#this is from end of june/start of july but i completely forgot to post...

[rivalsforlife]

The Yearly AA Series Future Speculation Post

I've given up on calling it aa7 speculation because that has never worked out for me. anyways [apollo justice voice] hiya!

It's been a while since I made one of these little posts where I try to predict things and end up horribly embarrassing myself. BUT this year has actually been very exciting for Ace Attorney. We have Ghost Trick! We have 456 ports! Could there be more? Who knows. Tokyo Game Show is coming up and that's always a bad time of year for my self-esteem.

In this post I will do the following:

-Go over the November 2020 leaks again, to compare that to where we're at now

-Talk a bit about the 456 port and what I think that means for the series and its future

-Talk a bit about how well TGAA is doing, I think

-Brief Tokyo Game Show speculations (there's not much to speculate about)

I'll reference my previous posts and sources where necessary. It'll get long and rambly again so I'll put the rest under a keep reading.

FIRST:

Revisiting the Calendar (Again)

For those who aren't aware, back in November 2020, Capcom got hacked (this was overall bad) and from that hack came a leak of a roadmap for the future of the AA series.

For this post, please keep in mind that this calendar is using the Japanese fiscal year, which starts in in April. Therefore Q1 is roughly April-June, Q2 July-September, Q3 October-December, Q4 January-March of the next year.

This calendar was likely made in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, which inevitably ended up throwing everything off quite a bit.

Some of these things came true. This leak was where we first heard about the official TGAA ports, and while they were delayed by about a quarter, they still came out pretty close to on time with all things pandemic to consider. What's especially interesting is that now with confirmation of the 456 ports, we now have no idea what is up with AA7.

We know that AA7 was in development at one point. We know that, if things were on track prior to the pandemic, they might have started the main production. However, the plan seemed to be to release it for the 20th anniversary and use those sales and the sales from TGAA to judge whether 456 would be ported; now that we have 456 confirmed before AA7, we can assume that AA7's delay is so severe we have no way of predicting if or when it will come out.

The thing is, though, AA has been doing really well the last few years, despite the lack of a new game. The 2019 ports of the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney trilogy have sold around 2.3 million copies, when previously no other Ace Attorney game broke a million. The trilogy hit a million copies around December 2020, for reference. Ace Attorney itself as a whole broke ten million copies sold recently. In this post I covered how TGAA seemingly has sold way more than Capcom expected, and sold pretty quickly, and is confirmed to be somewhere between 500k-1 million copies sold.

I don't see any reason to believe that AA is in dire financial straits. We've gotten more official merchandise in the last year or so than we got for a while, AA is featured heavily on Capcom's Captown website, the Tokyo Game Show merchandise store has been selling out of AA merch faster than any of their other IPs... I don't see why they wouldn't want to milk that. And 456 is probably a part of it.

What Do The 456 Ports Mean

Back in March 2022, in an event I almost completely forgot about, Capcom updated their trademark for Apollo Justice. I covered my thoughts on that here, and speculated it might indicate a 456 port. ... Which it apparently did. I'll quote exactly what I said in that post, since I still feel this way:

Presumably, previously, the decision to port or not to port 456 would be dependent both on how well TGAA does and how well AA7 would do. With no AA7, they might be making this decision solely based on TGAA. And they… might actually decide it’s worth the port?

This tells us a couple of things.

1.Capcom is aware that there is a decent market and profit to be made porting the Ace Attorney games to all consoles.

2.This heavily implies that TGAA sold fantastically.

I also said in my post about TGAA's success that the 456 ports would be the best indicator of whether Capcom would find it more profitable to continue along with mainline or stick to writing more things about TGAA. Because TGAA is actually doing... pretty great? It's always seemed to have a pretty good fan reception, but it came at the end of the 3DS life cycle and seemed to do poorly enough that Capcom didn't try to localize it for several years. But now it's big enough that Ryunosuke made it onto the 20th anniversary logo, and Ryunosuke and Kazuma are featured in some of the Ace Attorney merchandise for TGS's merch store.

456 doing well would probably reinvigorate Capcom's desire to continue making stories set in mainline. It also might inspire them to finally give an official translation to my favorite game, Ace Attorney Investigations 2, who is Capcom's poor unloved child these days. I'm not expecting Investigations Ports for a few more years, since they seem to be spacing out the ports by about two years, but... it's more likely now than I felt it was about three years ago.

The Great Ace Attorney Sweep

Also, the last few years have had a heavy focus on Great Ace Attorney, even now a couple of years after the ports came out. Takarazuka made their first AA musical in a decade based on TGAA, and, if you ask me, it sounds pretty heavily like they were teasing for a sequel someday. There also has been a reading theater based on TGAA, with an original episode written by Takumi.

Of particular relevance is this source of dubious credibility I linked to in one of my other posts talking about TGAA's expected success. I've assumed it came from the data in the November 2020 Capcom Leak but I can't be certain, so take this next part with a grain of salt.

Here are the original sales projections from 2019(?): FY21: 195K (originally supposed to launch in Q1) FY22: 55K FY23: 8K FY24: 41K (with 32K being in Q3)

This sudden increase in FY24 has always been interesting. Again, as a reminder, Japan's FY24 Q3 would be equivalent to October-December 2024.

It would make sense to say that the 456 ports coming out would likely lead to an increase in sales for all AA games, and it could be that Capcom initially intended for a 456 port to come out about half a year later than the current projection of early 2024. At the same time... I can't deny the possibility that this could be hinting at a new game in the TGAA setting. And something coming out in late 2024 could be a reasonable candidate for an announcement at some major gaming show that Ace Attorney fans already have an interest in tuning into. These are all completely neutral things I am saying that I have no expectations or hope for whatsoever.

What IS Happening At Tokyo Game Show?

TGS is always the part of the year where I say "This is the most likely place for a new AA game announcement leading up to or during it" and it never happens. This year, though, will be different! We have a CONFIRMED feature of the 456 ports. This is the first time we'll have AA content at TGS since 2018, when I first got into the series, so I think it's a pretty big deal. (2018 was when the trilogy ports were first announced; TGAA ports had an announcement-release window of April-July, so they didn't get a chance to feature at TGS.)

Since all we have for a release date is early 2024, I wouldn't be surprised if there will be an official confirmation of the release date, probably a showcase of port features, maybe in-person gameplay? That could be all, and it would be more than we've had since 2018.

I want to say "because there's going to be 456 advertising there, it would be ridiculous for them to announce some new AA content to detract from that". But I said the same things about the capcom showcase where Ghost Trick was featured and the 456 collection was announced, so. Capcom's decisions on when to announce things can be counterintuitive, it seems, so maybe the least likely time is actually the most likely...?

Anyways, we have no idea what the state of New Ace Attorney Content is like in Capcom. From the calendar from the Nov 2020 leaks, the staff that had been working on the DGS ports would join the main staff for AA7, suggesting to me that there would be part of the staff working on ports and part of the staff working on new things. We have no idea what happened to these people who were supposed to be working on AA7. We *can* assume that at least part of the staff transferred over to 456 ports now, but we don't know when that would have been, or if they'd really need all hands on deck for a remaster.

It's been a few years now since Yamazaki left Capcom. We know absolutely nothing about what Takumi has been doing, outside of whatever contributions he may or may not have made to the Ghost Trick remaster, and only recently contributing to various stage content. (We know he advised at least somewhat on the Takarazuka play, and wrote that original episode for the reading theater, so I'd assume he's not in the middle of a big project right when those were taking place.)

This is all to say, there's reason to believe Something's Been Happening Behind The Scenes. And Therefore -- [clown wig descends onto my head again] Maybe TGS 2023 Will Be The Year Of New Ace Attorney Content. Since 456 will be taking the spotlight, I wouldn't expect anymore than a teaser, if it's happening at all.

And now that I've said it, it won't happen.

OVERALL

-TGS confirmed 456 port feature, which should be interesting to see what kind of quality of life features they'll add. Slight possibility there could be something else AA related teased there, solely because Capcom.

-I think TGAA is doing better than Capcom expected and I wouldn't be shocked if they tried to make a new game of it, or at least more extracanonical content like stage plays taking place in that timeline

-AA7 has seemingly vanished but I am sure it will come back when I least expect it.

-AAI ports someday. please. please. please.

#ace attorney #aa7 speculation #[banging pots and pans together] YEAR 3 OF FAILED PREDICTIONS LET'S GIVE IT UP FOR YEAR 3 #there's not much to say here I just wanted to get something out as we're heading into september #do I even want aa7 anymore? no. am I speculating anyways? yes.

[andromebaa]

My 2023 Writing Wrap Up

Stole this idea from Lovova lmao. Let’s see if I can figure out what I’ve been writing this year. I mean, we all know what I’ve been writing but let’s just see it in words:

January

Starting the year strong by not really doing much. Might have been dabbling with some OCs but nothing too notable.

February

Uploaded the start of a fic version of my play-by-post Danganronpa AU Despair’s Legacy to my brand new AO3 account before promptly leaving it to rot. Also uploaded the first chapter of a silly little Oumota fic that I wrote for funsies. This is the start of the Just the Two of Us brainrot. To prove it, I then proceeded to write and upload five more chapters.

Addendum: Completely forgot that the first fic I ever uploaded to my AO3 this month was my Ishimaru/reader smut I wrote like six years ago lmaoooo gotta remember your roots

March

Went cazy and uploaded six more chapters of Just the Two of Us. I was officially obsessed.

Also started doing some initial planning for my other two danganhorror fics.

April

Brain started exploding so I only uploaded three Just the Two of Us chapters this month. Also wrote the side smut story for it, Defragmentation, over the Easter weekend.

May

Started the far more sustainable action of writing only one chapter of Just the Two of Us a month. Also started planning the Moulin Rouge Oumota au that I never finished - sad!

June

Began planning for Oumota Week 2023. Wrote a small sci-fi/horror fic called Facsimile for a Kaito/Maki writing week. Published another two chapters of Just the Two of Us.

July

Through some unholy will I published seven seperate short fics for Oumota week ranging from a mermaid au to a silly family au and a short Haiku poem based on the origin of the Tanabata festival. Somehow published another chapter of Just the Two of Us as well.

August

Wrote my official oneshot smut for Oumota as part of the package deal which I’m doing for each of my main danganhorror fics. Also managed to complete another chapter of the Just the Two of Us. Also started writing REDACTED.

September

Another chapter of Just the Two of Us successfully uploaded!

October

The final chapter of Just the Two of Us is uploaded and I finally allowed myself to rest for like a week or two before going back to the grind.

November

Ceremoniously failed to work on an original junior/YA story for NaNoWriMo and just like start working on my next Danganhorror fic Every Day is Exactly the Same.

December

Uploaded the first chapter of my next Danganhorror fic aka the one where Yasuhiro ends up in a time loop. Got nasty bad Togakure brainrot and proceeded to spend most of the month jumping between the main fic and the smut one shot.

Aaaaand that’s a wrap up! It’s been a very very productive year and although it’s almost all been fic stuff I’ve never been more proud of myself. I started and finished a 140,000 word fic and also wrote almost a dozen short fics on the side too.

I can’t wait to see what this new year will bring! I’m definitely not going to go too hard and burn out but I hope I’ll still be productive! My biggest goal will be to finish Every Day is Exactly the Same and hopefully start a new non-fic project too.

Let’s see how it goes!

#year wrap up #2023 #writing wrap up #fic stuff

[misiwrites]

4KINGDOMS RE-READ ADVENTURE & LORE POST part 1

alrighty. i'm reading my own fic from the start for the first time. obviously i've reviewed each chapter as i've posted it but i got issues with reading my own shit so. anyway. i have baileys, i can do this

and since i'm posting about this story now anyways, and i'd wanted to make posts explaining the lore and the process of creating the universe, i thought okay, two birds with one stone, i'll do both! i can discuss relevant things one chapter at a time.

Chapter 1 (prologue):

not much to say about this. it's a tiny bit cringe but hey. a line that i like alert!

[…] with each new generation that the crowns were passed down to, the holy beasts' magic only grew stronger within the four kings. It was up to the individual nations and their flow of history, however, to define the line between humanity and divinity.

this, and the one thing i liked and even now like in this prologue is the way i ended it with "Perhaps this was all an act of ill omen befalling the four kingdoms – as the world created by the holy beasts was about to come to its end." because it's like, someone opens this 200k+ word fic, and the first chapter says that the world is ending. you just started. and it's saying that it's ending. in 200k words

Re: Chapter 1 - THE LORE! THE LEGEND! THE WORLD OF THE FOUR KINGDOMS! the prologue really breaks down the basics. it's a world with four countries. each was created by one holy beast. the countries are also shaped like the beasts, i traced the shapes from some illustration on google. the characteristics of each country are straight out of the wuxing concept and how the four symbols are connected to it. azure dragon represents wood, so the east is the greenest country. the wood element is connected to the direction of east and the spring season and so on and so forth. the basic building blocks for the world were really just handed to me by beyblade canon and i used them like legos.

