humans and mythos that are already existing in the world. When not on the job, they’re either out sight-seeing and visiting friends or chilling at home. They also run a small business from home by making potions, charms and selling spells or rare ingredients. Merchants and traveling caravans often stop by their place so they always have a lot of stock to trade.
Axel: whatever the fuck he wants. Mostly spends his time hunting down prey in the human world, or spreading his wings and exploring new and faraway lands/dimensions. He’s still on his quest to journey to Hell and get his revenge on the demoness who killed his whole family. Always easier said than done, but he’s patient and he plays the long game better than anyone.
Where to find them:
The crew live on an abandoned, magickal island called Sundown. Geographically, it’s somewhere up in Northern Ireland but can’t be marked on any human map. It was magickal long before any of them settled there and because of its supernatural properties, it can hide itself from the naked eye. At the same time the island and its forests are connected to every labyrinth, maze and neck of the woods across worlds and dimensions.
Samhain is always saying that the island has a mind of its own and likes to spirit people away, regardless if their living or dead. People either end up in Sundown when they least expect it, or because it’s where they’re supposed to go.
While you can easily find Samhain and Nightshade at home, Axel can’t stay cooped up in once place too long and travels all over the place. When he’s not hunting, he escapes to the quiet of the wild or the bustling big cities.
Current plans:
The narrative starts with Samhain and Nightshade already experts in their fields and doing their jobs as Guardians of the Veil, and continues with them helping Axel achieve his goal of ultimate payback. The timeline for this blog is infinite after that because I haven’t quite figured out the endgame for anything just yet. Which is why any plot that involves Axel killing Ketele, getting his heart back, and even Nightshade’s life after Samhain’s death, is considered an AU.
In terms of plans for this blog, I’m still working on things so that they can fall into place and serve as proper material for a comic. Once I’ve gotten all my ideas sorted out, those AUs might probably not stay AUs and end up being one huge main timeline.
Desired interactions:
I’d love more threads that explore the darker side of Samhain, whether it’s in the Mainverse or in any of the AUs where he’s not his usual, warm, friendly self or where he’s morally grey. Which is why I love writing him in his criminal verses! Some of my faves are: - Pirate AU: He’s the first-mate and quartermaster who has the gift of ‘Sight’ but he’s as pirate as they come. - Green Eyed Devil: Human-Ghoul hybrid bandit whose crew would do almost anything for money. - Mobprince AU: Classy and more reserved, the quiet but bloodthirsty type. I’ve always been a fan of mobs/gangs/syndicates. - Dark!Samhain: Angsty, overpowered hermit. I rarely get opportunities to write him in this verse which is a shame because I’d like to develop it more.
Nightshade’s all fun and games but once in a while, it’d be refreshing for Nightshade to do a serious thread. Like maybe deal with heavier, more sensitive topics. I’ve emphasized how she’s seen the same amount of horror Samhain has seen but comes out more mentally resilient in comparison, so I’d really like to explore that more about her. I also feel like she hasn’t been able to really connect with anyone as a real friend?? Idk how to explain it but like, I feel like she just floats between different muses and she’s so friendly with everyone, it’s hard to pinpoint whether there is a real connection between them or if it’s just Nightshade being...Nightshade? It’s none of my partners’ faults BTW! I’m reminding me to fix that about myself and how I write her.
Speaking of darker topics, I don’t mind pushing the boundaries when it comes to Axel as long as it doesn’t make anyone uncomfortable. I used to write some disturbing shit with him back in the day (like he broke into a drug lord’s flat and killed everyone in it so he could use it as his personal nest, killed and ate two police officers who were investigating the break-in, mutilated, tortured and ate a rapist alive after catching him in the act etc.). But the partners I used to write with are long gone and I feel like Axel needs to get back into the game again.
Offered interactions:
All of the above as well as anything else from my list of AUs! As mentioned on the page, that list is not the TOTAL list of AUs I’ve got. Some are just really small and still in development, and not enough to justify getting a spot on that list. Honestly, I’m open to plotting and coming up with more AUs so if you’ve got an idea, just hmu! I’ve also got a tag for ‘au ideas’ so you can browse there too if you like and tell me if anything strikes your fancy~
Current open post/s:
I don’t make open posts or starters. I prefer writing starters once my partner and I have something in mind and we’ve plotted enough to go about it.
