#how about we normalize non dramatic romances in media? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lothricshopsathottopic · 2 years

Text

So, today, I woke up to the really shitty news that Lovestruck is going to be shutting down in March 2022. I don't log into Tumblr nearly as much as I used to, so this was honestly a pretty big shock to me despite the shitshow Voltage has been involved in recently.

I don't really know how to take the news. I'm hoping that they're gonna wrap up any ongoing storylines before ending the services entirely, given the in-app notice, but given how the calendar doesn't seem to show anything past the new years other than a single Piama card, I'm not sure.

This hurts. A lot. Lovestruck has been a constant in my life since the beginning of 2018, and its routes and characters have been there to comfort me during my lowest days, when I was struggling with the worst of my depression and anxiety. It felt extremely nice to know that, no matter how the media seems to treat wlw people, we still had a lot of representation in Lovestruck. Stories with healthy, positive relationships and happy endings, which is something we normally lack (even if that admittedly seems to be slowly changing nowadays.) It felt good to not feel excluded and ignored by default, for once, after so many instances of articles, games, movies, books and even conversations which treat your identity like it doesn't exist, to the point an insidious little voice in your head starts to whisper if they're not right, if there's really not something wrong with you after all, if you're not a mistake, or a defect - it's lying, and people who exclude you are wrong, but this voice can be horribly powerful, especially when you get what feels like non-stop confirmation from the outside world. I can't emphasize enough how important inclusion and representation are to someone's mental and emotional well-being, and Lovestruck was one of the few things that made me feel like I belonged in this world. I doubt I'm the only one who feels like this.

It pains me also to think of the routes which are never going to get finished, and the ones which are never going to be made in the first place. I wonder how many of these are special to people the same way Onyx, Vivienne, Piama, Lavinia and Helena are to me. I was enjoying Korin's route a lot, and also really liked Emilio's. To hear they're probably never going to be continued is... strange. Difficult to process.

I don't have enough words to thank the amazing writers and CG artists for all their beautiful work. You have no idea how much it has helped me over four extremely difficult and emotionally exhausting years. I can never be grateful enough to you for providing something that made me feel safe, warm and included no matter how bad my day had been. I wish, from the bottom of my heart, the best to everyone who's lost their job due to this and I hope they can get other jobs quickly.

It probably feels stupid to most people how upset I am over this, how upset I am over an app being shut down, to the point I'm choking up and on the verge of tears, but Lovestruck and its characters mean a lot to me, more than most people could possibly imagine. It was something I felt was always there for me. I've been struggling with really severe depression for more than a few years now, and, being completely honest, sometimes simply being alive and existing is just too much. Lovestruck alleviated some of that pain and took a lot of weight off my shoulders. To hear that it's going to be gone soon... I don't know how to take it.

This probably sounds overly dramatic. But as a depressed person with very few friends, no job, virtually no social circle and a lot of fears and insecurities, this seemingly silly little romance app was one of the few things I had, one of the few things which made me happy. To have it be killed off like that, on top of everything that's been going on recently, it feels horrendously unfair. Not just to me, or the readers who most likely feel just as strongly about this as I do, but to everyone who's going to be out of a job now. They deserved better, and so did we.

I'm probably gonna be okay eventually, but this is honestly a lot to take in, especially this soon in the morning. I'm going to need a lot of time to process it. I'm glad I can still play and replay the already existing routes, but knowing that the app will be removed from the Play Store and never getting updated again... I don't know.

I just needed to get my thoughts on this out, I guess. It feels like a part of me is being ripped out, and I needed to vent. I know it's not the end of the world, and other inclusive apps are probably gonna get made eventually; media has been getting more inclusive recently. Hell, maybe even people who worked in Lovestruck might end up creating their own thing, which would be awesome. But we owe that inclusion to precursors, and when it comes to visual novels, Lovestruck is probably the biggest one when it comes to inclusion and representation.

This is, as I've said, largely a vent post. Feel free to take everything I've written here with a grain of salt, because I feel really strongly about this, and I'm hurting, and we as a species admittedly tend to exaggerate a bit when we're feeling strongly about something, especially on the internet. But I needed to get this out, because, to be honest, it hurts a whole lot of a fuck more than I ever thought it would.

#personal vent #lovestruck #voltage usa #tw depression #tw anxiety #vent post

67 notes · View notes

absolutebl · 3 years

Text

Manner of Death - It’s A Murdery Series

Episode 1 Analysis

I’m not sure I can do my normal flippant BL tropes analysis + pop culture crit with Manner of Death. Because:

This is not BL, it’s romantic suspense

Different tropes for different folks

We are also in cozy mystery city, sweetheart

Or should I say cozy mystery small town?

Anywhowhatwhenwherewhyhow...

Romantic Suspense in a BL blog?

This is MaxTul and I have been waiting YEARS for them to appear in something decent, so sure, here we go...

What’s romantic suspense?

Romantic suspense is a literary sub genre of romance fiction in which both the romance AND the suspense/mystery/thriller elements are integral parts of the plot. This means that if you remove the romance thread the story would fall apart. And/or if you remove the crime element the story falls apart. It’s primarily consumed by romance readers.

Why do I think Manner of Death qualifies as Romantic Suspense?

Well at first I thought we were getting a cozy mystery with a gay romance sub-plot. (Which means if the romance element is removed, the story could still occur.) But after watching episode one, I think it’s actually romantic suspense because:

So much of this episode was built using romance tropes as well as mystery tropes.

The gaze of the filming lens was very romance-driven in terms of lingering on longing glances and shirtless Dr Bun.

We followed Dr Bun into his bed. Suspense (even cozies) rarely follows the protag into household intimacy zones in the first episode. (Victims = yes, protags = no.) Romance almost always does.

Finally, we have got a kiss in the first installment for Dr Bun, plus a lot of screen time spent on their meet cute, and that kind of pacing indicates romance.

Why is it EXCITING that Manner of Death is romantic suspense?

Well, romantic suspense is a HUGELY hot genre amongst readers that has gotten VERY little attention from Hollywood. (Something like True Romance qualifies as do a few others but there isn’t much out there...) There’s also little to NO queer rep in suspense films in general (except as plot drivers and victims).

Generally speaking, the Hollywood film industry prefers straight up suspense in which the heterosexual love story, while it can be present for the protagonist, doesn’t drive plot and usually doesn’t end happily (think Mission Impossible franchise). Or the alternate which is cozy mystery TV series, which I’ll address in a moment.

In short? This is a massive untapped market in visual media.

Cozy Mystery

Cozy mysteries, AKA cozies, are a sub-genre of crime fiction in which:

sex and violence usually occur off stage (AKA don’t be too graphic)

the detective is an amateur sleuth

the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community.

While I think Manner of Death is demonstrating all core elements of a cozy, I don’t think it is going to be a cozy because they wouldn’t have hired MaxTul if they weren’t going to give us some serious skinship (violating the too graphic rule above). And it has already gotten a bit violent for cozies.

That said, it’s a REALLY smart thing to put a romantic suspense into a cozy framework because...

Cozy mysteries are SUPER popular, often times with exactly the same demographic that tends to watch BL and read romantic suspense. Which is to say: mostly straight women of a certain age. (What Hollywood calls the apple pie demographic. Don’t blame the messenger.)

Also cozies are more popular as TV series, rather than one-off films. And what do we have with Manner of Death? A SERIES!

So I’m calling Manner of Death as:

A gay romantic suspense series in a cozy mystery framework.

And if they can stick to that, and have done their marketing properly, they could have a run away hit on their hands.

There are some things to be wary of:

The lingering gaze and romantic lens can upset mystery watchers, who are probably going to be coming to this show fresh (expecting a cozy) not understanding what it is.

Also the captioning of the medical terminology and awkward phrasing of certainly dialogue may turn these viewers off. They are less forgiving than BL watchers.

The director is going to have to tread a VERY thin line with romantic suspense to keep new (non-BL) viewers. As is the script - the mystery is going to need to be executed well. Finally, much as we like Dr Oak and the comedic element, that style of humor probably won’t translate well to a mystery audience, so I’m hoping they pull back a bit on that.

Some stuff I really loved?

The soundtrack. It’s way more mature than BL and I am really happy to hear music that doesn’t interfere with my enjoyment or beat me over the head with its mistrust of the actor’s ability to execute emotion.

The filming style, they have left off triple shots and other BL fillers.

The lack of comedic sound effects. I have learned not to mind them in BL romantic comedies but they have no place in romantic suspense.

Lack of product placement. Although I worry about how they are funding this baby.

Tul’s acting. I seriously did not think he had it in him and I am really excited to see him carry this thing. I was confused as to why they gave Dr Bun to him and not Max, but now I totally get it. Tul has a soft sweetness to him that Max doesn’t and it’s perfect for this character. I am already very worried about him. That’s one of the dramatic tensions of a cozy - fish-out-of-water driven concern for the protagonist.

My Feels?

This is going to be a wild, crazy, sexy ride. Even if it jumps the shark I’m excited to see where it fails. And I mean that lovingly.

From a purely academic perspective it’s so cool to watch something totally new, yet based on so much trope-riddled history.

And on that note... TROPES!

Mystery & Suspense Tropes We Got In Episode One

Opening on a murder

Fridge girl (see women in refrigerators)

Nosy reporter

Medical evidence explained

Female friend in danger

Amateur sleuth

Small town sins AKA the dark underbelly

Public argument

Zoom in on clues

I know the victim

Murder disguised as suicide

Love interest is a suspect

Romance Tropes We Got In Episode One

Meet Cute

Sexual tension

Secretive brooding love interest

You can’t go home again

Witty banter & innuendo

Everyone wants the protagonist

Get his shirt off ASAP

First kiss in under 10%

BL Tropes We Got In Episode One

(what you thought I’d just forget my one true love?)

Faen fatal

Baby is a floppy drunk

Proximity alert

Post-it love note

Touch my lip and think of kissing

Head touch (the ”you have something in your hair” variant)

In conclusion Manner of Death may be the death of me, but what a way to go.

241 notes · View notes

surveys-at-your-service · 3 years

Text

Survey #332

i’m even more tired than before to try and think up song lyrics, i’m pasting from Word and then fucking off to bed lmao.

What was the last video message you received on your phone? I think it was a clip of Doris (Sara's beardie) eating and just being her perfect self? Was your last birthday cake homemade or store bought? Store-bought. One thing you miss about middle school? Shit, nothing. Middle school was the worst. Do you have any shirts signed by famous people? No. Have you ever entered an art competition? Yes. Would you ever pierce yourself? No. I am very much about having a professional do your body mods/art. Plus, I have tremors in my hands. Do you live in a safe neighbourhood? Supposedly. We haven't lived here nearly long enough to know. What is the last thing you did that shocked someone? /shrug Do you often find yourself questioning your future? Only always. Have you ever been for a ride in the back of a truck? Yeah. Do you like your license photo? I hate my permit picture. Are you into superheroes? Who’s your favorite? Not very, but I like 'em enough. I always say my favorite is Deadpool, but I know he's technically an anti-hero, but whatever. If you don't include him, uhhhh... maybe Spiderman. Have you started watching any new TV shows recently? No. Have you ever been able pet a normally wild animal, like a tiger or dolphin? No. :( At least, not to my recollection. Have you ever eaten snow? Yeah. There's actually a winter treat 'round here that you make with snow and sugar called snow cream. Good stuff. What is the messiest area in your home? Right now, the spare room/my wanna-be "office." What’s your favorite computer game genre? Still horror, like video games. Do you have any exes your parents never liked? No. Have you received financial help from your parents in the past 5 years? I'm completely financially dependent on them still. Are you a fast or a slow eater? I eat like, stupid fast, but without being messy. People *cough*Mom*cough* will absolutely point it out, but I seriously can't help it. Making a conscious effort to eat slow feels way too weird. What was the last thing you purchased from a small local business? I don't know. Is there anyone in your family/household whom you frequently argue with? No. Have you ever used chewing tobacco? Ew, no. Tell me what's on your mind? I've been considering yet again reaching out to some tattoo parlors and asking if they're open to hiring someone to handle the front desk and take care of business besides actually performing piercing and tattooing, given my tremors. My group therapy has kinda been encouraging me to use the possibility for social exposure, and besides, I'm very comfortable in the environment and just general aura of tat parlors. I'm sure I'd have to answer the phone, handle money, and obviously talk to costumers, but I know and accept that. I've been at such a stagnant point with my social anxiety in particular that I have to start pushing back harder, and doing this I feel would be one of the most relaxed, social job positions I can hopefully handle. I don't dare to even try this though until I get vaccinated to protect my immunocompromised mom. Writing this all out has actually been pretty encouraging about this idea... Do you wish you never dated someone you dated? Yeah, Tyler. It was such a "I'm lonely and he was nice in high school, so we'll try it" situation. I got nothing from it. Are you scared of growing old alone? Pretty badly. What are you listening to right now? I'm listening to/semi-watching John Wolfe play the remaster of Resident Evil 2. What breed was the last dog you saw? He was a German shepherd. Would you ever go swimming during a thunderstorm? No. Any time a thunderstorm was brewing and I was in the pool, I'd always get out. What is the next concert you will attend? Mom and I plan to see Ozzy when/if he reschedules his tour after he had to cancel with his Parkinson's diagnosis. What was the name of the last pet of yours that died? Teddy. :/ What's the highest science class you have taken? I don't know, actually. What makes you squeal like a school girl? No shame, seeing Mark and Amy do something cute together actually does this, lmao. What’s your favorite symbol? (i.e. the pentagram, the cross, etc.) Do fictional ones count? Because in that case, the Halo of the Sun from the Silent Hill franchise. I'm getting it tattooed somewhere at some point, I'm thinking the left side of my neck. I'm either gonna fashion it in a way where it looks branded on or carved into me. Have you ever been on anti depressants? For all of my pre-teen, teen, and some of my adult life. Apparently, I've only had one truly educated psychiatrist out of no less than a dozen I'd seen, because he fixed me right up. He taught me that those who suffer from bipolarity should avoid anti-depressants; they ramp up your bipolar symptoms. Instead, mood stabilizers are favorable. And what do you know, after I was prescribed a stabilizer and a catalyst for that medication, my depression decreased dramatically and became handleable. Have you ever starved yourself? Kinda. What’s the stupidest name you’ve ever given a pet? I had a guinea pig named Harry Potter. For no particular reason lmao. I'm not even a Harry Potter fan. Do you have nice legs? God no. Do you like fedoras? Okay so I know I am in the strong minority, but I actually do, haha. What is your favorite food group? Carbs. @_@ Have you ever got told that you should be a model? No, but one of the most flattering indirect compliments I've ever gotten was being mistaken for one. Jason's phone wallpaper was one of my favorite pictures of myself with my first snake, and someone asked him if I was a model. ;v;' What song is in a language you don’t speak, but you love it anyway? "Donaukinder" by Rammstein is one of my faves. Who’s a villain you sympathize with and why? SOBS Darkiplier bc his origins are so damn tragic and unfair. What book do you think should be directed as a film? Was The Giver ever made into one? I don't remember that book well, but I do recall it being absolutely beautiful. Have you ever found a stranger’s note somewhere? If so, what did it say? No. Have you ever edited Wikipedia? No. Have you ever edited any other wiki? Yeah. I have thousands on the Silent Hill wiki, where I'm one of the admins. I'm also a content moderator at the Team Ico (Shadow of the Colossus devs) one. Every now and again I used to go on the meerkats wiki as well, where I mainly fixed the fucking nightmarish grammar. Very briefly, I edited at the Dragons of Atlantis wiki as well. Do you get scared when you know some virus or sickness is being passed? Not very, but of course I still acknowledge the risk and am more conscious of hand washing and stuff. What popular social media platforms AREN’T you on? Snapchat, I don't actually use my Twitter, I don't have a personal Instagram... There may be more, idk. Is TikTok a "social media platform?" Because I don't have that, either. What was the name of the first porcelien doll you got? Never had one, given I was afraid of dolls as a kid. What’s your favorite Paramore song? "Decode." Would you be happy with a life without romance? To be entirely honest, I'd feel like I was missing something. Was your childhood happy? Mostly. What fundamentally matters do you? Love, kindness, peace, all that gooey stuff. Is true world peace ever possible? As much as I hate to admit it, I don't think so. The human population is far too big to come to a unanimous agreement on anything. Do you hold yourself to higher standards than you hold others? Yeah. Would you ever own a pet black widow spider? No. I'm getting more into the idea of owning invertebrates (I jabber enough about wanting tarantulas, and there are others, like mantises, I'm interested in as pets), but black widows, I'm not into the idea of having. Too venomous for me to be comfortable risking. If you have a job, what is the longest shift that you've worked? N/A Do you know all of the words to "Bohemian Rhapsody?" FUCK YES I DO. ^ Do you sing it with all of the different voices? sho nuff Do you own more than one copy of a certain book? No. Do you like interpreting poetry or just reading it for fun? Both. I love symbolism, so I get joy out of digging for subtle meanings in poems. Do you have a favorite Dr. Suess book? Yeah, it was always Green Eggs and Ham. Do you watch The Walking Dead? If so, favorite character? Not the show, but I've watched let's plays of the games, haha. In which case Clementine is inarguably one of the best female characters in a video game universe. Who has/had the most mature romantic relationship you’ve seen with your own eyes? Uhhh. I mean I never saw them much, but probably my late grandmother and her last husband. He was fucking incredible to her, and Grammy adored him as well. They helped each other so much and just obviously had the purest love between them. When was the last time you got something for free (legally)? What was it & have you enjoyed it so far? Lmao do balls in Pokemon GO count? Their occasional free boxes are the reason I can play the game because PokeStops are essentially non-existent here, so yes. What is the one fruit you can’t stand to eat? How about vegetable? The first one that came to me were oranges. I enjoy orange juice, but I just caaaaannot with the white veiny shit that you can't totally get off when peeling it. Without that, I might actually enjoy them, but idk. As for vegetable, asparagus is absolutely abhorrent. When’s the last time you actually recited the pledge? If you aren’t American, do/did you have anything similar in your country that you do during a time at school? Probably not since high school. Last person you shared food with? Ummm I have no idea. It's really just Mom and me here and we eat our own stuff. What was the last song you heard for the first time and enjoyed? I believe it waaas... "Down In The Park" by Marilyn Manson, maybe. If your life was a TV show, what would be the theme song? My inner high school emo just screamed "All Signs Point to Lauderdale" by AD2R. Who are some of your favorite female fictional characters, and why? Gahdamn, there's a lot. I don't feel like going through a mental list in my head and then describing why. A character (in anything) you wish hadn’t been killed off? Vol'jin; I think the entire WoW fanbase will forever be pissed about it. It was THE most "lul we dunno what 2 do w/ him anymore, let's let a totally random, unnamed, unimportant demon kill him" like what the fuck, Blizz. Most of his "oomph" was in the book, and I just really wish they'd done so much more with him in the game. Has anything “cute” happened in the past week? Off the top of me noggin, no. When did you last say “I love you”? Did you mean it? Yesterday to Sara. OF course I did. Is there someone who pops into your mind at random times? Hi, PTSD, how are ya. Have you ever slept all day? Essentially. When I was on a larger dose of my anxiety med, I physically couldn't stay up for barely even five minutes, and when I'd lie back down, boom, I was OUT. I stayed on that dosage for I think just that one day, it was so bad. Can you have kids? Well, I have a functioning menstrual cycle, so I would assume so. Doesn't mean I will, though. What colors of mascara have you worn on your lashes? Only black. Do you like eating sour things? Hell yeah, I love sour stuff, candy in particular. Do you like pickles? fuuuuck yeah Did you ever have a really close friend move away? Yeah, in elementary school. I feel bad I can't remember her name at the moment... What's the most creative thing you've ever done? I mean, I guess the things I've written in RP. What's the most creative thing someone has done for you? For me? I don't really know. Do you like to watch ghost-hunting shows? Sure, they're some of my favorites. What’s something you’d like to be better at? Social interaction. Have you ever stayed up to talk to someone who was sad? Yeah. Do you think you would make a good parent? No. I know I wouldn't. The only time I ever wanted kids was with Jason, and honestly, I really hope I don't end up with a man because I never want to deal with that urge again and make a mistake. I'm just in no way emotionally fit to be a mother. How many best friends do you have? Just one. What do you cry over the most? My PTSD, honestly. I never sob about it anymore, just shed some tears. What language did/do you take in high school? Latin for one semester, then all four available for German. Which sports do you follow? None. Who was the last person you talked about marriage or having kids with? About marriage, Sara. Kids, the subject was lightly touched upon with Girt, though "with" was never a part of it, but obviously implied seeing as we were dating with long-term in mind. Have you ever been in a house fire? No, thankfully. Have you ever made out for one straight hour? them is rookie numbers Are you any good at remembering phone numbers? No. I literally don't even know my own, nor my mother's. I need to fix that. Who is your best friend of the opposite sex? Girt. Do you have a bookshelf? If so, just one or how many? No. If I gave you twenty bucks what would you do with it? Save it to go towards Venus' terrarium. Is there a movie from your childhood that you still watch today? Well of course! I'm unashamed to watch any "kids" movie I enjoy, like Disney ones. Most "kids" movies tend to be better than those intended for adults, it seems... Are you afraid of mice? Oh no, I adore mice and I think had a pair as pets before I got rats. What type of souvenir do you usually purchase when on vacation? I can't really answer this; I haven't gone on nearly enough vacations to develop a theme. I can say confidently though it'd probably be something small. If you could see any musical on Broadway right now, what would it be? I don't enjoy musicals. Have you ever watched Doctor Who? One or two with Sara, yes. I know we at least watched the weeping angels episode. If you read, which book or series did you enjoy most as a child? Warriors by S.E. Hinton. Sometimes I wanna get back into them, but I am YEARS behind and more into Wings of Fire anyway, so. I don't read nearly enough for both. How do you get rid of your hiccups? Literally no trick seems to work for me. I just suffer lmao.

