#like i said it's normal for kids (especially teenagers) to have crushes on adults but there are literal povs of yurio

[fishshit]

why is yurio having a crush on yuuri/viktor is a popular trope? like, i know kids can have unserious crushes on adults and stuff but why is this trope popular??

#i hope yall can understand what i'm trying to point out #i think it's just me getting uncomfortable with this #like i said it's normal for kids (especially teenagers) to have crushes on adults but there are literal povs of yurio #idk dude this fandom makes me uncomfortable so fucking much sometimes 😭 #HALF of the fandom btw #i love yoi fandom <3 #yuri on ice #BTW IF YOU WROTE/DREW SOMETHING LIKE THIS I'M NOT TRYING TO JUDGE YOU PLEASE DON'T TAKE IT THIS WAY!! #it's the popularity and some people's fondness abt it

[jolynesmom]

aging yourself up or down in your dr (+ dating)

I actually refrained from talking on this topic on my tiktok since I knew I was going to get chased off the app and didn’t see a point in talking about it on tumblr since everybody here seems to be more open minded and mind their own business, until I saw multiple posts a few days ago here, where the op were shaming people for changing their age or changing the ages of people in their dr

those people definitely came from tiktok and I honestly hope this post reaches them as I didn’t want to directly interact with them

I think one of the posts was about how adults age ‘minors’ in their dr to date them is problematic, which made me laugh, because how is it problematic if they’re both the same age in their dr?

and the sad thing about that post is that the op said that they’re aware how shifting works and all that, but still finds it problematic and hopes people that do that never shift which is just… girly I hope YOU never shift because you don’t deserve it for shaming people trying to live their lives

I’m not going to go into details about the og posts, but they still have the outdated idea that if you shift for a character that is much younger than you here it’s ‘problematic’. once again: how is it problematic if you’re the same age in your dr?

and then they hit you with another outdated take ‘it’s problematic because you find them attractive here’ which is ridiculous because of so many reasons

1.many characters (especially anime characters) don’t act or look their age. if your perceived a character as an adult initially then found out they’re a minor, I simply don’t care. ages in fiction never matter, if your mind perceived x as a certain age then they’re that age idc; 99.99% people are attracted to a character for who they are, not their age

2.many people had crushes on characters when they were younger or the same age with that character and still like them. let’s boo them that their crush on the character didn’t die and their fav character didn’t age, acting like you’re not going to be in their place in a few years

‘not true I’ll stop liking my favorite character when I’m of age 😡’

okay sweetie keep telling yourself that, because I keep seeing people on tiktok that had this mentality: they liked an underage character when they were minors and wanted to shift for them, now they’re adults, haven’t shifted yet but STILL like that character and regret having said they’re gonna stop liking that character when they’re adults because it didn’t happen lol

3.people don’t always script that an underage person here will be their s/o, it just might happen. I’m actually going to use myself as an example for this: so here I’m an adult and I’m also aroace which I dislike because I always dreamed of a fantasy novel like romantic relationship, so I’m straight or bi in most of my drs so I can date. in my jujutsu kaisen dr, all the people in jujutsu tech are adults because I don’t like teens or kids and don’t wanna hangout with them. in my 30+ drs I only have 3 scripted s/os which are all adults here. I didn’t script an s/o for my jjk dr, because I want to focus more on friendships and training there (but secretly hoped choso would pick me, a girl can dream ok); a few weeks ago I channeled multiple people from my dr (yuuji, megumi, nobara, gojo, nanami and geto) and I received normal messages from all of them. I expected all of their answers, except yuuji’s answers which had romantic aspects to them. that made me realize that he might have a crush on me and maybe we’ll even date in my dr or something? who knows, I didn’t think too much about it so idk

so now if a character that’s underage here likes me in my dr, am I supposed to refuse them or shift out? lmao you’re delusional if you think I’m doing that

4.people that have never experienced adolescence love here. a lot of people dreamed of having that sweet experience of teenage romance that disney and an insane amount of shows and movies love to push, but instead their teen years were filled with abuse and hate. why shouldn’t they shift to experience what was taken from them here?

ALSO let’s switch this around: why is okay for minors to date adults in their dr, but not the other way around?

‘it’s not as bad 🤓☝🏻’

imma be the devil’s advocate and say it’s just as bad

do you genuinely think it’s okay to be a minor here and date an adult in your dr? like do you really think your s/o would feel comfortable being sexualized by a minor and dating a person that’s a minor in another reality? you lowkey forced your partner to become a pedo if you think about it 🙁 /jk

and also if you shift to a reality where you’re a minor and become of age there, you’re officially an adult and shouldn’t date minors anymore, even in your ‘original reality’ where you’re still a minor. please keep the same standards for yourself

#reality shifting #shifting #desired reality #dr #shifting rant #shifting discourse #anime shifting #shiftblr

[nattikay]

this was originally a response to another post but it seems OP blocked me for it so idk if people can still see/interact with said response but heck it i spent a fair while collecting the panels/typing it up so i'm just transferring it over to a new post for anyone else who might be interested in readin'

"Neteyam has to act like a full grown adult [and we should feel bad for him because of this]"

No. Neteyam acts mature because that's his personality, not because it's been forced on him. He chooses to. The idea that he is forced against his will to "act grown-up" and is miserable about it is fanon, not canon.

James Cameron on Neteyam (from the WoW bonus features): "Jamie Flatters plays Neteyam, he's the older brother. He's kind of the guy who most wants to be Jake. He wants to be that warrior."

Jamie Flatters in that same clip:"He just pretty much wants to walk in the footsteps of his father. He's constantly seeking approval [from Jake]"

Note that neither of these, nor anything from the movie or comics, mention anything about external "expectations" or "pressure". Any "pressure" Neteyam experiences to live up to Jake's legacy comes from himself, not from external expectations that have been forced on him. Neteyam WANTS to be a warrior. He WANTS to be like his father and do brave mature grown-up things.

And for the most part, he's pretty good at it too. He's the "golden child" who "excels in all things", the youngest Omatikaya warrior to ever make a clean kill on a sturmbeest. He's strong, smart, brave, noble, and highly skilled for his age.

He knows this, and he wants to do more. Neteyam seeks out more responsibility, especially where fighting is concerned, and it's actually Jake who is hesitant to give it to him, because naturally he fears for his son's life (a very fair and well-founded fear, all things considered :P).

In fact, on the rare occasion that Neteyam does disobey orders, it's in this context of wanting to be part of these adult matters.

"he's too busy training and patrolling instead of acting his age" He is acting his age. His age is "cusp of adulthood". He's not quite there just yet, no, but he's getting close and is eager to get there. He trains and patrols with his parents because HE WANTS TO. He begs to participate in warrior's work.

And if by "act his age" you meant "do teenager things like tease his brother, snicker about immature things, hang out and goof off," etc., guess what he does that too

[originally had a list of relevant GIFs here but tumblr decided it was allergic to them apparently; anyways you can find them all here]

As for looking after his siblings, as a certified Oldest Sibling™ myself, I can assure you that parents expecting you to help look out for and set a good example for your younger siblings is very normal and nowhere near the mountain the fandom seems to make of this molehill.

There are valid reasons to feel sorry for Neteyam—he, like the rest of his family, had to leave his home and start over in a new unfamiliar place among a new clan of strangers with unfamiliar customs. He—not unlike Lo'ak!—desperately wants a chance to prove himself to Jake, and is frustrated when his dad doesn't want to let him participate in battle. And, of course, the big one—his life was tragically taken far too soon.