Anything else?:
Though the blog is advertised as a WEEKEND blog (cus I work 9-5 on weekdays), I am usually lurking online thanks to mobile and will answer IMs when free. I don’t like replying to threads on mobile so I’ll usually reply on the weekends. Unless I’m busy that weekend, then sometimes I change up the rules and reply on a Friday or whenever I’m able.
When I reply to threads, I like to release a bunch at a time and then I’ll tag my partners so that they can see how many threads I’ve replied to out of the total count, like so! The total count often changes because we could have dropped threads in between, or partners go on hiatus and they get moved from ‘ongoing’ to ‘cold’ threads. Because of this, I have a threads page which I try my best to update.
Tagged by Stolen from: @bengalisms
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laquilasse · 7 years
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girl... wassup w some batfam fic recs....
girl i GOTchu:
First let me start of with listing some of my buds that write a-ma-zing stuff and they have WAY too much writing for me to rec all of it here! Please do yourself a favour and check out their blogs: @camsthisky @jerseydevious @preciousthingsareprecious @audreycritter @chimaerakitten @caramelmachete @fuyunoakegata @fishfingersandjellybabies
here are some of my faves! I’ve definitely missed a few, I’m sure, but… these should start you off.
for you I’ll always take the bullet: Bruce keeps realizing a little too late that vigilantism and children really shouldn’t mix???
Come one, come all: Dick’s drugged throughout this whole fic it’s a blast
Where You Go I Follow: DO NOT EVEN @ ME ABOUT THIS ONE I’LL CRY IF I THINK ABOUT IT
The Best Presents Don’t Come With A Bow: Dick and Dami patrol and chat
The Glass Around Your Heart: Dick saves my beautiful hell baby from himself
Cards On The Table, We’re Both Showing Hearts: This is set after Robin War and imho should have been the last issue of the comic 
You’re Alive: Insight on the classic scene we all know and adore
We Were The Best: A series of oneshots starting during the Dickbats run and progressing from there
To the Moon: Damian takes it into his own hands to retrieve Dick from Spyral, and it doesn’t go as he would have hoped
Snapshots: Exactly as advertised, many good snapshots into the lives of the fam
Handle With Care: Damian secretly not begrudgingly helps take care of Dick when he’s sick and Bruce struggles with how to make tea and canned soup
Capitulate: set after the YJ S2 finale, and is such a good insight into both Dick and Bruce’s thoughts
Dear Santa (By Damian Wayne): please please just read it
Stormy Night: this is one of my FAVOURITE chapter fics! It is, to a tee, what Dick would say and do while being tortured
Chemistry of a Car Crash: Tim gets into a car crash
Blood of the Covenant is Thicker Than Water: Another series of oneshots! There are some Very Cute Dickbabs chapters in here that are honestly my favourites :’)
Blackbird: Damian is hit with fear gas. Jason’s POV.
Dressed To The Nines: “‘Hey, watch the hair!’ Dick warned, stepping back once and then twice for good measure. ‘Al just fixed it after you messed it up the last time. And if you try to put your spit on me again, I’m calling Selina and making her adopt you. You can be Isis’ freakish brother or something.’ “
Life is a Journey: Series of oneshots about the fam
Teach Me To Dream: THIS IS AN ONGOING FIC THAT’S KILLING ME SLOWLY
Yellow Submarines: More oneshots! Jersey writes tiny baby Dickie so well,,,, I love,,,,, :’)
Stubborn: THIS IS GOOD GOOD JASON AND DICK CONTENT AND THEN JASON AND DICK AND TIM CONTENT, I’VE READ THIS MANY TIMES
Home to You and Without a Mask: Cam wrote both of these for me because she’s a sweetheart and a phenomenal writer
Sun Spot: this makes me feel nothing but happiness and so does Dawn
Flying on Broken Wings: Insight into when Dick was kidnapped by the Crime Syndicate and it made me cry at work
Titus Lost: you can uhhhh probably tell by the title but this fic is actually illegal? It’s been outlawed in four countries I’m fairly certain
These Things That Define You: that! good! jay! and! dick! content!!!