#survey #surveys #questions

5 notes · View notes

asasinela · 3 years

Text

A Quiet Place 2 Ganzer Film (2020) online - [720P] Download

Ganzer film❗ ▷ A Quiet Place 2 Kostenlos Deutsch — film[HD]™ @filmstarts

[Ganzer Film] A Quiet Place 2 [2021] HD stream deutsch ONLINE

A Quiet Place 2 in HD 1080p. A Quiet Place 2 in HD ansehen. A Quiet Place 2 online ansehen. A Quiet Place 2 Film Online. A Quiet Place 2 Film Online Kostenlos Online Streaming

=================๑۩๑=================

🥇Stream Here ~ᐉ https://v.ht/cCaz

=================๑۩๑=================

Nachdem Familie Abbott ihr Zuhause verlassen musste, ist Evelyn (Emily Blunt) nun mit ihren Kindern Regan (Millicent Simmonds) und Marcus (Noah Jupe) sowie dem neugeborenen Baby auf sich allein gestellt. An den unheimlichen Zuständen in der postapokalyptischen Welt hat sich nichts geändert: Die geräuschempfindlichen Biester, die die Erde im ersten Film überfielen, sind nach wie vor auf der Jagd. Jeder unbedachte Laut könnte sie auf den Plan rufen. Die Abbotts versuchen weiterhin, ein halbwegs normales Leben zu führen – ein Leben in absoluter Stille. Als sie den Überlebenden Emmett (Cillian Murphy) treffen, stellt sich für Evelyn bald die Frage, wie es weitergehen soll. Ist es an der Zeit, sich mit anderen zusammenzutun? Und wenn ja, wem kann man überhaupt trauen?

Sequel zu „A Quiet Place“ von 2018.

🥇Alternatif Link ᐉᐉ https://v.ht/cCaz

24. Juni 2021 Im Kino / 1 Std. 37 Min. / Thriller, Fantasy, Horror Regie: John Krasinski Drehbuch: John Krasinski, Bryan Woods Besetzung: Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, Millicent Simmonds Originaltitel: A Quiet Place Part II

➽ Etikett :

A Quiet Place 2 german

A Quiet Place 2 kinostart

A Quiet Place 2 ganzer film

A Quiet Place 2 online stream

A Quiet Place 2 cinemaxx,

A Quiet Place 2 deutschland

A Quiet Place 2 deutscher trailer

A Quiet Place 2 filmstarts

Definition and definition of Film / film While the players who play a role in the film are referred to as actors (men) or actresses (women). There is also the term extras that are used as minor characters with few roles in the film. This differs from the main actors, who have larger and more roles. As an actor and actress, good acting talent must be required that corresponds to the subject of the film in which he plays the leading role. In certain scenes, the role of the actor can be replaced by a stunt man or a stunt man. The existence of a stuntman is important to replace the actors who play difficult and extreme scenes that are usually found in action-action films. Movies can also be used to deliver certain messages from the filmmaker. Some industries also use film to convey and represent their symbols and culture. Filmmaking is also a form of expression, thoughts, ideas, concepts, feelings and moods of a person that are visualized in the film. The film itself is mostly fictional, though some are based on actual stories or on a true story. There are also documentaries with original and real images or biographical films that tell the story of a character. There are many other popular genre films, from action films, horror films, comedy films, romantic films, fantasy films, thriller films, drama films, science fiction films, crime films, documentaries and others.

This is some information about the definition of film or film. The information has been cited from various sources and references. Hope it can be useful.

The first national color show (the 1954 Rose Parade tournament) in the United States took place on January 1, 1954. For the next ten years, most network broadcasts and almost all local broadcasts continued to be broadcast in black and white. A color transition was announced for autumn 1965, in which more than half of all network prime time programs were broadcast in color. The first all-color peak season came just a year later. In 19402, the last holdout of daytime network shows was converted to the first full color network season.

A drama program usually consists of a series of actors who play characters in a historical or contemporary setting. The program follows their lives and adventures. Before the 1980s, shows (with the exception of soap opera series) generally remained static without storylines, and the main characters and premise barely changed. [Citation required] If the characters’ lives changed a bit during the episode, it was usually reversed in the end. For this reason, the episodes can be broadcast in any order. [Citation required] Since the 1980s, many FILMS have had a progressive change in the plot, characters, or both. For example, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere were two of the first American prime time drama television films to have this kind of dramatic structure [4] [better source required], while the later MOVIE Babylon 5 further illustrated such a structure had a predetermined story about the planned five season run. [Citation required]

InA Quiet Place 2, it was reported that television became a larger part of the revenue of large media companies than the film. Some also noticed the quality improvement of some television programs. InA Quiet Place 2, Oscar-winning film director Steven Soderbergh declared the ambiguity and complexity of character and narrative: “I think these qualities are now being seen on television and people who want to see stories with such qualities are watching TV.

❍❍❍ Thanks for everything and have fun watching❍❍❍ Here you will find all the films that you can stream online, including the films that were shown this week. If you’re wondering what to see on this website, you should know that it covers genres that include crime, science, fi-fi, action, romance, thriller, comedy, drama, and anime film. Thanks a lot. We inform everyone who is happy to receive news or information about this year’s film program and how to watch your favorite films. Hopefully we can be the best partner for you to find recommendations for your favorite films. That’s all from us, greetings! Thank you for watching The Video Today. I hope you like the videos I share. Give a thumbs up, like or share if you like what we shared so we are more excited. Scatter a happy smile so that the world returns in a variety of colors.

#A Quiet Place 2 cinemaxx #A Quiet Place 2 german

1 note · View note

x0401x · 5 years

Note

Hey miss wonderful taste in everything, can you recommend us some of your favorite KyoAni productions?

Sure! I love doing recs and I’m literally taking any sort of positive content related to KyoAni lately because we truly need it at the moment. Long post alert, though. Here goes my top 10:

1. Hyouka

This one will probably be my first choice forever. It’s KyoAni’s most brilliant work so far and easily one of the best animes I’ve ever watched, hands down. It’s also their finest novel-to-anime adaptation in my opinion, and one of the very few animation series that actually turned out better than their source material.

The books are extremely interesting, but they’re also bland. The alterations made to the anime added visual value to it in order to make it more alluring and appealing, turning ordinary situations into rather unique and thought-provoking settings, while managing to never deviate from its novel counterpart. The changes on the characters’ designs were also a very good choice in my opinion, as they fit more into the character archetypes and the impressions they give off.

This one is honestly an example for the whole anime industry and a timeless gem. I’m pretty certain that it was one of the studio’s turning points in terms of animation style. Surely will become a classic in the future.

2. Koe no Katachi

KyoAni’s most well-done movie, as far as I can tell. I’m specially fond of the symbolism of every scene and the effort put on the scenery, which gave an effect of depth to the frames. The studio managed to portray the mangaka’s art style while staying true to its own trademark traits as well.

Animation quality and sound design aside, it’s also loyal enough to the manga. There were cuts in order to fit the story into the time limit, but KyoAni made up for the gaps with later released specials. The movie is also considerably less dramatic than the original, yet I’m certain that the alterations in that regard were made so that the transition between the phases of the story wouldn’t feel rushed. Albeit in a much more uplifting way, it nevertheless managed to transmit the characters’ essence and emotions.

What caught my attention the most in this movie was the soundtrack, though. There was a lot of care in its production, and it was clearly made to be gentle and almost imperceptible, with glitch-like repetitions here and there, as if it means to put the viewers in the shoes of the deaf heroine. It certainly did its job well.

3. Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu!

First anime from KyoAni I’ve ever watched, aside from the Inuyasha movies. Easily one of their funniest series, if not the actual funniest. It has a very special place in my heart. I dropped Amagi Brilliant Park on the first episode, but I’d cry internally every time I saw Bonta-kun in it. The nostalgia is strong, kids.

It’s got excellent animation for the year it was made, and I dare say it’s more decently animated than many current animes. The pacing is dynamic and the jokes vary from over-the-top to smart and witty in a smooth way. I also give this one kudos for not relying nearly as much on fanservice as more recent titles.

For the people who didn’t watch the first Full Metal Panic, I suggest doing so before trying this one out. Anyone who enjoys the two should also watch the second season, Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid, which comes right after Fumoffu and was also animated by KyoAni.

4. Clannad

This one I deem as the best out of KyoAni’s most notorious classics. I also recommend the other titles related to this one, such as Clannad: Another Story.

Much like Hyouka, it’s a masterpiece in every aspect. It has a very non-cliché and unconveninent plot that deals with delicate themes in a sensible way and tears your heart apart at the same time. Frankly exemplary to the drama genre and exceptional as a visual novel adaptation.

5. Free!

The franchise became lackluster after the first director left, but the first two seasons were fun enough in their own right. Unlike most novel-to-anime adaptations, Free! started with original content through creating a future for the main story, which was turned into the not-so-distant past in the anime. This is unusual enough, but it worked out well as the anime maintained itself as loyal as possible to the first book and never went off the rails with the plot. The main characters’ personalities did suffer many alterations, yet it’s obvious that they meant to make the two more charismatic and likeable. As far as fan responses went, it worked.

I find very interesting that the creators were aware the story took itself too seriously at times, and they made this clear by compensating the heavy melancholy with heavy comedy. They also compensated the overdramatic atmosphere of the first season by picking up the pace and getting a little more serious in the second season. Everything was intentional and designed to be a hit amongst women, which I think had served the purpose until the first movie came out.

To be honest, I’m not fond of the exaggerated fanservice, but it gets easy to ignore it after a while if you only pay attention to the storyline. I don’t consider myself a fan of Free!, and I actually took very long to start liking it. I only did get into it at the last scene of episode 8, back when the first season was still airing. It was only by this time that I could see the true value of the series, so I recommend anyone who tries it out to go at least that far with it. I know it might be a lot of work, but in my honest opinion, it’s worth the trouble.

I deem the High Speed! novel awe-inspiring because of its nostalgic tone and the awfully realistic depiction of childhood crises. The most serious situations of it are a little out of reality, but the rest is absurdly relatable in levels that I myself don’t know how to put into words. Yet I also appreciate Free! for its strong tone of encouragement. It feels like the creators are trying to cheer up the viewers.

6. Kyoukai no Kanata

It starts becoming a mess from episode 4 onward, yet the beginning was quite promising. This one relies heavily on fanservice, often makes use of nonsensical tropes for the sake of comedy and sometimes goes overboard with the jokes. However, it doesn’t fail to deliver emotional value and the action is pretty neat. Anyone who hasn’t read the novel will definitely be able to enjoy it as a standalone.