But "overworked little sadboi who just wants to Be A Kid™ but can't because his meanie parents force him to act like a Grownup™ because he's under Pressure™ to be the perfect future olo'eyktan" is not one of those reasons. That's pure fanfiction and a fundamental misunderstanding of his character. Neteyam is not "wannabe-carefree kid trapped under the crushing weight of expectations forced upon him against his will"—rather, he is "talented noble young warrior who wants to live up to his legendary father of his own volition and strives to do so".

#very sorry that movie neteyam and fanfic neteyam are different idk what else to tell ya ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ #avatar #avatar 2 #neteyam #sully family #[edit] ok good removing the gifs worked it's properly showing up on my dash now #why are u like this tumblr -_-

[seaquestions]

i'm totally enamored with your FHL oc's! would you be willing to elaborate on the relationship chart dynamics btw emil and lucas (esp. emil's "totally oblivious to the fact that he contributed to lucas' destroyed self-esteem")? the implications are so devastating

eeheheee can i just say first of all this super made my day thank youuu im so happy u like my FHL ocs its my darling little pet project 💙💙💙 and yes yes im very willing to elaborate. bear in mind though that this isnt entirely concrete yet, i take kind of a vibes-first approach lol. tbh i like having the tension between emil and lucas stay within the realm of Devastating Implications in-canon but. you caught me. i cant resist talking abt my ocs :3

had to put a readmore cut here cos this got kinda long omg. also tw for mention of bullying & ed.

but yeah so emil and lucas… they had been playing hockey together since they were 10 basically. they’re childhood friends, besties by default, bonded over a shared love of hockey & also for being considered ‘weird’ kids yknow. but they’ve also hurt each other a lot in little ways that never went addressed cos emil is too non-confrontational to make a fuss and lucas is too proud to admit when something’s genuinely fucking with him. but for the most part, they were besties. it’s only when they both started taking hockey more seriously as a possible career option that like, the relationship started to turn sour. lucas used to be a forward actually. he was also subject to a lot of pretty awful comments about his body from his peers (and from adults in his life too lbr). and also, homophobic comments, stuff stemming from his closeness to emil. something that hurt was the fact that emil never stood up for him but, well, even then lucas was willing to overlook that cos its not like he ever really fought back himself. just brushed that shit off, laughed it off, yknow, never let them know that what they say actually hurts you. he didnt wanna like. punch anyone over the stuff they said. especially since he started to Really internalise it. mostly the fat-shaming. its not just shitty teenagers right? its everything. it’s hockey. and the homophobic stuff well… i mean did he have a crush on emil? kinda yeah. just part and parcel of the whole codependent besties thing.

and on emil’s end, he was mostly trying his best to be accepted by his peers (aka, masking 24/7 and going along with the awful shit they said to lucas. cos well, that shit’s normal right? lucas said he can take it anyway, he said it doesnt fuckin bother him so) and stand out with his skill in hockey. he was, notably, better than lucas, who at this point was still a forward. lucas didnt particularly. choose to be a goalie. at least not at first, he loves it now dw. but he loves it now in part because it isolated him a little bit. or at least just kept him in sort of, a separate category, in peoples minds. it kept him away from being compared to emil (even though really they shouldnt have. their skill sets and strengths were quite different. but yknow. they had put themselves together like that). and emil liked that too. he liked not having to compete with lucas over this, which is something lucas took more as emil not wanting to share the ice with him anymore. and it was also another example of lucas bending to external pressure with emil saying nothing against it, encouraging it even. it started to feel like emil didnt give a shit about him anymore—so lucas starts lashing out against him a little. calling him annoying and weird and loud and stupid and shit. the stuff that other ppl call emil that lucas never did. emil took That as lucas finally getting with the program. it hurt but. everybody said it. and he’s been saying the stuff everybody’s been saying about lucas too, and lucas said that shit doesnt bother him so it shouldnt bother emil either cos he has to be strong too and. this HAS to be okay. THIS HAS TO BE NORMAL.

but. yknow. it’s fine. theyre still best friends by default.

their friendship starts to really deteriorate when lucas starts forming unhealthy eating habits. or unhealthy lack of eating habits. frm my experience as a fat guy whos struggled w disordered eating ppl dont tend to notice it unless they see you actively suffer. in fact they might see it as a good thing esp if youre visibly losing weight. i imagine lucas woulda have it worse than i did bcos he also has the pressure of wanting to be a professional athlete and also way shitter peers than me. emil is already not the most perceptive guy and lucas is incredibly reticent so. yeah. kind of a wonder theyre still friends honestly but, yknow, theyve known each other this long. theyve loved each other this long. why wouldnt they still be friends, even after every little thing. this is the one that breaks it. this is the one time where emil not having his back Really fucks with lucas.

lucas’ new goalie coach is the one who lays it all out to him. he’s realising that oh, fuck, fucking fuck, he’s been such a shitty friend and so has emil. thats when he starts his recovery and part of that is also figuring out how to deal with his and emil’s failing friendship. lucas cant bring himself to blame emil at all. like its HIS lack of communication that led to this. he knows emil’s an oblivious guy, he’s always known that about him. so… fix it, right? just, communicate this time and things will be better. but lucas also just doesnt want to see him anymore. like. he just wants his life to change. he’s going to college, in a different city, he’s playing on a college hockey team while emil’s off in major junior league and like, he’s far enough away that he can just ignore emil’s calls most of the time and say he’s busy and get away with it and just let emil think the friendship is fading away organically and not bcos lucas straight up never wants to see him again because it would remind him of a time in his life he never wants to revisit. and meanwhile emil… emil just misses him. emil just misses lucas with all his heart and wonders why why why lucas doesn’t seem to like him as much anymore. i guess that’s just distance but like, EMIL doesn’t feel any less so??? is lucas making friends in college who are cooler, less annoying, better at hockey, better than emil? whatever man… by the time they get drafted by opposing teams, the bff-ship is pretty much dead but. well. emil will still text lucas congrats and happy birthday and sorry ur being sent down and hell yeah ur being sent up and. and lucas just says thanks. so yeah. that’s lucas and emil, at least at the start of the FHL storyline.

and yes….. they ARE using blake and conor respectively to replace their bestie…. :3 but its good for them actually. maybe by learning to be a good friend to this other guy they can eventually learn to be better friends with each other. emil in particular is out here walking on eggshells with conor who freaks out over every little thing and is like. umm. hey did lucas ever feel like how conor is feeling at the shit im saying to him cos. um.

anyway. who’s to say if the reconcile. certainly not me nuh-uh im just the vessel thru which these idiots speak their truth.

ANYWAY THANK YOU FOR ASKING!!!! fun mini project to chip into every time i can catch a little break at work 👍👍👍

#asks #furry hockey league #ocs #this also explains a little bit about blake & lucas’s friendship btw. 🤝🤝 [endured homophobic bullying from other shitty teenage boys] #though blake had to take a lot more of that in specific than lucas. #omg reading this back i messed up like. the 1st thing. emil is the one who’s too non-confrontational and lucas is the one who’s too proud.

[theresawritesstuff]

12. It was perfectly normal to discuss a book they see at the bookstore with their friends, but it's definitely not normal to suddenly be interrupted by the author of said book

New York, 1973

"Okay girls, we've hit the modern stuff. Go nuts! Books are on me," Midge told the band of teenagers.

"Thanks for taking us shopping, Mama," Esther said, browsing through the biographies.

"Of course, sweetie! Always happy to help. Especially when it means dishing on backstage gossip in the name of academics."

"I still don't see why we can't do our report on you, Ms. Weissman," Audrey sighed.

Midge bit back a smile as Esther rolled her eyes. "Sorry, hun. I've been banned from any school related interviews. Esther and Ethan both agreed. I'm happy to pull favors with anyone I know who you might be interested in writing about though."

