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nrilliree · 14 hours

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Tbh, everyone keeps saying they found the chemistry between Matt and Milly very hot but personally, I feel very grossed out every time they were together, even on the bridge of Dragonstone. Idk but knowing the dynamic between them as well as the age gap between the actors, it just grosses me out. As for Emma not having a good chemistry with Matt, I think it was intentional. It was supposed to be wooden and mechanical, because Rhaenyra is no longer a child, therefore an object of fascination to Daemon. Now Rhaenyra is older, a mother of 3. She's much grown but still idolizes him. He uses her again, this time mostly to fulfill his thirst for power for the Iron Throne, whereas he previously desired her for both power and pedophilic attraction. A lot of people ship Daemyra are either unaware or being completely aware that it's a relationship between an abuser and his victim. The power dynamic is off kilter and very skewed. I really hope the scene below in season 2 will open their eyes. Better late than never.

https://www.tumblr.com/softsweetmela/751555613328310272/can-i-just-say-how-refreshing-it-is-to-have-a?source=share

And these people think they are intelligent ? Not only do they sound completely ridiculous, but they also disgust me for being happy to follow and adhere to the showrunners' misguided view of adding physical violence to the Daemyra relationship. And once again, the definition of grooming and pedophilia is available in one click on the internet. It amazes me to see so many of our people use such important and serious big words in a situation that absolutely does not lend itself to it. Also, history books and / or historical research to understand what a historical context is and what it implies are not for dogs.

I would really like to understand what they see as grooming in the show ?

Nothing inappropriate is suggested on Daemon's side as long as Rhaenyra is not of age by the standards of Westeros and our modern standards.

He is literally in a relationship with Mysaria.

He is introduced to us as not often at court and has his own affairs to manage between first his work as leader of the goldcloaks and then his quarrels with Viserys.

The fact that he gives Rhaenyra a simple necklace is not proof of grooming. It mostly seems like a nod to the many gifts mentioned that he always gave Rhaenyra upon returning from his travels, as well as emphasizing their deep connection in comparison to their relationship with Viserys.

Rhaenyra seems to have a crush on Daemon, but Daemon doesn't seem to do anything inappropriate about it.

The only moment where Daemon finally seems to have an real ambiguous interest in Rhaenyra before episode 4 is in episode 2, on the bridge, when he sees 15-year-old Rhaenyra (I remind you that at this age, girls in Westeros are considered marriageable) making her flash and she defeats him.

Then, he found her years later when she was 19 and they spent an evening together where he seduced her and she very willingly let herself be seduced, and in the end, Daemon can't even go through with it his objective which yes, certainly, was not very noble.

But to call it grooming ? WTF ?

Not to mention the fact that Rhaenyra's age, from episode 1, disqualifies her from being able to belong to the definition of pedophilia in the case of Daemon.

As you said, we could talk about ephebophile, but there is in fact no tangible proof, especially because we are in a different historical context compared to the vision of the age, but also because Daemon was in couple with adult women both according to Westeros society and our modern society.

He was in a relationship with Mysaria, an adult, married an adult Rhaenyra, did not seem to be put off by Laena when she was an adult, and in the cut scenes, Daemon literally fucked an adult man.

So no. Even ephebophile doesn't work. Daemon is simply a man who lives in a feudal society where age is not perceived as in ours and overall he has relationships with individuals of any type of age as long as these people are legal according to the standards of his society (book or show) which... is not technically shocking.

Again, the people who are offended have probably never opened a history book, done historical research, or even taken basic history classes.

That or they are stupid or deliberately obtuse.

Again, the definitions of grooming and pedophile are freely available on the internet.

There is no excuse for such a lack of logic / common sense in my eyes.

I would also dare to add that all this is probably also due to an increasingly ridiculous hypocritical purity culture in media analysis... Which for some reason is becoming more and more important.

It's not for nothing that most people giving this kind of speech about Daemyra / Daemon are mainly TG (so Aegon II stans, among other disgusting things...), Team Smalfolk and or Alicent stans after all...

The fact is that I'm tired of seeing these stupid people show off their science with big words to give themselves moral superiority, while the definitions are very easily found... And I don't understand that so many people can adhere to this bullshit.

TG stans really don't like it when you accuse them of their lack of logic and knowledge of the definitions of the words they so eagerly use. Just look:

They will use any argument, even the most absurd and strange, just to justify themselves and make themselves look better. All the time, they create themselves and their favorites as victims of the system, and they strive to show that TB are just as bad or even worse.

Aegon is a rapist? Daemon is a pedophile and rapist! Aemond is a psychopath, a bully and a murderer? Rhaenyra's children are spoiled bastards who are just like Joffrey, they have no feelings and are completely bully! Alicent is a lying traitor with no real honor? Rhaenyra is a lying whore!

It gets to a point where they have run out of arguments and the fact that "Daemon had an affair with Nettles" is not enough and can be disproved by "Daemon may be Nettles' father" that now they are creating a theory that… Daemon is her father, he knows it and at the same time has an affair with her :P!

They just want to feel like they're the good guys. That's why they slander TB, compare TG to the Stark family from GoT (and TB to the Lannisters), create their strange theories and cast slander, and then react aggressively when you disagree with them. Because they probably know that TG are the "bad guys" and they don't like it.

I block them, but when I see a real absurdity that got into my searches through the filter, sometimes I can't let it go :P They will still be outraged and portray themselves as persecuted victims, so what? Let them live in their imaginary world, the series will end one day and they will be left with nothing.

#house of the dragon #team black #anti team green #pro team black #anti team green stans

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twinkdemise · 4 months

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#iasip #mac macdonald #s3e11 dennis looks like a registered sex offender #just rewatched this episode. god it's so good definitely in my top 10 overall in the show #the dinner scene my forever beloved i hold you close to my heart. it's so insanely satisfying from a writing perspective.#the way it all ties together and even though it's a scene about a dinner being fucking ruined and its got these #relatively high emotional stakes its so so. neatly written that it ends up feeling cathartic? in a way #idk what im saying man that scene's just really good #something about mac and charlie's scheme and motivations clashing with their parents' (and franks)#and them being kind of forced to reckon with the fact that their parents are real people with their owns wants and needs #(especially mac charlie ends up using this to his advantage and kind of betraying mac ig)#also a scene that emotional ending with a shot of charlie going Ohh and the seed has been planted is wild.#also mac being so worried about the fact that the vibe might be off... DO YOU WANT FLAT AMBIANCE???#he just wants things to be normal!! he just wants a normal nice dinner party and normal parents who are together and happy and love eo!!#also there's a motif that shows up repeatedly of him wanting to seem like a good dinner host lol just kind of noticed that idk #maybe reading into this too much but god the theme of him so often being in denial of reality in order to #live up to certain societal standards and achieve normalness.#this is kind of the first (and imo one of the best) episodes with a plot line about mac's relationships with his parents #and their family dynamic in general which i find so so fascinating.#also i think this is the only time (except for the christmas video) where we see mac's parents together.#on a lighter note ig the dinner scene has so many other great quotes... charlies so funny in it #the man doesnt blink mom the man doesnt blink!!#the charmac in this episode was so excellent in general. the car scene where they freak out and become convinced luthers going to kill them.#YOU DONT DO THAT! YOU DONT EAT SOMEONE BECAUSE THEY DONT HAVE HEROIN IN THEIR ASS!!#i do rmbr watching this ep with my dad and him going Well that one was just kind of sad.#which.... i mean yeah. real.#thats it im done i think #also i ended up having to type all this in my notes bc tumblr tagging is so painful #what if i said smth and then went Hey i want to say that a bit differently? oh? youre just straight up not gonna let me do that. oh okay.#fuck you