I don’t think I need to mention it, but the animation is stellar. I in particular love the blurry movement effects of when the characters draw their weapons and the geometrical spectrums in the colorful power barriers. I also recommend the OVA, as well as the second movie I’ll be Here, although the latter is 100% original content. It was actually cute and fun to watch. The first movie is merely one huge recap.

7. Hibike! Euphonium

Truly dazzling take on slice-of-life. It’s healing and heartrending at the same time. The way that characters are portrayed allows the viewers to feel their passion and dedication without it occasionally feeling unrealistic. Everyone has their own problems, but none of them are taken out of proportion. Miscommunication happens, just not in a frustrating shoujo manga way.

The soundtrack and scenery are breathtaking, yet the forte of the animation in this one was the huge amount of detail put into the eyes and hair. Everyone’s hairdos are remarkably glossy without ever looking weird, and I especially like how their eyes all glinter in different colors.

The author published another volume of the novel after the anime, saying it had inspired her to write more, and it’s no wonder. I also recommend season two and the OVA. The first two movies are just recaps and the third was to me a disappointment, so I leave those to people’s own discretion.

8. Tamako Market

Rather odd but nice story. It blends iyashikei elements with a peculiar plot and actually manages to do that in a cute way. All of the characters are likeable and the visuals do a good job in transmitting what they have to transmit in a very relaxing manner.

This show caught me off-guard by how unproblematic it was. It has trans, gay and dark-skinned characters, but none of them is ever used for fanservice or jokes and their respective circumstances are portrayed as 100% normal, which is sadly still rare in anime even nowadays. The romance is pretty not-dramatic and filled to the brim with fluff, and I very much like that the main guy treats his female love rival as a serious threat.

I recommend the specials and the movie as well. Especially the movie, which is basically the same as direct sugar injestion and gave me diabetes.

9. Munto

Also has a special place in my heart. Cheesy but good, actually. I’d be lying if I said there aren’t some surprises in it, though, but I’ll refrain from giving too much info on the story itself.

It was firstly an OVA, but then got adapted into three movies. The animation was done finely enough, but there’s a drastic change in style from the first to the second half, though I myself didn’t really mind it. The characters are all well-stablished and the plot is consistent. There’s a present quality of feminist shades in it and the relationships are very endearing.

10. Nichijou

Not really one of my favorites but certainly one that I recommend for people who are in need of a laugh. It’s got some pretty creative and iconic humor. Its imaginative retakes on routinely affairs manage to transform the most trivial real-life situations into Oscar-worthy wit. It also gets nonsensical every so often, but this fits within the show’s own narrative.

It has a very unique animation that sometimes mixes different styles of art, which only makes every scene a hundred times funnier for being so soft and adorable. It varies from hyperrealistic to surrealistic at the speed of light and sometimes even becomes abstract as hell. It’s full of notes on Japanese culture, not only about daily life but also about media, which adds up to the fun.

#kyoani #kyoto animation #hyouka #free!#koe no katachi #full metal panic #nichijou #hibike euphonium #tamako market #clannad #kyoukai no kanata #munto #i could totally do more of these!

437 notes · View notes

blackjack-15 · 4 years

Text

Not Horsin’ Around — Thoughts on: The Secret of Shadow Ranch (SHA)

Previous Metas: SCK/SCK2, STFD, MHM, TRT, FIN, SSH, DOG, CAR, DDI

Hello and welcome to a Nancy Drew meta series! 30 metas, 30 Nancy Drew Games that I’m comfortable with doing meta about. Hot takes, cold takes, and just Takes will abound, but one thing’s for sure: they’ll all be longer than I mean them to be.

Each meta will have different distinct sections: an Introduction, an exploration of the Title, an explanation of the Mystery, a run-through of the Suspects. Then, I’ll tackle some of my favorite and least favorite things about the game, and finish it off with ideas on how to improve it. Unique to this game is a section in between The Mystery and The Suspects titled The Historical Background, as the background in SHA is so important and takes up nearly a third of the whole game that it deserves its own section.

If any game requires an extra section or two, they’ll be listed in the paragraph above, along with links to previous metas.

These metas are not spoiler free, though I’ll list any games/media that they might spoil here: SHA, non-spoilery mention of TRT, non-spoilery mention of CAP, non-spoilery mention of DED, non-spoilery mention of SPY.

The Intro:

Secret of Shadow Ranch is one of those games that invariably ends up in every “Best Of” list of Nancy Drew games. Unlike another mainstay of those lists (watch this space for the next meta, where I will Make Enemies), SHA actually deserves to be on it without reservations.

Unlike a few other “Best Of” games, SHA doesn’t actually do anything new with its story — there’s no beat, no bare-bones plotline, no mystery that hasn’t been done in the previous 9 games – but it just does it more completely. There’s more effort, more time, more thought, and more care obviously put into SHA (which itself is one of the most popular Nancy Drew books) than a lot of the other games. This isn’t to say that the other games are bad, just that SHA has a uniquely huge amount of care and detail put into it.

I should take the time to note here that I don’t believe that SHA is the best Nancy Drew game of all time, nor is it my favorite game of all time. The first designation shifts according to time, and the second is wholly dependent upon my personal style of play, so elevating a game based on that is less than pointless. When I say SHA deserves to be on “Best Of” game lists, it’s because it genuinely ticks all the boxes to make a fun, challenging but not hard, atmospheric, and honestly engaging experience.

Any introduction to Shadow Ranch would be incomplete without addressing the largest visual change it brings: the full-screen visuals. The bulky 2/3-of-the-screen interface is retired here and instead a (relatively) sleek task bar is added at the bottom, allowing SHA to look, as well as feel, bigger than any other game that came before it. Not only does this result in a smoother visual (especially as Nancy turns around) style, but it allows for more visual puzzles (significantly, the puzzle at the end with the stones marking the correct (and incorrect) path for Nancy to take).

While I won’t go too much into the Historical Background (as it’s significant enough in this game to get its own section in this meta), it’s impossible to talk about SHA without mentioning its wonderful historical setting and story. There are few other games so entrenched in the past (SPY, GTH, and TMB are a few others that fall into the same category), and it’s a joy to play through.

All in all, SHA is an honestly just wonderful, solid game that owes much of its well-deserved praise to a fantastically executed historical background, solid (if not showy) characters, and enough simplicity on top of its moving parts to encourage the player to go steadily and happily through the game.

The Title:

As far as the title for this game goes, they stuck exactly to the book to ensure that readers would know that one of the best-loved mysteries was being adapted to video game format, which was a pretty good idea.

The Secret of Shadow Ranch is also just a pretty great title; it indicates a mystery, a location, and sort of tells you the type of mystery you might get based on the location (historical; revolving around the Wild West). It’s not fussy, and not overly evocative, but it’s also not a “haunting” game (despite the ghost horse on the cover), so the simpler title is acceptable.

The Mystery:

Nancy’s just off to visit Bess and George’s Aunt Bet and Uncle Ed in their ranch (Shadow Ranch, to be exact) when the two cousins get delayed (why they didn’t all fly together…well, the plot demanded it) and Nancy arrives alone and immediately gets sucked into the strange happenings at the ranch.

It wouldn’t be a Nancy Drew game if something wasn’t hinky right off, naturally.

Uncle Ed and Aunt Bet are currently in the hospital after Ed was bitten by a snake that showed up in their bedroom, so Nancy’s left to deal with the ranch hands as she tries to help the ranch to run smoothly and investigates exactly how Ed might have gotten hurt.

The game ditches the plot of the original book and takes two-thirds of the plot of the revised yellow hardcover version, focusing around a strange phantom horse that seems to leave accidents and misfortune in its wake and around the historical plotline of the famous outlaw Dirk Valentine’s hidden treasure.

While it would have been cool to deal with the original mystery of Shadow Ranch — involving a missing father found with amnesia and an NPC in the form of another of Bess and George’s cousins — HER didn’t really have the resources nor the writing to deal with such a personal plot yet, and they instead (wisely, in my estimation) chose the plots that could be dealt with in what had become typical Nancy Drew PC Game fashion. This decision made Shadow Ranch one of the most tightly plotted of the early games and allows the player the time (and space, with the new layout) to explore the beautiful Southwest visuals as a trade-off.

As is commonplace with Nancy’s “vacations”, she soon finds herself embroiled in two mysteries where everyone has motive and opportunity, where the “means” belongs to everyone, and where no one will tell her the truth until she exposes them. Because Nancy can’t really contact the only victims of the accidents (Bet and Ed), there’s overall less to do on the phone in this game and Nancy has to make do with four suspects.

As far as mysteries go, Shadow Ranch isn’t the most involved that HER has ever attempted, but it is fairly complex for the Classic and Expanded games, and it takes pride in being easy to follow and engaging. The Dirk Valentine plotline specifically is tightly plotted, well-delivered, and…well, as perfect as you could get, really.

The Historical Background:

Normally, the Historical Background of a game is covered in the Mystery section, but SHA’s historical background is so far at the forefront of the game (not to mention so well done and memorable) that it would be a travesty to try to include it in another section.

The history behind the game centers on an outlaw, Dirk Valentine, and his forbidden romance with the sheriff’s daughter, Frances Humber, who lived at Shadow Ranch. Frances’ father Meryl disapproved of the match and relied (unbeknownst to her) on his daughter’s knowledge to find and arrest Dirk.

Dirk is then hanged for his general outlaw-ery, but not before mentioning a treasure that he wanted to give to Frances in a letter to her before he died. After his death, Frances left her father and headed east, leaving Meryl regretful of hanging Dirk and wishing to have his daughter back with him again.

The only remaining bit of Dirk left behind is his treasure, which Frances has no interest in and tells her relative about and which the Wild, Wild West finds an intense desire in. Since then, many have tried to find his last legacy to Frances, but all have failed…

Dramatic ellipses aside, the best part of this background isn’t that it involves outlaws and treasure and family drama and all that — it’s that it is all told via narrated letters and diary entries that Nancy finds hidden around the ranch. While this story would be effective on its own, the fact that it’s told to Nancy (and via Nancy, the player) makes it even more gripping than it would be on its own.

The biggest reason why the historical background gets its own section, however, is that it’s one of the best historical backgrounds in the entire series, and certainly the best of the series so far (even though I prefer TRT’s, SHA’s is told more effectively). SPY is up there, but it cheats a bit by having its backstory tied directly to Nancy, so I won’t count it as high on the scale. The only other game (once again ignoring SPY) that gets quite as somber and effective without being melodramatic is CAP, which presents the backstory through another character and thus works just as well.

(As a side note, I’m not including DED here, since it’s less “historical background” and more “incredibly recent background”.)

The only thing that this background sours for me slightly is the present-day plot, as it’s not quite as tight, but that’s to be expected since that plot has to last the whole game. That, and the fact that it makes me bitter that we don’t get all of our historical background narrated for the rest of the series.

The Suspects:

Tex Britten is the surly ranch hand that assumes authority while Ed and Bet are at the hospital. He dislikes “city folk” (though after ASH, one can hardly call Nancy anything but “upper-middle-class suburban folk”) and trusts Nancy so little around the ranch that she’s not allowed to do anything without him hovering — except for be responsible for the horses’ nutrition and survival.

Not really circumspect, but I wouldn’t trust this 18-year-old who claims to be a friend of the family’s with anything fun either.

Gruff, rough, and difficult to deal with, Tex is set up as the “mean” suspect from almost the first moments of the game (though after Dave shows up at the airport in assless chaps), and he plays the part par excellence. Never is Tex any warmer than barely civil, and he doesn’t need to be “reformed” by the end of the game because, well, he’s just grumpy.

As a suspect, Tex is a pretty good one, and honestly my preferred suspect. Not because he’s mean or gruff or anything like that, but because it would have been a great analogue between him and Mary and Frances and Dirk (more on that below). While it would be boring to have the “mean suspect” be the culprit every time, at this point in the series (with only MHM boasting a “mean guy” culprit) it would honestly count as a subversion, and would add a bit of depth to his character beyond “mean guy with a soft spot for the women in his life”.

Shorty Thurmond is the cook at the Rawley’s ranch and is voiced by HER’s resident pinch-hitter and man of a thousand voices Jonah Von Spreecken. He’s a money-grubbing lazy cook with more interest in yelling at those helping him than in doing actual work.

Shorty, to no one’s surprise, is the culprit (what?? the get-rich-quick guy wanted to get rich quick????), and does make for a decent suspect in that you could say he’s “lazy” because he’s actually working hard to find the treasure. He’s creepy enough to set the player’s teeth on edge, but ultimately not sinister enough to really convince the player that he’s up to no good.

Dave Gregory, snatcher of panties and quickener of libidos, is not only the Figure of Sexual Awakening for fans who came in after FIN, but is also one of the canonical “love interests” for Nancy — aka, boys who show an interest in her while she alternately doesn’t or feels-like-she-shouldn’t reciprocate. Nancy can even not really tell him about Ned, for bonus “good girlfriend” points (points that really start appearing from TRN on). His aunt is the relative that Frances told about Dirk’s treasure, and so he’s been looking during his downtime on the ranch.

He’s also fairly smitten with Nancy to the point that he helps her the entire game, asking nothing else in return. But, since I’m not really commenting on realism right now (in any of its forms), I’ll let that one slide.

As a suspect, Dave doesn’t ever qualify. The game never sets him up to be suspected, his “gotcha” moment with Nancy is so piddling as to be inconsequential, and he aids and abets Nancy the entire time. It’s probably a good thing, honestly, as Tex and Shorty are set up from the start to be the most suspicious, but I do think it would have been better to at least play along with him being suspicious until the one-third mark, especially since Mary is such a non-player as well.

Rounding out our cast is Mary Yazzie, who sells art and stones near Shadow Ranch and is banging Tex like a drum in Secret. Her area of interest is in the Pueblo people, and has tried repeatedly to purchase some of the land of Shadow Ranch in order to, according to her, look for more petrified wood artifacts. Ed and Bet refuse to sell, however, which sets them at odds with Mary.

As a suspect, Mary isn’t fabulous. Other than her offers to buy part of Shadow Ranch (and her taste in men), there’s nothing sitting against her. The game doesn’t bother to really implicate her in anything, and she more serves a helping role (if not The Helping Role). Her presence does open up the game to include Native American themes and stories, but other that that Mary’s really only there to make the numbers fit.

While Mary is the only female suspect, she’s not the only woman in the cast, which includes Charleena, Frances, Aunt Bet, Bess, and George (of important/speaking roles, 6 females to 8 males, by my count, making this an average-sized cast).

The Favorite:

Charleena Purcell is a delight and a treasure here and one of a small number of reoccurring characters. I’m a sucker for author characters since they’re usually slightly unpleasant (and I value that in a character who gives information to a detective), and everything from being a great phone character to her voice acting is A+. Jonah Von Spreecken’s additional role as Charleena’s assistant should also get a mention here. Honestly, what can’t that man do?

A big — possibly the biggest — thing that HER gets so, so right in this game is the voice acting. While Lani is her usual early-game self (quasi-invested and missing some native inflection, but not yet the incredibly old-sounding voice that happens a bit further down the line), Rob Jones’ Joe Hardy, Jonah Von Spreecken (as mentioned above), Max Holechek’s Meryl Humber, and above all Gary Hoffman’s superlative Dirk Valentine elevate this game far above the sum of its parts.

It’s a very lucky thing that this game was released before the (misguided, in my estimation) feature that lets you skip dialogue, because if you could, I truly believe that SHA wouldn’t be half as memorable or well-beloved as it is. Hearing Dirk’s assurances and Meryl’s increasing sadness is far, far beyond anything that reading them could give you, and I honestly believe that HER knew this and planned accordingly.

Sure, it was more expensive to record that dialogue rather than simply read it, and additional voice actors had to be hired, and more time had to be spent — but the end result is the main takeaway from SHA, and that is to the game’s incredible benefit.

My favorite moment in the game, to no one’s surprise, then, is the reading of Dirk’s letters. It only takes a few sentences to get wholly invested in him Frances, and their love story. It’s the height of Americana to root for the outlaw of the Wild, Wild West, but it’s taken one step further with Dirk who has been given some of the best lines in any HER game.

It’s a simple moment, but effective, and it stays with me not only every time I play but even when it’s been a few years since I’ve cracked open the game.