She heard her daughter make a sound of disgust as she pulled a book from the shelf. "Why did someone let Gordon Ford write a book? He doesn't even write his own show."

"He doesn't?" her friend Vivian wondered through her bubblegum.

"Most of these celebrity authors have ghost writers helping them," Midge informed her gently.

Vivian clicked her gum disapprovingly. "Well that's bogus."

"Yeah. If I have to write my own essays, so should they," Audrey agreed. "They're even getting paid for it!"

Midge chuckled. "That's the business kid."

"Here's someone who we know actually did the work at least."

Esther picked up a copy of a new book from the display table bearing a familiar face.

Vivian let out a giggle. "Oh my mom has the biggest crush on him!"

"Really?" Audrey wondered incredulously.

"What? He's cute in an older guy kind of way. Don't you think he's cute Ms Weissman?"

"I'd also be curious to hear the answer to that question."

They all turned to stare at the man in question smirking behind them as he leaned against a bookshelf.

"Not as cute as he thinks he is, but sure," Midge replied.

Lenny chuckled, coving his mouth with his hand just like he was always wont to do. "I'll take it."

*Hi Lenny."

"Hey Midge."

It had been so long since they'd last spoken, yet seeing him like this again made it feel like it had been no time at all. 

Her heart certainly flipped just the same.

"You look good," she commented casually.

He certainly looked healthier. Steadier. His eyes were brighter. Like a light that had been going out had been reignited.

He looked more like the Lenny she knew. The Lenny that lived in her memories.

It was a good look.

Lenny shrugged. "For an older guy."

"Oh my god," Vivian gawped, realizing who had overheard their conversation.

Esther looked between the two adults and began to steer her starstruck friends away, giving them some space to talk. "Hey let's go check the science fiction section and see if they've got any Ray Bradbury books on sale."

"Why?" Vivian wondered.

Audrey, catching the vibe, gave her a pointed look.

"Oh. Oooohhhh. Right."

Esther handed the copy of his memoir to her mother as they passed. "We'll just be back there, Mama. Nice seeing you, Lenny."

"You too, Esther," Lenny murmured, giving her a little wave.

With the teenage trio gone, the tension between them grew palpable, hanging in the silence.

"It is a nice picture," Midge said, noting the author's photo.

Lenny smiled softly. "Thanks. Kitty actually took it."

"She's got a gift."

"I certainly think so. Given what she had to work with."

Midge didn't take the bait to compliment him further.

"Esther's grown a lot since I've seen her last," He commented softly, sounding a bit melancholy.

She nodded in agreement.

"She really shot up last summer. Growing like a weed, that one."

"They always do, don't they?"

The conversation lulled again, but they held the other's gaze intently, that unspoken electricity still sparking between them.

Some things never change…

"How are you?" she asked genuinely after a moment.

He nodded, stuffing his hands in his pockers. "Good. I'm good. Doing a lot better. Here for a book tour."

"Oh well in that case, would you sign mine?" she teased lightly.

"Love to."

He stepped in closer to take the book from her hand, his fingers brushing hers on the pass.

"So, Ms Weissman…" he drawled, clicking his pen to scribble that illegible signature he was so proud of. "You didn't take the new husband's name? I saw the announcement you were engaged in the tabloids a while back."

Midge bit her lip, avoiding his eyes.

"Yeah I um… didn't go through with it after all."

"Why's that?" he asked, handing the book back but still hovering in her atmosphere.

"I just realized he didn't make me laugh as much as I would have liked," she answered.

"Hm."

She cleared her throat, brightening her expression. "Thanks. For the book. Can't wait to read it."

"Sure."

"Nice seeing you, Lenny."

"You too."

She turned to leave but heard him say 

"Are you doing anything later?"

She turned back, tilting her head coyly.

"Maybe. What did you have in mind?"

He gave her a hesitant shrug. "Just thought we could catch up a bit."

A part of her wanted to run. To hide from the pain of the past and let things be behind them.

But that part wasn't nearly as strong as the parts of her that missed him.

"I'd like that…"

#midge x lenny #Midgelenny #tmmm fanfic #Prompt fill

[randomnumbers751650]

I reached the most recent chapter of Oshi no Ko and I have to say it’s quite the trip. The way the author mixes so many things in a huge pot, wildly different things, creates a unique experience. The 2.5D play was really the highest point of the first part, because it played just like a standard shonen tournament arc, but a good one, where acting techniques were like signature attacks. But the real plot really starts after the Miyazaki trip, with the change in Ruby’s character. There will be spoilers in these unedited thoughts, so I'm just writing right from the brain.

I feel what attracts everyone most is that, in the end, it’s a tragedy. Aqua/Goro was born as an idol’s son, but one thing that always bothered me is how, in spite of being mentally a middle-aged man, Aqua acted like a child. He wasted his entire (second) childhood being obsessed with vengeance. It’s clear that he’s not well in the head. Seeing his half-brother calling him out so that he stop toying with Kana and Akane and he even realizes that he has nothing to live for but vengeance.

And then we learn why he acts like that. He didn’t really have a family, in spite of his grandma loving him and trying to help others in a way he was denied when he was a kid. It always bothered me how much Goro was a nobody; he was infatuated with Ai (in a meaning more ample than just “romantic”) in a situation that the term “idolatry” is more than fitting, in terms of character and I still think some of those things could be better foreshadowed. Revenge stories don’t tend to interest me, so I continued following his arc in spite of that, that’s why the Miyazaki arc was such a shock. I don’t take back what I said about him, especially because chapters later, he’s back on his thing. But his “adultness” showed when you compare to what happened with Ruby. A strange character that both pushes the plot forward and is pulled by it.

Her character arc was better foreshadowed. Her sharp tongue discussing in twitter in the beginning hits different after Miyazaki. In a short time, she goes from innocent to master manipulator and the public notices something changed and they love it – the idea that a girl must lose her innocence to be loved by all isn’t something new (does anyone remember Perfect Blue?), but they executed here in a quite somber way. This is girl having a nuclear, non-instantaneous emotional breakdown and everyone can’t just take their eyes.

It's also showing how it’s not just Aqua and Ruby that want to kill the one who killed Ai – Kamiki – but a lot of people. But the guy is really a serial killer. So the scale of the plan to get him is really impressive, to make a successful movie, mobilizing a massive quantity of resources, in which all the promises and compromises are being paid, sometimes with interest. And, as any tragedy goes, you can expect things aren’t going the way they’re expecting.

I criticized OnK before because, as well-written as it is, it cannot be free from the stereotype of “anime is for weird people”, with all those incest jokes. And then, in chapter 123, it surprisingly “pays off” (notice quotation marks). Serina falls in love with Goro because…honestly, she’s just a teenager who never loved and didn’t receive love from her parents since she was 4. Due to her terminal disease, she’d never have a significant one, that’s why I understand she had a crush on Goro, he’s the only one who showed affection for her. A “normal” girl would be like “oh, I said that when I was young, haha, that was a weird thing”, but Ruby isn’t a “normal” girl, because there was nobody to talk with her about these things – especially because Aqua was, again, manipulating people (I mean, it was obvious, right? To make her have a great performance as Ai, right?), just to get his objects. Even the Girl of Crows said “wow, this is going to my cringe compilation”, it’s obvious that this will be a wrench tossed in his plans, everything was going too smooth to be good.

But as someone said in this site, OnK is a story about how far the unloved would go. Ai, Aqua, Ruby, almost every named character has some degree of “unlovedness”.