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aq2003 · 2 months

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my verdict on ark is that dt is like. the only celebrity voice actor in it that is doing a really good job but i forgive it bc the rep is pretty good

#episodes 1 and 6 were the best 2-4 were kind of boring 5 was good for the meiyin content #the art/animation are pretty good (like it's a cut above tlovm/invincible standards)#However i think the characters are a little underutilized. like rockwell especially what the hell is his deal i want his backstory so bad #i also want to know more abt the past connection between rockwell and meiyin. he was part of the rebellion and BETRAYED her #can we delve deeper into that.. that kind of drives me crazy can we see more between these two #also i'd like it if the show focused more on helena's personal struggles and flaws. i LOVE the look into her backstory on earth #like w her wife and her mom. but i'd like to see more of like. how that backstory affects how she views the world #they do this really good w the side characters meiyin especially i just wish . like.!!! helena struggled w anxiety/depression #she was so dependent on victoria for like any sense of stability can we like. See More Of That #can we see her and meiyin be codependent toxic yuri . for me. for fun #overall.. i think it's alright of a show 7/10 i need to see more of it to deliver my verdict fully #cuz in the next time trailer there's bits of rockwell backstory and Please Give It To Me

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nitw · 6 months

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OKAY REAL TALK. i'm on episode 5 rn. if this keeps up the way i think it is then this show is such a fucking genius adaptation, and i never would've seen it coming

like yeah, an animated scott pilgrim series authentic to the comics and the story bryan originally wanted to tell would've been amazing too. but when you think about it, SCOTT'S story has already been told to us more than a few times now. even if the live action movie took a different turn by accident, the overall message of "well-intentioned people can still make, and should still take responsibility for, mistakes that hurt those who care about them, and indifference will only end up hurting them back" still sticks for the most part.

but it's mainly been from scott's perspective. which makes sense! he's the main character, so, obviously!! but here's the thing: ramona has ALWAYS served as a reflection of scott's issues. ngl i think this is one of the most consistent things in the entire franchise, and it's why i love ramona so much. as we dive further into her backstory we learn just how much of a wall she's built around herself, how she's afraid of trusting people, but especially that, as sympathetic as she is, she's also caused so much (unintentional) damage herself. although she's introduced as someone literally too good to be true and unreachable by scott's standards, it becomes more and more apparent how similar scott and ramona are, and so they're perfect for guiding each other towards a brighter path.

and what better way to highlight this than to flip the tables completely, putting RAMONA center stage aka making the audience intimately familiar with her immediately, making SCOTT the mysterious damsel in distress/goal at the finish line instead, driving ramona to face the 7 evil exes and making amends with them in a way scott never could???

also can i just say. HUGE SHOUTOUT to the marketing team for hiding this reveal SOOOOO well. like seriously, i was worried they were showing TOO MUCH in the trailers BUT I WAS WRONG. WE GOT PLAYED SO HARD

#ANYWAY ILL KEEP WATCHING NOW #leo.txt #spto spoilers #ramona flowers #scott pilgrim #spvstw #scott pilgrim takes off

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maraschinotopped · 2 years

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God.

#[boom! crash! bang!]#*shaking you violently* go watch bomberman jetterz go watch bomberman jetterz go watch bomberman je #it is literally up on youtube!!!! theres an english dub of the whole thing up on youtube!!!!!!!!!!!!! go watch it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#or dont. i cant force you to watch anything #but i can. strongly advise you to #anyways. i am now much more mentally ill than i was before. dgsjfdhgjdshfsdg #god. that was so good. in a really heartbreaking way. the last few episodes made me cry :''#(good idea past me for waiting to watch these when i was home alone!)#i dont actually know if jetterz is good based on overall anime standards #(i dont watch anime a lot. or tv shows in general.#so technically jetterz is the first full anime that ive watched! in a long while! babys first anime watching dhsdjfhfg)#but it made me cry! and emotionally connect!! so its a win in my book :)

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thelingodingo · 1 month

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Inarizaki's Kansai Dialect

Japanese Dialects are split into Eastern and Western, with the Standard Japanese dialect being Eastern (Kanto region) and Kansai region dialect being Western (eg. cities of Osaka and Kyoto, and of course Hyogo prefecture- where Inarizaki is from). The pitch, tone, and stressing of the sounds is different from standard Tokyo Japanese so you should be able to hear the difference in how the Inarizaki members speak even if you don't know any Japanese.

just in case yall didn't know, Suna is the only member on the team that does not use Kansai dialect as he was scouted from Aichi prefecture, so he basically just speaks in the standard dialect

Some linguistics of the dialect that may or may not be heard in the show:

"ya" ending vs the standard "da" ending.

Kore kirai ya. vs Kore kirai da. (I hate this.)

the use of the "h" sound instead of "s"

Han vs standard san (honorific suffix, not really used anymore)

Negation suffix "-hen" instead of the standard "-nai".

Taichou kanri dekitehen koto, homen na. vs Taichou kanri dekitenai koto, homen na. (Don't compliment him when he's obviously not taking care of himself.)

verb "oru" vs the standard "iru".

Dareka ga mitoru yo, Shin-chan. vs Dareka ga miteiru yo, Shin-chan. (Someone's always watching, Shin-chan.)

verb "temau" vs standard "teshimau"

Naitemau yaro! vs Naiteshimau darou! (You're gonna make me cry!)

Negation "suru" verb becomes "sen" instead of "shinai".

Ki ni sen dee. vs Ki ni shinai yo. (Don't worry about it.)

Some words that are different in Kansai dialect:

Honto becomes Honma (really)

Sodane becomes Seyade (thats right)

Nande becomes Nandeyanen (why)

Totemo becomes Meccha (very)

ii becomes ee (good)

"aho" means stupid in Japanese, but apparently in the Kansai dialect calling someone an "aho" is actually a compliment?! (even though it has the same definition)

Overall, I could watch the Karasuno vs Inarizaki episodes a hundred times just to listen to Inarizaki's dialect and how different it sounds to the rest of the characters in the entire show.

Although Karasuno speaks in the standard dialect (which isn't very strange since Miyagi is a suburb close enough to the Kanto region), theres a few lines here and there where one of them says something using the Tohoku dialect (the dialect that would be used often in the rest of Tohoku, such as Aomori).

But that can be a separate post for another day!

(I especially like Kita's voice, thank you Nojima Kenji.)

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kineticpenguin · 2 months

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So I finished the Fallout series

And that was a mistake.

You know how like, 2 episodes in I said "the only character anyone involved in this show seems to actually give a shit about is the Walton Goggins ghoul"? Yeah, that stays consistent for the whole duration. You know how people use "NPC" as an insult? Lucy is worse: she's a BethSoft Fallout PC. She just steps on out of that vault with generic do-gooder personality, and basically everything brought to that character is entirely from the person playing her, certainly not the goddamn writers. Let me be absolutely clear: this is not Ella Purnell's fault, she is acting her ass off. It's just the writers gave her such trash to work with and the only button they have on their keyboard is "well that just happened!"