Chapter 2: takao complaining about ralf & sneaking into kyouju's house to eat dem noodles

takao is so sassy towards ralf. but i guess he always is. good i nailed that from the first paragraphs

i clearly completely forgot that there are annual fencing tournaments. i went to change the month (moon) in stealth shhhh you saw nothing

the chapter is just a lot of exposition. i think i wrapped it up pretty nicely, IIRC it took considerable planning and reshaping to get an opening chapter that's somehow simultaneously concise and informative and fun. this basically lays down all the relevant information about takao in one go. he's so good at fencing he wants to learn sword fighting already, he doesn't care about formality, he misses hitoshi who left ten years ago, he likes to eat, ralf is there. and wants to go on adventures. a lot of things that will carry through the entirety of the fic. not bad

Re: Chapter 2 - THE LORE! THE MONTHS A.K.A. MOONS! these are literally just finnish translated directly into english. month in finnish is kuukausi, "moon season", but we talk about moons. "tässä kuussa" in this moon i did that, "ensi kuussa" in the next moon gonna go there. this is the reason i made sun and moon always capitalised, to make a difference. there's no such difference in reality in colloquial finnish btw

a complete guide for the good audience January: Heartmoon (tammikuu -- actually "oak moon" but, it's an etymology thing) February: Pearlmoon (helmikuu) March: Earthenmoon (maaliskuu) April: Glebemoon (huhtikuu) May: Sowmoon (toukokuu) -- this means sowing, but i afterwards realised a sow is like, a pig. so now the moon name is kinda. not what i wanted June: Summermoon (kesäkuu) July: Haymoon (heinäkuu) August: Harvestmoon (elokuu) September: Autumnmoon (syyskuu) October: Dirtmoon (lokakuu) November: Deathmoon (marraskuu) -- truthfully i'm not sure if this was deadmoon or deathmoon. i'll find out when a mention of it comes up December: Yulemoon (joulukuu)

Chapter 3: rei hangs out in a tower and finds out he's going north in two weeks. thanks for nothing olivier

i was surprised by how much good(?) exposition i put in this one too. the first sentence already establishes that rei wishes he was free but isn't. there's a pretty tight summary about him having a deity status that robs him of all agency. the first paragraph alone somehow manages to pack the information that the west is very industrialised and kind of bleak. i don't dislike this

mao hanging out there with galux at the start makes a bit of a false premise though. later on it becomes clear she's not there often at all and galux doesn't even appear ever since (note to self, it's her beloved little kittycat)

rei being snide about making olivier climb the stairs to the tower is pretty funny. also, rei saying how he would have preferred the south over the north. wow sweet summer child

Re: Chapter 3 - THE LORE! THE TIGER MAPLE PALACE! this palace causes me so much trouble like you have no idea. it probably shows a bit in the progession of the story that i don't fuckign know what it looks like. the layout is essentially copied from the forbidden city which is the old imperial palace in beijing, and the concept of it being divided into inner and outer court is IIRC from the twelve kingdoms, the series that this fic is mainly inspired by. originally i wanted tiger maple to be more of a, like, actual fantasy palace that defies the laws of physics, like in 12kingdoms the royal palaces have shit like top floors where the kings hang out somehow floating above the clouds. but i didn't think it through early enough and now it's more normal, i guess. the palace is surrounded by the gargantuan wall (which, by the way, was not mentioned in the first chapter so i guess i hadn't thought of it yet?) on three sides and by the tiger maple mountain on the fourth. it's lodged between a mountain range and in the middle of buttfuck nowhere. the good thing about it is that i've made it clear enough how the place is so big that i can keep inventing new locations inside the walls when i want.

Chapter 4: rei has a bad time travelling to the north, then has a good time being in the north, then has a bad time again

this chapter is longer than my small intestine. equally bumpy too

it's also weird to me now that i put two rei chapters in a row. i know this happens sometime later too but that would be a no-no to current me

mao having a wife moment in the beginning and rei not really appreciating it. hmm well i don't know how i feel about that. there's a very casual drop about her being his fiancee. this makes me feel like i started off writing them being closer than they ended up being later on. but. i'll take note of it

a lot just happens in here. i have no evidence but i can imagine this chapter being like a fucking trial testing readers' patience. i'd bet my left kidney that it's eliminated many.

rei and max meet for the first time and it felt very funny to me at the time of writing. well, i guess it's still pretty funny but kinda illogical in the "i wanted this to happen, so the characters are now gonna act like this" way. of course max would just fuck with rei first thing. not literally. in the prankster way.

a line that i like alert! kind of a fake alert because i went to edit it a little before copying it here. but you'll never know. you don't know what it said

I had assumed the sky to be void of all light, but as I now stood there staring at its upward depths, I saw a brilliant whirl of hues of purple blending in with the beautiful, velvety black. Against that glossy darkness shone the silvery crescent of the shy Moon, shrouded in a thin veil of clouds as if making a half-hearted attempt at concealing itself. The distant shine of thousands of stars dotted the arch of the sky and continued till the ends of the horizon, like gems embedded in fine folds of dark velvet.

really like this description of a shy moon half-heartedly hiding in clouds. that was good writing!

not doing a lore for this one because the chapter made me tired. i failed my own trial. oh but as like half-assed lore i can say that the ruins of the church that rei mistakenly calls a castle in this chapter is designed after the cathedral of my city. which is not in ruins. there's also no pool by it like in the chapter. but the environment, i based on my city. the north is meant to be a fusion of northern europe, italy, and the US, so it's easy to model resting palace (the capital) after the city i live in, because this place is old as dicks. and european.

this is part 1 of idon'tknowhowmany. depends on if i survive

#4kingdoms stuff #i read my own fic and die while at it

[jasperygrace]

June 2022 Mid Monthly Report

Hello hello, everyone! Apologies for the late report this month-- had a lot I needed to take care of this week, but I am once again back this month with another Mid Monthly Report.

As always, if you're interested in my work, consider checking out the Masterlist or my Artstation for more.

Without further ado, let's begin!

Project Progress

Project : Identity

Change of pace, so we're gonna start with Pro:Iden progress this time around.

So! I have completed the common route for Project : Identity, and I just have to say... I may have to change the project name for this. So the story has changed a lot, which I expected with a project with as short of a development time as this was. I just uh, did not expect it change as much as it did. The story really does not deal with the concept of identity anymore, rather it deals with the concept of survival. In the month I've been working on it, it's gone from a crime drama to a rapture tale. Which I'm all for, but writing for the two routes is going to be a little bit more difficult than planned.

As for other things regarding the project, I have begun character designs. I said originally that I hoped to have them done for around the 19th, I'm going to shoot for 22st to have the girls' refs done.

Project : Desert

As of writing this, I am halfway through Act 2, and hooo boy, Act 2 has been a doozy so far. A lot of rewrites I had to do, and then the story took a turn in a direction I wasn't expecting it to. I don't write by the seat of my pants normally, but this is one of those times (I guess that's just the common theme for this month). Given that I am halfway through Act 2, I should be able to complete the act by July. Even with the delay I had earlier this year, I should be able to finish Draft 1 before the year's end (perhaps by October-ish). Which exciting, but also terrifying.

Speaking of exciting things, in a little under two weeks with be Project : Desert's 2nd Year Anniversary (wo-hoo!!!). It's crazy to think how long I've been working on this project, and even crazier to think this started out as a short story in a fanzine of all things. Y'all here this so often from me, but I just want to say thank you for your support. It really does mean the world to me that you've stuck with me and my crazed ramblings this long. I hope you'll look forward to the anniversary because I have a very special piece I made just for the occasion :^)

Goals

Here are my goals from last month:

Write three/four chapters by June 15th [done]

Storyboard chapters 6 & 8 by June 15th [done]

Finish Art Nouveau prints by September 30th (or sooner) [in progress]

Begin development for Project : Identity and post first devlog by May 22nd. [done]

Update the Masterlist by May 31st [I FORGOT D:]

Begin work on Project : Desert anniversary [done]

June Goals:

Write three/four chapters by July 15th

Storyboard chapters 9 & Reese by July 15th

Work on Art Nouveau prints

Finish Project : Identity refs by June 22nd

Complete Wildfire route by July 1st

Update the damn masterlist by July

That sums up my report for this month! Thank you for reading, and I hope you'll support me in my future endeavors.

#writeblr #dev log #monthly report #mid month report #indie game #game development #Project : Desert #Project : Identity #jasper.txt #jasper's archive #MMR2022

[populationpensive]

Here

Dang, I legitimately forgot about my tumblr. Well, not forgot, just did different stuff I suppose. It's been a busy summer at work and it's been exciting at home.

Home: exciting because I am reading a TON, tending my garden, and now dealing with the remnants of a leak that requires a ceiling repair. Let me tell you, know one tells you when you become an adult how HARD it is to get someone to call you back from a construction company. SO hard. Especially in summer.

My reading journey has been absorbed in Sarah Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses series. I read the first book in May and made my way through all 5 by end of June. Annnnd then I was sad it ended and I wanted to read them again. So I am. *shrug* judge me all ya want.

I've read 38 books so far this year - goal is 52. :-D I started keeping track in 2019 and just kept doing it. The completed book list is a nice way to prove to myself that I did something besides clean my house or something.

Work: exciting for all the usual reasons. It's trauma season so we have gotten some interesting (and sad) patient cases. Had my first difficult femoral vein CVC insertion. For anyone that places CVCs, sticking a femoral vein is not hard. Anatomy can be tricky at times but it's not rocket science.

Good LORD I had to use a HUGE spinal needle on a patient due to their body habitus and it took FOREVER. It involved taping many body parts and an extra pair of hands so I could use the U/S properly. And I couldn't use the IJs or subclavians due to the patient's surgical sites. 110% all about living your best life, body confidence, etc. But if I can't put a CVC in your femoral vein reasonably easily, we've got a problem.

July has been...rough to say the least. It's been a mixed bag of interns on the unit. Some have been AMAZING. Good intuition, ready to ask for help, and have a good idea of what they don't know. Others have genuinely scared me with their lack of ability to differentiate "sick v not sick" and prioritizing tasks.

I had a resident who apparently was informed by triage that we were getting a septic admission who would need lines and had a very complicated PMH. He told NO ONE this while rounding. When the charge nurse asked about kits we would need about the admission, I was just like "what admission?" and this resident was like "ohhhh yeah we're getting this person who seems septic maybe and needs lines and stuff."

We were rounding at the time with the staff intensivist and I was just like "yeah that's something you let us all know about so we can assign a person to leave rounds and deal with it. You don't sit on patients like that." Got a solidarity nod from the staff doc. And then the resident was like "well I figured we could deal with it when they come." And I was just like "Nope. That is not how we do things here. So, you're telling me that you're ok with someone critically ill showing up and you having NO IDEA about their history, their most recent labs, their fluid status, anything?" Got them to stop pushing after that.

I mean, I get that knowing a lot of info is a luxury. People working in the ED often have very little info about their patients. Sometimes we get post-codes on the unit who just show up in 5 minutes and we have to scramble a little. But my thought is, if you don't HAVE to scramble, why CHOOSE to?

#pablr #pa-c #pa-s #pre-pa #physician assistant #physician associate #medblr #medicine #health care careers #caspa #pa school

[nutellarchives]

my k-drama's of july 2023

Finally, after a long hiatus on this account, last post was literally September of 2022. I'm back with another k-drama rant review , which I've binged 3 dramas, 2 from 2023 and another from 2021/2022. It also took me a while to watch another k-drama where the last one was I think Extraordinary Attorney Woo (which aired in June-Aug 2022), whew that's almost a year of no k-drama for me.

Anyway, I have binge-watch 3 k-dramas back to back to back and if you want to read my full review of it, please keep reading.

Before clicking that Keep Reading button, be aware that this is a review and it will not be spoiler free; if you haven't watch the k-dramas Celebrity, Cheongdam International High School (B*tch and Rich), and Snowdrop, then go watch them first before reading this post.

Hope you enjoy my review!

Celebrity

First drama to be reviewed would be Celebrity, which is a recent release by Netflix and I actually watched the preview before it was released but I was like hm I didn't get it(??) Either way I actually forgot why I've decided to watch this drama despite of not really interested into it that time I watched the preview, because either I just didn't feel the trailer or have no interest in the concept of this celebrities / influencer themed k-drama.

Even so, I did watch it and... I liked it! To start off, the trailer tells about how a "Celeb" or influencer died and now she's back, revealing secrets and the truth. I actually thought it would be a cliche drama but I was wrong on that assumption.

Things I like about this drama:

The Narrative - the way the story unfolds isn't something new, like other dramas / movies have already used such way to narrate but I guess there's something about how they did it that caught my attention. I like how they don't follow a linear way of telling the story and uncovering secrets but they do it little by little that made me keep going, getting intrigue on what's going to happen next or what secret is about to be spilled.

The concept of "What you see isn't always the truth on the internet" - The drama focused on Celeb or Influencers, the way they always have stories to tell through social media posts and share something, then turns out to be not true. Example, during Oh Minhye's launch of her pop-up store, they get to have a picture together for promotional purposes but then after the picture was taken, they were unhappy around each other. This is just one example of what you see in the internet isn't what it seems.

Bringing awareness to a timely issue - This drama doesn't only show how people can fake their lives or their relationship with others, it also delved into the realm of you should not trust anyone on the internet. We get to see how Ari trusted bbbfamous just because they have valuable information that she can use, and with that decision of trusting a complete stranger, the consequences were grave and other people were affected negatively. I like how this is an eye-opening experience, especially the target viewers of k-drama's are usually teenagers and young adults, it can help them understand these situations as it can happen in real life.