And yet, one thing that I enjoyed how the characters are unique in the sense of how unrelatable they are. I think “unrelatable” might not be the best word, but we make a big deal of how characters should be relatable, but some of the most interesting characters are completely unrelatable. I recently played Project Wingman and why did Crimson 1 do what he did in the last mission? If you were playing attention to the plot, you'd know no one but Crimson 1 could’ve done that.

The things Aqua did aren’t things a normal person would do, but nobody in the world but him would do. We talk about “resist temptation”, but in reality it’s not hard for us to “resist the temptation”, but this temptation is made that no one in the world would fall, but them. I feel this is a path to make a character, especially a villain or an antihero, unique. Like Aqua, you can say “if I was in Aqua’s place, I’d do different” – even if the phrase may sound sanctimonious, that’s exactly the point! But then, it wouldn’t be the same story. Still, the characters make sense given the circumstance they’re given, that’s the sense of realistic a writer should aim – consistence in-universe.

Given the plot points, we’re approaching the end, I think. Personally, if the Girl of Crows (I also love how youkai/fair folk she is, she's there to make the plot happen and I say this in the best way possible) doesn’t end saying “humans are a bunch of bastards who can't live without drama”, I’ll be disappointed.

#oshi no ko

[strawwritesfic]

Peter Parker x Pregnant!Female!Stark!Reader: Where Gods Do Fear to Tread [Ch. 6]

Summary: The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, the best laid plans of teenagers even more so.

Challenge: “9 Months” challenge by crackleviolet on Lunaescence Archive -- Bonus Two -- Teenage Pregnancy

Rating/Warnings/Tags: T (sexual references; two underage people having consensual sex off the page; teenage pregnancy; family drama; mixed families; teenage cruelty; discussion of abortion; discussion of adoption; foul language; crude humor; postpartum depression; Stark!Reader; Lila & Reader friendship)

Pairings: Peter Parker x Female!Reader; Tony/Pepper; Happy/May; Steve/Bucky; Clint/Laura; past!Tony/Reader’s Mom

Tag List: @imaginesfire​, @plutoneu​

Master List

Chapter 6: Starting to Show

“Please, Dad.”

“I already told you the answer is no.”

“But—”

“No ‘buts,’ [Name]. You are grounded, remember? Indefinitely. Maybe even forever.”

“I know. I’m not asking you to let me go home with him or anything. He hasn’t said a single word to me since Christmas Eve.”

“That’s just too bad. I thought the kid had enough courage to break up with you in person at least.”

“Please. Just let me talk to him for five minutes? Maybe if you aren’t in the same room as us…”

“Rules are rules, much as it pains me to hear myself say it. You have to have an adult with you at all times if you want to talk to Peter, and there’s no one available to watch you right now.”

“I’ll do it,” said a new voice.

What had been a semi-private phone call between yourself and your father became all of a sudden very public. You had forgotten, in the heat of the argument, that another of the terms of your punishment was that every call you made had to be put on speaker.

Piping everything through the car speakers had been going on for a little over two months—enough time to get you used to hearing your dad like that when he called you every single day on your way home from school. Thank God Happy had reminded you that he was there, too, before you informed your father of all the ways you felt too physically terrible to even consider kissing Peter. Happy didn’t really need to hear the gory details of your changing body, especially after coming to your rescue like that.

“Happy?” your dad asked incredulously. Apparently he’d forgotten he was having his driver listen in on your calls, too.

Happy drummed his fingers against the steering wheel as he stared straight ahead. “Yeah. I’ll chaperone.”

“You really don’t have to do that.”

“I know. But I’m already here, and if I have to listen to you guys go on about this for another six months, I’m going to have to find another job.”

“You’re already where?”

“I already drove to Midtown High.”

With a sharp inhale, you looked up. So involved with your begging had you been that you hadn’t realized that Happy wasn’t driving you straight back to Avengers Tower, nor that he’d been in a parking spot all this time.

Midtown School of Science and Technology sat before you. Hundreds of other kids—normal, happy kids—surged out of its front doors. You wondered if any of those kids were Peter, but after so many days of trying to convince your father to let you be there, you found yourself unable to stomach looking at any student’s face too hard.

“Whatever she’s paying you, Happy, I’ll double it,” your dad said over the phone.

“Haha. Very funny. Look, she’s played along this long. Give the kid one reason to live, why don’t you?” Happy asked in his usual grumpy tone.

“If you’re about to tell me you’re getting all fatherly because you and May are expecting, too—”

“Goodbye, Mr. Stark. I’ll have your daughter home well before dark. I won’t let her out of my sight.”

Happy yanked the phone from your hand before you could register what was happening. If he could have tossed it out the window to be crushed by a passing bus, he probably would have. He contented himself by just hitting the disconnect button before your father could say anything more suggestive. You gaped at him.

“Well?” said Happy. “Are you going to go find Peter or not? I do have better things to do with my time, you know.”

“Aren’t you…coming with me?” you asked.

“I’d rather not leave this car unsupervised in a high school parking lot. Just don’t go far, all right?”

Part of you didn’t want to go anywhere at all. Happy was doing you a major favor, though, so you did not argue. In silence, you unhooked your seat belt and opened the passenger door. Doing so let all the familiar high school noise in. The sound of it almost made you blanch. Normal. These kids were normal. What were you doing, pretending you were normal, too?

Happy cleared his throat. Flustered, you shoved yourself out onto the asphalt. You teetered for a moment and unthinkingly placed a hand on your stomach as though to protect it from a fall.

This did nothing to encourage you. Only three months pregnant and already you looked it. Your palm brushed against the swell between your hips without any effort at all. It didn’t help that your school uniform didn’t exactly tend toward maternity wear. Every single person at Peter’s school was going to see your ballooning stomach, you just knew it.

The important thing to remember was that you had finally made it there. Weeks of wheedling and whining, and now you stood on the grounds you’d so longed for. Peter could avoid your text messages and phone calls. He could choose to be so busy training with the Avengers that he had no time to see you. What he could not do was refuse to see you face to face.

Only what were you expecting? Midtown High was huge! Wandering through the halls was not likely to send you directly into the path of the one boy you wanted to see. In fact, it was a good way to get a bunch of people to notice Tony Stark’s pregnant daughter was there, something that would not be good for Peter’s secret identity.

You steeled yourself. If all else failed, you would walk to the school office and have someone there call him in. Sure, it would be embarrassing for both of you, but you were used to going to great lengths to get what you wanted, whether that be a meeting with your legendary father or sex with the first boy you’d ever loved. Pregnancy hadn’t twisted that up…yet.

All the same, you wished you had something to hold up over your stomach as you made your slow way through the crowd of students headed for the buses. Only just beginning to show still meant showing. Your father wasn’t likely to give you a single iota of sympathy if someone here—

There! Coming right out the front doors was the boy you were looking for. He did not see you lurking next to a tree, because he was very involved in conversation with someone else: MJ. You knew better than to be jealous; it made you more like the catty girls at your school. Seeing your Peter smile at her like that when he hadn’t so much as offered you polite greetings in months still made your blood boil.

Ned stood at Peter’s side, and he noticed you. He held a hand up in an awkward wave. You waved back. That Peter had already told Ned the sordid truth was obvious. His dark brown eyes went straight to your stomach where they widened considerably. They did move quickly back to your face, though. Before he could embarrass himself further, Ned not-so-subtly elbowed Peter right in the ribs.

A silent play went on before your eyes. Peter clearly said, “What?” to Ned. You didn’t need to be a lip reader to see that. Then Ned pointed toward your tree. Curious, MJ followed his finger. She blinked when she saw you standing there. No wave came from her. Peter spotted you shortly after, his smile fading rapidly away as he did. MJ asked the boys something that Ned answered with a shrug and Peter a shake of his head. She stepped away, waved to them, and ducked back into the building.