It's almost as bad for Maximus the Hapless Brotherhood Dipshit (Aaron Moten) but not quite. The writers thought maybe they'd do a fakeout to make you question whether or not he's a good guy or not, and absolutely did not commit. Another character where the actor had to do their best with nothing.

So obviously Lucy and Maximus fall in love and... here's the thing. She's smitten from the moment he first shows up in power armor, calls him a "knight," even though she's supposedly up to speed on prewar history and knows T-60 armor when she sees it. Why she just got obsessed with this idea that this guy is a Knight and not a remnant of the US Army remains to be seen, but I'm pretty sure it's because Todd Howard hears "knight in shining armor" and gets a big fat chub and dreams of being carried off into the sunset.

I can't even say Walton Goggins steals the show as the ghoul Cooper Howard, because most of this show is actually really all about him. He is the actual protagonist.

Overall assessment, though? God, where is the copypasta about Fallout 3... ah, yes. It makes about that much sense. They retconned the NCR into a fragment and then finished it off out of what I can only assume is 14 years of pure spite from Todd Howard. Why? Because they want you to know that it seems that Vault-Tec is bad. Uh, very bad.

Vault-Tec's bad, huh?

HEY FRANK THIS GUY'S OVER HERE WATCHIN' AN AMAZON SHOW OVER HERE THAT SAYS THAT VAULT-TEC... IS BAD!

It's a show with nothing for everyone. It holds its cards close to the chest so non-fans won't understand what's going on, and shits all over existing canon which fans won't like.

And also it just sucks. The plot doesn't make any sense and the fight choreography occasionally achieves "acceptable" at best. Battlefields populate and depopulate and repopulate without explanation. There is no flow to the combat. There is a moment in the finale where banner-bearers with the BoS flag and the NCR flag just rush at each other. BECAUSE TROOPS ATTACKING BY HELICOPTER AND PEOPLE DEFENDING THEMSELVES FROM THEM, BOTH SIDES USING MACHINE GUNS, ARE SO WORRIED ABOUT BATTLE STANDARDS LIKE IT'S 1844

Fuck this show.

#fallout #amazon fallout

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nunalastor · 2 months

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tbh one of my biggest fandom pet peeves has got to be when people judge works by the same literary standards

because then you get annoying arguments like "it's not that deep" or "this interpretation is wrong because of this minor detail"

often, it has a lot to do with the type of creative who made the show and their intention.

with shows like breaking bad, hannibal, walking dead? a significant amount of the work is probably that deep. they're very traditional writers / film makers, one person is responsible for a lot of things and has a lot of creative control. so, they tend to care about things like color and name symbolism, foreshadowing, etc. etc. and if you read interviews with creators like greg nicotero, bryan fuller, or vince gilligan, you get a sense that a lot goes into every detail and there are massive canon bibles. it doesn't always mean it's true of every episode - but it is true of a significant amount of the work.

and it's not just fancy dramas - it's also sitcoms and animated shows/movies like over the garden wall and most disney stuff from the 90s like the lion king. but people are quick to dismiss those genres as "not that deep".

those are just some of the more obvious examples off my head.

then there are works that are somewhere in the between like a lot of modern sitcoms like community, most marvel movies, bluey, rick and morty, bojack horseman, and helluva boss/hazbin hotel where the creators put a lot of time, effort, and depth into certain ideas or parts of a work but are just having a good time with others. often, they can't be as precious with the work because there are a lot of people working on it. so, at the end of the day, their focus is good overall storytelling, good characters, or humor/entertainment.

their characters aren't always meant to be 100% in character. their world-building isn't always going to be 100% consistent - either because they don't have creative control over all of it or it's just not a priority for them. and on the most extreme end (e.g. marvel's civil war), they're going to shove characters into certain roles for the bigger picture theme/idea or do something extreme with them for a laugh (e.g. alastor doesn't sleep/shower- alastor would wear his clothes in the shower).

because at the end of the day, they want to tell a good story or good joke and there's more of a micro vs. macro focus. some people are focused on characters. some people are focused on the world. some people are focused on certain episodes.

but fandom tends to go to one of two extremes and dismiss it all as not-that-deep or try to analysis it by the same standards as something that's written more traditionally

for me? hazbin/helluva boss very much fit into that latter category.

a lot of parts of the show are just not that deep. the creators probably don't care about name or color symbolism. there are a lot of contradictory uses of it in the show. often, the names are picked arbitrarily (lute = lieutenant, sera/em = seraphim) because they had been calling them that so long

viv likes world-building and has assigned colors to each ring and differentiated male/female imps and classes of characters ... but she changes stuff a lot and would rather have a good shot than be nitpicky about color symbolism. she changes things so often, she forgets about's been established as canon. oftentimes, she dosn't want to sacrifice a cool design for something nitpicky.

she's not precious about every aspect of her characters' specific personalities - but you also can't totally dismiss them as not-that-deep because she does care a lot about certain personality traits and the arc the character will take based on it (e.g. blitzo's trust issues).

but in fandom, people use both extremes as a way to shit talk other creators' interpretations or police how they write or draw and it's just so tiring.

#hazbin hotel #discourse

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oblivionbladetd · 1 month

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To put Lily's media illiteracy on blast I wanna break this down for everybody.

In order.

The sole positive- saying Marcille is a good character, while true, Lacks any qualifications that contextualize in what way. Notably in that three of the negatives of the show revolve solely around her. Which does contextualize that Lily's love of the character is remarkably shallow, or her hatred of the rest of the show remarkably petty.

The sole neutral- Episodic by itself is, yes, very neutral. Without any qualifications this is about as helpful as saying it's animated. You'd have to know that Lily hates episodic shows to know how this factors into the grade.

The many negatives-

Digimon level pacing is such a specifically vague statement. To understand what she means, know her point of reference is a 25 year old show that has an overall different tone, setting, age range, and story to Dungeon eats.so we're on some big brained or moon brained shit here.

The riff on the shows tone is weird because the show is a dark comedy. The intended experience is the huge contrast of it all. Like what?

The premise of the show is looking at the dungeon in terms of a food chain. The only way there would be a joke about the art quality of the food is if the rest of the show was rendered in Crayon scibbles.

Marcille is also an archetype at first. They all are. She is the snooty elf. They all gain more depth later, but this is not a debate here. The reason she was the butt of all the big jokes is complaining about a necessity of their trip for it's unorthodox nature despite explicitly signing up for it.

Death having consequences would basically destroy the tone and humor. Making the multi-day journey to save falin from permadeath into a bog standard revenge story.

Hey, this series has two sole jokes! Sarcasm aside it is a reductive view. Marrcile is at the butt of the bigger jokes because it's thematically appropriate. She is the most resistant to the reality of their situation. Not to mention that if the marrcile was the sole man in a group of women, the jokes would hit all the same. Not to mention that woe is evenly spread after the first couple episodes, I'd know I watched the whole show.

Lastly "elf torture cliche"? When has that been enough of a thing to be a cliche? I looked it's not even really a trope.