My favorite puzzle is the horse-trivia-on-a-horse one, as it tests the player’s thoroughness in exploring and reading, and also is incredibly hilarious to see Nancy riding around a pen while an angry ranch hand spits questions at her like he’s investigating her for murder. It’s fun and side-splitting in its absurdity, and I do love good-natured absurdity.

The Un-Favorite:

For a book famous for introducing Bess and George, I can’t help but feel that it really was a missed opportunity not to include them more in this game. Sure, it helps Nancy to be on her own so that she can investigate without being hamstrung by anyone else, but this was a perfect opportunity to be able to play as another character for a while and to see more of Bess and George than witty puns and suspiciously prescient clues, so I will count this missed opportunity as a least favorite thing in the game.

*metal piece picked up* *metal piece put down* *metal piece picked up* need I say more??

My least favorite moment in the game is the “Heeeeere’s Shorty!” bad ending. It’s breathtakingly unnecessary, creepy as all get-out, and makes you stare at a Shorty face that looks like it was rendered with Windows 1 running on oatmeal for processing power.

My least favorite puzzle in the game isn’t actually the metal maze I mentioned above (though that would get an honorable mention, definitely) — it’s the arrowhead hunting. If you’re looking all along (and know to be looking all along), it’s not too tedious, but if you have the bad luck to miss one or two along the way, what follows is a half hour of pouring over every spot in every location to find them. Generally, my least favorite things in games tend to be those that are essential yet easily missable, and the arrowheads fit that bill exactly.

The Fix:

So how would I fix The Secret of Shadow Ranch?

First, I would honestly remove the Hardy Boys from the game. They don’t get the time they need to shine, and the game is busy enough to not need them. Move them to CUR and you get at least two characters I care about in that game.

As mentioned above, I would make the connection between Mary/Tex and Frances/Dirk clearer (rather than sub-sub-subtext) and switch him and Shorty’s position as the villain.

Make Shorty guilty of being exactly what is he is — a man obsessed with get quick rich schemes — and have some of the incidents be his fault (the snake is a good one to hand to him, as any cook in the desert on a ranch knows how to catch and cook snake) so that he has room to look for the treasure, but maybe stop him from finding a few key things (like the secrets in Dry Gulch) and take out his bank robber connections (which is easily the silliest part of the game). Maybe Tex uses him and slowly siphons off information that Shorty leaves lying around until he knows All.

Meanwhile, Tex is a gruff man who cares about his sister and his girlfriend and is thankful to the Rawley’s about his job…but he’s also a man who needs money to pay for his upcoming engagement/wedding to Mary Yazzie, who’s helping support his sister, who’s a bit angry that the Rawleys fired his sister, and who figures that if anyone can find a cowboy’s treasure, it’s another cowboy who knows the land like the back of his hand.

His expertise with horses makes it easy to coat one in phosphorus and safely release and get it back, his omnipresence around the ranch makes it easy to sabotage, and his natural reticence gives him a reason never to have an alibi — he just doesn’t like to be around people. Tex is, in fact, so perfectly set up to be the villain that it doesn’t feel like a twist that he’s not, it feels like a mistake.

For the finale, while Shorty chasing Nancy down is scary enough, the image of Tex doing so is even worse. This fix strengthens motive, adds multiple narratives, and spreads out the guilt enough to make most characters interesting. It would also give Mary more of a presence and add in the possibility of her being an accomplice (which I would love), and firmly sets Nancy at odds with three-fourths of the cast.

I’d also include Bess and George more heavily in the game. Since they handle the beginning of the Charleena Purcell line already, I’d have that whole storyline shifted over to them. You play as either Bess or George finding the novel, calling Nancy, and taking the lead to wheedle their way in past Charleena’s assistant (definitely a Bess-type job, but George attempting it would be hilarious with Bess whispering instructions) and get the information Nancy needs. The airport itself would be easy enough to limit to a small explorable area, and HER could even pass the contacting Ed and Bet to their actual nieces.

These changes would expand the game slightly and add to the runtime, but it would also help SHA to be even more of a landmark game and to be an appropriate end to the era of Expanded Games.

#nancy drew #nancy drew games #clue crew #secret of shadow ranch #nancy drew meta #SHA #my meta #long post

28 notes · View notes

ganzer-film-deutsch-movie-online · 4 years

Text

[MEGASHARE] James Bond 007 - Keine Zeit zu sterben | Ganzer HD Stream Deutsch [FILM] Komplett

✅ James Bond 007 - Keine Zeit zu sterben film 2020 Deutsch ✅

12. November 2020 / 2 Std. 43 Min. / Action, Thriller, Spionage Von Cary Joji Fukunaga Mit Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux Produktionsländer USA, Großbritannien

👓visit link👓 : https://t.co/mH3j4zmrn7?amp=1

Jetzt ANSCHAUEN : https://is.gd/UtvU4v

INHALTSANGABE & DETAILS Eigentlich wollte James Bond (Daniel Craig) mit seiner großen Liebe Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) seinen Ruhestand genießen und endlich ein normales Leben führen. Doch als er glaubt, von ihr betrogen worden zu sein, ist es mit der Liebe vorbei. Und zurück in sein altes Leben holt ihn sein alter Freund, CIA-Agent Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright). Der braucht Bonds Hilfe, um einen entführten Wissenschaftler (David Dencik) zu retten. Doch die Mission erweist sich als ziemlich heimtückisch und Bond muss bald erfahren, dass der so gefährliche wie mysteriöse Safin (Rami Malek) im Hintergrund die Strippen zieht und über gefährliche neue Technologie verfügt. Ein letztes Mal muss Bond sich auch seinen Widersachern von Spectre stellen und auch erkennen, dass Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) selbst aus dem Gefängnis heraus, noch über Einfluss verfügt. Diese Gegner kann er nicht alleine meistern und so braucht er unter anderem die Hilfe der neuen Doppel-Null-Agentin Nomi (Lashana Lynch) und der CIA-Agentin Paloma (Ana de Armas).

Das 25. Bond-Abenteuer, zum letzten Mal mit Daniel Craig in der Rolle von 007.

#James Bond 007 - Keine Zeit zu sterben stream deutsch german , #James Bond 007 - Keine Zeit zu sterben Ganzer Film Online Ansehen Deutsch, #James Bond 007 - Keine Zeit zu sterben Download Streaming Film 720p, 1080p, DvdRip, High Quality, #James Bond 007 - Keine Zeit zu sterben Deutsch stream german #James Bond 007 - Keine Zeit zu sterben Stream KINOX DEUTSCH #James Bond 007 - Keine Zeit zu sterben Stream MOVIE4K #James Bond 007 - Keine Zeit zu sterben Stream OPENLOAD HD

❍❍❍ TV FILM ❍❍❍ The first television shows were experimental, sporadic programs that from the 1930s could only be seen at a very short distance from the mast. TV events such as the 1936 Summer Olympics in Germany, the crowning of King George VI. In Britain in 19340 and the famous launch of David Sarnoff at the 1939 New York World’s Fair in the United States, the medium grew, but World War II brought development to a halt after the war. The 19440 World MOVIE inspired many Americans to buy their first television, and in 1948 the popular Texaco Star Theater radio moved to become the first weekly television variety show that hosted Milton Berle and earned the name “Mr Television” demonstrated The medium was a stable, modern form of entertainment that could attract advertisers. The first national live television broadcast in the United States took place on September 4, 1951, when President Harry Truman’s speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco on AT & T’s transcontinental cable and microwave relay system was broadcasting to broadcasters in local markets has been. The first national color show (the 1954 Rose Parade tournament) in the United States took place on January 1, 1954. For the next ten years, most network broadcasts and almost all local broadcasts continued to be broadcast in black and white. A color transition was announced for autumn 1965, in which more than half of all network prime time programs were broadcast in color. The first all-color peak season came just a year later. In 19402, the last holdout of daytime network shows was converted to the first full color network season.

❍❍❍ formats and genres ❍❍❍ See also: List of genres § Film and television formats and genres TV shows are more diverse than most other media due to the variety of formats and genres that can be presented. A show can be fictional (as in comedies and dramas) or non-fictional (as in documentary, news, and reality television). It can be current (as in the case of a local news program and some television films) or historical (as in the case of many documentaries and fictional films). They can be educational or educational in the first place, or entertaining, as is the case with situation comedies and game shows. [Citation required] A drama program usually consists of a series of actors who play characters in a historical or contemporary setting. The program follows their lives and adventures. Before the 1980s, shows (with the exception of soap opera series) generally remained static without storylines, and the main characters and premise barely changed. [Citation required] If the characters’ lives changed a bit during the episode, it was usually reversed in the end. For this reason, the episodes can be broadcast in any order. [Citation required] Since the 1980s, many FILMS have had a progressive change in the plot, characters, or both. For example, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere were two of the first American prime time drama television films to have this kind of dramatic structure [4] [better source required], while the later MOVIE Babylon 5 further illustrated such a structure had a predetermined story about the planned five season run. [Citation required] InAfter Truth, it was reported that television became a larger part of the revenue of large media companies than the film. Some also noticed the quality improvement of some television programs. InAfter Truth, Oscar-winning film director Steven Soderbergh declared the ambiguity and complexity of character and narrative: “I think these qualities are now being seen on television and people who want to see stories with such qualities are watching TV.

#james bond 007 - keine zeit zu sterben #no time to die #ganzer film #deutsch #hd #2020

1 note · View note

incarnateirony · 4 years

Text

To the Nonnie that left a 5 parter in my inbox:

I am not going to post your nonsense.

I am not going to circulate your redefinitions, your new goalposts, your explicit deletion and argumentation against a far larger bulk of openly identified bisexual people, and your raging. I have already addressed these, and they boil down to “You’re literally destructive to the LGBT battle while you think you’re being progressive.”

I am not going to be part in circulation people’s own manufactured dialogues they put between their own ears anymore.

You are not promised platform. You are not promised my inbox. You are not promised any specific performance from LGBT creators within the demographic they are writing the text that would be representative in if you have paid *zilch* attention to their working conditions.

In fact, you literally don’t even get to fucking pretend you’re here about representation while *overtly denying the words, sociopolitical representation commentary, and working conditions of the LGBT creators you’re hot dogging right now*. Half the fucking fight is also behind the scenes GETTING LGBT CREATORS CREATING, even if at times they’re limited.

Representation isn’t just on screen, diversity in writing crews behind scene is the fight, and if you pretend it isn’t just to gang bang LGBT creators for not performing how you want, without *ANY* fucking human consideration for why things are the way they are? *You, deep down, don’t give a shit about representation, or production team diversity, or LGBT creators -- you give a shit about getting exactly what you want exactly the way you want without even recognizing that may not be universal to LGBT people as proven by my notifs right now -- and largely with the reductionist point of wanting to win against trolls on the internet at which point YOU HAVE LEFT THE REPRESENTATION WHEELHOUSE (x); or if you do truly believe what some rando -- probably a woman, rather than the LGBT male POV -- said, you need to DRAMATICALLY RE-ALIGN AND CONSIDER YOUR POV*

“The whole idea of representation” that you have is close, but still a made up thing. It’s what perfect representation is. It’s not what the battle is. It’s never been what the battle is.

So just because you’ve dreamed up, say, a GA opposed to you, while the GA openly fucking talks about all this shit (right down to “marriage/dark point in the romance/divorce/breakup), on non-fansite major news publications, rather than fangirls that are scared of losing their website traffic in this fucking bog of bitterness, liars, extortionists and tinhats?

It doesn’t fucking matter.

Text is text is text. Queer text is queer text no matter how upset you get on if it was *visible* enough for you. That will continue to stay true. It will continue to be true when you make GA monsters in your head that don’t exist anywhere in reality. It will continue to stay true when you want to argue with a clout monkey that doesn’t even believe what they say. It’s going to be true.

It’s fine to want more visible text. That IS the nature of the fight. The nature of the fight is NOT deleting low visibility text. And i’m going to ask you to PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS FUCKING HOLY, ACTUALLY EDUCATE YOURSELF ON LGBT MEDIA HISTORY AND THE REPRESENTATION BATTLE.

Not just a random link convenient to someone’s article that vague blogs the general history. Actually educate yourself if you’re going to get in this fight because HOLY SHIT the children that have tried have *MISERABLY FUCKED UP* and then quite unfortunately normalized that fucking up, that everybody thought it was the new brand of woke because of herd mind.

If you’ve internalized enough phobia from the abusive manipulations within this fandom that you’ve convinced yourself bisexual people are *SO DAMN INVISIBLE* that nobody gets what’s going on while the GA is all “SHIT MAN THEY GOT A DIVORCE T_T”, that’s a you thing.

I am not your therapist. I am not your mother. I can not *force* you to get in touch with what the GA, or the creatives, or anyone else has said on anything related to this content, because I’ve been blogging it all and here you are, clearly not reading any of it. I can not force you to stop erasing LGBT text you, personally, nonniemcnonface, don’t like the visibility of. BUT I CAN STRONGLY ENCOURAGE IT.

But nobody owes you anything. Not my inbox. Not the platform on my blog. Not *your, specific, preferred, very precise point of view*. When you are a middle aged LGBT cis man raised in the 80s in patriarchal environments, and/or hold a great deal of conversation explicitly with the demographic and its representation in question, and by that I mean not 1, 2, 3, or even just 10 LGBT men within a step of that demographic. Because that’s the story of the character being told. It’s not *your* story. It’s a story you may resonate with depending how close to it you are. But *that* is what representation is: creating a universal platform of diverse, queer stories until it is saturated into the media to such an extent you *will* eventually find someone that ticks all your demographic boxes when you turn on your TV (be that race, gender, sexuality, religion, disability, or whatever else.) Demanding everyone’s unilateral demands be met when they aren’t even in the intersectional demographic isn’t representation. It’s tokenization. It’s the exact same way we end up with stereotyped gays to try to fit everyone’s “visibility” wants. It’s why there IS such a problem with LGBT male and, most explicitly, bisexual male representation. You are making half of the problem unto yourselves.

Until then, you don’t get to talk over those people. No matter how many anons you send thinking it sounds *gr8* because you haven’t read the entire discussion, you just got *mad* at part of it and didn’t want to introspect. That? That’s a problem.

Let’s say you work at Subway and they say you can only put 6 olives on a footlong without charging extra. Your boss vaguely holds that up but doesn’t micro count your olives so sometimes you give them 7 or 8 because you feel bad, and you want to give as much as you can to the customers. But if corporate notices somehow you’re burning through a shit ton of olives, it doesn’t matter what your intent is. It doesn’t matter if your manager agrees. If corporate comes down and tells you to stop putting down extra olives, you have a choice to completely quit/be fired from making sandwiches for people or to comply. Or, at least, to wait long enough to squeak new extra olives in.

*WelComE tO thE coRporAte chAIN and AduLT reALitY* -- Bobo sitting here piling as many olives on as he can until magically suddenly stopping for a year at a time and then y’all are bitching because he didn’t put the whole assed olive tree on your sandwich. When you get up to the counter, and start throwing a goddamn shitfit, you are now Karen. Don’t be Karen.

And no, Karen demanding that if she can't have as many olives as she wants then nobody should get any olives and to stop putting down olives is not anywhere in touch with functional reality.

And UNTIL you learn to pay attention to what the LGBT cis male raised in the 80s middle aged author on crew says on *this specific topic*, who was writing on sociopolitical LGBT representation issues probably since you were in *diapers*, and the methodology and struggles therein? You don’t really get a say. Once you’re able to sociopolitically contend with what that very author postured about representation *16 years ago* and have an equally well addressed set of points, then you can at least hold debate with his ideas. Until then, this is “WHAT I WANT BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH”

Go away.

Like god fucking damn Bobo “I stand in front of ICE walls”, “fuck every candidate but Bernie sanders” Berens, highly progressive left wing sociopolitical queer author still fucking understood incrementalization 16 years ago can you all fucking CATCH UP?

He didn’t fucking like it, but he understood it. He addressed it as a necessary evil that has been formative in our process and progress and expansion in visibility. You don’t have to like it either, but just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean you can’t *understand* why it works like that. Just like “text that isn’t visible enough for you is still text”, “real world issues and methods you don’t like are still real even if you don’t like them.” Bobo got it. Your turn. Cuz he doesn’t have to like his working conditions. But he can work through them the best he can. And addressed this many moons before ever writing his first SPN episode that was the first recorded time a showrunner told them to lean into it being played like lovers. Yeah. That? That was Bobo’s episode. In fact, 99% of the shit y’all uwu about is Bobo’s. Steve. Collette. The mixtape. The breakup. Gosh golly gee it’s almost like he’s fighting his ass off to tell you a story in what incremental methods he’s allowed and you’re all just trying to fuck him for it. Hell even this episode in question, Jeremy’s, Jeremy went out of his way to thank Bobo for all his guidance and help.