You only derived some relief from her leaving, and that mostly because she didn’t kiss Peter goodbye. They’d had some sort of thing going on before you arrived on the scene. It wasn’t a complete stretch of the imagination to think he’d gone back to that sort of thing in his anger.

The thought of this sent a surge of tears to your eyes. You angrily wiped them away, certain that by the time you could see the front steps of the school again, Peter would have disappeared after MJ. He instead stood right in front of you. Ned seemed to have vanished, too.

“What are you doing here?” Peter asked.

You couldn’t help a sodden laugh. “Looking for you.”

“You shouldn’t have done that. You’re going to get in huge trouble. Mr. Stark—”

“Knows I’m here,” you assured him. “And we’re not here alone. Happy’s watching from the parking lot. See?”

He looked over at the parking lot. A sullen Happy waved from the front seat. Peter waved uncertainly back. When he returned his attention to you, he didn’t look much more relaxed. “That still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here. At my school.”

“Oh, come on, Peter. Isn’t it obvious?” Apparently not, given his frown. “We haven’t had a chance to talk since Christmas. Or, well, we’ve had a few chances, but you won’t talk to me. You won’t even answer my phone calls.”

“What are we supposed to be talking about?”

“Anything. I don’t care. Peter,” you took his hands in yours, “I miss you.”

His lips puckered like they always did when he was deep in thought, but you held your place, waiting for him to…what? Tell you that he missed you, too? Kiss you and make everything all right? Show you a single shred of the affection you so desired?

Clearly none of that was going to happen. You angrily threw his hands back to his sides.

“If you want to break up with me, just go ahead and do it,” you said.

“[Name]…”

“Or just go find MJ! She’s still waiting for you inside, right? And she’s smart. Let me guess, she’s actually on birth control—”

With alarming swiftness, Peter moved you physically over to the nearby table with attached benches.

You realized a little too late that you’d been screaming all that at him. Even if you were mad and had good reason to be suspicious of his relationship with MJ, saying that sort of thing about her loudly enough for other people to hear was completely out of line. No wonder she didn’t want anything to do with you. Guilt surged over you in a great wave. You bit your trembling lower lip, but it did you no good. The weeping began not long after.

God, you hated this! You hated giving the girls at your school another reason to loath and mock you. You hated being at odds with your father. You hated Peter avoiding you, the derisive articles on every celebrity blog known to man about how “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” and the fact that you couldn’t even poop ninety percent of the time. Most of all, you hated that you’d gone from a girl that babbled when she was nervous to someone who cried at the drop of a hat and shouted obscenities about girls who hadn’t made the stupid choices you had.

The table you were perched upon shifted as Peter sat down next to you. He was about to break up with you, and he had every right to do so. You were not just a horrible girlfriend, but a horrible human being to boot.

“I don’t want to break up with you,” he said quietly.

You did your best to take a deep enough breath that you would quit crying. All this did was make you snort loudly. “Then why won’t you talk to me?”

“I guess…I just don’t really know what to say.”

“About what?”

Sighing, he put his arm around your shoulders. You tipped your head onto his shoulder without a second thought, so grateful were you for this kind contact. “[Name], you decided to give away our baby.”

Our baby. Not your baby. Shame prickled heatedly up your spine; you lifted your head again to gaze at Peter in horror. Our baby.

It hadn’t occurred to you until just then that Peter really had anything to do with the baby outside of its initial conception. Your body was the one changing because of the baby, and you were doing your absolute best to ensure your life would be the only one changed, too. But Peter considered it his baby as well?

“I…I’m sorry, Peter.” You clutched at your baby bump through the fabric of your shirt. “I didn’t…We’re too young to raise a baby. I can’t ask Dad and Pepper to help, not when they’ve got Morgan on the way. And—and you have to keep being Spider-Man, and I can’t do it on my own. I just…thought adoption would be the best thing for everyone.”

Peter looked down at where your hand sat splayed across the plastic-covered mesh of the table. “We still should have talked about it first. And about the marriage. I just wish—”

“Yo, Parker!”

An unfamiliar voice boomed out across the schoolyard. You looked up to see a boy with dark, slicked back hair standing up in the driver’s seat of a silver Audi parked on the sidewalk. Several girls about your age sat in the other seats; several more stood around the vehicle. The boy himself wore an enormous, ugly smirk.

“Flash,” Peter muttered as he let you go.

“Is that your girlfriend?” Flash called. “Holy shit. Did you knock her up? Or do you just like kissing whales?”

“Shut up, Flash!” Peter hurled back at him.

“Bet you didn’t even knock her up yourself, Parker. You don’t have the balls! Hey baby,” he said to you. “If you’re still looking for a good time, I bet I can find a few friends for you. We’ll even pay you for your time. What’s your usual rate?”

Hot tears filled your eyes, but this time they were born of anger. You might have been pregnant, but you weren’t so far along that you couldn’t launch yourself off the table in Flash’s general direction.

Peter brought your forward momentum to a halt by grabbing your wrist. He was strong enough that he could keep you in place without pulling you backward. Your feet continued to move beneath you, but to no avail. The next thing you knew, you were jogging next to him towards Happy’s car. Peter flung the passenger side door open and practically tossed you inside before Happy could fully roll down the window.

“Get her home,” Peter said as he shut the door behind you. “Now, please.”

“Not that I take orders from you, but you got it,” said Happy.

“Wait! What about you?” you asked.

Peter had already shifted his attention over to Flash, who was laughing uproariously along with some of the girls lounging in and around his car.

“I’ll call you later,” Peter muttered.

“But—”

Happy rolled the window up and backed out of his parking spot without giving you a chance to finish your question. Peter turned away. You were left unable to do anything more than watch as he rolled up his sleeves and stalked over to Flash and his gang of giggling girls. Then your car turned a corner, hiding both boys from view.

“Hey. You okay?” Happy asked, not unkindly.

You didn’t answer. Why should you have had to? Wasn’t it obvious that you weren’t okay? You were fifteen and pregnant and enough of a slut that everyone at your (soon-to-be-ex-)boyfriend’s school could see it.

Though you’d thought so an awful lot throughout your life, now it was really true: Things could not get any worse. Better start mentally preparing for Peter’s phone call, you figured. If he actually bothered to talk to you ever again, he was going to call it quits with you this time for sure.

#fan fic #straw writes #reader insert #second person pov #pregnancy fic #challenge fic #where gods do fear to tread #peter parker #spider-man #avengers #marvel #mcu #peter parker x reader #peter parker x you #peter parker x y/n #spider-man x reader #spider-man x you #spider-man x y/n #avengers x reader #avengers x you #avengers x y/n #mcu x you #mcu x y/n #mcu x reader #marvel x reader #marvel x you #marvel x y/n

[illuminatedquill]

Extracurricular, An Analysis

Oh Ji-soo and Bae Gyu-ri

“Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won’t adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is sign on as it’s accomplice.”  - Tom Robbins 

You know the story. You’ve heard it before, right? 

Boy meets girl. 

Girl finds out that boy is running a side protection business for prostitutes. 

Girl decides to blackmail boy into letting her join his business. 

Classic high school criminal shenanigans ensue leading them into more dangerous situations where they are forced to make desperate decisions to stay alive. 

Oh, and they fall in love along the way. 

Oh? You haven’t heard this one before? Then let me introduce you to this delightful kdrama called Extracurricular. 