The, albeit very abridged, critique just screams the following, "I did not want to like this show, I have decided it was a waste of time before I even fired up Netflix." Right at dismissing Marcille's suffering as little more than torture of the female lead just because I had known that there wasn't even an attempt at any kind of fair play. It boils down to the show being hardly watchable because it isn't a totally different show, which as an opinion is actually super fuckin valid! Lily, by giving it a grade, claims an authority over it. An authority that equates to flunking a physics major over not being fond of their favorite color.

#lily orchard #lily peet #lily orchard is a bad writer #lily orchard is a bad critic #lily orchard is garbage and here's why

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thcfountain · 3 months

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anonymous asked: "okay but Matt with a insecure/shy reader and he makes them feel better?"

Tags: Matt x Reader. She/her pronouns. Talks a lot about eurocentric beauty standards and how women, at least in America, are all expected to be thin and white. Fluff. Word count: 1,207.

Banner credit here. Click here to join my tag list.

tag list: @to-be-written @th4t-em0-k1d @cheyyyr @somewhere-diamond @ravieisunhinged @blackveilomens @sprokat @jilliemiw86 @cookiesupplier @emmmm127

Growing up, it felt like you had always been bombarded with unattainable standards set by the beauty and fashion industries - women who were photoshopped to be thinner, taller, to have lighter skin. Everywhere you turned, magazines and commercials advertised diet plans and pills, pushing unhealthy weight loss tactics, all aimed at their feminine audience. Suffice it to say, you (and a great deal of many others not only nationwide, but worldwide) felt shamed to be in your own skin.

The girls in magazines and on tv or who walked runways rarely seemed to look like you. Diversity felt all too rare, making you worry constantly about being pretty enough. Of course you understood that this was a foolish concept because realistically, you knew that the beauty standards being shoved down your throat were unrealistic - almost always created with photoshop because no one was ever that perfect. It was still hard sometimes, not to compare yourself and worry that you weren't good enough.

What also didn't help was stumbling across your boyfriend's old curiouscat and spending an afternoon scrolling through post after post, reading about how he claimed to be attracted to ‘baddies’ and girls who fit more into the category of the models you sometimes saw on Instagram, who always had perfect makeup and perfect bodies. You knew it shouldn't, but it made you feel insecure.

Without really meaning to, you found yourself striving harder to fit into that Instagram model, bad girl look - the one that was achieved via editing and filters the majority of the time. You started spending time nitpicking your looks in the mirror, trying different ways to attempt to look more and more like the girls in magazines or one instagram.

Matt took notice.

“Y/N is kinda acting weird lately,” he brought up one afternoon while hanging out with Noah. He hadn't quite figured out what was going on with you yet. “I'm not sure how to explain it.”

Noah mutes the tv, quieting an episode of Naruto that he had seen a dozen times already and could quote by heart. “Okay? Try to explain anyway.”

Matt finished his Celsius and shrugged before diving into how he had noticed you staring in the mirror more, the additional makeup and skin care products that had been purchased, and the overall sudden unease you seemed to have in your own skin. “Also she gets weird when I try to initiate sex. Starting to wonder if this is her way of saying I'm bad at it,” he was joking, at least a little.

He was met with silence for a moment as Noah just stared at him, the expression on his face calling Matt a hundred different names for stupid. It was times like this when Matt hated how expressive Noah could be.

“Dude,” Noah started, shaking his head like he couldn't fathom how Matt didn't figure it out. “She's worried about her body. You know how girls are with all that diet and fashion stuff,” he added. Of course Noah was also into that stuff, but through therapy and because of necessity, he had learned how to tackle it from a health perspective rather than a body insecurity one.

Hearing Noah's response made Matt want to smack himself upside the head. How could he not notice that you were dealing with body image insecurities? Truthfully, he didn't know anyone who didn't deal with them. Even he had his things that he was insecure about and so did each of his friends. Though he supposed it was a little different, given they weren't the target audience of 90% of those miracle weight loss commercials that aired on tv every once in a while.

“I'm an idiot,” he confessed to Noah, who only nodded in agreement.

Coming home, Matt found you in your underwear, staring into the floor length mirror in your bedroom. It was clear to him now, that you were checking yourself over, probably picking at things the media had convinced you to hate about yourself and that made him sad and a little bit angry. Angry that there was anything in this world that could make you see yourself as anything less than a goddess and sad that he hadn't figured out what was going on sooner.

“You are so fucking beautiful,” he says and his words startle you, causing you to jump a little. You hadn't noticed he had been standing there until he spoke. “You are the most beautiful woman that I've ever seen,” he continued, not giving you a chance to argue as he crossed the room, wrapping his arms around you from behind so you could look into the mirror together.

“I could stand to-” you start, ready to list off things you thought you should change but he cut you off.

“No,” he says curtly before kissing the skin on your shoulder. “You are perfect,” he kisses the crook of your neck and you melt a little into his arms. “There isn't a single thing about you that isn't perfect or that I don't love.” He kisses the side of your neck softly.

“I'm not a baddie,” you whisper, feeling a little goofy to say it outloud.

“Baby, you're the baddest fucking bitch in the world. I just want you to love yourself as much as I love you.” You turned in his arms and rested your head on his shoulder. “If you want to keep up with fashion trends then do it because you enjoy it. I know I can't change your mind overnight but I'm going to remind you how beautiful you are until you believe it.”

“You're so cheesy,” you mumble, heart swelling happily under his words and he laughs before kissing the top of your head. “I love you.”

It takes time to learn to love yourself and all of your imperfections. It takes time to learn that humans aren't meant to be picture perfect - that they're supposed to come in all shapes and sizes and shades and that the fashion and beauty industries were judgemental of all women and racist and eurocentric to a terrifying degree.

But Matt kept his word, constantly reminding you of how beautiful you were. Listing off all the things that he loved about you and making you tell him things you loved about yourself too.

Matt saw you as you were. He was not love blind, he was not lying. He saw you exactly as you were. Every flaw, every imperfection, and he thought that you were the literal definition of beauty.

“Who's that beautiful girl?” Matt's horrid singing voice made you groan but you also smiled in embarrassment as he sang his own version of the Nanalan song to you. “Could she be any cuteeerrr?”

“I regret showing you that Tiktok,” you laughed and Boo barked in response. “Even Boo thinks you're being a nut!”

“Who's that beautiful girl?” his terrible singing gets louder as he gets closer, arms opening and you squeal as he tackles you onto the couch, covering your face in kisses. “I'm gonna keep singing it until you tell me who's the most beautiful girl,” he threatens between kisses.

You laugh at his dorkiness. “It's me!” You proclaim.

“Damn right its you.”

#matt dierkes fanfic #matt dierkes x reader #matt dierkes

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lo-shouldve-been-an-email · 17 days

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Why hello there.

Listen,I don’t have much to say about the newest LO episode so here’s an ares ranking to go along with the other ones.

Spoilers.

Percy Jackson:

6/10

Look,Ares is a really weird figure when it comes to how the media presents him.

Almost always they present him as this sexist frat boy when in mythology he is:

A reported protector of mistreated woman.

The patron god of the amazons and was worshipped to the point that their leader had 2 babies with him.