We’ve made progress via incrementalization, and just because you can name a few other shows that have entirely different bankrolling, marketing, distributions, demographics, that HAvE gAy shIT doesn’t mean shit. You don’t think every product a store sells comes from the same production line in the same premises with the same materials and the same target audience when they sell a wide brand of merchandise, do you? I promise you Great Value macaroni is managed and distributed differently than LED light bulbs and bicycles. These are not the same products.

The presumptuous, self-serving, personalized and franky manufactured wants and demands cloaked in a representation suit while choosing to do active harm to what progress we have -- intentionally ignorant to the actual representation battle and imagining what it is, and is like, and is about -- literally talking over the long-standing voicebox of an LGBT creator making the content who has been ENGAGED. IN THIS FIGHT. SINCE MOST OF YALL. WERE IN KINDERGARTEN? It’s fucking gross. It’s manipulative. It’s abusive. Maybe you’ve been manipulated into not understanding that, and you really believe what you say, I really don’t fucking know. But I do know you need a HUGE crash course in HOW THIS ALL WORKS and WHAT THE TARGET POINTS AND METHODOLOGICAL TARGETS ARE.

There is no magic clap on clap off bullshit. That isn’t how. It works. If it worked like that, we wouldn’t HAVE a fucking fight. (Imagine thinking that critically. Please, I beg you.)

14 notes · View notes

purplesurveys · 4 years

Text

910

At your part of the world, is it summer now? I think the dry season is over (what we call summer) but it can still get pretty hot during the day, blech. At least it’s starting to get comfortably cold in the evening though - weather’s actually been good enough for me to wrap myself in a blanket through the night :)

What’s the warmest it can get over there? How about the coldest? Our temperature range isn’t that dramatic. Warmest can be 40ºC, 41ºC; coldest it can ever get is like 25ºC, 26ºC. We go to elevated cities like Tagaytay or Baguio if we’re craving for a much colder climate.

Is there a bad habit you’re trying to break right now? Mmm I guess falling into anxiety and overthinking. I’m the person who gives the most pressure onto myself and I always think that I am not good enough or that my present accomplishments aren’t enough; and that blows my confidence by a lot. At the same time I’m really the only person who can pull myself out of a slump, so it’s just an ugly cycle with me.

Is it easy to find a job in your preferred field in your hometown? No, I wouldn’t say this city is the go-to for media and public relations. Metro Manila is... but then again, Metro Manila is the place for nearly every industry, including my preferred one.

When is the last time you went to a fun fair? End of January. My old school holds an annual fair on that month and they were able to hold one before the whole Covid mess blew up.

How about an amusement park? My parents brought us to Star City for no reason (we weren’t an amusement park-going family so it was definitely strange for them to just drive us there unannounced lol) like a decade ago, but it was closed. I don’t think they checked their schedule.

Did you/will you take part in your city’s Pride parade this year? My last Pride parade was in 2018. I didn’t go last year because I had been busy with internship; and there was a virtual parade held this year that I didn’t go to.

If not, why not? I never liked virtual gatherings; they make me anxious. Plus I didn’t like the idea of celebrating and partying over a livestream haha

Ladies: Would you ever consider proposing? If not, why not? Gentlemen: How would you feel, if you were proposed to? I prefer other people making decisions for me, especially if they’re that grand of a decision to make.

Have you ever played the original Mass Effect trilogy? Never have.

If so, which Shepard and who do you like romancing the best?

Let’s say there’s a person in need. They need money which they can’t make. Would you be more likely to help them out, if a celebrity asked you to? Wow no, that sounds so selfish.

When you go to a restaurant, do you have a go-to dish? Yes, usually. I have dishes I will almost always order if I see them on a menu like Monte Cristo, truffle pasta, deep fried sushi with cream cheese, quattro formaggi pizza, fried chicken and waffles, etc. If none of my faves are available I try to pick something that’s similar.

Or do you always try out something new? I try out new things if I’m on vacation in a new city/province/country, for sure. That’s a non-negotiable for me in my travels. Like you’ll never see me ordering spaghetti in Bali, nor am I getting McDonald’s in Vigan.

Would you rather live next to a kindergarten or an old folks’ home? Kindergarten. I like kids and don’t have a problem if they’re being loud. I don’t know if I can take being near an old folks’ home; it might just keep breaking my heart.

What was the last game that you played? 1010 on my phone.

What do you know about Finland? The unbelievable competence and intelligence of Sanna Marin. Then again, maybe I’m just not used to smart politicians because of where I’m from and who we have as leaders here...

Where was the postcard from that travelled the longest way to you? I’ve never received one.

Have you ever made jewelry? Probably made a few bracelets and trinkets as a kid, sure.

Have you ever upcycled anything? If so, what? I don’t think so. I remember my mom once tried to turn mine and my sister’s old school skirts into a bag but we quickly told her not to go through it with it because that’s not allowed and we’ll all get in hot shit because of it. Plus it’s pretty disrespectful to begin with, lol.

Which app do you use the most on your phone? Messenger, Facebook, Twitter, Safari.

Did you learn to play an instrument as a kid? If so, which one? Nope. I showed very early on that I wasn’t musically gifted.

What is the best part of your most ordinary day? Playing and being sweet with my dogs.

If you learned that you suddenly needed an aid of some sort to do something that you normally don’t need (glasses, hearing aid, etc.) Would you comply or would you put it off until there was no choice anymore? Comply. If I suddenly needed an aid, that would imply I’m already in some level of discomfort and I would want that fixed immediately.

Do you enjoy being on your own? Yes, but it’s more accurate to say that I enjoy a balance of being on my own and being around people.

Or are you happier when there’s a crowd around you? Again, it depends on what I need. If I’m already socially drained but still around a crowd, I can start to feel miserable and restless.

Have you ever been to a zoo? If so, which one(s)? I’ve been to a local zoo in one of our provinces (I no longer remember where) that I hated because some of the animals looked miserable. My school also has its own ~zoo~ and at least I know they’re taken care of there and also have lots of space to roam and fly around.

How about petting zoos? No.

Have you thrown you “winter coat” off yet? I don’t have one of those.

Do you ever look up what foreign idioms mean? Only English idioms that are unfamiliar. I can’t understand other languages, so I wouldn’t know if I’m reading an idiom of theirs.

What’s the strangest saying you’ve come across? Cold turkey. As someone who doesn’t have English as a first language, that one confused me for a while.

What’s a First World problem that you have? I want to be able to go to the mall already.

Do you use food products that are advertised as more healthy? No.

Does it matter to you if the produce you use is organic? No. It’s a more expensive option, so it wouldn’t even be my first choice to begin with.

If so, why? Most of the time it’s just an excuse to charge people more. < This, and also because I know very little about that world.

What has been the worst sort of physical pain that you have felt? Ripping my earring off my piercing while in the shower; being shocked; food poisoning; and an infected gash on my foot after I panickedly kept kicking a coral reef when I thought I was drowning (I had gone snorkeling flipper-less because they didn’t have enough equipment on the boat).

Are your pains generally more acute or chronic? Acute. Except for my back.

Do you collect anything? Not really anymore.

If you could be doing absolutely anything right now, what would it be? If I knew how to cook I’d be doing it all the time.

Do you read any web comics? I don’t.

Which social media platform do you use the most, if any? Facebook. I’m starting to use Linkedin now, as well.

Have you ever made a parody version of a popular song? No, I’m not the type to do that.

Which game did you play the most as a kid during recess? Dodgeball, ten-twenty, piko, patintero, and langit-lupa.

#survey #surveys

1 note · View note

nolitetebastardescarborundorum · 4 years

Text

What I like and dislike about each Skam Version:

The order is when I watched them. Which is basically the same order when they came out since I watch clip for clip live with every version since the evak cuddle clip 3 years ago. I won't point out things twice if a remake did it exactly the same. For example the blackmailing of Noora. Disliked it in the og, ditto with every other version. Another disclaimer: I don't have a favorite version since no one was perfect from first to last season. Different versions have different favorite seasons for me.

What I loved about the og 🇳🇴: The complete different format of a show with the clips, social media, roughly camera work that made it look like a reality show or documentary. The actors being the age of their characters and not all being thin, beautiful models. The pov and seing the boring aspects of life too. All the casual parties. The music and the whole russbus culture. In general getting to know so much about other cultures that I didn't thought about before for even a minute. Eva standing up for herself and breaking up with Jonas. Penetrator Chris as the comic relief, he may be a fuckboy, but he is isn't sexist or homophobic, his one liners are iconic. A normal reaction to Isak being gay and Evak actually getting an happy ending and a proper love scene like any hetero couple gets. Eskilds gay pride speech, it made me rethink my own mindset, as well as Sanas line about hate doesn't come from religion, it comes from fear and her whole conversation with yousef about religion. The guys helping Isak get back his man and Magnus hilarious questions, but also his helpful advice. Everything in the scene with Eva's 18th birthday. Even singing imagine. The cuddle clip, literally my favorite clip in all the versions, the spiderman kiss and the universe talk. Yousana love shown without any touching. The girls picking up Sana with the los losers bus. The ballon squads YouTube channel. How sweet and protective Elias was about Sana. 5 fine frøkner! Kosegruppa. If I could chose I would want a season for Magnus and Penetrator Chris.

What I disliked: Jonas treating Eva like she's stupid. Everything with William pretty much, starting with his non existent personality to blackmailing Noora, dissing Vilde, not listening after the SA happening etc. Nooras completely change in attitude from feminist to falling for the fuckboy and betraying your friend, also, ik most of the fans love it, her speeches, the one at William and also the one at Nicolai, it was just too long and arrogant to me sorry, I don't thought yes queen, I more thought yeah okay we got it already. The lack of communication with literally everyone. Vilde being so judgemental. Eva 'stealing' Jonas. Even not being able to speak for himself about his MI. The hate against Sonja, yes her saying Even can't love was fucked up, but her outrage and pain was more than understandable for me. The call your gf scene, idk it just makes me uncomfortable and I just felt bad for the girls. The whole show basically revolving around Noora in every season and her amount of screen time. Chris and Emma in the end, a huge wtf that made no sense and came out of nowhere, as well as Jonas and Eva's suddenly reunion.

What I loved about 🇮🇹: Be aware that I'm biased since Italy is my favorite country since childhood. I love everything about it. Landscapes, food, clothes, cars, the men^^ and ofc the language and names. First and foremost the cinematography. Also the music. All the girls being pretty as fuck. I feel like they where more mature too, but that goes for the boys and Eduardo too. Elia being there since season 1. The skating shenanigans. Martino and Eva being the closest version of this friendship (which is why I hope they continue this in the next season and make them close again, not going for the best buds). Their parents being more involved. Edoardo not insulting Silvia. Giovanni constantly cursing and gesturing like the true Italian that he is. Ofc the bromance in s2, that was what the season was all about for me more than the romance (reason in the dislikes), how they all cared for each other, had actual conversations, were with marti everywhere and always supported him. Gio being the best friend ever and constantly checking in on marti. How all the boys and edos rich gang stood up for marti against the homophobes, I never cheered so loud during a clip istg. The man, the myth, the legends Chico roddi :D. Eduardos soft side, when he played creep or cried when Eleonora could tell him herself what happend. The way they merged the squads together and all hang out boys and girls and also Filippo. Filippo and Eleonora being siblings and literally everything that fillipo does, his sassyness is unmatched. Cute Short king luca, carefree elia. Seriously I could write novels about this boy squad. Their parties and how they do them at 9pm during business days. Guardami Martino! 😂 If I could chose I would want a Gio and Fillipo season.

What I disliked: The darkness, especially s2 although it looked romantic a lot of times. The way Gio kisses, listen I love him with all my heart but he looks like he wants to eat faces or lick them like a dog 😂. I couldn't get into Niccolò, he never grew on me, came of kinda cold and the chemistry between the actors compared to the other versions isn't that great imo. It also has the only Sana I don't like and don't care for her season. It's not bc of the controversy about the actress. She just comes of rude in the show and also has way too less scenes to get excited for her pov, Her relationship with Marti is also non existent. The lack of social media and texts. Some of the actors looking way too old.

What I loved about 🇫🇷: The many changes of season 3. The piano scene with literally heart eyes. Eliott being the biggest dork. Eliott being able to express his feelings about his MI. Eliott saying it's not a girl. The rain kiss. Lucas being a major cutie. His relationship with the girls and Manon in particular. How they helped Daphne with the room. That we get an Arthur season, he's my favorite Madhi. How happy they were when Lucas came out and how they cheered everytime they saw Eliott. The elu social media content. Yann apologizing for his behavior and comments in the past. The hedgehog and racoon personas. Imans dad. Alexia and Arthur becoming a thing. The bts and Interviews, especially the attentive Maxel friendship.

What I disliked: The first two seasons being 1:1 copy from the og, I only watched them bc I had a close french friend when it aired. The whole Charles shit in s3&4. The acoustic music often being a bit to on the nose, like the music before a jumpscare in horror movies, for example the common room meeting, it was so obvious they would fall in love. S3 of France is probably my favorite version of this season, but it is like a dramatic romcom movie and felt less realistic compared to the others and the og. Emma is super bland and kinda dumb. Mika being super rude to Lucas. The disrespect against iman. Sofiane actually dating Manon.

What I loved about Druck 🇩🇪: (Also biased since I am german) Jonas sweetness. Hans is hilarious. Jonas and Hannah reunion. Kiki turning into the sweetest. The girl squad being really close. The boy squad being dumbasses. The change of Alex and showing his anxiety. Kiki and Carlos being a wholesome couple. The changes and extra content. Amira and Mohammeds softness. Their sm game.

What I disliked: The dialogue sounds very cringey to me and super scripted. The Mia actress looks like she doesn't like to kiss Alex at all, no chemistry and no love to be seen for me. Mia being arrogant in general. That Amira had only 7 episodes and Mia extra concent for her boring relationship. I never could get into Matteo much, he was to much of a sloth to me, let everything just happen and while that may be realistic, it's for the viewer pretty boring. I also couldn't get into David much, we knew barely nothing about him for most of the time and then he was absent for like 3 weeks straight. Davenzi also came of as more like best friends to me as an couple in love, they were cuter in s4. Unrelated to the plot or show, but the druck stans that feel super entitled and superior.

What I loved about 🇪🇸: The made subtle changes from the start. Lucas coming out to Eva and not being a snake. Jorge being the softest Jonas and not lying about weed. The girl squad being the closest and cutest with another, as well as the boys and them being a mega squad since s1, way less inner group drama and the friendships in this versions are just super wholesome to me and my favorite girl squad. Also my favorite amira, she wants to adopt everyone and they all care and respect her religion and I have high hopes for her season. Their parties. Also the remake with the most sm content and texts. The only P Chris version that comes nearly close to the og, being sassy, charismatic and having hella sexual chemistry with eva. The fact that also my favorite chris got her own season, that they changed it to a wlw plot that was displayed tastefully and not overly sexualized. The portray of having borderline, being shown how it really is. Lucas having an Youtube channel and how supportive his boys reacted and how tender him and Jorge are, I can't stretched enough how much I love and stan attentive, genuine male friendships without toxic masculinity. Hugo being an absolute sweat heart since his first appearance, not being petty or mad with Cris and just being a true friend. If I could chose I would want a season about Lucas and Amira.

What I disliked: Alejandro looks like 14 to me and I'm not keen on seeing this plot for the 8th time. Viri and Cris clothes a lot of times, Ik they dress like teenagers these days do, but it just looks horrendous to me sry. Them stretching out the story between Cris and Joana so much and breaking them up like 5 times.

What I loved about wtfock 🇧🇪: I just started with season 3 live, because I couldn't get into the characters when the first clips of s1 dropped. I later binged s2 and watched some key clips of s1.