I watched this one while waiting for the newest Hometown Cha Cha Cha episodes to drop and ended up binging the whole series in two days. There are many remarkable parts of this series: it’s a crime drama, first and foremost, that showcases high school teenagers caught in a cycle of violence and crime, abandoned by the society and adults that are supposed to be protecting them. There are no clear good guys and bad guys in this drama; everyone is cast in shades of grey. Our main leads, Oh Ji-soo and Bae Gyu-ri, run the prostitution business, and are both from broken family backgrounds. Their actions are morally questionable at best, but the top tier performances from Kim Dong Hee (you might remember him from Itaewon Class) and Park Ju Hyun make you cheer for them anyway. You want them to have a happy ending, despite the horrible things they do. The audience is always reminded that despite how clever they are in staying ahead, their actions have consequences, and they’re just high school kids. The drama never pulls it punches. 

But, weirdly enough, it’s also a love story. And that’s the part the really sticks with me until now. (The chemistry between the main leads is absolute dynamite and I could watch ten episodes of them just verbally sparring with each other. They don’t even kiss. They’re that fantastic when together on screen.)

I’m writing this because this is undoubtedly one of my all time favorite kdramas and I have a lot of feelings about our main pairing, Ji-soo and Gyu-ri. I can’t call them a couple (wait, didn’t I just say they fall in love) because their relationship can’t be labelled simply as that. Think of it as something similar to the main leads in My Ahjussi. Two people who should have become soulmates, yet met at the wrong time. 

This kdrama is not particularly happy, and while I do encourage people to watch this, I am warning that the subject matter is extremely dark. If you’re sensitive to scenes depicting sexual assault, graphic violence, or anything in that zip code you’ll want to steer clear. 

Also, I’ll be diving into spoiler territory in this analysis. So if you want to go in clean, then stop reading here. 

Still here? Awesome. Let’s dive deep into the messy, amazing pairing that is Oh Ji-soo and Bae Gyu-ri. First, let’s do a brief character background on our two main leads, starting with Ji-soo. 

Oh Ji-soo is one half of our main pairing and this story starts with him. He lives by himself and has been essentially abandoned by his only parents; his father is a failed businessman who gambles whatever money he acquires on scams and his mother ran away. His apartment is small, sparse, but functional. He owns only a few outfits aside from his school uniform. The only unique item he owns is a pet hermit crab that he takes care of. His life outside of school is non-existent; he has no friends, no one to hang out with and do typical high school teenager activities with. He takes care of himself and lives only for himself and his “dream”: to graduate, attend college, get married, and have kids like a normal person. 

But to do that, he needs a large amount of money. He has no other financial means to do so (his father is largely absent, as is his mother), so he decides, at some point, to start up this protection business for prostitutes. The drama doesn’t go into detail about the how and why he came to this conclusion that this was the best way to make a lot of money in a short amount of time, so you’ll have to suspend your disbelief from the get go. Considering the themes of the story (how youths abandoned by society tend to act out in extreme ways to make it in this world), it’s not hard to believe his desperation would drive him to make such a decision. 

Ji-soo, despite his shady business, is actually a decent person. There’s a streak of humanity that exists inside him that refuses to go out, despite the increasingly dark and bleak events that start to overtake his life. He’s attached to his hermit crab, cares for his “employees” outside of them being tools to make him money, and doesn’t want to see anyone get hurt. He goes above and beyond what’s required to help out people at the risk of his own life (in particular, Gyu-ri, and we’ll get into that shortly). 

What we learn from the first few episodes is that Oh Ji-soo is extremely smart and methodical in how he approaches his life. At school, he is known as a model student - quiet, top of the class in terms of grades, doesn’t draw any attention to himself, always follows along with what the teachers ask of him. Only his homeroom teacher, Mr. Cho, seems to consider his quiet style of existence to be concerning and tries to make him less socially awkward by pairing him up with another student in a new extracurricular club. This leads to the introduction of Bae Gyu-ri, Ji-soo’s longtime crush and future partner-in-crime. 

Meet Bae Gyu-ri, the other half of our dynamic duo. Her introduction into the story kickstarts the entire plot, as one of her earliest actions leads to a domino effect that spells increasing doom and tragedy for our main leads. She messes with Ji-soo’s operation at a critical moment and she spends the rest of the drama doing her best to make up for the consequences that follow. 

In my personal opinion, she is probably the best main female lead I’ve ever seen in a kdrama. Hands down, no other character exists (currently) that rivals her sheer cunning, wit, and badassery. Gyu-ri is Crazy, capital C, and is the chaos to Ji-soo’s control; the fire to his ice. Despite being the direct cause of half the events that happen to Ji-soo in the drama, he can’t help but need her because of what she offers. They make an incredible team. Her competitiveness, her need to win no matter the odds, helps them survive time and time again. 

Gyu-ri is from the opposite end of the spectrum of Ji-soo; he’s dirt poor and she’s insanely rich (always nice to see a reversal of typical kdrama tropes). Her mother and father run a successful entertainment company. Gyu-ri is popular at school, friends with seemingly everybody, pretty, cheerful and gets along well with her teachers. Ji-soo, and the audience, believe from the beginning that she has the perfect life. It’s not hard to believe that she’s just involving herself in Ji-soo’s business because she’s bored and needs an outlet, at first. 

We soon learn otherwise. Gyu-ri has more in common with Ji-soo than he initially realizes, in that they’re both trapped in circumstances beyond their control - it’s just that Gyu-ri’s cage is gilded, whereas his is not. Her parents are strict and have her life planned out for her, all without her consent or input, leaving her feeling frustrated and powerless despite her rich lifestyle. A suicide attempt hasn’t done much to change her parents attitude towards her, only serving to further their control over her life. 

So, when she learns of Ji-soo’s operation she immediately seeks to angle her way into it. First, she tries to rip him off, believing that he’s an evil “pimp” and thus deserves it. But after spending some time with him, she changes her mind last second and decides to help him out instead. 

And, now, let’s get into their relationship, which is one of the best (if not the best) aspect in the entire series. 

I need to be upfront about something: the relationship between Ji-soo and Gyu-ri is not exactly healthy. I wouldn’t describe it as toxic - the circumstances surrounding them aren’t exactly the best environment to encourage open and honest communication - but it’s definitely not what should be considered ideal, especially for young adults, and especially for young adults who are dabbling in crime instead of studying. 

So, why do I love them so much? If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you know that I loathe toxic relationships in kdramas, so I understand if you think I’m coming off as hypocritical here. Why do I like Oh Ji-soo and Bae Gyu-ri when I didn’t like, for example from recent history, (oh boy, here I go again on my Nevertheless BS) Park Jae-eon and Yu Na-bi?

First, Ji-soo and Gyu-ri are way cooler than Jae-eon and Na-bi ever could be. They run a criminal enterprise that involves having a high amount of intelligence, cunning, and daring to do so. Do Jae-eon and Na-bi run a criminal enterprise as a side business? No, they don’t, because they’re boring art students. 

Secondly, Ji-soo and Gyu-ri actually progress in their relationship and change their views as they learn from each other. Now, granted, that progress isn’t towards becoming better versions of each other - quite the opposite. But at least they have progress. Jae-eon and Na-bi stayed in the same stupid cycle for the whole series and then decided that it was better staying that way as opposed to trying for something else. 

Last, but certainly not least, Ji-soo and Gyu-ri are actually interesting to watch for me. The chemistry between Park Ju Hyun and Kim Dong Hee is explosive and they way they spar, exchange looks, and just generally exist around each other on screen is something I can watch forever. I’ve said this before but Han So Hee and Song Kang’s on screen chemistry, outside of their intimate scenes, really didn’t impress me. 

Okay, back to Extracurricular. This relationship, man. It’s all I can think about (other than HomeCha’s Du-sik and Hye-jin, but that’s another post). Ji-soo and Gyu-ri are so good together. 