Scored the GODDESS PF LOVE AND BEAUTY and there is no way you cannot convince me she doesn’t have some pretty high standards(even though apparently you can convince most of the writers on this list)

And as much as I love Percy Jackson,it is not devoid of crimes.

In the first book,he helps Luke/Kronos steal Zeus’ master bolt and Hades’ helm of invisibility as to start a civil war within the gods.id say this is a pretty good portrayal overall.

…until we get to the second book.

This myth will be very important so long story short:a daughter of ares got r*** by a son of Poseidon so Ares,like any reasonable and bloodthirsty god of war,fucking killed him.

After this,he got put on trial for murder as if he wasn’t the literal god of bloody war,and all the ladies vouched for him so he got set free.

Let’s just say,Rick Riordan didn’t know of this myth.

In the second book,there’s a scene where Clarisse La Rue,a DAUGHTER of ares talks to him through a magic mirror.

There,he threatens her and says he should have sent one of his sons on the quest.and keep in mind she is his FAVORITE DAUGHTER.

So yeah.

I don’t really like this portrayal but he gets points for bringing Clarisse and (technically)Frank into this world since I like them both.also the fact that Percy could tell he had beef with him even without having any other memory.

Lore Olympus:

1/10

FUCK THIS GUY

Remember when I said that modern Ares was more often than not a sexist frat boy?we’ll add “predator” and “Reddit nice guy” to that list because RS can’t write.

If in Percy Jackson Aphrodite had terrible standards here said standards are so much worse.

He spends MONTHS trying to seduce a 19-YEAR-OLD and then tries to marry her without her consent.

Also,sir,YOU HAVE THE GODDESS OF LOVE AND BEAUTY FULLY AT YOUR DISPOSAL AND YOURE PICKING A GURL WHO DOESNT EVEN KNOW HIW TO USE A COMPUTER????

Great.this guy is a predator,Reddit nice guy,AND stupid.

I remember saying that the only character who could get a lowers rating than LO Persephone being LO hades and then I remembered this fuck existed.

Fuck him.

Hades:

10/10

Your know when you see something and then immediately want to wash your eyes with soap?this is my soap.

He is my third favorite Olympian in the game,coming third to Hermes and Artemis.

So here’s a few reasons why I like him:

Doom anything with impending doom and the increasing doom damage boon does absurd amounts of damage.

Curse of nausea is one of the best duos in the game.

He respects woman.(oh look they finally Aphrodite standards)

His quest is stupidly easy and he was the first Olympian who’s bond I maxed out.

I know this joke has been made so many times but.he really is a Chthonic simp.

He doesn’t get too pissed if you don’t pick him is trial of gods.hes just here for the bloodshed.

It may be just the fact that almost every other interpretation of ares is bad,but I really like him.

Also Aphrodite wearing his face paint in hades 2-

OSP:

7/10

He’s cool.

I really don’t have much else to add except the helmet stays on during sex.

Gods school:

5/10

Welp Back to the incels-

Him straight up telling Aphrodite that he can do whatever he wants because she won’t leave is just.why.

I don’t get why people go to this myth,turn it around,and act as if they’ve done a service by making Ares miserable when in the myths it was already a good ending.

What is with the obsession with making ares a toxic ex boyfriend when in the myths him and ‘dite were literally love and war.

Another issue I have with gods school is the fact they made Aphrodite a Karen Smith when in the myths shes a Regina George but that’s a problem for the Aphrodite ranking.

Also I just realized the Aphrodite Hephaestus ares myth is the og “I fell in love with a bad boy story”-

Epic:the musical:

8/10

I don’t have a physical picture of him but I already like him.

The only time he he appears is during a bit of an unfinished song but he does bring up some pretty good points,like the Scylla thing.

Also the fact Athena didn’t directly refute any of his points but instead persuaded him with the fact that the moment Ody gets home the suitors are going to be fucked is surprisingly great.

Also can I just say how absolutely hyped I am for god games?Aphrodite’s part fucking rocks and I’m excited for Apollo and Hephaestus.

Also here’s my ranking for epic Hermes since I wasn’t part of the fandom back then:

10/10

*insert dolphin laugh here*

#anti lore olympus #anti lo #lo critical #lore olympus critical #lo criticism #lore olympus #Lore Olympus ares #percy jackson #hades ares #overly sarcastic productions #hades #hades supergiant #supergiant hades #gods school #hades 2 #he hasn’t appeared yet but fuck it #he better #hades ii

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annonymouslyannoying · 4 months

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Elite Commander Poki redesign and Invader Training Headcanons. (Futher info under cut)

Elite Commander Poki was Almighty Tallest Miyuki's second in command and most trusted advisor- As such she continues to wear the Irken Elite Miyuki Branding even after her death.

Her reassigning following the Initiation of Red and Purple involved the training of worthy soldiers to become Invaders for the upcoming Operation Impending Doom.

Much like Irken Slave Drivers and other Irkens in commanding positions, she wears a suit that makes her appear taller than she really is.

She's a no nonsense drill sergeant type- but below the surface she still hasn't gotten over Miyuki's death and often sees her failing students as a disgrace to her awesome legacy.

Contrary to what you might think, Irken defects are actually quite common.

The Control Brain's Irken Bioengineering Program contains an intentional margin of error- Allowing new or odd genetic properties to emerge and potentially be added into the base database for wide spread implementation.

The term "defect" however is reserved for specimens with genetic irregularities that are seen as problematic to the overall objective of the Empire.

But seeing as how defect Irkens are relatively common, it's no surprise that there were quite a few of them who were trained to be Invaders.

These 4 are proper defects in the sense that their irregularities are not seen as particularly useful.

Zim

•Intense and obessive thought patterns, for lack of a better word, Irken neurodivergency. Brilliant in some respects, but moronic in others.

•Capable of parental love from both ends of the spectrum. Looks up to his leaders much like one would a distant parent, and shows intense affection for his minions.

(This is very odd as most Irkens just see their helpers as tools and affection is looked down upon.)

•Selective hearing and auditory processing problems.

Skoodge

•Capable of romantic love and friendship. He is hated for this and seen as "soft"

•In love with ZIM specifically. He has such terrible taste that it counts as a separate defect.

•On the heavier side. He is seen as ugly for this but it actually makes him much more resilient to physical damage and can go without his Pak for much longer than 10 minutes.

(This is me attempting to justify that time they forgot to draw his Pak for a whole episode lmao)

Grinn

•Warped antennae. This distorts her senses and makes her very irritable to certain noises.

•A natural aversion to taking orders and a frequent questioner of the Empire's System.

•Covered in horrible red blemishes. She has an overactive immune system that manifests in extreme bodily reactions to minor stimuli.

(This is one of the worst defects to have when you drop out of the Invader Program and work in a literal garbage chute)

•Writes poetry

Skutch

•Actually evil. Like. Even by Irken standards.

•Will set things on fire for seemingly no reason.

•Rarely ever speaks and when he does it's incredibly vulgar. The only Irken that says Fuck.

•Has no soul, wants or desires. He only lives for the mild fascination elicited from watching the life drain from a living thing's eyes.

These 4 are seen to have more useful defects- Or in other words, they're "Gifted" Irkens. Okay not Gustavo but because he's tall he managed to not get lumped in with the last 4.