Integrating new technology - in one portion of the drama, we get to see Ari's friend using Deep Fake to disguise as Ari, and this new emerging technology was briefly explained and how it affected the general population. As a person who knows this technology, I appreciate that they added that technology to bring awareness and how can it affect us, since it is a new technology, I'm sure not everyone is aware of it. Deep Fake can be beneficial but it can also be harmful if used with the wrong intention.

Mentioned above are the things that I've liked or enjoyed with the drama, now let's get into the reason why I only gave this drama a 9 instead of a perfect 10:

Ending seemed incomplete - in the beginning things were very detailed, everything was shown, every minor detail is zoomed into but then we get to the last episode and it felt rushed for me that they weren't able to show what happened that resulted to a certain scene. An example would be how did Ari got out of the car or how did she manage to live, they didn't show this scene because it might be unnecessary and maybe they want it to be a surprise, but personally, it felt instant on how she survived, making it less believable. Now there are other scenes that I wished they've added but it might be unnecessary BUT there's a scene that I wish they've added and I think it's very important. So in the last episode, we get to see bbbfamous, it was briefly shown, how she lived her life and how she felt when she was doing her act as bbbfamous. She was confronted by Ari then she stated her reason and jumped. I thought that she unalive but she was hospitalized instead and that's it. I was disappointed on that one because they could've added a scene where bbbfamous is in jail or a court trial; Because what she did is something grave, like a crime, it was also shown how Ari was emotionally affected by it, how come we didn't get to see a scene where she was paying for her sins when we get to see her share her reason why she did it and be all sad about it like she was the victim, when she is one of the reason why Ari's life got messed up in the first place. I'm pointing this out because I treat bbbfamous as one of the antagonist of this drama and that it reflects reality, how in real life someone could be like bbbfamous and make other people's life miserable.

Romance development seemed lacking - I personally like dramas that focuses on a different genre but has a hint of romance, because too much romance for me is just too cringy, even if I do love the chemistry of both leads, I still find it cheesy. I was happy that Celebrity included a hint of romance into Ari's life but clearly the stability of the romance is off. The vibe of their relationship was awkward, and that Sihyeon and Jungyeong's past relationship felt more genuine. I'd say they could've made the relationship of Ari and Jungyeong more sincere or legit OR they could've scrapped the romance entirely since its not really the point of the drama, and just an addition to make Ari more miserable because of the guy literally almost unalive due to her decisions in life. tbh im disappointed on this one, I actually like the chemistry between the leads.

Now those are my thoughts on the drama Celebrity, it was almost a favorite but unfortunately it lacked a little bit that didn't make it to the cut. Either way its a binge-worthy k-drama and is recommended to be watched.

Cheongdam International High School (B*tch and Rich)

The second drama that I'm going to review would be the Cheongdam International High School or commonly known as B*tch X Rich. I keep on putting an asterisk because idk if swear word is allowed in tumblr So this drama is about a high school student who visited an International High School and there she witnessed a murder that lead her into transferring to the said school and began to experience "hell" due to clashing with the most influential student in the school prior to her transferring.

When the poster for this drama was revealed, I was really excited because even if I didn't know the short haired girl, which a lot of people know because she appeared in all of us are dead and I haven't watched that drama so idk really I know Yeri (cuz she's from Red Velvet aye) and I think this is her first lead role. She is also the "villainess" in this drama so I did expect a lot.

This will be the shortest review out of the three but all I can say is this drama is mediocre. The acting of the actors is nice, especially Yeri because omg she delivered and the production quality is amazing, the setting and the bgm are bomb. The problem is how messy the story is and how is it presented. Got some few rants and I will tell them now. First, why is Hyein's character like that, She is smart but then she keeps on making regrettable decision. I understand that she's in high school and she's just a teenager but the way she makes her choices and experience the consequences, it feels like she didn't learn hence no growth on her part. Her character is made that way so that bad things can keep on happening and that's awful as the character won't have any significance and its just a tool in the story to make things worse. Second, the adults in this drama are useless. Hyein's father, that teacher who had relationship with Jena's father, Doeon's father, all of them are just there, characters that are added without any purpose or positive contribution to the teenagers in the story. I think that they were added and making them useless forces the teenagers to standout more but then that's a wrong depiction of adults as adults should help and guide teenagers and young ones to flourish. Last rant ig would be the what did I just watched and why doesn't it make sense questions unanswered and the possibility of another season. The last episode should answer all the questions that were built up but then instead of literally resolving all of the problems, it opened up to more questions.

Overall, this drama is mediocre, not bad but not great either. No clear direction of what kind of theme it was going for, is it bullying or is it the mystery / murder. Is it worth binging? For me, no because its like a bread that wasn't even fully cooked but taken out of an oven, resulting to being uncooked and unservable.

Snowdrop

Last one to be reviewed is Snowdrop. Snowdrop isn't really a 2023 release and a lot of people must've watched it already but I just watched it this year so obviously I'll be able to review it only now.

Snowdrop is about a freshman in college named Yeongro discovering a man covered in blood in her college dorm in the year 1987. And things weren't the same before after this incident.

This drama is actually one of my most anticipated watch because Jisoo is in it, and its her acting debut, and the chemistry of her and Haein for me is amazing. I didn't watch this till now because whenever a drama is on-going, people keep on posting, spoiling stuff that ruins the fun. plus I don't have disney+ so I can't watch it lol

Anyway here is my review: I'm sad, like what was that :(

Okay so I'm going to explain that things that I liked and didn't like (or rant about things). First is the things that I liked or enjoyed:

The period in which korea was in - As you may all know, I am a sucker for historical korean dramas, where it is set in the period (Goryeo, Joseon etc.) where people still wear hanboks and concepts of royalty still exists. Now in Snowdrop, its part of Korea's history but its more recent compared to the historical dramas that I've watched. Its a refreshing watch since I've either watched k-dramas that are historical, set in a place where it does not exist (fantasy fiction), or the modern times (the present). I do appreciate that the places were shown accurately and what are the hobbies / entertainment during that time and what living was like during that period.

The Actors - Honestly, one of the reason why I chose to finish this drama is because of the actors. They were able to portray their characters well. Haein is one of the lead of this drama and he was able to convey his emotions very well, especially when he had those close up shots. Then we have Hyeyoon, who is so good at portraying her role that I'm twice as pissed at her in this drama compared to Sky Castle, then I'd also like to share how I loved Inna in this drama, because I have watched her other dramas (Goblin and Touch Your Heart) and this is the first time I've seen her that she's not the adorable, feminine type because of the nature of her character. Of course, how can I forget Jisoo, who just made her acting debut and she did performed as if its not her first time. She did well tbh, though I'm a bit sad on how she was always miserable and sad throughout the drama that almost 80% of screen time she bawl her eyes out. There are the other actors, to name some, Kim Minkyu, Jung Eugene, Kim Jungnan, Yoon Seah, Jung Yiseo, Yum Junghwa and many more, whom I have watched on other dramas and enjoyed that they're in this drama. It's actually comforting seeing them despite the story not really comforting at all.

The production - the production for this drama is insane, from the establishments, the dorm omg its so pretty I wanna study there cuz apparently its a university in real life , the props and the minor details, it was researched well that it made the setting realistic and I felt like I traveled back in time. Aside from that, I also love the OST for this drama. The instrumental songs gives that nostalgic vibe and the vocals of each song is gorgeous that I get goosebumps whenever I listen to it.

How eye-opening it is - I rarely watch political dramas because I tend to get bored on how serious the tone and the atmosphere is but then Snowdrop is heavy on the political side which I didn't expect. Even if I'm not a fan of this topic, I made my way through finishing it just for the sake of seeing how it ends and I can say that I did learn something from this drama, political wise and that is how powerful people in politics are and how easy it is for them to manipulate people in general. This is a very timely thing and even in this drama I found these people in politics annoying, with their greed and selfishness, they are willing to do everything even the bad just to get what they want. This just shows how important it is to elect the right people, who are willing to serve, and not those who crave for power.

Now let's move on to the things that made my Snowdrop experience unsatisfying:

Starting off with the genre, I expected this drama to be romance heavy, as advertised, with all of the poster about Yeongro and Sooho, it gives the romantic vibe. I don't watch trailers that much to avoid spoilers but yes, I relied on the posters, which there's no hint of gunfight or politics, just plain old romance. With that being said, I have high expectations on the romance, starting off on the right foot with the first few episodes, which there really is some romantic and cute scenes, but after that, when the hostage situation started, it was not romantic anymore obviously. I honestly thought the hostage situation would last for only a few episodes but then I realized that the hostage situation is the biggest portion of the plot. Not the biggest fan of hostages because of how stressful and emotionally draining it is so during those episodes I was like how is this a romance drama, that I have to double check the genre of this kdrama on wikipedia to verify that it is indeed one of its genre is romance.

Then moving on with the story, during the hostage situation, it was the hardest to watch, because I felt bored. I just carried on because of how good the actors were plus I'm curios how is gonna end so I endured it. It was bad because there's a loop, a cycle embedded into how the things are moving that made me lose my interest. An instance would be, when they finally thought of a way to get out of the dorm, someone, may it be internal or external, stops them from getting out or ruins the plan, and this cycle continued for how many episodes till we reach the last episode where they finally got out. The concept is very nice, gives a romeo and juliet vibe (because of how Sooho was the adoptive son of a high ranking man in the North and Yeongro is the daughter of the Chief of ANSP, which is an anti-communist organization), but the writers we're not able to execute the story well, leading into a cyclic, anti-climactic output.

Another thing is the amount of romance in this drama, which there's not much and that's why I'm disappointed. When I first saw Jisoo and Haein playing the role of the leads in this drama, their chemistry instantly clicked for me, making me look forward to the drama and its romance. I've expected a lot but the drama gave me a lot of stress instead of butterflies in my stomach due to the romantic scenes. The romance in this drama is kinda weird ig, sure it was love at first sight and that's the reason why Yeongro risked everything just to take care of Sooho, and they had cute interactions during that time, yeah lets give it to them but the thing is, what about the time when Sooho pointed a gun at Yeongro, I'm sure she'll be scared to death that she won't go near this man who nearly killed her but then the "romance" goes on despite of that happening which by the way I still enjoyed because of the chemistry its weird tbh. Plus if we're not gonna look at that (the thing about it being weird), the romance is lacking and too insta, like there's no deep meaning or intention to it. It felt like it was added to that other emotions can incorporated.

Last, would be the ending. It gave the impression that it was trying to be iconic due to how sad the ending was and that the female and male leads did not end up together kinda reminds me of scarlet heart. Aside from that though, after all of the stress and trauma that the story caused, the ending is underwhelming. Could've been better if Sooho was able to live and defect to the South or some kind of redemption arc for him because we witnessed how he was betrayed by his mom and adoptive father. After all, he was the focus of this drama, as we didn't get to see much of Jisoo his past, his struggles, his decisions, his life was basically presented but then he didn't get a happy ending, unfortunate.

Overall, I had high expectations with this drama, especially it was written and directed by the same people who worked with Sky Castle, which is one of my recommended drama, but unfortunately the story felt short and the romance didn't go well, leaving me disappointed.

Currently rewatching Our Beloved Summer and trying to finish it (the first time I watched it, I stopped at ep 13 because I don't want to finish it yet cuz its so good).

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this very long and detailed review!

Till my next review~

- ella

#snowdrop #bitchxrich #celebrity

[elizainjapan]

June 18th- Anime and Manga Museum

Today my inner-weeb came out a little bit. This being the day of the Manga Museum, it felt only fitting that I could finally freak out a little. As always, I woke up pretty hungry and still skipped breakfast, so by the time we got to the museum, I was ready for a cafe. My cravings had to wait though, because there was a lot to see inside and not a lot of time. We walked through a huge library with Japanese manga on every wall, and each series was classified by year. There were a couple that I remember being surprised being written so long ago (like Banana Fish in 1985). I picked up a Japanese copy of Doraimon to see if I could understand any of it. Surprise! I barely could. At one pint, a kid came over, sat down next to me, and picked up the same manga to start reading. He was flying through it! With my Japanese skills failing me once again, I headed over to the English section to read Death Note. I completely forgot how good that series is, and it reminded me to rewatch it again. One of the coolest parts of today was the the paper theatre. I felt a little better about my Japanese after that because he was speaking for an audience of children. I know pretty much everything that he was saying from context clues too. We finished up at the museum and headed over to a nearby vintage cafe. It was here that I had the bets hot mocha of my life. Next we started walking to a sushi restaurant, but I don’t like sushi, so I stopped at a soup dumpling place instead. Best decision. I love soup dumplings so much, and this shop had a line outside of it, so I knew it would be good. After a delicious meal, Sam and I started wlalking to our kimono rental appointment that was scheduled for 3:00. It was a 35 minute walk to the one that Julie had sent in the chat, so we assumed we would get there 15 minutes early. Unfortunately, it was the kimono place that the boys had booked, so we had to run our kimono place that was 25 minutes away. Of course it was also uphill. We made it in time though and started getting ready. I wouldn’t say that I felt particularly pretty with it on, but I think I felt more feminine. I know it’s stupid, but I also felt like I was infringing on someone else’s culture, so I was kinda uncofrtabe most of the time. The pictures were pretty cool though. I ended the day with a wonderful dinner with my mom and Ethan. We had A5 Wagyu which was the best steak I had ever had in my life. It was a 6 course meal for 3 people that ended up being $130! And we had Wagyu! I was ready to hit the hay when I got a lovely phone call from Raj saying that we were going out. It was a very fun day!