I’ve noted before that Ji-soo is methodical in how he approaches his life; he plans out everything ahead, and rigs any situation as much as he can in his favor. It’s brilliant, but when a crisis happens, he doesn’t know how to deal with it effectively. He panics and flounders; becomes indecisive at a time when clear, decisive action is required. 

Enter Gyu-ri. She quickly becomes the partner he never knew he needed. When there’s a situation, she becomes invaluable in her quick thinking and wit, coming up with solutions on the fly. It’s not perfect, but it keeps them just one small step ahead of whatever is coming their way. 

The only thing preventing them from becoming unstoppable is the lack of communication and trust they have with each other. A lot of that has to do with how Gyu-ri entered Ji-soo’s business - she blackmailed him first, and, when that failed, she strong armed her way into getting him to accept her help. It’s implied in the drama that Ji-soo has had a crush on Gyu-ri for a while (since ninth grade, I believe) and in the first episode he actually gets the chance to spend time with her outside of school on a sort of quasi-date. 

It goes sideways pretty quickly because of some shenanigans from his business, but not before she gets to know him and says some pretty touching words regarding his situation. Poor guy is head over heels - even after finding out that she’s the one blackmailing him, his feelings are only dampened, not extinguished. When he catches a glimpse of her family’s situation, he gains a deeper understanding of her and why she acts the way she does. Even more importantly, Ji-soo treats her the same after finding out this information which, to someone like Gyu-ri, means more than if he comforted her about it. 

If you want to see a physical representation of how he feels, other than paying attention to his actions, you can see it in him keeping mementos from Gyu-ri. She has an interesting habit of folding bags into origami shapes and giving it to him. Even after the blackmail reveal, you can see that he continues to keep these in a container on his desk. It’s really cute that he keeps these, when it probably doesn’t even matter that much to Gyu-ri. 

Towards the end of the drama, Ji-soo prepares to turn himself in to prevent Gyu-ri from being implicated in the crimes they committed. And it costs him almost everything to protect her. Ji-soo, the quiet, nerdy kid, puts himself on the line time and time again to protect Gyu-ri, knowing that it puts his life and his dream at risk to do so. And all for what? For some girl that he thinks doesn’t even like him in return? 

Well, let’s talk about that. Because I’ve seen some comments that Gyu-ri was only using Ji-soo for her own selfish gain. And I can agree that was how it was at the beginning for her; she definitely was only interested in acquiring money, like Ji-soo was, in order to achieve her own goal of being free from her parents. 

But, oh man, that is not what is motivating her at the end. 

It’s actually pointed out relatively early by some of her friends that it’s obvious that she likes Ji-soo more than he likes her. Understandably Ji-soo is keeping her at arms length from him given the whole recent blackmailing, so it would make sense that it looks that way. 

Further questioning reveals what she likes the most about him: 

“It’s not like I’m crazy about him. He’s fun. And amusing. He’s smart. And there’s a certain charm he has. He also has a wolfish side to him. But he thinks he’s a puppy.” 

- Bae Gyu-ri

But, as she gets to know Ji-soo better, you can certainly see that she starts to fall hard for him. As a cover story for why they hang out so much together during and after school, Gyu-ri states to everyone that they’re dating. The reactions across the school definitely imply that this is a shocking development, which means that Gyu-ri hasn’t dated anyone before. So why Ji-soo other than the reasons she herself states? 

He challenges her, just as she challenges him. Gyu-ri may be the more dynamic, quick thinking of the pair but Ji-soo is every inch her intellectual equal - just in different ways. She doesn’t seem to be the type to be easily impressed, but you can tell that she’s definitely impressed by Ji-soo’s operation and how thoroughly set up it is. When Ji-soo is frustrated at the beginning by his setbacks, he blows up at another student (knocks him out in a crazy punch) and immediately walks over to Gyu-ri afterwards (who saw the whole thing) to inform her that she is now his partner in crime. 

The look in her eyes, and the small smirk she has speaks volumes about her attraction to him in that scene. Smoldering. 

And, oh yes, she’s prone to jealousy. Another classmate, Min-hee, gives Ji-soo a present out of the blue (it was supposed to be for her boyfriend, Ki-tae, but that’s another sub-plot) - all within view of Gyu-ri. It’s hilarious how she tries to brush it off. Later, for plot reasons, Ji-soo has to spend more time with Min-hee which only furthers Gyu-ri’s annoyance. 

And her motivations stop being entirely about the money and more towards helping preserve the dream that she and Ji-soo share about being free. There’s a scene in episode 8 where it’s revealed that, due to a business partnership with a local gang (set up by none other than Gyu-ri herself in a desperate move), Ji-soo would have to drop out of school permanently to work on their behalf. Gyu-ri overhears this and, despite badly needing the gang’s help in sustaining their own business, immediately terminates the partnership. 

All because it would interfere with Ji-soo’s dream. 

Man, if that isn’t love. 

In the following episode, Gyu-ri, and later on Ji-soo, is kidnapped by the same gang in retaliation for terminating their partnership. Ji-soo comes to her rescue but Gyu-ri is already almost free (again, she’s really, really badass) and is demanding that they bring Ji-soo to her instead of running for her life. 

Surviving this latest attempt puts the two in a reflective, vulnerable mood and Gyu-ri asks Ji-soo why he keeps saving her. Ji-soo asks later on why she keeps risking her life to be with him. They don’t say the answer in words but in an almost kiss (yeah, you read that right - almost). 

And then, if you aren’t already convinced, Ji-soo crosses his one last remaining line in an effort to keep Gyu-ri safe; he accidentally pushes a fellow classmate down some steps and, instead of helping her, leaves her to die after grabbing the evidence she has on him and Gyu-ri. 

Extracurricular pulls off quite the magic trick here, hiding this well done love story in the middle of a serious crime drama. 

The real tragedy is that Ji-soo thinks that Gyu-ri views this whole business, and by extension his life, as one big game. It’s something that she takes offense at, visibly becoming upset when he says that. 

But even if that were true, he should be assured since Gyu-ri doesn’t like to lose. 

As they hurtle towards the end and face up to the consequences of their actions, Ji-soo and Gyu-ri undoubtedly lose sight of their original goals and dreams. They do some fairly horrible things to stay alive and ahead of the police who are close on their trail. You can’t really blame them for doing what they did; in the face of a society that has abandoned them, what they’re doing is a logical outcome to gain what they want so desperately and deserve so much: the chance to be free to live like normal, care-free people. 

I can’t say for certain that they achieve that. The drama is serious in consequences and, at the end, the net around them is drawing tighter and tighter. I won’t spoil the ending scene for you, because I highly encourage you watch this drama yourself but I will say this: Ji-soo and Gyu-ri seem stuck in an impossible situation with nowhere to go, and no one to help them, with a clock ticking down towards either death or discovery by the police. 

But, all the same, I’m always the optimist. They’ve gotten through situations like this before and they can certainly do so again. Maybe not as bad as this one, but not too far out of their league. And, like I mentioned before, Gyu-ri doesn’t like to lose. Especially when it comes to Ji-soo. 

Their relationship is truly dangerous, as Ji-soo himself notes. Them being together is the source of their problems; they’re too much alike now, as opposed to the beginning of the drama where he stated that they’re too different. Their love is the kind of love where both of them are willing to burn the whole world down if it means keeping each other safe. 

I’m a real sucker for those kind of love stories. No one’s a hero here. They’re just kids in high school, doing the best with what they know. 

Who are we to judge what is right and wrong? Especially when the one committing the acts are high school kids who don’t know any better and just want to save each other? 

Do we have that right? 

Do they really deserve that punishment? Shouldn’t we be pointing fingers at the society that forced them to act this way? 