Grenty

•Intense regenerative properties. In fact, she struggles to control it properly and will just randomly grow new limbs.

Her regeneration is so good that she is essentially impervious to damage so long as her Pak remains intact.

•Irregular blood viscosity. Needs to be regulated with a patch.

•Overbite.

Mote

•Likes smooth Jazz

•Oversized antennae- He has insanely good sense of his surroundings and is tormented by having to accidentally hear everyone's horrible secrets he never wanted to know.

•Very frail

Fleep

•Abnormally physically powerful. She could break the arms of every other trainee here.

•Sort of capable of friendship but only the kind shared between High School Prom Queens and their evil lackeys.

•Otherwise very competent and professional.

Gustavo

•I hate Gustavo

•He's really friendly and normal by human standards but an UTTER FREAK by Irken standards.

•Joined the Invader program because he wants something to fall back on when he becomes a freelance advertising consultant.

•Gustavo must die.

•Is tall enough that the bias of the system has prevented him from being killed. (Unfortunately)

ALSO WORTH NOTING-

Zim is responsible for the deaths of most of the people here- The only ones to survive his Operation Impending Doom screw up were Skoodge, Skutch, and Grinn.

(Grinn never became a real Invader, Skoodge is basically immortal, and even Zim knows not to mess with Skutch.)

I imagine that most of the Invaders assigned to Operation Impending Doom 2 were from the generation after Zim and were still in training during the first operation.

Bonus content of Skutch setting fire to the wildlife

#invader zim #redesign #zim #elite commander poki #invader zim headcanon #iz headcanons #skoodge #skutch #grinn #invader zim oc

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ghoulishautism · 4 months

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"Clockwork is a bitch, which is why Frostbite should be Danny's father figure"

Ok listen I see your criticisms and I understand them, they are valid and narratively sound. But Clockwork being a weird out of touch time god bitch is the best part about him, ok? Hear me out for a second.

Dont get me wrong I love Frostbite. Hes the wise leader who happily takes Danny under his wing and teaches him how to get his ice powers (which he has always had since season one COUGH)- and is overall a very nice dude, even after a brief misunderstanding with the icicle thorn thing.

But i feel like hes...too nice? I don't know how to explain it, but he feels too yes-man ish. That isn't to say Danny doesn't deserve some positive treatment after everything hes been through, but I also believe someone as young as Danny needs someone to be able to tell him when hes wrong or over his head.

Clockwork is the dude who honest to god doesn't want to deal with the stupid 14 year old who keeps screwing with the timeline. He is a literal time god and is, by definition, too old for this shit.

Clockwork does have elements of a wise mentor, so I don't know why people always act like hes some mean dude who hates Danny? I just think his handling of Danny's situation in both the episodes hes in (TUE and Masters of Time) paints a guy whos kinda out of touch, but also represents a kind of tough-love guidance someone Danny's age needs. Like he was willing to give Danny the benefit of the doubt in TUE ("He'll make the right choice"), but then steps in once Danny has proven otherwise.

Why there are people acting like Clockwork was the only cruel one (besides the obvious villain) when that whole damn episode was written around a kid's loved ones dying at a McDonalds explosion because he cheated on a standardized test is beyond me. Like honey thats just Butch Hartman writing- hes kinda known for having this bitter air to his work (even on episodes he hasn't directly written for).

You could still argue that Clockwork's handling of Danny is a bit much, and I would agree to an extent, which is why I propose this to settle the debate:

Danny can have more than one father figure in his life. Mind blowing concept, I know. In fact I think him having both Frostbite AND Clockwork (and Jack, remember him guys? He exists) would be a good balancing act between the two approaches.

I'm not saying Clockwork and Frostbite should make out, but if you wanna see things that way-

#long post #SORRY...I had this in my mind for a bit #clockwork #frostbite

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electric-friend · 4 months

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listen i know the whole “ed did nothing wrong”/“killing and maiming his his coping mechanism uwu” thing is a super silly joke lol and even i found it funny but it’s kinda just pissing me off.

i just hate that they never really properly resolved ed resorting to violence when he’s upset and that he never really takes accountability for his actions onscreen. and when the side of the fandom that takes no issue at all with the way seeason two was presented makes jokes that show they’re like aware of the vibes they just don’t care bc they hold characters they don’t like and characters they do like to entirely different standards. it’s just annoying lol.

like listen. yeah. ed’s my special little babygirl princess haha i love him. but like. i feel like it’s also ignoring the fact that the violence is actually bad for ed’s mental health and we know this and it’s canonically established.

the same people who make “ed did nothing wrong” jokes literally call people who do the same to izzy bad people. not all of them but like the people aligned with that Side of the fandom.

like first of all we know that canonically though ed’s capable of violence it’s not good for him. that’s a huge part of his character, that he doesn’t want to be Blackbeard. so the jokes ur making leave your favourite character unhappy anyway? and if you’re going to talk like that about ed then why is it a CRIME to do the same about izzy?

i think i’m just kinda annoyed bc people act like if you’re critical of the way the writing failed to give ed a great redemption arc it’s because you’re a racist idiot blind with love for izzy, but in fact, you can remove izzy from the equation entirely and it still sucks because it sucks for ed’s character that his arc was so confusing and we left him in such an uncertain place as a character.

listen, i don’t exactly advertise this bc i feel like people won’t understand, but i’ve been through a lot of trauma, and at times in my life when that’s been a lot fresher for me, i’ve had really serious issues with anger and aggression and lashing out. i think that’s why i connected with izzy and i think it’s why i connected with ed so strongly but also found it so hard to watch the first couple episodes of the second season.

and coming from that place, with that perspective, when i talk about ed being abusive towards izzy and the narrative not being resolved, i am NOT hating on ed and cancelling ed and saying ed is an evil person. what i’m saying is that ofmd s2 took on a really, really complex and serious and intense subject matter, and then the writing failed to carry the weight of that. i love ed, and i feel like his character was let down by us not seeing him clearly express that he’s holding himself accountable for his actions on-screen, or even seeing him healing in relation to his violent impulses that come from his trauma. his killing spree in the finale was really odd in terms of his overall arc and is honestly what threw it all off the most for me. like it’s obvious that scenes regarding ed’s apologies and forgiveness from the crew are supposed to have happened and we maybe just didn’t see all of it, because the season was rushed due to the screen time. but a lot of it is also just poor decisions in the writing and the way ed’s storyline is laid out in the final cut.

to me, saying that ed’s arc was beautiful and perfect and it’s wrong to criticise it or to acknowledge the severity of his mistakes and actions isn’t a form of loving ed. it’s a way of saying you’d rather ed actually not take steps towards healing, just because you want to pretend he didn’t do anything wrong in the first place so you can feel like the better person in the conversation. to me, the people who say ed did no wrong are expressing that they actually don’t love ed.

i mean it’s not that deep, it’s all fictional, but i wish people would look beyond their predisposition to condemning criticism of something they like, and see that there’s a lot of heart, and a lot of really personal experience and real-world context behind the arguments people are making, and that other opinions about the writing in s2 are worth listening to even if they make you uncomfortable at first.