They changed many things for the better. First and foremost Senne, him being supportive of Zoë, a good flat mate and encouraging dad friend. Zoë giving him way more of a hard time and making him work for it. Robbe moving into the flatshare and becoming bff with Zoë. Not breaking up Zoenne and making Senne an important character in s3 as not only Zoës boyfriend. Sander! I love his whole art hoe - e boy brand, his music taste, his clothes, hair, how reckless he is, his blant flirting. Robbe being an absolute baby ™ and clingy af. The Willems chemistry is unmatched in the skam universe. Yasmina is so fucking pretty and intelligent. Rosanders date. Milan being sooo cute and Robbe having confidence in him and them being genuinely friends. I could swoon over the found family in the flatshare 24/7 and wish I could live with them. Robbes dad asking if Sander is a vegetarian. Luca & Noor shading Moyo. Noor having a personality besides being naïve and a beard for the Isak. Robbe caring about his mom.

What I disliked: Senne starting of as the worst William with his bracelets and showing around Ambers nudes. Ambers rudeness in general. The boys talking only about girls and totally ignoring Robbe for 6 weeks straight, especially Jens. Moyos sexist and homophobic comments and behavior. Clips and drama with no explanation or follow ups, brushed off or rushed scenes. The gay bashing and robbes slurs, them turning everything into drama for drama sake. For multiple weeks only clips that were either total drama or happy clips with no normal daily life. Exaggerating the robbe and noor make outs. No Sander the first 2 weeks. The lack of answeres from Sander and questions from Robbe, brushed of with one liners. Barely any texts.

#Skam #skam remakes #skam france #skam og #skam italia #Druck #skam espana #wtfock

2 notes · View notes

craby-bouquet · 5 years

Text

Hoshi {CH}

Kwon soonyoung x Reader

Romance, Royal!AU, Barista!AU

3.5k words

Masterlist | SVT Masterlist | CH Masterlist

Pt.1 | Pt.2 | Pt.3 | Pt.4

The fact was that in the kingdom of Altaria the people weren't to sure on who their prince was exactly. A thing that most certainly sounds strange seeing as he was supposed to rule them in the, well, quite near future. But, to protect his privacy, the king and his men tried to keep him out of the media as much as they could.

No one was sure how they managed to do that exactly; keep one of the most important people in the world a secret.

Everyone had different theories on the subject.

Some people went with the story that the prince deserved his privacy just as much as everyone else did. After all, the prince was just a human like everyone else. He needed his space just as much and it’d be rude an inhumane for everything he does to be in the media.

Others believed the prince was mentally unstable and would not be able to ever rule the country, so the royals thought leaving him out completely would be easier.

And there were even people who were certain their country didn't have an heir. That prince Kwon Soonyoung was just made up in order for the people of Altaria not to panic about what would happen after their beloved king would give up his title as king.

Prince Soonyoung however, did very much exist. He used to hate that the media barely spoke of him, that everything about him was kept secret.

That's why he loved going to one of the other twelve countries of Pledis. Where they did speak of him, they did add him to articles about the Pledis royals, they did know of him. They might barely have any pictures of the handsome young man, but they surely didn’t deny his existence. That's also why some Altarian people did know they had a prince, though they probably wouldn't recognise him if they ever saw him. On the other hand, who would ever expect to meet a prince outside a castle?

Now however, prince Soonyoung found peace with the whole non-existence thing. He lowkey loved it if he had to be honest about it. Not because his subjects thought he was mental, but because this meant he could go wherever he wanted without drawing too much attention. It meant he could go out, secretly of course, his butler Minsu would never let him go unguarded if he knew.

The prince had seen more of his country than he would have if the people had known who he was. He could find every store in the capital city even if he'd have his eyes closed. Especially his favorite place to go: a small coffee shop hidden in the center of town. You wouldn't see it if you weren't looking for it. And in that coffee shop there was another reason, his favorite reason, why he didn't mind not being all over the media.

You.

That pretty and wonderful barista that worked there pretty much all the time. He got flustered whenever you smiled, and his heart fluttered whenever you spoke. Even though he only knew your name because of your nameplate, and you only knew his because you wrote it on the coffee cup every day.

And the name you knew wasn't even his actual name.

Hoshi. That was the first thing that came to mind when you asked him for the name you had to write down. You were afraid you had spelled it wrong, but for all he cared anything would have been perfect. He wasn't planning on keeping it, it was a name that didn't even sound real. But you had remembered him as he walked in the second time;

“By your pretty eyes.” you had told him, a bright smile on your face “I wouldn't forget those, Hoshi.”

And so he kept the name. And it worked, it suited him.

Kwon Soonyoung, the serious crown prince who worked hard to satisfy his people's needs, and Hoshi, the regular guy who drank way to much coffee just so he could speak to that wonderful girl.

Minsu, his butler, didn't know about this. Of course Soonyoung kept it quiet; he hated the lectures Minsu gave him all the time and this scandal would be one hell of a lecture. This did raise some questions; Minsu kept asking where Soonyoung went or what he did in his spare time. But Soonyoung would never tell. He always came with some lame excuse, or changed the subject to something else.

“When was that meeting again Minsu?” Soonyoung asked while walking down the hall, cup of coffee in his hand, name turned into his palm, followed by Minsu. He didn't at all want to talk about the meeting, he already knew when and where it was and everything was taken care of and ready to go. He only started this boring conversation to get his butler to talk about something other than the whole ‘you cannot just disappear without people knowing where you are, and you know that whatever you're doing is wrong’ conversation they'd had a million times now.

“In an hour, your highness. I hope you prepared well?”

Soonyoung touched the note that he wrote at the coffee shop, containing everything he had to discuss at the meeting, in his pocket “I have, yes.”

Minsu seemed to have forgotten he was in the middle of a lecture and made a satisfied sound “Very good. I'm sure you'll do marvellous.”

Though everything always went perfect and prince Soonyoung always finished what he was supposed to do in time, Minsu was worried. He knew his prince took his duty seriously, but Soonyoung didn't seem very serious about it. Goofing around, acting like whatever it was that he did was more important than what he was supposed to do.

“But the castle is boring…” the prince cried out every time Minsu tried to discuss the matter “There's nothing I can do here and, seeing as I don't do anything public, I barely even get any work. I just sit around and do nothing all day.”

“I don't see you do nothing all day sir. At least not in your room.” Minsu had pointed out, something that made prince Soonyoung sigh.

“Can't you understand I go and look for exciting stuff then Minsu? Are you really that prim?” he pouted, dramatically falling backwards on his bed.

Prince Soonyoung of course understood why Minsu was so worried. And if he had to be honest, he was too. A little at least. He knew he did well and he knew he would do well in the future. But he was worried about, well, you. You had dug your way into prince Soonyoung his mind. Which meant that on most days he couldn't think about anything other than you. Your beautiful smile and gorgeous eyes were the only thing he saw whenever he closed his eyes. Which meant he wanted to close them as much as he could.

This desire he had, the desire to see you, had gotten quite out of hand. And before he knew it he found himself spending more and more time in the coffee shop, often buying two, or even three, cups of coffee just so he could see your smile from close by again. He wanted to spend time with you outside the coffee shop, preparing himself to ask you on a ‘date’ even though he wasn't quite sure what that meant exactly. But he was scared; surely you wouldn't want to go with him and he was afraid you would just laugh at how stupid he had been for thinking you would actually like that. A girl like you would never want to go out with a guy like Hoshi.

As his meeting that day ended, he immediately forgot what it had been about. His head set on you, determined to get coffee now that he had some spare time this evening. He tried to look normal as he walked his way to the front doors of the castle, he could already see them, getting ready to walk right through them on his way to you. A smile on his face as he thought of seeing you again today.

“Your highness,” a strict, urgent and loud, distant voice said. Prince Soonyoung looked around to see Minsu almost sprinting towards him, trying to make it look like he was just walking casually “might I ask where you are running off to?”

Soonyoung sighed deeply, trying to hide his disappointment. What was he supposed to say now? There went a perfect plan.

Minsu seemed content with himself for stopping the prince just before he could disappear into nowhere again. That is, until prince Soonyoung smiled his usual, charming smile.

“I was just going for walk in the gardens.” he made up, proud of himself for playing it off like this was nothing. This would get Minsu to leave and that would leave opportunity for Soonyoung to go to the shop anyway.

“And so you're walking through the front doors? My apologies your highness, but that does seem a bit strange.” Minsu frowned. And he was right; there were dozens of doors leading to the gardens, going through the front door would only make it extremely and unnecessarily complicated to get to the gardens since you couldn't really reach the gardens from there. It kind of didn't make sense to go through this door.

Luckily Soonyoung was good at making stuff up “Yeah, I wanted to try something new, you know? See how difficult it is exactly to get to the gardens through here.”

Minsu frowned “...right. Would you mind me walking along, your highness?”

For a second Soonyoung his mind went blank, eyebrows pulled up in confusion “Eh… yeah, sure. Of course you can come along…” he sighed trying not to let Minsu seem how annoyed he was exactly. Well, he had had coffee today already anyways. He'd just have to cope with Minsu right now, and wait until tomorrow.

“Maybe we could go out through a different door then, your highness? Not to ruin your plan or anything, just so we don't have to climb over any fences.” Minsu didn't even wait for prince Soonyoung’s answer before turning around, walking towards one of the other exits. Soonyoung knew Minsu would only talk about where Soonyoung ran off to all the time. A thing Soonyoung didn't want to talk about at all. He bit his lip as they approached the nearest door leading to the garden.

And then it hit him. He made a sound like he suddenly thought of something “Oh that's right,” he started, looking down trying to look disappointed “I just remembered I still haven't finished all my paperwork… You know what, why don't you go walk in the garden while I just finish that up?” he didn't give Minsu time to answer as he walked away as quickly as possible without looking like he was hurrying “Bye!”

Minsu decided to leave his prince alone that night, but as he tried to find him the day after the only thing he found was that Soonyoung had once again left the castle without permission. Even Minsu knew this was getting out of hand.

You tried not to get too excited as, your favorite customer, Hoshi, walked through the doors again. Every time you saw him, your heart skipped a beat.

Even now, though he had been a regular for months, his beauty still surprised you. You thought only celebrities could look as good as he did.

You greeted him with a smile and got behind the counter to take his order. Like always he ordered something complicated, smiling kind of nervously which made his eyes sparkle.

You started working on his order. The shop wasn't crowded at all, there was only one person besides him, a woman who came here almost everyday to work on her novel. This gave you opportunity to take a little while to prepare his order so he was near you a bit longer than usual. You didn't talk, but you felt his eyes burning in your back, making you blush bright red.

He cleared his throat as if he meant to say something, but didn't. You turned back to the counter, he was hanging over it a bit and quickly took a step back as he saw you turn. You took the marker from the counter and wrote his name, trying to write the letters as beautifully as you could, spending a little extra time drawing hearts and stars around them. You did that sometimes, with cups of customers you really liked, but you drew a little more hearts on Hoshi’s.

Hoshi smiled brightly as you handed him his cup, telling him how much he owed you. It seemed he was going to walk to a table as soon as he had paid, but he hesitated, looking around the shop as if he checked for anyone besides him.

And he did, normally after you took his order you turned to the next customer who was waiting for you to take their order. But the shop was empty, no one was waiting to order.

“Thanks for the nice things you always draw…” he started hesitantly. Since you had thought he was walking away already, you had turned around. But you turned back to face him after those kind words came from his mouth.

You tried to keep yourself from smiling and blushing too hard but couldn't help it “You're welcome.” you bit your lip “Thank you for coming by so much, today was going really slow. I was really hoping you'd hop by.”

He grinned, revealing a bright eye-smile “I really like the coffee here.”

You chuckled, was it weird to say you thought he looked positively adorable? His eyes squinted, lips curled up and cheeks puffy as he smiled at you.

He held up the coffee cup, his face looking a bit awkward again “Thanks again.” he said softly before sitting down at his usual table.

You got a napkin and started cleaning the counter, not that that was necessary, you just needed an excuse to look at Hoshi, he took a notebook and some papers from his bag. He always took those things out and started scribbling on both the lose papers and the notebook, sometimes turning his head to look at you, quickly turning it away whenever he saw you looking back.

You smiled at the thought of him looking at you. It made you wonder why he would, and why he would look away so flustered every time you caught him doing so. You were curious as to why he always had so much paperwork on him. It made you wonder what kind of profession he had. You thought only a lawyer or maybe teacher could have this much paperwork on him everyday. Working on a case, or grading his student's tests.

Or maybe, like the woman that was also in the shop, he was writing a novel, but on paper. And all the loose papers were his notes while he wrote in the notebook he had on him. You thought you should ask him some time. That would at least give you another excuse to talk to him.

Though you didn't think he looked like a shy person at all, he seemed nervous whenever he walked in here. You had never seen him outside the shop, which you thought was weird, seeing as you didn't live too far away and if he managed to come by this often he couldn't live that far away either. But you never saw him grocery shopping or just walking around town. Not that you looked out for him, of course, at least that’s what you told yourself.

Still you thought it was quite curious for a guy like him to never go out or something.

Maybe he had a busy job. Or maybe he had just moved to Altaria and was actually still looking for a job. Those papers could just as well be applications and now that you thought about it, he looked way too young to be neither a lawyer nor a teacher…

You stared mindlessly at the paperwork on his table as you kept wiping the counter, not noticing yet another customer walking in.

This whole stream of thought had given you an idea… you wondered what he would think of it.

When you got back to reality you saw him check his phone and sigh while looking up at the ceiling, as if he just got a very annoying text message from his mom. You watched him stand up and, though he usually order two, sometimes even three, cups of coffee, walk out of the shop, saying a quick goodbye to you.

It hadn't even been five minutes after Soonyoung sat down on his usual spot, before Minsu sent him a message saying he had to come home now. Even threatening him that if he wouldn't come home as soon as possible, he couldn't come along to Prince Jeonghan, of Aegiburg, his engagement party. A party he certainly did not want to miss.

So he got up and walked away, thinking he would just come back tomorrow.

But Minsu got smarter and more annoying in the process.

Prince Jeonghan's party was in a couple of days. And Minsu, who had realised this worked as a threat, used that against prince Soonyoung. Meaning that Soonyoung couldn't leave the castle without Minsu threatening him. This also meant Soonyoung couldn't get coffee, nor could he see you.

So he sat in his room, snarling at Minsu whenever he showed himself, doing his paperwork, reading some books, doodling on whatever he could find. He was bored out of his mind, only thinking of you and what you would think about him suddenly disappearing like that. But he reckoned you wouldn't even notice, let alone care about it.

The day after he got back from his time in Aegiburg he immediately made his way to the coffee shop. As soon as he woke up, before Minsu could say Soonyoung couldn't go to the wedding if he didn't say where he went. Though he couldn't possibly miss the wedding, that would give Altaria a bad reputation and he wouldn’t want to miss one of his best friend’s weddings.

Soonyoung’s heart raced within his chest as he saw your smile again. He got behind in the line to the counter, the shop was quite busy today. A thing that didn't surprise him seeing as it was a Wednesday morning. He pulled his mask a little higher over his nose, and his beanie a little further on his forehead. And just as it the person standing before him got to take his order, one of your colleagues took over so you could go clean some tables.

He ordered a cappuccino nonetheless and sat down on his usual spot. Because of the morning rush everyone ordered and left and Soonyoung himself didn't mean to stay long either. He just wanted to see you.

So he watched you as you cleaned the table next to his corner one. You only seemed to notice him and you went to clean the table he was sitting at.

“Hoshi!” the look on your face told him you hadn't meant to say his name this loud.

He greeted you as well, smiling his eye smile.

He had sat there for about twenty minutes, checking his phone, admiring you taking orders once again, before he got a message from Minsu. It wasn't a threat, it was merely a reminder about the meeting prince Soonyoung had later that morning.

Soonyoung sighed and looked up, his eyes met yours.

You had seated yourself in the chair across from his, your arms on the table holding a blank piece of paper. Or maybe there was something written on the back of it?

“Hi,” you said softly, you seemed to hesitate before pushing the sheet of paper towards Hoshi “We're hiring. In case you're interested…” after that you walked away.

Hoshi followed you with his eyes until you disappeared into a room in the back before he turned the sheet of paper around. It was an job application form with his name written at the top.

He looked up at the room you disappeared in in shock, folded the paper neatly, and put it in his breast pocket before walking out of the shop and back to the castle.

The fact he was considering to fill the form in concerned him. He was a prince, not a commoner.

Though, let's be honest, he just as well could have been...