Academic Reflection-

I could actually understand the readings today! A large part of this was that I thought the readings was super interesting as I love learning about things that are big parts of my life. My favorite aspect fo the reading was talking about how manga was used as propoganda during the war, and how drastically it changed in the post-war setting. I also had no idea that shoujo was specifically targeted for girls, and women writers began overtaking the industry. This made me pretty happy. I assumed that shoujo anime was just romance and that shounen was for action. I did not know how gender-specific the genres were.

The other thing that I thought was interesting in the reading was the use of soft power on other countries. Many Japanese people do not like the idea that manga is the largest cultural export from Japan because of how “low” of an art form it is considered. Many foreigners would not agree, and it remains one of their largest financial gains.

[yunfeiz]

update on me!

hello i'm back from my break! it's been two months now i think. probably a couple more haha. if it seems like a completely disappeared, i sort of did. i thought i'd to a little update before i start rolling out some posts i have in my drafts that i wrote last week haha.

to start, originally my hiatus was planned to be just the month of june so i could prepare for my final exams so for the entire month of june i didn't look at tumblr once (go me!!). i did well on my final exams and achieved honours with distinction this school year! i was planning to be back posting in july except i forgot i had summer school. summer school hasnt' ended yet but i have enough time now to slowly get back into the flow of posting! i'll be back with tuesdays talking about my neweset kpop obsessions, new releases, and (hopefully) kpop boards

lately, i've been trying to spice up my music listening (as in to stop just listening to kpop LOL) so i have been listening to A LOT of taylor swift. mostly it's just been folklore (gotta prepare myself for august) and i'd really like to talk about some of my favourite songs from her. i probably can't go into detail about them since i'm not the best with dissecting lyrics so until i figure out that flaw out i'll write the post in my drafts

im incredibly excited to back and to get back into talking about kpop!

[imagine-a-life-like-this]

Cliché Romance Masterlist

16 people. 8 stories. 1 universe. Join me as we hop into a world filled with movie-like romance and explore the lives of 16 people who don't realize their lives are about to become absolutely cliché.

Author's Note : This series will contain 8 short stories that connect to create 1 giant story. For consistency sake, each female love interest (y/n) will be given a nickname that everyone calls them. Please bare with me if there are some inconsistencies, this is very much out of my comfort zone but I wanted to try something new!

Warnings : This series will deal with breakups, (mentally) abusive parents, drinking/partying, arguments, and so much more. Each story will have it's own list of warnings. Nothing too serious, just enough to sprinkle in some angst, because I want this series to be filled with tooth-rotting fluff.

*I have a taglist started for this series already, but please comment on this post if you would like to be added. And let me know if you wanted to be tagged for the entire series, or just a specific story. Thank you!*

Story 1 : Only You

Pairings : Kang Yeosang x Reader (Ivy)

Cliche : forbidden romance

The Kang's and the Jung's have hated each other for centuries. But when Jung Y/n starts working alongside Kang Yeosang at Wonderland Cafe, the feelings she feels are so far from hatred. In fact they are quite the opposite. Better yet, they're 100% reciprocated.

Release Date : June 30, 2022

completed

Story 2 : Secretly Yours

Pairings : Jung Wooyoung x Reader (Sunflower)

Cliche : best friend's brother

She has known Jung Wooyoung almost as long as she's known his sister, Jung Ivy. She's also harbored a crush on him just as long. So when he asks her out, she doesn't hesitate to agree. But what either of them forgot to think about was how they were going to tell his sister.

Release Date : July 15, 2022

completed

Story 3 : Back To You

Pairings : Kim Hongjoong x Reader (Lily)

Cliche : exes to lovers

High school sweethearts Kim Hongjoong and L/n Y/n thought they'd last forever, and so did everyone around them. But when Hongjoong begins blowing off date nights and leaving her read, their relationship comes to an end. But what happens when they run into each other later and agree to become friends, only to realize the love they shared is far from gone?

Release Date : July 31, 2022

completed

Story 4 : Open My Heart To You

Pairings : Park Seonghwa x Reader (Lilac)

Cliche : stone cold ceo and the clumsy assistant

After receiving the job through connections, she realizes she's in way above her head. She keeps messing up and Seonghwa keeps yelling at her. Their relationship is at an all time low, and she has an idea on how to fix it. Little did she know that it would cause him to fall absolutely head over heels in love with her.

Release Date : August 16, 2022

completed

Story 5 : I Can't Believe It's You

Pairings : Choi San x Reader (Iris)

Cliche : arranged marriage

The heir to the Choi Corporation and the sister to the ceo of Park Industries are due to wed to merge the two companies. Park Y/n falls for his charms almost immediately, but the same cannot be said for Choi San. Until one drunken night when she opens up a little too much to the man who's practically a stranger. Now he can't stop thinking about her and it's driving him crazy.

Release Date : September 5, 2022

completed

Story 6 : Accidentally Forever

Pairings : Choi Jongho x Reader (Violet)

Cliche : accidental pregnancy

Jongho decided to move to Jeju Island temporarily as an escape and meets the prettiest girl he's ever seen. He doesn't do relationships, but the desire the two share is too hard to ignore. Agreeing to the friends with benefits agreement, the two immediately become inseparable. When he finally moves back to Seoul, Y/n realizes she's pregnant and follows after him against all her friends warnings. He denies the baby is his and shuts her out. But what happens when his friends bring her into their group and he's forced to be around her all the time?

Release Date : September 22, 2022

completed

Story 7 : When Temporary Becomes Forever

Pairings : Jeong Yunho x Reader (Daisy)

Cliche : fake dating and best friends to lovers

Jeong Yunho and L/n Y/n have been in love with each other without realizing. But after she gets her heart broken, he agrees to pretend to be her boyfriend so she doesn't have to admit she was hurt. Causing both of them to fall more in love.

Release Date : October 20, 2022

completed

Story 8 : Trip Together

Pairings : Song Mingi x Reader (Rose)

Cliche : stuck together

After moving back to Korea at the same time, Y/n reunites with San and Mingi reunites with Hongjoong and Lily. The two immediately dislike each other, but no one knows why. So the group plans a cruise for the 16 of them, but only buy 2 tickets. Stuck in the middle of the ocean together for 2 weeks, the two learn about each other and realize that maybe the hatred was covering up their real feelings.

Release Date : November 2, 2022

completed

#ateez imagine #ateez x reader #ateez au #ateez smau #ateez fake texts #ateez fluff #ateez angst #park seonghwa #kim hongjoong #jeong yunho #kang yeosang #choi san #song mingi #jung wooyoung #choi jongho

[tiredlittleoldme]

[ID: A photo of a field with yellow flowers and a blurred tree in the background. At the center of the picture is written “a year of writing” in Playlist Script font, in white over the yellow flowers and the blurry sky]

Thanks to the wonderful @ecwrenn​ for this amazing idea !

Introduction...

Well, I’m gonna have to dig into the archives for this, I guess ! I think it was a good writing year for me, I did Nano for the very first time !

As for January and February, there wasn’t much to say, apparently ! I published prompts, wrote 500 words a day (ok, let’s be real, it’s sometimes a challenge). In February, I finished the first draft of The Sin Eater !

March got real interesting, I participated in the #chazzawriteschallenge ! This was not only a lot of fun, but also allowed me to think about my favorite things in my WIPs, in writing... Plus I discovered a ton of writers, so that was great !

In May, I participated in the #underwingchallenge, which reminds me that I should check in with my buddies !! Adoptees, adopters, reach out to your peeps !

June, July were very hard, I had a lot of health issues, spent a few days in the hospital (I didn’t write, but I read a lot. A LOT LOT). I still managed, especially in June, to write a few queer prompts for pridewrite2021, which was really fun (I’m especially proud (hehe) of my Ace Poetry.)

August was all about healing and getting better, getting slowly back into writing. As such, September felt a little more normal, as well as October.

But November... AHHH ! I did not plan for it. In fact, I even started Nano a few days late. I technically did 50k, but it was more planning, a few prompts about my characters (I learned so much about them, it’s INSANE) and no ‘real’ writing. But since my main goal was to really get back into my WIPs, my characters, my stories, I consider it a success !

December is, will be, mainly about reading, less writing, except this time, I won’t do it from a hospital bed ! As all of us, I assume, I do have a to read list as high as the Everest, so I’ll work on it a bit, so I’ll feel less guilty in January when I’ll realize how little I really read !

And now to the WIPs !

Progress in WIPs

As well as posting every month a little prompt (check #j’écrisdesprompts for samples of my writing, in French or English), I’ve worked quite a bit on my WIPs...

[ID: A photo of misty woods focusing on the bark of the trees. In the font Amsterdam Two is written “The Sin Eater“, in white]

First, about my little baby, the Sin Eater...

Like I said above, I finished writing the first draft early in the year. After letting it stew for a bit, I revised a few things, rewrote the plot and, now that I know where it’s going, I’ve started to edit/rewrite the first draft ! I know I said I’ve wanted to do character intros but I have to be honest, I completely forgot.

Plus, with all I figured out this November with my characters, a lot changed and I’m not sure what I would have said about them still stood. (For example, did you know that Melissa offered to help Eliott because his previous caretaker broke his wrist? That her and Jen were very nervous the first day she came to see Eliott?... I should post a snippet of their first meet, it’s really good...)

[ID: A green-blue-grey background with written “if this life of ours has to end” in black, in AC Real Adult font]

If this life of ours has to end (check out #wip:itloohte) is one of my newest WIP, and you’ll see that I have yet to talk about it.

If This Life Of Ours Has To End is the very wordy quite poetic (from a quote by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross) title of a very not poetic story. I will do a proper introduction at some point, but for now you will have to be content in knowing that...

... 20 years ago, Maeve and her friends saved the world. Sadly, before they could even celebrate, tragedy struck and their group of friends shattered. Now, Maeve is in charge of a small group of people who deal with all kinds of threats, from this world or others. She'd say she's over what happened all those years ago. But when her past comes back to haunt her in the form of old enemies, new threats, her best friend and a boy looking suspiciously like her former boyfriend, it becomes clear the past is not done with her and that she's not done with it.

I can’t tell you how excited I am for this !! I do not know how long this is going to end up to be, but so far, i have roughly 110 k of content, sadly not counting the plot that... barely exists yet. It’s fine.

For the first time ever, I’m excited even to do some worldbuiding which... never happens. This is very exciting. As much as I love the Sin Eater and its ambiance, ITLOOHTE has some very excellent characters and some conversations between them are... probably amongst the best things I’ve ever written.

I can’t wait to share this with you guys.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Project Christmas

(I did not make a banner for this project cause it hasn’t got a name yet!)

Very recently (about the same time I decided to read more than write in December), I started a new WIP (cause I don’t have enough of them...)

This new WIP is your basic run-of-the-mill Christmas romance, between two women who are not exactly excited at the idea of coming home for Christmas.

For now, that’s basically it.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

If you went VERY far in my archives, you might have seen Athena Jones (she’s a pirate, she’s got anxiety, she’s a lesbian), but this WIP is in hiatus for the time being, not abandoned, just. In hiatus. For the time being. I’m a writer, I swear !

Plans for 2022

Ah, so it’s there that I plan to do a lot of things I won’t do ! Ok !

Post a prompt every month.

Write The Sin Eater’s 2nd draft.

Do character intros for my Sin Eater’s characters.

Do an “official” intro for ITLOOHTE.

This is pretty “light” but I don’t know how the year will go. I have a bit more hours at work, so I don’t want to be like “Yeah, I’ll do lots!!” if I end up coming short on those goals.

Plus an entire 2nd draft when I don’t have any idea how to edit, when I never actually ever wrote a 2nd draft before... If you got tips...

Anyway, that’s all for now, I hope you are on holidays and/or spending time with friends and family !

Happy holidays, happy writing, happy next year !

#ayearofwriting #writers #french writeblr #French writer #writing process #writing #writeblr #am writing #the sin eater #wip #My WIP #wip: the sin eater #wip: itloohte

[jcisthebestfightme]

BJYX Song #2: Nan Hai (Boy)

BJYX Song Series List

Okay dd, I promised I will write Nan Hai for you so here we go.

Disclaimer: My own thoughts only. I overthink. Don’t take this seriously.

This song is so complicated to analyze because dd changed the lyrics multiple times. I initially didn’t believe in the lyrics changing thing but I went back to watch the videos carefully and if you look at his mouth’s shape, the lyrics are definitely changed. And “ending CAN be changed” is super clear, which mean it’s not completely delusional to think he changed “thinking of you” to “meeting you”.

I think I will start with the original lyrics but also talk about why he changed the lyrics at where he did. 

曾经意外 他和他 相爱 (Once upon a time, by accident, he fell in love with her/him)

在不会 犹豫的时代 (In a time where people to do hesitate [to fall in love])

To me, the “accident” refers to love at first sight. We know that dd claims to fall in love at first sight and many clues (similar WB post, asking for wechat, handgun etc.) points to dd at least being attracted to gg at first sight. I think for “Nan hai” to fit, we must subscribe to the 2017 meeting love at first sight theory. The reason being dd singing this song first on 3/30/2018, which is 2 days after knowing he will play LWJ but before he got to know gg personally. It’s also possible he already likes this song and then later realize it fits gg and gave it to him. But then that means he’s thinking of someone else when he loves this song so much. And then he gave this song to gg? Wouldn’t he betraying that other person when he willing, unprompted gave the song to gg? This is why I stand the 2017 love at first sight. 