#izzy hands #that’s the only tag i can add without major risk of getting a huge amount of hate #or maybe #ofmd critical #i know this isn’t a super smart meta post or anything but still

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lurkingshan · 9 months

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A Time Called You: A Great Reminder to Go Watch Someday or One Day

This past weekend Netflix dropped a new kdrama called A Time Called You in its entirety, and I became particularly interested in watching it as soon as I realized what it was: the Korean remake of Someday or One Day I knew had been in the works for awhile. If you’re not familiar, Someday or One Day (SOOD) is a beloved 2019 Taiwanese drama that is widely considered to be among the best dramas the country has ever produced (there is also a 2022 film version of the story, but that’s less relevant to this post). Now, I love Korean dramas, and I know that countries remaking each other’s best shit is very common in the Asian media landscape, but I couldn’t help but feel protective of the original work and a bit resentful of the choice to adapt something that was so original and unique and specific and put that generic kdrama sheen on it. Taiwan has a small film industry, and this is one of its jewels. We didn’t need Korea’s take on it.

And having watched the adaptation in full now, I am feeling pretty justified in that initial feeling. Let me just say upfront: A Time Called You (ATCY) is a perfectly good drama with a solid cast and competent storytelling. Had I seen it absent the knowledge of what it was adapting, I probably would have liked it a lot. But I have already seen and loved Someday or One Day, so I feel compelled to break down why it is the better version of this tale, both for my fellow SOOD devotees who are wondering how this adaptation stacks up and for folks who have only seen the kdrama in the hopes that you’ll decide to watch the original. As usual, I did the most, so reader be advised that this is long (tagging @troubled-mind as promised and @smittenskitten because I saw you were looking for a comparison of the two dramas). TL; DR: if you liked ATCY, or have seen neither version and are wondering which to watch: go find Someday or One Day, because it’s an overall superior and more satisfying execution of the same story.

The Vibe

Let’s start here because it’s the most obvious and immediately striking thing as someone who has seen both versions. SOOD has a bit of a rough and unpolished feel, which makes it feel more grounded in reality (important when you are getting into fantasy elements like time travel but you still want the characters to feel like real people). We open our story in 1998 in a record shop with a young girl playing Last Dance by Wu Bai and China Blue, a 1996 mando pop rock ballad, and thus setting the tone—this will be a somewhat raw and bittersweet story about grief and hurt and longing that will invite us to wallow in our feelings. And that melancholic vibe stays throughout the drama, even in the explicitly happy scenes, because you are always aware that the joy you are seeing has already been lost.

By contrast, ATCY feels… emotionally flat. Don’t get me wrong, it is a very faithful adaptation. The early episodes are practically a shot for shot remake of the original drama. But it’s too polished, too shiny. The filmmaking is bog standard kdrama fare; everything is soft focus and warmly lit and too beautiful and consequently nothing feels real. It feels right in line with the standard aesthetics of recent mainstream Korean dramas, and that choice undermines the emotional weight and grit of this story.

A great example of this can be seen in the way the two dramas handle the iconic scene where our female lead runs in the rain, looking back over her shoulder to smile in delight at the male lead before continuing on her way. This is a moment of realization for him about his feelings for her—one he will later immortalize in a painting that becomes part of the mystery of the past she is trying to unravel. In Someday or One Day, this scene takes place on a regular street, in the utterly mundane surroundings of their everyday lives as they walk home, and she runs down the middle of the road as puddles gather in the uneven pavement; in A Time Called Love, they are in a picturesque park for this scene, surrounded by green and encased within a grove of giant trees, and she runs right down the middle of a tree lane that looks like it came straight out of a fairytale. One story is very much about a love grounded in a reality we can recognize; the other is pure fantasy romance.

The Music

I already mentioned the song that anchors the Taiwanese drama above. Last Dance is hugely important to the story, both thematically and as a plot device, and in its ability to set the mood and tone of the drama.

youtube

The Korean remake similarly uses a real 1996 ballad as its main song and time travel mechanism: With My Tears by Seo Ji Won. And, uh, the vibe is a bit different.

youtube

Discerning listeners might recognize this as one of the many classic love ballads performed by our favorite doctors by day, rock stars by night over on Hospital Playlist. It’s a perfectly fine song. But it sets quite a different tone for our story, doesn’t it? It also is meant to be a song that a teenage boy is hankering to listen to on cassette, and listen, I wasn’t living in Korea in 1996. I have no idea how culturally accurate that may be. I’m sure there were in fact baby Lee Ik Juns running around trying to get their hands on this cheesy love song. But the edgier sound of Last Dance definitely sounds more in line with something the teenage male lead would listen to and what the music is meant to convey. And frankly, since we hear this song about 30 times in the drama, it matters that Last Dance is just an objectively better song.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, because beyond the classic song each version chose to use as its centerpiece, there is also a stark difference in the quality and tone of each drama’s OSTs. Here is a compilation of the Someday or One Day tracks, including the utterly gorgeous main theme by Shi Shi. The music is hugely important in the Taiwanese drama and is used to set the mood as well as emphasize its themes, and the tracks feel specific to this story.

youtube

And here is a compilation of A Time Called You OSTs.

youtube

If you’re familiar with kdrama OSTs, you will recognize most of the artists on here, as well as some new covers of old songs. And again, the vibes are quite different. Whereas SOOD was very intentional and specific in its music choices, ATCY just sounds like every other kdrama. There is nothing on this tracklist that stands out or evokes the kind of feeling that the SOOD tracks do.

The Main Couple

The name and timeline situation in this show makes this section unnecessarily difficult, so let me just make a little reference sheet here:

Someday or One Day

Alice Ke plays Yu Xuan (2019) and Yun Ru (1998)

Greg Hsu plays Quan Sheng (2019) and Zi Wei (1998)

A Time Called You

Jeon Yeo Been plays Jun Hee (2023) and Min Yu (1998)

Ahn Hyo Seop plays Yeun Jun (2023) and Si Heon (1998)

All of the actors here are seasoned and very good at their jobs, so I am not casting shade on any of them—they are executing their performances based on writing and directorial choices. But I cannot deny that the Taiwanese version of these characters are more compelling all around. In SOOD, the main characters have a real spark; despite the melancholic undertone of the story, there are moments of genuine joy and when they connect with each other, you feel why this bond is strong enough for them to find each other through time and despite all the trauma they endure. In ATCY, however, the characterizations are muted.

This is most evident in the difference between Quan Sheng/Zi Wei and Yeon Jun/Si Heon. Greg Hsu plays Zi Wei as magnetic, playful, mischievous, utterly lovable, and very intense about his feelings for his lady. He has a real joie de vivre about him that clearly brightens up Yu Xuan’s life considerably, and his devotion to her is not just shown, but deeply felt. Experiencing their memories, you understand immediately why Yu Xuan can’t move on from his death; he was the joyful, relaxed counterpoint to her more ambitious and serious personality. Si Heon, though? He is a nice dude and a generous partner and he is very good looking. But he doesn’t have the playfulness or the intensity that his Taiwanese counterpart does. His personality is just more moderate all around. One great example of this: upon discovering that he has traveled forward into the body of the person that would become Yu Xuan/Jun Hee’s boyfriend, Zi Wei (in Quan Sheng’s body now, are you still with me?) actively decides to find her, love her, and try to solve this time loop quagmire they are in; Si Heon (in Yeon Jun’s body) waits for a moment of fate to give him a sign, and only makes the decision to pursue Jun Hee after running into her by coincidence.