Masterlist | SVT Masterlist | CH Masterlist

Pt.1 | Pt.2 | Pt.3 | Pt.4

56 notes · View notes

i-choose-liam · 6 years

Text

April Come She Will - A TRR AU fanfic

Summary: What if Liam was a commoner, unburdened with propriety and a horde of duties towards an entire country? What if he was born with the freedom he so longed for, and could go for the woman he wanted without a care in the world? If he was free to pursue his passions and desires, what kind of a lover and man he would be? An Alternate Universe fic set in the USA, where Liam, a commoner, meets and falls for a writer, April.

A/N: I hadn’t envisioned this to be a story about friendship, but it’s turning out to be so. And I can’t say I mind. There will be romance, of course (come on, it’s me who’s writing this), and it will be a sort of slow burn in Liam and April’s case. God, I hate those. But writing this is fun! Let me know what you think of this chapter. Thanks!

Tag list: If I have forgotten to put anyone’s url here, please remind me. And if you want off the tag list, all you have to do is let me know. Thanks! @kennaxval @thatspicegirlssong @lizzybeth1986 @bowful @indescribablechoices @femmeshep @zaffrenotes @hopefulmoonobject

Book: The Royal Romance

Pairing: Liam x Original Female Character

Rating: T

Characters: Liam, Hana Lee, Maxwell Beaumont, Drake Walker, Original characters, and an adorable golden retriever named Sir Arthur.

Chapter 1: Belle of the Boulevard

Chapter 2: Friends

Chapter 3: Hey Tomorrow

Normally, Drake wouldn't have bothered making fancy breakfast for his two friends. But they had been let down after yet another apartment hunt. Since they were both sleeping the disappointment off, Drake supposed he could make something nice to cheer them up. He was in a pretty good mood... before Maxwell burst into the kitchen with his morning mofo energy. "Drake!" He sighed. "What?" "You're not going to believe what I'm about to tell you!" "Your pigeon buddy won't come to the window anymore?" Maxwell said, "I saw Buckbeak just a while ago. But that's not what I am talking about" Drake put away the broken eggshells, asking, "What are you talking about?" Maxwell said, sounding dystopian, "April is not on any social media" "So?" That appalled Maxwell. He exclaimed, "So it's weird and unnatural!" Drake said, "Hey. I'm not on any social media either" "Exactly my point!" He turned to give Maxwell a reproachful look, but the man was rambling. "I didn't even know her last name until yesterday. But then I picked up Liam's Kindle last night and I saw he was reading lesbian erotica. I was like, um... okay. Whatever rocks your boat. Then I saw the writer's name - April Costas! That's why Liam was reading erotica! So I did a little digging of my own. She's not on any social media sites. Doesn't that bother you?" Drake gently pushed him aside, reaching for powdered sugar. He said, "What bothers me is that you two spent your night snooping on a girl. I can understand Liam doing it, he likes her. But you are being you again" Maxwell grinned, "Sparkling and joyful?" "Nosy and annoying"

Liam came into the kitchen, greeting them both with a "good morning". He asked Drake, "Need any help with breakfast?" "No, I got it. You and the Daily Mail here can sit at the table" Maxwell received a sympathetic smile from Liam. He sat down next to him, not quite meeting Liam in the eye. "Why are you name-calling him this early in the morning?", Liam asked Drake. He replied, "Why don't you ask him?" "Maxwell?" Maxwell fidgeted with his fingers, replying, "Well, I... I googled April last night" "Okay?" "She's not on any social media" "I didn't know that" Maxwell asked, "You're not mad at me?" Liam smiled, "Why would I be mad? You can google whoever you want" Drake set two plates before them on the table, saying, "If you two ladies are done having a heart to heart, eat up" The plates were piled with golden French toast, with powdered sugar sprinkled on top. Maxwell's face lit up at the sight of the food. "Yum!", he said. Liam smiled at that reaction and turned to Drake, "Thank you, Drake. This is rather nice of you" "Don't get used to it", Drake smiled. Liam cut a piece of toast for himself. His fork and knife were met with some resistance. 'Strange' He had to apply a little pressure to slice the supposedly soft and fluffy toast. Before putting the morsel in his mouth, he glanced at Maxwell. Maxwell gave him a pained look, his jaws moving around the food in his mouth, like giant cogs on an industrial machine. Liam threw caution to the wind and put the piece of French toast in his own mouth. It was... chewy and bland. But he didn't complain. Next to him, Maxwell whispered, "My teeth are starting to hurt" "Sshh" Sadly for them, they hadn't noticed Drake glaring at them from next to the kitchen stove. He scowled. "What? My food isn't fancy enough for you two freeloaders?" They immediately disagreed. Liam said, "No, no. It's lovely" Maxwell nodded, "Yeah. Really... edible" Drake watched him carefully for a moment before turning back to the stove again. Maxwell whispered, "Where's Sir Arthur? He must be hungry" Liam whispered back, "You're not feeding my dog this. Eat" Drake returned to the table, with French toast piled high in two more plates. Maxwell and Liam gave him their best grateful smiles.

***

April dabbed at her mouth with a paper napkin, having just made clean work of her empanadas. Her agent sat across from her in the red chair, matching the theme of the deli. She ignored their piercingly observant gaze and looked around for a waiter. 'Maybe I can get those little pita wraps' Joel said, their voice crisp as cold water, "You're stress-eating again" April made a face. "I'm not!", she said. "Come on, April. Is it really going to be that difficult for you to maintain a social media presence? All writers have to do that" "I know they do. I am just not..." They said, "Comfortable putting my life details out there for everyone to see - heard that before. I'm not asking you to post nudes. Just... maybe one tweet, one pic, one status update every other day" "But Joel..." "Listen", they leaned forward, the cuffs of their coat sleeves revealing slender wrists, "When I take Porcelain Palace to my contacts in Hollywood, they are going to be like, "April who?". You are virtually non-existent. And your silly website where you review people's fanfiction doesn't count" April leaned back in her chair, folding her arms over her chest. Joel went on, despite the look on her face. "This business is as much about image as it is about storytelling. I told you that when you hired me" They gave April a nurturing smile. "I just don't want your work to be sidetracked in Hollywood. Porcelain Palace deserves to be made into a movie. We need that movie in our time. And I am not going to stop until that happens. Are you?" She mumbled, "No" "We agree then. You will sign up on the sites I just emailed you, and start posting" "Urgh" "Don't be dramatic. And stop stuffing your face. You're going to look like a rikishi soon if you keep at this" "I eat what I want. And I already got my 10k footsteps in today, all right?" "Good", Joel placed some dollar bills on the table and got up, buttoning their coat jacket, "I'll see you in exactly one week. Call me if you need me" "Yeah. Thanks" "Anything for my favourite person" Joel leaned over and planted a kiss on the top of her head. April smirked. "Want to tell Shirin you called me that?" They gave her a stunning grin, walking away, "That's the beauty of being in a mature poly relationship. I don't have to worry about jealousy. Good day, April" She raised her hand in half a wave, sighing, and dropping it the moment Joel was out of sight.

Her social skills had been a big joke since kindergarten. Her mistrust of people in general, coupled with a strong sense of privacy, kept her shielded from the allure of "social sharing". But Joel was trying to create an image for her, and they knew what they were talking about. Problem was - it made April feel hungry again. Her phone buzzed. She saw who the text was from and smiled in surprise. 'Hello, April! Not sure if you remember, but you saved me from a horrendous date at the Whiskey Duck? It's Hana' April quickly texted back. 'Of course I remember. It's great to hear from you! How have you been?' She sat in the small deli during lunch hours, typing away letters and emojis to a welcome distraction.

***

Drake was losing to Maxwell in that stupid kart game when his phone buzzed. He ignored it, but it only buzzed again. "Pause", he said. Maxwell grinned, "Nuh-uh. I'm winning" Drake thought he had no option but to end the race. He swore as Maxwell beat him by a hair's breadth. Ignoring his friend's victory break-dance, he checked his phone. 'What the fuck?' He was part of some chat called Whiskey Ducks. The first text had been from a number he didn't know. 'Hi guys, it's Hana! I just thought this would be a fun and convenient way for me to talk to you all at once :D' The next text was from another unfamiliar number. 'Hello. April here. :)' Drake was still making sense of the thing when a third text was sent in the group. This number he did recognise. 'Yoohoo! Its so great to be able to talk to my friends together! Viva la technology! ^_^' The text was followed by a gif of the Minions hugging and saying "Buddies". "Maxwell!" He nearly jumped on hearing his name. "What?" Drake frowned, showing him the phone screen, "What the hell am I doing in a group text?" Maxwell defended himself, "Hana wanted me to add you and Liam" "IN A GROUP TEX..." The door to Drake's apartment swung open and Liam came in. He closed the door behind him, giving the guys a nod. "Hey", he said. Maxwell quickly turned his attention to Liam. He asked, "How did it go?" "It is affordable, if you don't mind living with rats" "Wait. Cute rats or the creepy ones?" Liam sighed, "Maxwell" He deposited himself on the couch between Drake and Maxwell, much to the latter's relief. Drake was complaining within seconds of Liam's butt hitting the couch. "Look what your precious buddy did. He added us to a group text" "Keep your calm..." "What do you mean 'keep your calm'? He didn't even ask us!" Liam pinched the bridge of his nose, muttering, "I wasn't talking to you" Maxwell took that as encouragement to speak up. He said, "There's no harm done. Hana just wanted to invite all of us to Coney Island" Drake said, "I don't want to go to stupid Coney Island. And how did you get Hana's number anyway?" Maxwell revealed with a happy smile, "I added her on pinterest. She has the coolest boards. Especially her food board. Oh my god"

Liam pulled out his phone from the pocket of his jeans, rubbing his sore temples. The apartment hunt and the current state of his job were enough to fill his head with worry. Drake and Maxwell's constant bickering was just the cherry on top of a steaming pile of crap. "You always do this!" "And you always give me hell about it!" They fought, one on each side of Liam. He could feel a headache coming on. But his entire facial expression transformed on seeing who else was in the group chat. Hana said, 'I wanted to invite you all to Coney Island with me. As a thank you for that evening. It will be super fun, I promise!' April replied, 'You don't have to thank us' 'But I really want to! And it's not like I have any friends in New York to enjoy Coney Island with :3 ' April is typing... 'When do you want to go?' Liam smiled. April was such a knight in shining armour. 'How about tomorrow?', Hana suggested. Maxwell is typing... 'Tomorrow's good for meee! I have nothing to do tomorrow' Liam was surprised to see - Drake is typing... 'Like everyday' Maxwell replied with a sad puppy face gif. April is typing... 'Is it okay if I bring my friend Jenna along?' 'Sure! The more, the merrier', Hana said. Reading Jenna's name, both Liam and Maxwell turned to look at Drake. He tried to seem nonchalant, "What?" Liam shrugged. "Just wondering if you can make it tomorrow. You have a thriving business to attend to, you know. Unlike me and Maxwell, who have nothing to do everyday" "Yeah!", Maxwell grinned. Drake glared at Liam, saying, "Why do you always take his side? I'm your best friend!" Maxwell objected to that. "Hey! We are all best friends!" Their phones buzzed again. Hana asked, 'So guys? Does tomorrow afternoon work for you?' Maxwell replied with an enthusiastic yes. Drake replied, 'Ok' Liam had his eyes on April's name in the group text as he typed, 'Can't wait'

#king liam #hana lee #maxwell beaumont #drake walker #trr fanfiction #trr #the royal romance #trr au #liam x oc #liam x april #fanfiction #playchoices

32 notes · View notes

smollandtoll · 6 years

Text

HC: Public displays of affection Poly AU (OT3)

Venture with us into a universe where polyamorous relationships are the norm, or maybe not the norm but akin to being homosexual. Like Homosexuality is a non issue in this universe and it’s more about if you’re a Mono relationship kind of person or a Poly relationship kind of person. The type of relationship is mostly about how many people are in it and whether you’re open or looking for more. All the terms that follow cascade from that: "closed poly" "open poly" "chain poly" "currently mono looking for poly" etc.

Also we feel like in a poly world there would necessarily be more of a culture of just talking out what you want and are looking for and expecting and what your boundaries are - like having talks about how much romance and what kind you’re good with is very normal and healthy.

PSA: We also wish this was more the norm in our universe as well Do you ever get choked about how extra and romantic Geno is? And how much abhorring-the-media Sidney Crosby would hate it? He couldn’t handle being showered with love in THE BEAMING SPOTLIGHT OF GENO'S ATTENTION AND AFFECTION. So many big declarations.Geno is a big guy, he has big feelings, he has to have his love writ large.

Sid would BEG after a few badly timed jumbotron messages of undying love, "Just get those things for Anna, she likes them. I’m okay without."

Geno would not compute, taking it as some kind of affront to his love like "BUT YOU DON'T LIKE THEM? YOU DON'T LOVE ME AS BIG AS THAT?"

Sid: NO! I mean yes! I do. I do love you huge but like...quiet???????? QUIETLY???? Please…

G would struggle under the weight of not showing off, not screaming his love from the rooftops. He feels like he’s walking on eggshells always, he doesn’t know if he’s embarrassing Sid, or worse distracting him. He constantly has to check his first inclination. Geno being Geno wouldn’t be able to struggle with it unnoticed, he’s the most dramatic emotions in primary colours kind of guy, Sid would plainly know that he’s making G unhappy.

Sid in turn being stressed about it because like, it's such a dumb thing to be upset about, like your partner loves you and wants to yell it to the world, and it's clearly making Geno unhappy but .....HIS PRIVACY IS SACRED.

Anna of course is unbothered by any of this, she knew what she was getting into with G, but eventually probably has had enough of watching them try to sort it out on their own and being unable to deal with emotions like two functioning adults. She has a sit down with Sid, massaging his shoulders and pulling his head into her lap to stroke his hair and tells him gently but in no uncertain terms that she's going to negotiate a truce between them.

It boils down to something that goes like: Geno gets one (1) HUGE PUBLIC DECLARATION a year for Sid. It could be his birthday, or Valentines day, or a random sunday, or Father's day, or Christmas. SID MUST ALWAYS BE ON HIS TOES but at least he knows it's ONCE and then the steel trap comes down and Geno will say nothing more for the rest of the year. IN RETURN because this is a compromise not an ultimatum, Sid must EITHER 1. consent to being in more every day social media posts or 2. Have his own instagram and interact with it a predetermined minimum number of posts and comments a month. Sid picks door number one.

Anna will continue to be showered with gifts and roses and live tigers at every anniversary and birthday and major date and historical event possible and Sid has to consent to having like his knee or half his face in posts now and then. Even that gets negotiated because Sid needs rules, he needs terms and conditions. So he can either choose the occasional selfie once a month OR hands/back of head/legs shown in photos 2-3 times a month. Sid originally goes with the more anonymous hands and his shoulders and stuff first; but then he starts seeing Geno's posts are all like: his tousled bed hair in bed and his hands cupped around that wonky mug Taylor made for him in art class when she was 13, and he realizes they're far more intimate than his face which everyone already sees. So he bounces around, if he's done a lot of media lately, or just finished with a commercial shoot he just says that Geno can take a picture of his hands while he’s shucking corn on the back deck or something. Or if he's tired of seeing bits of his life everywhere he's like “I'll smile, wait let me hide my wine.” This beautiful wonderful poly world where it wouldn't be weird for Geno to post the two of them together, Sid and Anna just like having wine, looking over a balcony together and Geno captioning it Whole Heart with eight heart emojis or something.

With all this photography going around we’re sure Anna needs to get in on this action, Sid is so photogenic esp of late. She definitely occasionally commandeers him to be Hot™ with her for small photoshoots with her iPhone. They usually start spontaneously with her finding Great Light as all selfie sessions do and then asking him to take photos of her and then getting him to be in the photos. So Sid can never really blame her or be bothered by it, it’s always so natural, and easy, and it’s fun to be with her and turn whatever direction she tells him, and smoulder ridiculously for her and laugh as she coos appreciatively.

She hoards the photos she collects of them and him, she doesn't post many or any of them usually. She does occasionally send them to Geno to destroy his life (usually when there’s no way he can get to them in time to start anything), Geno always has really great photos of them on his lock screen. Anyway she always double checks with Sid before she posts anything with him in it, but usually he looks great in her photos so it's fine. We love Sid and Anna together, like they just seem like they’d compliment each other so well and have such deep respect and care for each other. WE ARE HERE for Anna and Sid on a small mission together to like fuckin Costco (w/e the backwards land of Pittsburgh has, Giant Tiger or Sam’s club or some shit) or something so dumb like that and Geno just trailing after them while they strategize being like "Is it possible to be so turned on my balls ache?"