The “accident” can also be referring to falling in love or being attracted with a guy. It’s definitely not very conventional and for dd who was only 19 when meeting gg, it must’ve been a surprise. This theme also carries on to the next line, “in a time where people don’t hesitate”. I think this also points to homosexuality in this context because it’s talking about a time where people are more open. The original lyrics probably just refers to people being more open to dating in modern times. 

以为明白 (I thought I understood)

所以爱得痛快 (So I loved very straightforwardly)

一双手 紧紧放不开 (A pair of hands, unwilling to let go)

I’m under the assumption that gg and dd did not actually stay in contact after meeting in 2017. The reason being that if adding the WeChat is true, then it’s also true they said in an interview that they already added WeChat and never talked. If they did talk, they would try to hide this fact and not mention the already being friends on WeChat at all. With that in mind, I think this part of the lyrics that original is describing a past relationship that he can’t let go of doesn’t fit our story in March 2018. We can only say that dd may be referring to his naiveness and that he “thought he understood” love so he’s more straightforward about his love. “A pair of hands unwilling to let go” may be about how he’s not willing to let go of gg, thus being persistent.

In summer 2019 when dd mentions this song again, dd may be talking about his initial bluntness when approaching gg. We can see in the bts how obvious he is about his adoration. But over time, he probably learned that love is more than just telling the other person. Because of their status and environment, they often have to hide their love so it can no longer be as straightforward so it was in the beginning. But even then, he’s still unwilling to let go of gg. 

心中的 执着与未来 (The persistence and future in my heart)

In March 2018, the “persistence” matches with dd’s persistence to try to get close to gg. He was persistent about getting the role of LWJ, putting in his picture twice and then auditioning in person. The “future” refers to the unknown that will come with filming CQL. In summer 2019, the “persistence” is his willingness to keep fighting for their relationship even though it’s hard. The “future” at this point has more longevity and is about them spending their life together.

忘不了 你的爱 (I can’t forget your love)

但结局难更改 (But the ending cannot be changed)

The original lyrics here is the singer who already broke up with his lover and is reminiscing about their love. He’s sad that he cannot change their ending. In March 2018, dd is probably referring to not being about to forget gg even though they only met briefly. When he sang this song on 3/30/18, he changed “cannot” to “can”. He knew that he will be playing LWJ already so he’s changing his own ending by pursuing this role. Not surprise our little lion cub has decided to take destiny into his own hands and change a tragic ending into a happy one.

In ttxs recording in July, 2019, “忘不了 你的爱 (I can’t forget your love)” is the line that he purposefully wrote, and then looked at gg right afterwards. This means that this is the line that stuck out to him the most at this point in time. He’s telling gg that he will remember their love for the rest of their life. Compare this to June 2018 where when prompted to sing the song, he chose to sing the first line “曾经意外 他和他 相爱 (Once upon a time, by accident, he fell in love with her/him)”. At that point, their love is just the beginning of the story and it’s more just dd falling for gg. Now in 2019, their relationship has developed into not being able to forget each other. 

我没能把你留下来 (I couldn’t make you stay)

更不像他 能给你一个 期待的未来 (Unlike him/her, who could give you a expected future)

那幼稚的男孩 (That childish boy)

The original meaning of going through a breakup doesn’t fit again. But I think the second line refers to homosexuality. Dd feels like he can’t give gg an “expected future” because of their gender. Here, I think he’s coming himself to a girl, any girl, that can give gg what others may call a “complete, happy family.” 

He can also be insecure about his age. Since he’s much younger, he’s not sure what kind of future he can give gg. The “childish boy” refers to himself. Dd has always been insecure about his age compare to gg, evident whenever gg calls him a “kid”. (Fun fact: “That boy with a mole” is a homophone here so people joke he��s actually referring to gg.)

你的关怀一直随身携带 (Your caring, I bring it with me everywhere)

无人的地方再打开 (I open it [the caring] only when no one is already)

Here, I think it’s amazing that dd may not have known gg well at that point but can already tell he’s a very caring person. And in my own opinion, I think gg’s meticulous care for dd is what makes dd falls hard for him. 

想问你现在 (I want to ask if right now)

是否忧伤不再 (you are no longer sad)

像躺在阳光下的海 (Just like the ocean under the sun)

像用心涂抹的色彩 (like colors painted with love)

让你微笑起来 勇敢起来 (Let you smile again, brave again)

Here, there are coincidental reference to gg: painted colors because is an artist and smile because gg has a beautiful smile.

On dd’s birthday in 2019, gg was in Abu Dhabi and he posted an image of the ocean on instagram. The photo was time stamp at 17:52, which is 1:52pm in Abu Dhabi. If you on QQ, the time at “1:52” of “Nan Hai” is the “just like ocean under the song”. I can just imagine gg, looking at the ocean on dd’s birthday, thinking of him, thinking of his favorite song and taking a photo of it and sharing it. It’s definitely something I would do but would be too afraid no one will understand. And gg is known to do this, as pointed out by his solo fans. He timestamp a song lyrics from the album Kepler for his fans (see Analysis of Blue Sky White Cloud.)

想你就现在 (Thinking of you now)

想你 每当我又徘徊 (Thinking of you whenever I waver/wonder)

This is the part dd changed from “thinking” to “meeting” when he sang this song (4/2), the day before meeting gg for the first time on set (4/3). This is like fate has given him a second chance of meeting. To me, the way he sang this part is full of gratitude and unwillingness to let go of this love again. 

所有遗憾的 都不是未来 (All regrets are in the past, they are not conducive for our future)

所有爱最后都难免 逃不过伤害 (All love will have some inevitable pain)

不必再重来 (It doesn’t need to be repeat)

This part gives me a lot of hope. The original lyrics is trying to use this part to let go of this past relationship and move on. However, I think to dd, it means that they have a bright future ahead of them that he’s not willing to let go. In 2019, it can mean that whatever pain/misunderstanding they may have in the past year, they will move on to the future together. What is interesting is that the third line doesn’t specify “they.” Is it the “pain” that cannot be avoided or the “love” that they shared that should not be repeated? I think the original song’s meaning is the past love but for ggdd, it’s the any pain in their journey. 

现在我只希望疼痛来得更痛快 (Right now I just want the pain to come faster)

反正不能够重来 (Since [this love] cannot be redone)

In the original song, this ending implies that the singer has decided to wrap up this relationship with a nice bow and let go of it completely since he has determined they will not get together. What about ggdd? Their love hasn’t/can’t/won’t end, right? So what did dd do when he sang this song in April, 2018? He didn’t sing these two lines at all! He left the recording right before when this will come up in the song. He basically sang the whole song (the beginning was cut off but it seems like he was singing before the clip started) but left right before the very end. Why? Is it because he knows this love is not going to be in the past? Is it because he’s unwilling to ever let go of it?

You can argue that maybe he stop singing because he forgot the lyrics or that his throat was hurting (you can see him cough afterwards.) However, he was already lip-syncing some parts towards the end of the bridge. He could’ve continue to do so until the song ends, which is what people would logically do since it’s almost over. Probably my own delusional thinking again LOL

This is probably the most complicated analysis I’ve ever done since dd sang it during multiple time points and he changed the lyrics. But after writing this, I believe in their love even more, especially if you think about when and why he chose to sing certain parts and leave out others. Overall, I think this song is dd feeling insecure about his age and gender to be able to give gg a stable future. There’s definitely pain in this song but also a lot of love. Dd, you are the most passionate “nan hai” and will be loved by the passionate “nan hai.”

#bjyx #yizhan #nan hai

[rivalsforlife]

AA7 Speculation Post: 2021 Edition

So I did one of these back in August, claiming that it was likely we’d get an AA7 announcement sometime in September for the Tokyo Game Show. Obviously it was wrong. So I am doing ANOTHER ONE, because I apparently like publicly being proven wrong?

This will be shorter than the last one because I exhausted most of my material on the first one, and also there’s less material. There is, however, SOME new stuff we’ve learned since August. ... And I was going to make a post in November but completely forgot, so consider this a starting point for the year. I’ll be covering the leaks, in general terms, and theorizing when we will be getting announcements/releases.

The rest will be under the cut so as not to burden everyone with my ramblings.

The Capcom Leaks

First things first, a disclaimer: this information was leaked through a hack which was highly illegal and compromised the personal information of many former and current Capcom employees, and therefore, I do not condone the methods through which this information was obtained and will not provide any guidance as to how to obtain this information, nor have I sought it out myself. However, I will still talk about then in general terms, because the information is out there already, and the information I am discussing will not compromise any personal information.

In summary: early this November, the hacker group Ragnar Locker managed to hack into Capcom’s databases somehow and retrieved 1 TB of information from the company; this includes a bit of information on ace attorney, which was leaked in mid-November after the group demanded a ransom and, presumably, Capcom didn’t pay up.

The two major ace attorney reveals that came from this are as follows: the announcement of a DGS/DGS2 port for the nintendo switch, steam, and ps4 with an English translation, and a calendar for the development and release of this port along with... ace attorney 7.

It’s highly likely that this information was real, given the level detail and the fact that Capcom confirmed some of their information was leaked, essentially confirming that AA7 either is or once was in development -- more news about this than we’ve had in a long time! But what does it mean and when can we expect it? Let’s take a closer look at the calendar.

The Calendar

Unfortunately, this little thing happened in between the creation of this calendar and it being leaked, called “a global pandemic” or something like that, so this calendar is almost certainly behind.

But what did it say? I lost track of the original, but I did find a roughly translated version someone made (from this post which summarizes some of the stuff in the leaks):

So... what does this mean? First, let’s remember two things: one, this calendar was made pre-COVID and things were definitely pushed back. And two, the Japanese fiscal year starts April 1st, meaning that FY2021 starts in April. This means that as of writing this, we are technically in FY2020 Q4 - where, if we were on track, would be nearing the end of DGS1&2 port production and midway through AA7′s production. (We are almost definitely not on track.)

The pandemic started hitting Japan around April 2020, I believe, so that would be in FY2020 Q1. The DGS ports seem fairly unaffected, considering it’s later in production, and also, the DGS games are already complete, so most of the work would be on translating and adapting the games for modern consoles, rather than starting completely at scratch like AA7. AA7 is a little trickier: it was still in the prototype/pre-production stage, most likely, when the pandemic hit. I’m not tooootally sure what that means because I’m not a game developer, but it’s quite possible that this meant it took a serious hit. Given that there didn’t seem to be a lot of other AA7 data leaked, including in a large schedule of releases for Capcom later, there is the possibility that AA7 ended up being scrapped owing to the pandemic or other extenuating circumstances... but I don’t believe that’s likely, with the 20th anniversary coming up. We’ll see.

Another thing of note is that the name “AA7″ is temporary. Here in the English-speaking world that isn’t a big deal because all the AA games have random titles (like “Justice for All” and “Trials and Tribulations”...) but in Japan, they’re referred to simply with their numbers (GS2, GS3, etc. standing for Gyakuten Saiban 2, Gyakuten Saiban 3). The fact that “Gyakuten Saiban 7″ is a temporary name could possibly mean that what we are getting is not another mainline game. 

However, again, there’s not really anything to support either of these things. I’m just bringing up random possibilities to cover my bases; but personally I think it’s likely that it is another mainline game, and that it is still in development. If we hear absolutely nothing about AA7 for all of 2021, though... then perhaps not.

Now... obviously, this calendar was pushed back. If we’re in 2020Q4 right now, then by the calendar DGS1&2 is hypothetically going to be released in about three-six months, and there has been absolutely no word on that so far. If this calendar were still being followed, we’d have AA7 on sale in Q3 of 2021 -- meaning October-December 2021, possibly in October for the 20th anniversary of the series, which would be super cool. ... but I doubt that will happen now.

So then, when are we getting the games?

I haven’t seen actual evidence of it, but rumour is that they’re pushing back DGS1&2 for a July release and an April announcement, giving three months between announcement - release. This is a shorter period than the most recent trilogy switch/ps4/pc/xbox release, which was announced in September 2018 and released February 2019 in Japan, a five month waiting period. 

When we English-speaking players will get the duology is unknown, too -- the trilogy rereleases took a month and a half before they were released in English, despite already having been translated and the original released in Japan coming with an English language option. (No idea what was up with that!) The duology released in Japan reportedly will have an English option from the outset, though the English released version will not have the Japanese option because of copyright issues surrounding Sherlock Holmes -- sorry, I mean, Herlock Sholmes. Still, we should expect a few months following the Japanese release before we are able to play it ourselves. Same goes with the hypothetical AA7, which seems to typically be around three months following the Japanese release for an English release.

As for when we can expect AA7′s announcement... to the extent of my knowledge, the shortest announcement-release period for a game was Spirit of Justice, announced in September 2015 and released in Japan in June 2016, a period of nine months. Usually it takes longer. Assuming that there’s still that six-month gap between the DGS duology release and the AA7 release, we could hypothetically have AA7 in early 2022, pushed back a quarter, and if the announcement comes nine months ahead... it lines up pretty nicely with an April announcement. If we’re having a DGS announcement in April as rumoured, it would make sense to tie in the AA7 announcement to that as well.