Shield: Bruce makes a decision that he’d make again in a heartbeat and Dick hates him for it, aka Audrey attacks me specifically
Ends, Means, and In-Betweens: an ongoing fic about Dick and Klarion the witch boy that I’ve been enjoying immensely
Interval of Shadow: hoooooo my god ok, this is an ongoing fic that involves the whole fam and I love every chapter and will love every chapter to come
Prompts: More oneshots!
Cure For The Dark of Heart: there’s only one chapter but LORD I’m ready to read more of it
Dreams of Wires: Dawn is so good at getting into Damian’s head and this is no exception
World, meet Robin: Dick Grayson has definitely got this. :)
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goddamnitaisha · 6 years
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Please list your top 5-10 would-bang characters, possibly segmented by gender/sex if it makes sense to, in descending order. I need to know how similar we are. :D
I’m laughing SO HARD because we probably are similar. I mean, @lilly-white​ has such good taste. I will immediately answer this question. 
Usually, if it has silver hair I probably want to bang it. 
Lastly…. Okay, yes, now the list. No actually, I’ll place the list at the top of this answer and then place all the TMI/too-much-information text under a readmore.
.
                                           T H E   L I S T
Iason (Ai no Kusabi) King of all Seme characters. Since this list is just about banging characters, I have to put him on top. 
Sephiroth - (FF7) my interpretation of him post-Nibelheim: a sane, arrogant, brilliant god and wreck of a person.
Lotor -  (Voltron Legendary Defender) See how high he is on my list? I have him in my ‘to cosplay’ list with not his name but with the text: “I HAVE SUCH A TYPE”. There is nothing about him that I don’t love.
Orochimaru (Naruto) His voice, his arrogance, the cheekbones, and the things he could do with that long tongue. 
Uchiha Itachi / Sasuke / Madara (Naruto) I’ve been trying to choose between these three for 10 years now) (I like the artwork interpretation of the Japanese fan-artist ‘Lily’ best.) 
^That is my hard-bargained top 5 in that order.  Now comes the rest. I still love them tons and tons, but not as much as the ones up ^there. 
Kisame (Naruto) (japanse voice actor) Terrifying face/reputation/fighting methods since he has no qualms with sawing someone’s legs off. But he would make the perfect father of a child. He is muscled, chatty, caring, thoughtful, loyal, sweet, protective and reliable. If I could bang him, I would not prick but punch holes in the condoms.
Skulduggery Pleasant (books by Derek Landy) ASREON DONT JUDGE ME. He is funny, powerful, reliable, cuttroat and has this dark edge that I really dig. 
Loki (as portrayed by Tom Hiddleston) Anywhere in the timeline after he arrived on Earth. I like him under Thanos control, as I like him as ‘shit annoying little brother’. I like it when he is smug: “It buuurns, doesn’t it?” (Avengers) and when he is indignant: “We are not doing ‘get help’.” (Thor: Ragnarok) yet still plays along in the end. 
Oikawa (Haikyuu) because his killer volleyball serve is too sexy, as are his mood switches and his I’m gonna fuck you up-grin. He get to me every time. (Kageyama is also somewhat a fave.)
Lord Carden - Bloodlines (Character from my needs-a-rewrite novel series, Bloodlines. Yes, I want to bang an OC, but in my defence, Lilly also once mentioned wanting to bang him. My friend Jack did too. He is a mix between Iason and Kisame: cutthroat and sexy but best dad.)
Embarrassing TMI & disclaimers & characters that didn’t make the list, are all under the cut!
Disclaimers:
The order listed below is from top(best)-down(last) and always subject to change depending on my mood and fandoms. 
These are characters I would want to bang - not the ones I would sign up to spend the rest of my life with (in most cases that’d be an awfully short life).
I may change this list if anyone brings in better suggestions. 
I can’t decide whether I want to sleep with these people, or want to be these people (role models).  
TMI 
I’m still in the process of trying to figure myself out. I have lived my life as a loner or as a quiet follower (because speaking up was often discouraged in my social circles). 
BUT
My younger brother recently pointed out to me that in almost every relationship there is a leader (the person who initiates plans and decides what and how) and a follower-guardian (who protects the leader from doing anything stupid, this person says “that’s not a good idea” and when they put their foot down it’s DOWN and the leader can do nothing but respect it.)