Whenever Anna feels upset about her career, Sid's always there to snuggle her and be like "You say the word I can get you in contact with around 80 media personnel who could find you a job in North American sports journalism in front of the camera or behind."

They probably talk seriously about it sometimes but in the end BABIES. They all want so many babies and she wants to be there for them, and to be their home and stuff. We’re sure Sid still tinkers away at trying to find her like the occasional blogging guest spot or something y'know when her English is up to it. He’s just supportive in every possible way, Geno gets mad or upset on your behalf, Sid just starts strategizing and he’s a really good listener, and he cares a lot.

Geno is empathy and Sid is logic. Anna...Anna is probably reality, the little dose of humility they both need every once in a while, smart enough to tell Geno off when he’s being egomaniacal and emotionally unstable because of it, indulgent enough to shake Sid out of whatever hyper-focused funk he works himself into. Levelheaded enough to balance both of her boys out when they’re going off the rails now and then, game for fun and high-intensity with G and quieter times with Sid. In this sense they work so well together, maybe sometimes Geno has feelings and Anna translates them into wild fantasies but then they can get stalled out because they don’t know where to go from there and then of course Sid swoops in with his reinforced practicality and does some research and then figures out how to have the best and safest kinky time.

BONUS:

Sid’s love language is not big displays like Geno’s is (a combo of words of affirmation and giving gifts). His is more acts of service. Sid is just the devoted loyal type, like he will make food and bring you thoughtful things and quietly arrange things so people leave you alone if you’re upset and that’s what you need. He’s a dependable love: do you have a problem? Sid will move heaven and earth to help you solve it, he'll train you at 4am, he'll walk your dog, he'll water your plants, he'll find you a replica baby grand piano and get it moved into your 3rd floor walk-up apartment. HE'LL FIGURE IT OUT. There’s no end to what he will do for the people he loves, he’s just so like patient and determined, like legit just chugs along until he reaches his goals. Also he’s hyper competitive and won’t be out done:

Rando PTA mom: well I love my wife so I built her this coffee table. I’m a builder by nature you know.

Sid: For sure! I just learned woodworking as well! I built this whole house :) with my bare hands :) for my family :)

#sid/geno/anna #sidgenoanna #OT3 #headcanons from the icy void #Did we just realize they’re the Kirk/Spock/Bones of hockey RPF... MAYBE

84 notes · View notes

aroworlds · 6 years

Text

Aro-Spec Artist Profile: Sebastian

Our next aro-spec creator is Sebastian, better known on Tumblr as @gloriousmonsters and @mangledmouth!

Sebastian is a bisexual, autistic, aromantic trans man who is single-handedly covering many literary bases in producing original aro and queer short stories, novels and poetry. Aside from his Tumblr blogs, you can find and support more of his work at his Patreon. If you have a dollar or two you’re wanting to invest in worthy aro-spec talent on a less-regular basis, please take a look at Sebastian’s Ko-Fi!

With us Sebastian talks about identifying with the role of villainy in narrative as an aro creative, aromantic characters and grand emotional gesture, the divide between representation and self-expression, and some spectacular-sounding work-in-progress book titles! His investment in aromantic characters and characterisation shapes every word, so please let’s give him all our love, encouragement, gratitude, kudos and follows for taking the time to explore what it is to be aromantic and creative.

Can you share with us your story in being aro-spec?

It took me a while to realize I was aromantic, but it was one of the things that made me go ‘oh, that makes … a lot of sense’ when I looked back at my childhood. I was a weird, isolated kid, so I didn’t learn from bouncing off other children; I learned through stories.

One of my strongest early memories is of watching a poorly made Red Riding Hood film over and over again, belting out the lyrics to the (poorly written) villain’s song, called ‘Man Without A Heart’. Cut to a year or so later, watching the Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella (still the best Cinderella, IMO), I was utterly fascinated by the villainess singing: ‘Falling in love with love is falling for make-believe…’

I didn’t know, that early, that I didn’t feel romantic love. Not consciously. But there was something utterly, obsessively interesting about villains that sneered at love, who were called heartless, who challenged the narrative that there must always be a love story and it must come out right no matter what. I felt, on a deep level, that these people were like me somehow. The additional queercoding and common side-helping of mental illness helped - or didn’t help, depending on your perspective. I grew up knowing, deep down, what my part in life was: I was the villain.

When I hit my rebellious age, it first came out by my saying, ‘But being a villain doesn’t mean you have to be wrong or unhappy’. I began collecting villains like nobody’s business, and writing stories that more and more often centered people whose character types I’d only ever seen as villains. And from there we arrive at today!

Are there any particular ways your aro-spec experience is expressed in your art?

Recently, my brother (who is my sounding board for a lot of stories, as I am for him) looked at my books-to-write list and said, ‘Nearly every idea you have is a deconstructed romance or strong non-romantic relationship.’

I love strong relationships, so I originally thought I needed to write people as love interests to get that; these days I feel more free to focus on whatever the heck I want, and being aro shows in everything. My current WIP centers a poly relationship where two of the partners are aromantic. Two people (often, but not always, a man and a woman due to my frustration with the ‘men and women can’t be friends’ thing) who are the most important people in each others’ lives and are platonic, show up over and over again in my novel ideas; I start with relationships that look like romances and then pull them apart. Part of this, I think, is due to my autistic ‘let’s take this into component parts and see how it works’ tendencies; being autistic and being aro aren’t cause and effect, for me, but they play well together.

When I write poetry, some of it deals explicitly with being aromantic, but all of it is non-romantic. It makes me kind of anxious sometimes to think of people interpreting pieces as being romo because they’re about intense emotions; one of the biggest ways being aro is expressed in my writing is my constant attempts to show other feelings, connections and relationships than romance being worthy of big feelings and gestures. I’ll sometimes refer to myself as ‘aromantic but capital-R Romantic’ (i.e. extremely dramatic) because of that.

What challenges do you face as an aro-spec artist?

I’m sure I’ll run into more problems as I try to take my increasingly aro and queer and ND works to professional markets, but at the moment my biggest problem is self-censoring. I sit at an awkward junction of having multiple identities I want to include in my work, and being … well, someone who grew up obsessed with villains, who later on developed a decade’s interest in slasher horror, and who still tends to write people who are perceived as, or see themselves as, villains. Awkward because I always have that voice in my head (helped along by some of the stuff I see on social media) going ‘that’s not good rep! nobody will want to read this!’

But I know from experience that not writing from the heart (and look at that, I do have one after all!) doesn’t end well, so I’m working on getting good at writing my weird dark stuff and hoping I’ll find the audience for it. And I always leave a little bit of light in it, because I have another voice in my head, still saying, ‘just because you’re a villain doesn’t mean you can’t be happy’.

It’s a weird sort of positivity, but it works for me.

How do you connect to the aro-spec and a-spec communities as an aro-spec person?

Following and submitting to this blog is part of my first attempts to actually join the aro-spec community. I tend to move slowly and be very nervous of talking to new people, but I’ve been trying to be more affirming of my aromantic identity lately, and seeking out other aros is part of that. Hopefully I’ll settle in a little more as time passes.

How can the aro-spec community best help you as a creative?

At the moment, people following and reblogging from my poetry blog @mangledmouth would be much appreciated. It’s hard to get traction with poetry (especially if you don’t write romantic poetry) and I’d love more people to see my work. I’m proud of a lot of what I’ve done, so check it out! Be warned that my love for horror and oddness turns up there as well, but there’s nothing too graphic.

And Ko-Fi donations or small Patreon subscriptions are always appreciated.

Can you share with us something about your current project?

My current WIP (titled either The Night In Wanting or And One of Us Be Happy, depending on whether I go for the one that sounds better or the one that fits best thematically) is about a third done! Praise me, because I’m really bad at finishing things, but I’m still on track to wrap this up at the end of June. It’s about a Weird Small Town and Sarah, a girl with a reputation for breaking hearts, who decides to date one of her best friends and actually try to make it work. Her attempts at being normal quickly get derailed when their town’s general weirdness turns hostile - attacks by creatures from the woods, unsettling amounts of rain, pictures changing when you’re not looking at them and a really pushy forest spirit trying to bargain with people for a heart. Her attempts at normal are further derailed when she figures out that her new boyfriend is also in love with a mutual friend, and that she might not feel love at all.

I love these characters, guys. This story is finally coming together after years and the three main characters - Sarah, Mags and Fred - have always been at the heart of it, no matter what shape it took. (Mags used to be a ghost, and the story went through a phase of being a Band AU of itself. Fred kept getting possessed, and there’s a joke about that in the text now that nobody will get but me. And now you guys!) It’s terrifying to write a YA that’s not only poly, but focuses on an aromantic main character, but I’m determined to make it work.

(This is is one of the most sweet/normal things I’ve worked on, despite the healthy dose of horror. I’ve also been writing snippets of a pet project called How The Child-Eater Became King, to give you an idea of the other end of the spectrum.)

Have you any forthcoming works we should look forward to?

I haven’t got the release date for it yet (it’ll probably be a while yet) but I recently sold a short story, Sabuyashi Flies, to Glittership. The main character, Sabuyashi, was originally aroace but turned out to be a lesbian ace during writing. (Characters often decide to come out while I’m writing, which is always fun to handle. I mean that both sarcastically and genuinely.) I’m already working on and off on the sequel story where she meets her future best friend Nathaniel, who is aro. Working title is Nat Luckless and the Girl Made of Beetles. Look for news about Sabuyashi Flies soonish and Nat Luckless whenever my slow butt manages to finish and (fingers crossed) sell it!

31 notes · View notes

feministdisney · 6 years

Text

Consent in Animated Shows & Movies

Since the issue of consent has been at the top of conversations lately, I thought it might be interesting to link this back to kids’ media. I think in some scenes (like the Gaston one below) it’s really easy to see how responses like “but she never said no, so it’s on her if something happens!!” are just not cutting it. This is not meant to be an exhaustive review, since there are hundreds of movies and shows to consider, so feel free to chime in.

(note: since this is discussing movies, there may obviously be spoilers.)

May We? Asking is a Great Start:

Frozen’s kiss scene at the end was a good example of consent. He makes a verbal request to make sure it would be desired on her end, and I’d guess he would have stopped if she hadn’t said “no” but also looked disgusted by the request. Because: consent is a multi-step, dimensional, ongoing process, not a piece of paper swapped across desks in class that says “will you consent? please circle yes or no.” and then you never think about it again.

As far as other Disney movies go, I was fairly pleased that most of the kissing scenes I reviewed (with the obvious exceptions below) seemed to show the idea of enthusiastic consent. It would be great to see both verbal and non-verbal consent shown together more frequently so that people stop seeing it as some dramatic, silly thing that only takes place on comedy skits about over-the-top feminism, but rather, a great tool to have, especially if you don’t know a person that well and may misread one or the other.

(if I missed any obvious bad moments in movies, though, let me know, since there’s a lot of them!)

Saying No Without Saying “No”:

youtube

The Gaston Proposal scene in Beauty in the Beast (Youtube link) is a great example of what consent DOESN’T look like, the sort of behaviors women do to “softly” say they’re not interested, and what qualifies as a coercive tactic. It’s worth stating that Beauty never says “no” to Gaston - she doesn’t even really say a variation of it. In fact, she says things that could be interpreted positively, on the surface; “Gaston; what a pleasant surprise.”

Would any person really watch this scene and believe she’s “leading him on” or that she’s “into it” though? That her not immediately running upstairs should be taken as a sign that she wants to be in the room with him? Every time he proposes something, she attempts to de-escalate the situation with her joking comments and by taking a few steps away from him. Gaston, meanwhile, continues to follow her around the room (even though she’s obviously moving away from him) and when he doesn’t get the response he wants, instead of leaving, he continues to escalate his body language and get closer to her until he’s got her pinned against the door.

Trust Can Be Used to Manipulate; This is Not Enthusiastic Consent:

Several people referred me to Steven Universe Season 2 Ep 11 and I could see why - it really does hit on the concept of consent and manipulating people into giving a “yes.” Pearl tricks Garnet into being Sardonyx with her (they combine powers... I haven’t watched much of this show so sorry if I get the terminology wrong haha). I think the show does a good job of conveying how Garnet feels and had lines like “I just wanted to share a few more victories with you.” (to justify the trickery)

“Those weren’t victories!”

“We’re so much weaker than you...fusing with you is our one chance to feel stronger!” (justification given by Amethyst for trickery)

The point is clear that even if your goal is something that would normally feel good for both parties, manipulating people in order to get it does not result in a nice, “shared” moment. Whether you intentionally get someone drunk to lower their guard and make them more likely to say “yes” when they’re originally saying “no,” and/or ignore multiple verbal/non-verbal cues that they’re not ready or interested in moving forward because you think more pushing will eventually result in a yes, you are responsible for creating a situation where consent has not been enthusiastically given.

And since Pearl and Garnet have an ongoing friendship, the point is also clear: in this type of situation, you are using someone’s trust in you as a tool to manipulate them.

The Best Plots Don’t Ignore Consent:

People often get very upset over the idea that the scene presented in Sleeping Beauty is completely non-consensual. They forget this is a fictional storyline, in which “he HAS to kiss her to save her” is not an excuse, if that requirement itself has been made up.

From a prior consent-related note I have posted, about Sleeping Beauty:

Sleeping Beauty only works as a positive romance because we know how it’s supposed to end. Handsome nice prince rescues the lovely sleeping princess. He kisses her to wake her even though this is an action she can’t consent to.

This doesn’t mean the prince is a bad person- it means consent wasn’t considered important enough when they made this movie, that it would alter that scene more from the original.

Consent wasn’t considered a “big deal” because we KNOW she likes him from that one scene where she did, and we presume she wouldn’t disagree with him (which is often used to excuse actual crimes, rather than happy-ending story plots)… because kissing is romantic and that trumps making sure a movie’s plot is fully consensual.

Worth noting, the actual story of Sleeping Beauty (though it exists in several forms and variants, as many fairytales do) is really disturbing:

The version of Sleeping Beauty with its chaste, true-love kiss that most of us remember from Disney or the Brothers Grimm derives from a 17th-century Italian tale called Sun, Moon, and Talia by Giambattista Basile, based on folk legends dating from the 14th century. In these early versions, the sleeping princess is raped and impregnated by a passing king – but it all ends well because after she wakes and recovers from the initial shock of finding she has twins, he returns and marries her.

Via The Guardian. You might find this article enlightening

Snow White experiences a similar tale.

The Loss of Consent - Betrayal:

Maleficent goes back into examining consent with the loss of Maleficent’s wings. Stefan drugs her and rips her wings off her body. While this scene is brutal, it is successful in conveying, through metaphor, what sexual assault can be like as an experience. Her pain isn’t just the literal pain of having this done; it’s the betrayal of a friend that causes much of the long-lasting sorrow that follows her through the rest of the film.

To quote my review linked above:

Later in the movie, Maleficent brings Phillip to Aurora for the sake of kissing her, because none of them watched Frozen and realized it could be Maleficent. His lines are pretty much everything anyone’s pointed out about that film from a critical feminist perspective.

“It wouldn’t feel right,” he says as the fairies urge him, chanting KISS HER! in unison.

“But I’ve only met her once,” he hesitates again. And finally, another pause, “What was that about the curse?” (dialogue should be pretty close but might have errors since I accidentally wrote it on top of other notes I took)

Finally, he does kiss her, but I think his hesitation was important for what it established about the questionable nature of the scene. His hesitation, and the way the scene is set up, makes the kiss and the premise behind it seem questionable to us – a call-to-awareness that is missing from the first film.

And it’s also important to note that, in this retelling, his kiss isn’t rewarded with her waking up. (Note: though Maleficent also kisses her, it’s on the forehead, which I think has a somewhat different connotation esp. when the prince had previously expressed a desire to get to know her better, and Maleficent’s kiss is performed without expectation).

But anyway, please let me know your thoughts! This is not meant to be the end-all, just a jumping point.

#disney #consent #feminism

501 notes · View notes