How will they be announced? ... I’m not sure. TGS back in September would have been the most opportune time for an announcement, but I have the feeling that owing to our good friend the pandemic, they didn’t have enough to show for either the ports or AA7 back then and so opted not to show anything. If these games are for the Switch, they could be announced in a Nintendo Direct. Or they could be announced in a Famitsu magazine with trailers released later outside of any other event. Honestly I don’t really know for this part.

Overall, though? This is the upcoming 20th anniversary of the series. I’d be surprised if we ended up not getting anything. Despite the pandemic likely pushing everything back, I think it’s highly likely we’ll get some big ace attorney news soon, even if it’s not quite in time for the anniversary -- of course, the safety and health of the employees comes first, so a bit of a delay will be just fine.

TL;DR: I’m theorizing we’ll have DGS port/ AA7 announcements around this April, with DGS being released around July and AA7 being released late 2021/early 2022, with a few months delay for the English versions.

#ace attorney #aa7 speculation #this one's short but once we get an idea on concept I plan to go wild on theorizing

[romeulusroy]

Inheritance (Shelby!Reader × Peaky Blinders Oneshot)

Character/s: Arthur, Thomas, John, Ada, Finn

Word Count: 1,393

Tag List: @dontdowhatisayandnobodygetshurt @myriadimagines @lilyswritings @encounterthepast @writerdream22 @death-of-a-mermaid @lotsoffandomrecs @woahitslucyylu @obsessedunicorn24 @thedarkqueenofavalon @fangirlsarah16 @theshelbyclan @captivatedbycillianmurphy @creativemayhems @soleil-dor @thegirlwithoutaname87

A/N: I'm feeling insecure about writing and when I do, the only thing that helps is to write, even if it's god awful lol. I started with the first paragraph, just writing whatever, and it turned into this. I had plans for a completely different fandom/fic tonight, which I hope to post sometime this week. I'm sure this frustration will pass, it's just hard to get through. I feel like a mess with everything. I know its probably just the stress of school, and family, and August coming so soon. June lasted years, but July was gone in a second. Still trying to wind down from the panic I've gotten myself into. Feedback is always appreciated 💜💖💜

Gif Credit: @eylins :)

FIC MASTERLIST PART ONE. / PART TWO. / PART THREE.

WANNA BE ADDED TO THE TAG LIST?

You want to believe you're different from them. That your words, your writing, your work is anymore extraordinary, that somehow the thoughts in your head have not been repeated through history, stamped from one cracked skull to the next. You want to believe your eyes have seen something more, something hidden, that the trees deeply rooted, there long before your birth, and around after you're gone, have not witnessed the same blue birds or soft, summer storms. You think, for an instance, that there us a separation in what makes you you and them them. That the loneliness in your gut, the screams and cries gurgling in your throat, that this pain layered beneath every cell in your body somehow draws a line between you and them. Making you human where they are not. Giving you feeling where they lack. You hoped, and prayed, by some miracle, that whatever it was that created you wasn't in anyone else. Foolish and young, too naive for your own good. Where they bled you bruised. Where you collapsed they stood like stone. You could stare down the same Devil and see two fraternal beings, both wearing a wicked smile.

The funny thing is, you were more like them than you could ever tell.

Passed down from generation to generation, kept warm and safe cupped into two hands. The anger. Dangerous, bloody, boiling. Pricking beneath your skin like bees, tinging, numbing the sharp things that tore through it. It made your gums bleed, hateful words like knives sling your mouth up through and through. A sickening, twisted laughter bubbling, bursting out of you before you have half a mind to stop it. It made you cold, invincible, scowling at the earth beneath your feet and the sky above, somewhere in the middle this god everyone turns to in their time of need. He never showed up for you, though, instead hiding. From you, and from Arthur. The fire in your veins, swollen by gasoline blood and matches for breakfast. Your big brother caught fire with the slightest annoyance. Cagey, unyielding, a force that tore through him until he let it all out. A corrosive being stripping him of skin and bone, making man into monster. You too had been subjected to stares and glares, deemed more weapon than person. A hazard, too dangerous to be around. One more thing you had to watch out for, the bitterness in that Shelby blood.

That anger seething, turning in on itself. Imploding. Not wanting to hurt others, you hurt yourself. Bit the bad end of a barrel, a bullet sitting on your tongue, the broken bits of a bottle. You liked the way you felt when the only thing standing between you and that dark abyss of an end was yourself. That sense of control, of power, came too few times. A high you tried took chase as much as you could in this big messed up world. Hold these standards of yourself on your shoulders only took be crushed beneath them. Falling into a pit of all the things you bottled up and kissed goodbye, setting each jar on the shelf with its own special label. Grief. Guilt. Greed. Building up walls around you, a tomb to crumble in, afraid to let the rest of the world there were feelings beneath your cold complexion. Tommy always had a way of locking things up and never letting them see the light of day. Learning from the best, you guessed. Let them see your pain, your weakness, and it would be used against you. Weaponized. You couldn't survive another loss.

Boarded up, an abandoned home needing someone to crawl in and make it their own. Tidy up the place, see the potential you had beneath those rotten floors and broken bricks, chipped paint and peeling wood. A want, a need, an ache to be wanted, to be loved and accepted. John never could stand on his own, never wanting to face a bed half empty. Tripping over himself, falling too easy for the next set of wandering eyes and slim legs. He loved like no one else. And you did, too. Unrequited. Given the slightest bit of acceptance, lead into another persons word by free drinks and shameless flirting. You wanted to find the one, your other half, the same way he had, once believing the only way he could ever feel whole was with someone by his side. There was someone out there for everyone, there had to be. You weren't sure how much longer you could live so alone. Part of you wanted to think it was a lie, something you'd grow out of eventually, but John never seemed to, and you'd followed that path too far to turn back.

One day, you hoped, despite the anger, the walls, someone would find you, and love you regardless. You hoped for a lot of things. For the rain to stop and the clouds to clear. For the fog of your thoughts to disappear. For this life to be a little easier for everyone. Forgiving, motherly, nurturing, it's sharp edges dulled. To one day find your way out of all this, start fresh, start new, the potential of a freshly healed scar. Your sister had a way of whispering things in your ear, feeding into these delusions. She too wanted something more from what she saw everyday. Lost in a dream world she crested for herself. Often it was the only thing that kept you going, kept you upright. Eyes burning, sobs choking, too fragile for this world, you wanted to crawl inside the one you made from scratch and never leave. Ada told stories, too young to tell the difference between reality and imagination, her spirits high, embedding itself within your bones. The Shelby's were nothing without their dreams, their drive, their want for a perfect world just out of reach.

Without dreams, there was only dread. Fear of the future, the past, the footsteps you'd one day have to follow because that's what was expected of you. Stand tall, gun in hand, vertebrae stacked atop one another. There was no looking down, no flinching. If you weren't the best you weren't anyone. Turn a blind eye to the bad, to the meek, step on anyone who ever got in your way. Placed on a pedestal with broken knees. The baby, the one you helped raise, from cradle to grave. Never seen a second war, thrust into the one your brothers brought home. You both were. The lurch in your belly at the thought of so much red on your hands, of grief being associated with your name. You couldn't bear the thought of taking another soul from this world. Finn jumped at the pop of a gun, cringing at the cries of others. They could get used to it. Desensitized to it. But the both of you? This was new, and scary, and you were sure the softness they'd lost too long ago still lived inside you. The guilt they forgot chewed you alive, haunting your dreams. They could do as they pleased, but you couldn't. You refused to be as destructive as the rest of your siblings.

As much as you wanted to keep your distance, make some definition between you and them, there was too much of them inside you. Their faces staring back at you in the mirror. The sorrow, the hurt, the hate, the ups and downs of a life like yours, like theirs, there was no escaping it. You could run, but you could never hide. Like a shadow, it clung to your soles, dragged across the cobblestone. Escape however you wanted, however you pleased, there was only one thing all of you had in common: no matter how much you tried, no matter how hard you talked yourself into denial, that Shelby blood was a particular kind poison only the worst would become accustomed to. Try as you might, the thoughts, the feelings, all of it would follow you. Stepping on your heels. Breaking down you'd doors. It would bleed when you did, and dream with you, and hide deep within the cage of your ribs when you were too ashamed to admit it. You were of them. Always had been, always would be, no matter how much you prayed you were different.

#writing #peaky blinders #peaky blinders drabble #peaky blinders oneshot #peaky blinders fic #x reader #x shelby reader #shelby reader #drabble #oneshot #thomas shelby #tommy shelby #arthur shelby #john shelby #ada shelby #finn shelby #gender neutral reader #x gender neutral #x gender neutral reader

[ohnobjyx]

A snowy summer

Part 5: June + Part 6: July

Wow, rl has keep me occupied so much that I almost forgot that I haven’t finished this series yet. I think I intended to make June and July into a single post and separate April and May, I don’t know it ended up like this, but let’s roll with it.

Disclaimer: I try to keep things objective (if I include my personal opinion, it’s in cursive and in brackets), but I’m biased because of the XZ friendly content I’m usually exposed to and by my own views of their situation. Open to discussion, but please make sure you’ve enough information to do so.

In June and July there were some incidents that really had me staring at my laptop speechless, brain completely fried by what I was reading. I suppose I don’t have so much energy to invest myself in issues like those (I have enough with my own rl problems, thank you very much), but still... wtf.

School uniforms

In recent June, the welfare project done by his fans got questioned for a project. It was about some school uniforms that they donated to a school, in collaboration with another organization (BYH Foundation).

However, it was questioned because the uniform has the letter 赞 (zan) in it. It means “to approve, to support or to praise” and it’s also the internet slang for “like” (thumbs up). Because it sounds similar to xz’s name, it’s often used as a substitution for his name in internet posts. In fact, in an interview, he was asked if he preferred “xiao (little) zhan” or “xiao zan”, and he said both were fine. Some commercials use phrases with this character to refer to him.

The antis accused XZ’s fans of trying to use the students to promote their celebrity. After this, BYH Foundation issued an apology, because of “their lack of consideration”. They had wanted the word to mean “positive”, and as a wish that the children grow up healthy and optimistic. But because of the misunderstanding, the foundation expressed their regret and took back all uniforms and other materials.

Faced with this, netizens again expressed their disagreement. “Why take away the clothes if the children liked them? Why must people who complain always be right? How disappointing!”

(Personal opinion time: so… giving the uniforms is criticized. Taking them away is criticized. Can someone tell me what can they do that it won’t be criticized?)

Charity in Yunnan

In mid-June, XZ participated in a charity event in Yunnan, promoting agricultural products. XZ’s fans support association changed their name to XZ Audio and Video official w/ibo, centering their efforts in promoting his works.

His activities in Yunnan were accompanied by an interview.

Offering legal help to those affected by cyberbullying

On July 1st, XZ studio issued another statement. I think we are familiar with this one, since it’s quite recent.

This issue began on June 22nd, when a w/ibo user berated XZ for not “controlling” his fans: “… and, by letting them do as they please, you let them think that there was nothing wrong in what they were doing. Today is Fathers’ Day, and your fans dare to curse my mother and my late father. I’ll not let this go. I’ll boycott you, and if I consider it necessary, I’ll report it to the police. I’ll leave this post here, so we can come back to it and look at the source of the problem. You reap what you sow, you can’t blame me on this.” She posted a few screenshots of some people insulting her parents.

A few fans wrote to her:

“Excuse me, I’m sorry for disturbing you, I know you don’t like XZ, but XZ has been leading us fans, and I’ve seen that your account isn’t XZ friendly. Every well intentioned critic, we’ll take it, but I hope you won’t involve XZ because of the words of others, there are a lot of rational fans out there.”

The user answered:

“From the beginning to the end, he has never said: ‘don’t report maliciously, don’t insult and humiliate others, don’t curse other people’s parents, don’t look for others’ private info, don’t threaten others’. Has he said them? He hasn’t. He never elaborates, hums and haws, pass over these topics. I’ll tell you, today’s matter, I must see an apology. Either from the ones that cursed my parents or from XZ on their behalf. If there’s not apology, I’ll chase this matter to the end.”

This user released a week later a document called “Assessment on the value and risk of XZ’s fans”. She took the data from several platforms, and analysed them, getting statistics about the type of XZ’s fans. This report depicted a very negative view of his fans.

This was a very controversial issue. The heart of the controversy is that there’s no evidence that the netizen who cursed her parents is XZ’s fan. And even if they “were”, nowadays many people are deliberately posing as XZ’s fans to insult and abuse others in order to frame him.

However, with her report, the people who don’t know the heart of the matter got more ammo to insult and humiliate XZ. She updated her post, saying that she had been being investigated, that someone had tried to get her address and name, so in the comments, more and more people blamed XZ for the issue. XZ’s teams then offered their help in the form of legal advice and lawyers to help her get legal support.

The user took the offer and agreed to receive legal advice. XZ’s studio then posted their update (the one linked in the first paragraph of this section), rejecting all king of cyber bullying and offering help to protect the rights of the netizens affected by cyber violence. The Studio also spoke clearly: they won’t tolerate XZ’s fans abusing other netizens, nor people posing as XZ’s fans to attack others.