My brother told me that I’m a leader type: the person that initiates wild adventures. Not the follower-guardian. So OKAY, I’m a leader who thinks she is a follower? I don’t know if I’m sub or dom. 
There is this quote I’m trying to remember, said by either a gay guy or a powerful motherly woman who helps the girl-protagonist. An american production. Intonation is kind. Couldn’t find it with google. Goes something like this: 
“People won’t know whether they want to hate(/fight?) you, want to fuck (/sleep with) you or if they want to be you~
That’s the quote I want to put in here. 
What I usually fall for in a character:
Most of the characters I want to bang are calm, self-assured, don’t get worried fast, and are good at what they do. They firmly hold to a certain view of life. They can hold their own in a discussion. They are NEVER lazy, they are hardworking. They never have a nihilistic approach to life, they want to gain all they can get. They have an arrogance that tastes like honey to me. That cheeky, taunting, unimpressed, underhanded, self-assured, i-know-I’m-right, tone is a drug to me. Some examples are: - “Are you sure about that?” and - “I wouldn’t do that if I were you” and - “Is that the best you can do, Cloud?” and - “Foolish little brother, you’re not strong enough, ku ku ku…” That degrading tone that puts me on my place and him on a pedestal…! Yes, I find that finger-licking attractive. 
But I can never figure out if those tones appeal so much to me because they are spoken from a leader perspective as if to discipline a pet, or from a follower/guardian perspective that calmly undermines the leader’s bad idea. (”Sure Mr. King if you want to follow that route… but I’ll stay here and wait until you come back”)
My current running theory is that I’m a leader who thinks she’s a follower? I’ve not levelled up enough in life to decide where I am as a sexual partner as sub or dom or switch. I’ve been a service top/service dom to 2/3rds of my partners and in the 1/3rd of the occasions I did enjoy being sub but maybe that’s because I prioritised myself there. Usually I focus on my partner and aaaah I’m rambling RAMBLE RAMBLE. tl:dr; I need to get laaaid and figure this ouuuut with a person I truuuust.
Characters that didn’t make the list, but which I wish I could include somewhere in a top 30 are these listed below. You can tell by the bolded font which names I took out of my top 10.  
Maleficent (Angelina Jolie)
Cersei (Lena from Game of Thones)
Icy (Winx Club season 1)
Wonder Woman (as portrayed by Gal Gadot) because she’s a perfect. Marvel Studios gave me a female hero and a female superhuman but they did not give me a female superhero. DC did. I’m such a fan of her.
Lestat
Mai Valentine (Yu-Gi-Oh. But that says little,  I’ve had crushes on almost the entire cast. Mainly Seto Kaiba and Yami-Yugi.)
Victor (Yuri-on-Ice) when he wasn’t shown as a person with feelings but still had his idol status.
Riddick - but then again, who wouldn’t do Vin Diesel as Riddick? Especially the second movie.
Aranea (FF15) She was wonderful as a character but I am still salty she was a bit of a disappointment in the narrative, I expected she would be more involved in the narrative of the game.
V (from V for Vendetta the movie) - again the humour, dark past, power, reliability. I fall in love with him every time I watch the film. But I don’t know if I would do him with his mask off? I like the grandiose idea of him.
I’m going to risk burn marks and put Azula (Avatar series) on here.
Tahno (Avatar Korra series)
Suitengu (Speed Grapher) LYRA YOU MUST WATCH THIS. LISTEN TO LILLY. AND TO ME. WATCH IIIIIIT.
Rufus Shinra - (FF7 ACC)The smug remarks, power, face, count me in.
Pitch (Rise of the Guardians)Light (Death Note manga)  
I will always love Riku (Kingdom Hearts) But since he’s so dear to me and part of a franchise for children, I don’t want to think about having sex with him but I totally want to. It’s a grey area. I like him especially when he is lost in darkness and arrogant. But honestly, I really like him in all timelines. I was not ready for KH3′s version. I will always love Riku.
Last notes:
To summarize, I like murder + power + strong worldview + smug undermining comments + smirks.
I think it is curious that I only listed male characters in my top 10. It seems that I am not as bisexual as I thought, or that modern media fails in adequate female gender representation. I could not have been offered enough female characters of the Wonder Woman quality. Now I’ll post this answer before something glitches and I lose all I typed. 
Hope you liked this!
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