Similarly, Jun Hee is not quite as spunky and sassy as Yu Xuan and Min Yu is not as dark and awkward as Yun Ru; when Jun Hee travels to the past and takes up residence in Min Yu’s body, the differences between the two characters she is playing are not as evident. In SOOD, I could tell at a glance who is in Yun Ru’s body; in ATCY I need more context to be sure. Where Yun Ru had more of an edge, Min Yu simply reads very shy. It’s not as compelling. One scene that really stands out as an example of this: when Yun Ru is pretending to be Yu Xuan in 1998 and looks in the mirror to practice smiling, it looks downright creepy and sinister; when Min Yu is masquerading as Jun Hee and looks at herself in the mirror, she just looks awed and happy, if a bit awkward. It’s subtle, but it changes the way you feel about the characters.

The difference in Jun Hee and Yeon Jun’s characterization also affects the couple chemistry, which is just not nearly as strong in ATCY. The characters are more muted and thus the expected sparks are more like smoldering embers. The relationship feels cozy and warm and nurturing, but it doesn’t feel vital. It doesn’t feel like the kind of relationship you would fight through time or break the rules of the universe to return to. I recall gasping or crying or laughing out loud throughout SOOD because I was constantly taken aback by Greg Hsu’s arresting presence and the chemistry he and Alice Ke generated was just emotionally riveting. When Yu Xuan told Zi Wei (as Quan Sheng) that they were officially together, that man literally jumped for joy and shouted out his love for her; Si Heon (as Yeon Jun) reacts to the same moment with a quiet smile and a hug. When Zi Wei saw Yu Xuan in Yun Ru’s body again in the finale, he knew instantly that it was her and the smile overtook his face as he reached for her; Si Heon initially called Min Ju’s name before getting closer and taking several beats to realize it was Jun Hee (ruining this iconic moment is perhaps this remake’s greatest sin against romance, my god).

Everything between the couple in SOOD was just more, both in happiness and in despair. I liked Jun Hee and Si Heon, and Ahn Hyo Seop and Jeon Yeo Been are very competent actors whose performances I have loved in other dramas, but they didn’t achieve that level of chemistry here, the writing and directing choices worked against them, and I didn’t feel that same desperation for them to figure this out that I did with Yu Xuan and Zi Wei.

The Story

The Korean version is a very faithful adaptation overall (I haven’t mentioned Jun Jie and In Gyuk because his character and story is more consistent across the two shows), but does make some small tweaks to the story, some of which seem to be out of necessity due to a shorter run time (one episode and a couple hours total less than the Taiwanese original) and some just… because? The shorter amount of story time does lead to them having to cut corners on some aspects of the mythology and time travel lore, making it all a bit less clear for folks who don’t already understand what’s going on, and they put in a few nods to typical kdrama tropes like amusement park dates and hand of fate stuff that we really didn’t need—they are already trapped in a time loop together, we get it!

ATCY also messed with the timelines and ages for reasons I don’t really understand and that don’t really track. In SOOD, Zi Wei traveled forward from 2002 to Quan Sheng’s body in 2010, met Yu Xuan, and then died in 2018. In ATCY, Si Heon traveled forward from 2002 only to 2007 and did not die until 2022—but the relationship dynamics are all the same. It made sense for a young couple who had been together about 7 years and who were in their mid-20s to be having the kind of relationship problems they did—fighting about prioritizing careers and time abroad and whether it was time to get married. But a couple who has been together nearly 15 years? Who are in their mid-30s? They would have already been married probably and had a couple kids to boot. The choice to change the timeline like this had me scratching my head and accomplished nothing for the story.

But neither of those things are the change to the story that is weighing on me most. That occurs in a very small and brief backstory for the real Yeon Jun, where the drama introduces an original character who has no counterpart in SOOD: Tae Ha.

In SOOD, the real Quan Sheng is a closeted gay teenager who meets a tragic end: he confesses to his crush, gets brutally rejected, then gets bullied when the crush tells others about his sexuality, and ultimately decides to walk into the sea in an attempt to end his life, a choice that leaves his body in a coma until Zi Wei’s consciousness takes it over. In ATCY, this backstory changes and Rowoon is brought in for a brief but impactful cameo as Tae Ha, Yeon Jun’s cram school friend. We see that the two have mutual feelings for each other but are both struggling to confess. One day as they are driving together, they finally explicitly acknowledge their feelings, holding hands and smiling at one another—and then immediately get hit by a Truck of Doom (easily one of the most tired kdrama tropes), Tae Ha dying on impact and Yeon Jun ending up in a coma with Si Heon’s consciousness eventually taking over his body like in the original story.

Now on first glance, you might be inclined to give the show some credit for including a new gay character and giving the original Yeon Jun a happier experience with his crush. Explicit gay representation? In a mainstream kdrama? Still very rare and a big deal if done right. But if you think for a moment longer you’ll realize we can’t give the show credit for this, because this is a textbook execution of the Bury Your Gays trope and the narrative punishment that befalls gay characters who act on their attraction. Essentially, what the Korean remake did here was reveal these two characters are gay, killed them both immediately after they decided to pursue a relationship with each other, and then had the het male lead character take over the body of this gay man and use it to enter into a relationship with a woman. Some aspects of this plot were present in the original tale, but this choice to add an additional gay character only to kill him and tie it to their moment of acknowledging their mutual attraction? Made it significantly worse. It was badly done and I will not applaud the drama for representation when they did it in such a cruel way.

The Ending

SOOD ends on a hopeful but somewhat ambiguous note, with Yu Xuan in 2020 finding a way to go back and save Yun Ru (and Jun Jie by extension) and then breaking the time loop, sacrificing her relationship with Zi Wei in the process even as it breaks her heart (because the only way for them to meet and fall in love in 2010 was to stay in the loop). She sacrifices their romance, and all their memories together, because it’s the right thing to do—she inadvertently destroyed Yun Ru’s life with her time traveling, and she couldn’t live with that knowing there was a way to fix it. We are left with a broken time loop, original teen Zi Wei meeting child Yu Xuan again in 1998, and the hope that they will find a way to make their fates align again and be together without time travel complications. It’s just the right bittersweet touch to end the story on; their previous relationship was lost and their sacrifice was real, but there is hope for another version of a happy life together, someday.

By contrast, ATCY goes for a more explicit happy ending: Jun Hee makes the same choice to go back and save Min Ju, and to break the time loop and sacrifice her relationship with Si Heon, but in ATCY we then jump forward to 2011 to a happy epilogue to see Si Heon and Jun Hee meet as adults. And look, I love a happy ending! But what I said above about the sacrifice Yu Xuan and Zi Wei made in SOOD really resonating because of its bittersweet ending? That’s absent here, because ATCY decided they needed to put a bow on it and reassure us they would get back together. ATCY was just never willing to let us stay in the grief or commit to the darker and sadder aspects of this story, and as a result, the whole thing loses some of its impact.

#someday or one day #a time called you #tw drama #kdrama #long post #why yes i did write a 3k word post for the ten people on this website who care about both these dramas #shan shouts into the void

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