The “stolen” account

On July 11, XZ’s Audio and Video official w/ibo posted an official apology. This time, the issue was this one: a w/ibo user had “passed away” due to mental illness (depression, the user followed the supertopic about this particular ailment and had posted a few times about it). However, after their death, their account was active again, and began posting about XZ.

People attacked the user for using a deceased person’s account (comments were like “don’t you know the history of the owner of the account you’re using?”), and consequently, all of the content in that account was deleted.

The same afternoon, XZ’s Audio and Video official w/ibo issued their apology. They contacted w/ibo, and asked the user to restore the deleted content and to respect the deceased.

This was also controversial, since they couldn’t know for sure that the one who bought the account is a fan of XZ. Because of this, XZ’s fans were attacked again. W/ibo issued a post declaring that the account had been accessed through the same device from last year to present, so the account hadn’t been stolen, and they continue to investigate it.

In summary: this time, XZ’s fans had apologized too quickly. This user was someone who used 3 different IPs and 3 different accounts. They had followed the “depression” topic, posted a few things and went silent for a while, making people think they had succumbed to the illness. Then, using the same account, they started posting about XZ, making people think that the account had been stolen, and manipulated other people’s sense of justice and compassion to defame XZ.

W/ibo took the initiative and blocked all of their accounts.

(Okay, when I actually read about what happened, I was like... wtf. Seriously wtf. This is some plot going on over there, I thought this kind of defamation plots only happened in Chinese historical dramas. I... really don’t get it. I’m speechless still.)

W/ibo and XZ Studio Conference

The topic of w/ibo and XZ studio conference went on hot search on July 14, in which, they talked about fan guidance and management:

“W/ibo believes that influential public figures and celebrities should bear the responsibility of guiding and restraining fan’s behaviour, essentially through the fans’ group. But in last months, because of failed guidance and reactions, all kind of fan groups had a disruptive behaviour online, causing a harmful impact on society.

W/ibo believes that celebrities’ studios and companies should reinforce the guidance and restrain over the fans. To those who pretend to be a certain person’s fan, they should be reported and people should collaborate with the platform in its management of the issue. We can’t ignore them if these people’s actions are suspected to be illegal, and protect our rights, fulfilling legal responsibilities.

XZ’s studio has expressed their agreement with W/ibo’s recommendations, and expressed their intention to increase their level of collaboration and support of this platform’s management.”

The announcement was ended by a statement on how the latest incident has showed a very ugly and harmful part of the society, and that everyone should collaborate to improve the society and Internet. It also included a list of accounts that were banned for fake rumours and leading other fans to arguments. 

This was accompanied by an apology by XZ Studio.

(This is what some anons asked me about on their asks. I hope you can all read between the lines to get what was the deal about this one.)

From start to finish, we all can see that the platform has a lot of responsibility to bear here. That’s something people in China have also pointed out. However, XZ and his team can only nod, and bear with it, because while there is only one platform that has all the right conditions, there are a lot of more celebrities. They have to rely on it for a lot of things, so they can’t just end things with them.

So last week, his studio issued a statement that said:

“This studio appeals again:

NO entering any kind of votes, control ourselves with our comments and not calling other to participate in events.

We reject mutual insulting and abusing, don’t start group conflicts.

Don’t go over your own economic possibilities to support projects, works and commercial products.

Make sure to take care of your studies and jobs first, before following a celebrity’s projects or music.

We hope that everyone can make the most of their own lives, have independent thinking. We hope that we can all go together towards a brighter future, and give more positive energy through our actions.”

The studio called the fans to stop voting him and placing him at the top of the charts for a while, so things can cool down definitely, in my opinion. And yet, he still topped as one of the most successful endorser, from March to July (it’s really a trend that hasn’t stopped, even after 2/27. In March, two weeks after 2/27, he even topped as one of the top celebrities in w/ibo anyway). 

I heard that people kept voting for him like crazy, because they didn’t want the general public to think that he wasn’t popular. However, facts remain that he is popular among his fans, but less neutral in the general public (I’ll explain this in my last post).

That’s why it’s going to be very important how his next project is received by the general public.

←Part 4(II): Plum blossoms in the snow (II) | Part 7: To the snowy summit side by side

#gg's situation #part 5 and 6 of 7 #my post

[emma-what-son]

(Echee post) Did Emma Watson actually graduate from Brown University? Special treatment at college?

Posted on November 8, 2015

*PS this is a work in progress, will take a few days to get it in order...so apologies if it is incomplete Intro Emma has been talking about how important education is to her since she was 10. Even during the first interviews for Harry Potter promotion, back in 2001 for Philosopher's Stone, she was adamant about going to college. She's continuously said how important college/education is throughout the Harry Potter promotion years, but does what she say match up with what she actually did? She was playing along with that bullshit "Classy, educated" image she and her PR team (like her publicist Luke) have crafted for her, the one where she claims she is exactly the same as Hermione, the beloved character from the Harry Potter franchise. Course though, she's contradicted herself on that multiple, multiple times - sometimes saying she's exactly like Hermione, and other times claiming they're extremely different. There was some extremely strange stuff going down with Emma's Brown University Education though....as will be revealed below. And you'll have to start wondering if she actually did graduate or how much, how extensive and enormous, was the amount of special, unequal treatment she got for being a celebrity and a feminist (College campuses love pandering to social justice warriors/feminists - part of it is a natural love for them and another part is Obama forcing them to through the OCR and Title IX) Emma's Education Emma entered Brown University the Fall of 2009. Brown is a private, 4 year university/college in America. Emma entered Brown as an international student studying on an F-1 Visa. Okay Emma didn't do much BS during her first 3 semester (Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010) at Brown and seemed to study there like most normal students, but it's after the first three semesters that things started getting extremely strange and Emma started telling a whole bunch of lies. Emma constantly raved about how awesome college is and gave every single impression she was going back to Brown in Spring 2011. getSurrey November 2010: getSurrey: Will you carry on acting? Emma: I will keep on acting. I’ve just been in a film called My Week With Marilyn. I’ve just finished shooting that. But finishing university is a priority. But I hope I do lots more things. I don’t really want to be put in a box – just yet. I’m not exactly sure. University Magazine Interview by Colin Turner (November 2010?): (Okay just note that this interview came out in June/July 2011 for Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 2 Promotion, but Emma mentions in the interview she just finished filming My Week with Marilyn, which happened in November 2010. Uni magazine is this student run magazine, so I'm assuming they don't do monthly issues (don't have the money/people for that) so it takes them several months to release an issue.) Colin Turner: You’ve gone to university, obviously, do you imagine taking up acting in the future or are you just seeing what happens? Emma: I just did a movie, finished something last week, “My week with Marilyn”, which is exciting. No, I think I’ll just keep doing things. But my education is my number one priority at the moment and everything else comes around that really. Parade Magazine Interview November 2010 (Emma Watson's Campus Confidential, interviewed by Jeanne Wolf): "I get some amazing offers to act, and sometimes it’s hard to say, “No, I’m going to stay here and do my homework.” People are like, “What do you mean she’s not available?” I may do some theater next summer, but this college experience is really important to me, and I won’t give it up for anything. I’m not going to school just for the academics–I wanted to share ideas, to be around people who are passionate about learning."

Echee says: Okay, notice how in November 2010 and even right up until January 17, Emma claims/gives the strong impression she's definitely going back to Brown University for the Spring 2011 semester. Big lol at the "this college experience is really important to me, and I won’t give it up for anything" two months before she did. By the way I have to mention the whole "Sorry for long absence from here - so much to do and so little time to do it in before I go back to school! Hope you're all ok x" was originally a tweet from Emma's @EmWatson twitter account but after she left university she deleted it lol. The picture I posted is from the official (that's why there's the blue check mark) Emma Watson Facebook page run by both Emma and her team. I guess she forgot to delete the facebook post after she deleted her tweet. For Spring 2011, the first day of classes was January 26 (per the academic calendar). Yet even at January 17, Emma stated she was getting ready to go back to school, hence her "so little time to do it in before I go back to school!" How the fuck can she be confused 1 week before classes start whether she's taking a personal leave of absence or not? Brown University Personal Leave of Absence Deadline

Brown University 3 types of leaves of absence

Okay, so of Brown University's three types of leaves of absence, Emma took personal. The deadline to declare you're taking next semester off is December 1, hence the Brown policy "If you are planning to take leave for the spring semester (Semester 2), you must declare by Dec. 1st." Either Emma was lying and trying to delay revealing she was taking time off to do her Perks of Being a Wallflower filming and BS Lancôme makeup and perfume work (very possible since she lies so much), or she was honestly undecided until right before, and thus requested special, unequal treatment that despite her missing the deadline, she should be allowed to take a leave of absence. Anyway I think it was special treatment from Brown allowing their publicity cow to get what she wanted. That means she was clearly lying in her January 17 tweet about going back to school.

This from Amanda Foreman, Emma's interviewer, for Emma's Vogue Magazine July 2011 interview: Emma struggled valiantly to fit everything into her life, becoming increasingly exhausted, until over Christmas advisors at Brown suggested that she take a leave of absence, a turn of events Yates was not surprised by. Notice how the Vogue article says it was "over Christmas"....Christmas Break for Brown starts after December 1, the deadline. First off, unless Emma's doctor signed off on it, then it was NOT a medical leave of absence, and her advisors gave her special treatment since she missed the personal leave of absence deadline already. And You know December 25 is over 3 weeks after the December 1st deadline, so that's an amazingly long extension despite the severe, absolute terms of "You must declare by December 1". Anyway, wowza, off to a bad start....getting special treatment when you're quitting school temporarily. Well, whatever, it's equality feminist Emma Watson that we are talking about here. She runs her mouth off talking about feminism and equality and whatever but like most Western (usually Caucasian) privileged feminists, have no idea what she's talking about. Despite Brown's Spring 2011 semester starting at the end of January, Emma kept quiet about all this until March 7, 2011. She announced it on her website EmmaWatson.com (which is now defunct and shut down): Here's her statement on March 7, 2011: As you know, I love Brown and I love studying pretty much more than anything. But recently I've had so much to juggle that being a student AND fulfilling my other commitments has become a little impossible. I've decided to take a bit of time off to completely finish my work on Harry Potter (the last one comes out this summer) and to focus on my other professional and acting projects. I will still be working towards my degree … it's just going to take me a semester or two longer than I thought : ) Hope you are all well! Thank you for all your continuing support. Emma xx.

On February 10, 2011 (well after the Brown semester had started), Emma confirms on twitter that she will be filming Perks of Being a Wallflower, which interfered with Brown (Brown school date ends May 20, Perks started filming May 9) and she had also already had various talks and was close to finalizing a deal with Lancôme. And she knew she would have to do some filming work for Lancôme commercials in the coming months. At this point clearly she was taking the semester off and yet she didn't announce it until March 7, 2011. Why'd she wait an entire month??? Why be so secretive of it? Just like how a week before classes started she was claiming she was getting ready to go back to school. And then why wait another month before she and Harry Potter publicist Vanessa Davies, release more details of this leave of absence? April 23, 2011 Press Release to Associated Press: LONDON (AP) — A spokeswoman for Harry Potter star Emma Watson says she will be transferring from Brown University to another university in the autumn. Vanessa Davies denied reports that the 21-year-old actress was "bullied out" of the Rhode Island university, saying there was no truth in reports by a number of online publications who cited classmates and "insiders". Davies said Saturday that Watson, who plays Hermione in the wizard movie series, has decided to pursue a different course not offered at Brown. She added that the star "has absolutely loved her time at Brown" and made many good friends there. Watson has recently taken time out of her studies to focus on her movie career. She has said that her first days in college were difficult. Davies did not identify the university Watson will be transferring to. Emma releases a statement April 30, 2011 on her website EmmaWatson.com (now defunct): I felt the need to let you all know the reason I took a semester off from Brown had nothing to do with bullying as the media have been suggesting recently. I have never been bullied in my life and certainly never at Brown. This "10 points to Gryffindor" incident never even happened. I feel the need to say this because accusing Brown students of something as serious as bullying and this causing me to leave seems beyond unfair. Please don't try and speculate about what I might do in September - no one can possibly know because I don't even know yet! Like my other fellow Brown students I am trying to figure out my third year and whether or not I will spend it abroad (this is common).

If you wondered why Emma let Vanessa Davies announce the transferring information, instead of Emma just announcing it on her website a week later, it's because Davies is head of publicity at Harry Potter, so they were working out how best to frame the narrative that Emma is still a hardworking student. Don't forget, ~200 million is spent on Harry Potter marketing for HP Deathly Hallows and Davies is part of that team and one of the heads. Warner Brothers had to protect their little cash cow until the movies were over and Emma couldn't damage their profits. Also, the Harry Potter spokesperson, Vanessa Davies, says Emma will be "transferring" but from Emma's own message (and it's later revealed), she was actually only just studying abroad, not transferring. Weird. April 2011 Associated Press Interview: I just knew I was going to be beating myself up because I wasn't going to be able to be doing the best that I knew that I could at school or in my job. If I'd been getting B's or C's I would've been really upset. Wonderland Magazine February 2014: You realize you can't do everything. I really did think I could do it all - commute back to the UK for Potter filming and press, then go to Brown for finals, and keep up with my friends and family. You can't do it by the way. You do have to take breaks. It's how I became interested in meditation and yoga. I developed bedtime rituals. Elle Magazine UK November 2011: Of course Harry Potter got in the way, with its relentless round of reshoots and promotion, meaning that Emma had to temporarily halt her studies at the start of this year. "I was basically commuting across the Atlantic. Taking a semester out wasn't what I wanted to do, but I am still enrolled at Brown." Collider.com Interview with Steve Weintraub November 14, 2010: Well, I keep trying to but she keeps finding her way back into my life. I still have two movies left to promote, and they’re still cutting and editing Part 2 so I might have to do some more voice recording and other stuff for it, so it’s a very gradual goodbye. I’m being eased out of it gently........I mean we are special, it is Harry Potter. But we only had two days—I was being sarcastic (laughs). Sorry, I have to like fill that in because otherwise it will be written, “we are special!” (laughs). But yeah we only had two days to shoot it and we needed so much more time than that. So yeah, we have reshoots at Christmas. So it’s not over. It’s not over yet guys! Echee says: Okay, what? Notice how in Wonderland Emma claims she was busy filming for Harry Potter and her Elle Magazine interviewer claims the same. Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2 filming ended in June 2010, and then for less than a week they had to reshoot the epilogue in December 2010 (they reshot around Christmas time, so Emma had already finished her Brown Semester). They re-shot the epilogue because the makeup/CGI made the actors look elderly instead of middle aged. Also, HP and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 premiere was July 15, 2011. Generally press begins one month in advance (though you might do some magazine interviews 3-4 months in advance). Emma was not seen at any events/doing press until beginning of July 2011. She was stuck in Pittsburgh doing Perks of Being a Wallflower filming (which took place from May 9 to June 29, 2011) Emma was also filming for and doing work on her Lancôme stuff in March/April. How can she claim she was too busy during the Spring 2011 school year (which was from January 26 - May 20) with Potter filming and promotion? She did none of that. The overlap she had with school and non-school stuff was Perks filming and Lancôme filming/promotion. It had NOTHING to do with taking time off for Potter. Plus she was negotiating those deals for Perks in January 2011 and for Lancôme in December-ish. There was ZERO reason for her to take time off from school, but she did, because she was desperate for fame/money, and she blamed it on Potter to hide the truth. PopSugar On-Set May/June 2011 Interview with

Shannon Vestal Robson: Shannon: Have you read the book, and do you feel pressure to live up to it? Emma: I read the script first and then I read the book. It was so funny because I read the script and I came back to Brown and I told my roommates that I've just read this amazing script, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and my friends were like, "Oh, that's my favorite book. So jealous that you get to play Sam. If I was ever going to be in a movie, if I was ever going to play any character ever, it would be Sam. Notice how Emma mentions going back to Brown and asking her Brown roommates (Scout Willis, Madison Utendahl, etc.) about the book. So even during the Fall 2010 Semester, she was secretly thinking of filming Perks next year. And remember the interviews I posted above (from November 2010) where she claimed education and university came first? BS. She was already planning back in September 2010 (when she went back to Brown) about leaving next year. Also, remember this. Emma is claiming she was overworked with Brown and Potter stuff.....why in September 2010 was she looking at possible filming projects that would coincide with Spring 2011 Semester and Summer? If you claim you are overworked, why are you looking to add on more, extra, unnecessary work. She was also negotiating her Lancôme deal in December 2010 as well. Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 2 New York City Press Conference July 2011 (Listen at 17:30): "I'm going to Oxford, in the fall, to study English for a year. Just to explain, I haven't left Brown. I'm still enrolled at Brown, but I'm doing my third year abroad. Studying at home, abroad, for me. So I'll go back to the States to do my last year. I took a semester off but my A-Level credits actually count as an advance-place-me-out-a-semester so I'm no further behind, I'm still technically going into my third year. So, yeah, that's that." Something to remember is how Vanessa Davies (when the Harry Potter spokeswoman announced Emma was transferring from Brown in April)says "Watson, who plays Hermione in the wizard movie series, has decided to pursue a different course not offered at Brown". On Emma's EmmaWatson.com website in the FAQ section (undated), she says this: I was seriously torn as to whether to stay in the UK or go to the States as let's face it the UK has some of the best universities in the world. But, ultimately, I loved the course at Brown and really liked the idea of experiencing a different country and culture - and I must say I've never been happier, I absolutely love Brown. So strange how Emma + her Harry Potter spokesperson contradict each other. Emma claims she purposefully chose Brown (instead of staying in the UK for university) because she loved Brown's course, but then the spokesperson said the reason Emma is transferring is because Emma was sad that Brown didn't have the course she wanted to take. Emma reveals in the press conference that she will be studying English a Oxford. The thing is, Emma was and did graduate as an English Literature major. So Brown did have the course she wanted to take (which is what she earlier said). Okay so Watson claims here that despite taking an entire semester (3-5 classes) off, she's no further behind than the rest of her classmates. Damn, this girl must be such a hard worker to not fall behind. Still, is she telling the truth, lying as usual, or begging/threatening Brown University to give her special, unequal treatment? Fact checking Watson's "advance-place-me-out-a-semester" claim Brown University Office of the Registrar - The College, Advanced Standing Guidelines

Anyway, there's a lot of information and I only parsed out a bit of it, but here's a quick summary. Basically, to graduate from Brown University, you need to take a minimum of 30 classes during your college years (can be at Brown or other approved colleges) and also a minimum of 8 semesters. Just to mention, A-Levels are the UK equivalent of American Advanced Placement (A.P.) courses or International Baccalaureate (IB) courses. Also, when Brown says "credits" they mean courses/classes. So, yes, Emma told the truth in that her semester standing is no further behind because her A-Levels counted as an extra semester. However! Emma is still behind in total number of classes taken because A-Levels do not count towards your degree requirement of 30 classes/courses. So she needs to take more classes per semester than the average person since she's behind.

Vanity Fair May 2010 Interview: After shopping classes, she settled on European women's history, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and acting. “I think actually I'm the worst person in the class,” says Watson cheerily. So in Emma's first semester (that's the time period they're talking about), Emma took 3 classes - women's history (lol at this feminist class), Ovid, and acting. Brown requires students to take 3-5 classes a semester and so Emma took the bare minimum....kind of super lazy for someone so excited to get to college and start learning and whatever else she's been spouting for years. Okay, Brown's most basic, elementary requirement that ALL students have to fulfill to graduate is to take 30 classes. Since Emma only took 3 classes her first semester, that means 30 - 3 = 27 classes left to take over 7 semesters. Since Emma took a semester off but claims advanced standing, meaning she wants to graduate in May 2013 (September 2009 - May 2013), that means...... 27 classes over 6 total semesters. 27 / 6 = 4.5 classes per semester This I will go into detail in below, later, but just a heads up, Emma also took the Fall 2012 Semester off in order to film Noah. Because Emma had enough A-Levels, she did indeed get 2 semesters of advanced standing, but to graduate in 6 semesters means...... 30 minimum classes to graduate / 6 semesters = 5 classes a semester every semester Brown only allows you to take a max of 5 classes a semester and since Emma only took 3 classes her very first semester at Brown, it means it's impossible for Emma to graduate by May 2013 without special, unequal treatment....special treatment being either lowering the required 30 classes or allowing her to take 6 classes a semester, but come on, Emma is super lazy and unprofessional. Can you honestly see this girl doing 6 classes a semester when she lazily only took 3 classes her first semester? Freshman year is the easiest you know.... And their 30 classes requirement is their most basic requirement - to let her worm her way out of it would be absolutely disgusting.

#echee #echee's posts #brown

[mercuryonparklane]

Yes, I am doing this again.

I know that I have already made multiple posts about “All Too Well”, but the story around that song just does not make any sense to me.

The mainstream theory is that she wrote it about Jake. The most obvious reason for that line of thinking is the scarf and, more recently, the first draft of the lyrics that was included in the Lover diary with a date of February 2011. Maybe it really is about him and I am wrong, but it has always felt like a PR stunt to me. It’s something she has done with other songs as well, which makes it seems like she and/or her team are trying to sell a particular narrative.

I get that some people think Jake was real, and that’s fine, but I have always leaned towards it being a PR setup. Even if they were real, there are things about the theory that ATW is about Jake that do not make any sense at all, which is why I think she may have already written the line about the scarf and that they used those pap shots as a way to get people to relate that song to him. And it worked.

First, let’s start with the hard fact that the song has a creation date of 2010 on the copyright record:

Does that mean she couldn’t have written it sometime between the birthday party that he supposedly didn’t show up for and January 1, 2011? Not necessarily. That is a possibility. It does mean, as far as I can tell, that the song was already written before February 2011.

This is why the story about writing the song, during what would essentially be a jam session with the band, at David’s first rehearsal is hard to believe. If she wrote it the first day she met David, which is what she said on that recent RS podcast, that had to have been before February 2011 because his first show with the band was on January 21, 2011. She said that the sound guy put it on a CD, which she took home to listen to and it was basically ATW, but with about 7 extra verses, so she called Liz R. to help her edit it down. That Lover diary entry would only make sense if the copyright record didn’t show that the song was created in 2010 and if David’s first rehearsal happened after the entry was written.

That’s just what we know on the surface level, but if we dig a little deeper, it’s even more confusing because Liz R. said, in October 2014, that Taylor called her when she was in the middle of moving the last of her things out of her Nashville home before she moved to Dallas:

I have really tried to pinpoint when Liz moved to Dallas and I haven’t found any clear answer, but there are things that make me think she may have been living there by early or mid-2010. First of all, there are these tweets about someone going to Dallas to write with her in February 2010:

This is a full year before the Lover diary entry implies that the final draft of ATW was written. Now, I guess it’s possible that Liz just happened to be in Texas on those dates for some other reason.

According to its website, her music publishing company was established in Nashville in 2010. I also found this, though, which may mean that she was based in Dallas, and had registered her company there too, by at least July 2010:

(She has mentioned in interviews that she only moved back to Dallas for a few years.)

Since Liz R. is credited as the co-writer, I think it’s important to take her story of how the song was created into account.

Here is what Liz R. said about the writing process for ATW in June 2013:

Obviously, there is also that RS article from October 2014, that I already added above, where she states that she was in the middle of cleaning out her house in Nashville before moving to Dallas, when Taylor called her. She also said this:

To me, this sounds like the song was mostly written during this session with Liz. The lyrics in the Lover diary entry from February 2011 may have been written before this session, but it had to have been sometime in 2010. Also, the fact that Liz thinks it was the first song Taylor wrote for Red also makes it seems like it may have been written in fall 2010 because Taylor has said that she started writing Red shortly after Speak Now came out. 

(It’s possible that Liz hadn’t sold her house before she moved to Dallas, so she had to come back once it finally was to clean it up and just happened to be in town when Taylor called. Although, from this interview it sounds like she didn’t move to Dallas until after her house was sold. So, who knows. I guess, it all depends on when she actually moved there and, like I said, that information has been very hard to find.)

Here is what she said in June 2016:

Here is what she said in February 2019:

This is the story that Liz R. has stuck with throughout the years. It seems as though she was not aware that Taylor had a CD from a rehearsal jam session. Her recollection is that Taylor essentially had this long story in her head that she needed help editing down. The only thing that changed is that, prior to February 2019, she said that the original version of the song that existed in Taylor’s head would have been about 10-15 minutes, but now she recently said it was around 20 minutes. 

So, which is it? Did she write the first draft in February 2011 after David’s first rehearsal, which is what the Lover diaries indicate? Or did she come up with a long version of the song, which possibly included over 10 verses, during a jam session with the band on David’s first day sometime before January 21, 2011, which her sound guy supposedly recorded? Or did she have 10-15 minutes worth of a song, mostly or completely in her head, when she called Liz R. to help write it with enough time to officially copyright it in 2010?

Do you see why this is so confusing?? If she wrote it with her band in a jam session, then wouldn’t they get songwriting credit for helping her compose the song? Her story wasn’t that she told them what to play, she said that they just started playing along with her. If that’s true, then why is Liz R. the only other person on the copyright record?

Say that Taylor’s rehearsal story is true, maybe she didn’t tell Liz R. about the CD. But I just have a hard time buying that story. I know that most fans, even some of the most hardcore Swifties, thought that fan was making up the story about Andrea saying the song was written during a rehearsal. Now, all of a sudden, Taylor decided to confirm it. But, if it’s true that it was the first day she met David, then she put the wrong date in the Lover diary entry. 

So, either she forgot exactly when it was written OR she lied about it. But why would she lie? She could have said that it was written at the end of 2010 and people would still believe it was about Jake.

Listen, this isn’t some attempt to make the song about Liz because outside of a few parallel lyrics (which could be a coincidence) and Taylor playing this song at the rep tour show that Liz attended, I really don’t think there is enough evidence to create much of a theory to support that. This is purely about trying to understand why the song was registered in 2010, but Taylor tried to sell it as though the first draft was written in February 2011. That is the part that makes no sense to me.

And still, the only real conclusion I can come to is that the dates in the Lover diary entry are most likely not accurate. Whether that was intentional on Taylor’s part or not, I don’t know. But from what I can tell, I still think that the song may have been written in early, or possibly mid-, 2010, which was before she was publicly dating Jake.

(side note: in researching this, I saw something about Scott B. being the one to bring up the idea of Taylor working with Max Martin, which I find very interesting. Let’s be honest, Taylor was his most successful artist and I wouldn’t be shocked if he encouraged her to venture more into pop in order to rake in even more cash for him and the label.)