Extracurricular really makes you think about that. Is it really so outlandish and terrible what Ji-soo and Gyu-ri do to survive when the adults who are supposed to be protecting them, teaching them better, have failed in their duty? 

Maybe they really did win at the end. Not so much in succeeding in their goals but in gaining something that not even regular people are likely to find - a partner, a soulmate, someone who will stand by you no matter what. 

If you do watch the ending, and are not an optimist like I am, then all I can say is this: whatever happened, they were together at the end. 

They were together. 

#extracurricular netflix #human class #netflix #kdrama #oh jisoo #bae gyuri #park joo hyun #park ju hyun #kim dong hee

[aroclawthornes]

Blooming Brilliant, an Aroace Willow Park Manifesto

[id: a gif of a heart locket opening. One half of the locket displays a picture of Willow Park from The Owl House, winking and making peace signs with her fingers. Blue and yellow stars surround her. The other half reads "willow park my beloved." /end id.]

Greetings! It’s me, User Aroclawthornes, and instead of working on all the time-sensitive homework I have I sat down and wrote an essay explaining why I think Willow Park OwlHouse could plausibly be read as aroace, and why it would be a thematically enriching interpretation. I’ve never written anything like this before, so it’s oddly formal, a little pretentious, and contains a lot of qualifying language, but I'm confident that it gets my point across. I’m not intending to speak over other interpretations of Willow or assert that it's the only true way to read her, but it's a headcanon I find interesting, and I think there’s a lot of evidence to back it up, between certain elements that Willow’s arc employs to some good old overanalysed symbolism. If you're aspec, I hope this is validating; if you're not, I hope it's interesting; if you don't care, scrolling past it is quick, free, and easy.

Some disclaimers on terminology: I’m speaking from an aroace perspective, and so when I say “aspec coding” I’m generally referring to both orientations as a catch-all - a lot of the coding surrounding Willow could go either way. I’m also going to be talking about commonly accepted “aspec” narratives, but I’m aware of the limitations of this insofar as my experiences are only a single facet of the diverse range of aspec people in this world, so anyone who wants to add or argue anything - respectfully - is encouraged to.

Analysis below the cut!

The Thing About Plants

I’m not going to pretend that an association with plants is historically indicative of aspec coding, because, frankly, there haven’t been enough aspec characters to establish it as a convention, and it’s also a fairly wide-reaching branch of symbolism. However, I am going to propose that lighthearted comparisons between asexual people and plants (however misguided on functions of plant reproduction they are) are fairly common elements of budding ace teenage humour, as are related quips about photosynthesis.

[id: a screenshot of Willow from "I Was A Teenage Abomination", depicting her sitting on the ground while casting a spell over a small, pink flower. /end id.]

I’m also not going to claim that the colour green Belongs To Aromantics, and therefore that All Plants Are Belong To Us, but in tandem with everything else I’m about to cover, the connection between Willow and plants seems like a fairly plausible nudge to a relatively common element of aspec humour.

“Half-a-witch” Willow and the Late Bloomer Experience

[id: a screenshot of Willow with glowing green eyes, from "I Was A Teenage Abomination", depicting her summoning a mess of thorned vines. /end id]

Willow is literally nicknamed “half-a-witch”, in reference to her supposedly incomplete state - this is a sentiment eerily reminiscent of the pressure to find one’s “other half”, which affects aspec - especially aromantic - people particularly profoundly. She’s considered a late bloomer, someone who hasn’t reached the societal milestones of growth at the expected age, and who is derided and considered immature as a result of this perceived failure. However, we quickly discover that Willow is, in fact, an exceptionally competent and powerful witch - taken out of the restricting frame of the Abominations track, she’s able to grow into her own, “complete” person, therefore proving that she was never really lacking in anything in the first place. Like real-life aroace people, she was perceived as limited and immature based on the expectations and judgements of other people, but Willow was never deficient in anything, least of all herself.

[id: a screenshot of Willow and Luz from "I Was A Teenage Abomination". They are holding hands - the former is laughing with her eyes closed, and the latter is grinning, while covered in abomination goop. /end id]

As far as symbolism goes...the track Willow is initially put in literally requires her to conjure up another humanoid entity, with the expectation that she will therefore prove herself to be a whole and mature person. Only with this ability, she’s told, will she be successful and happy as an adult. The shapelessness of her attempts at conjuring an abomination reinforces this connection in my mind - if I may reference this quote from Ducktales 2017‘s (absolutely stellar) A Nightmare On Killmotor Hill, in which the protagonists explore their own subconscious fears via. the dream realm, for a second:

“I think that’s supposed to be my romantic interest, but I’m too threatened by the concept, so it never takes shape.”

A lot of young aroace people find themselves in situations where they attempt to convince themself of their interest in someone in an attempt to be “normal,” or end up lying in response to family members or friends’ questions about crushes. While Willow’s abominations, first and foremost, represent the expectations from her school, classmates, and family to be a successful, “complete” witch with a profitable future, I think that with an aroace interpretation of Willow they could also very easily be read as representing some latent insecurities over a lack of attraction, or pressure to find a significant other.

(I’m not condemning Willow’s dads, by the way - they seem like perfectly lovely fellas, and I’m confident that they were doing what they thought was best for her. They’re certainly very quick to drop everything to assure her future in Escaping Expulsion, so obviously they care about their daughter very much.)

Greens, Blues, and Yellows: Colour-Coding Willow Park

A while back, I made this post comparing Willow’s palette to the aromantic and aroace flags:

[id: a screenshot of a post depicting the aromantic and aromantic asexual flags, colour-picked from images of Willow in her Hexside uniform and casual dress respectively - these are overlaid on top of the flags. The caption reads "observations on willow park". /end id.]

The grey-and-green aromantic flag has long been the accepted mainstream symbol of aromanticism, and, as the above post - and many others - demonstrate, Willow’s palette reflects it near-perfectly. This could easily be a coincidence, owing to the palette of the standard Hexside Plant Track uniform, as well as her hair and eye colours - which are obviously supposed to be reflective of her plant-related abilities. However, given how fond of employing hidden meanings The Owl House has shown itself to be, I don’t think it’s far-fetched to claim that there’s at least a chance that her palette was constructed with the flag in mind.

The latter is...a bit more problematic for me, although it’s fun to joke about. The blue-and-yellow aroace flag was only created in December 2018, relatively late into The Owl House’s initial production, and it’s still relatively obscure, although on the rise in popularity as the accepted aroace flag (I only recently started using it myself), so I don’t know if Willow’s casual wear is enough to verify the presence of any deliberate subtext. I think it’s a fun coincidence, however, and (as was pointed out in this post) it’s cool that these blue and yellow stars surrounding Willow occur in the same frame as Luz’s bisexual decor:

[id: a photograph of Luz, Gus, and Willow, all surrounding a disgruntled-looking Principal Bump. Luz has flowers in the colours of the bisexual flag decorating her hair, while Willow is surrounded by bright blue and yellow stars. /end id.]

also seen above: powerful bi/aspec solidarity

Conclusion:

Do I genuinely believe that Willow is being deliberately written this way? If you’d asked me, say, two months ago, I’d have said probably not - as far as queer representation in kids’ cartoons has come, it has a ways to go, and focusing on transgender characters seems like a more obvious (and equally invaluable) route to go down. I can name maybe five explicitly aspec characters off the top of my head, two of whom have been written as alloromantic and/or sexual in adaptations or continuations of the source material (I have...some grievances with 2005 Doctor Who). But the emergence of Raine, an explicitly nonbinary character on Disney Channel, has given me a little spark of hope, and so, even if it’s never confirmed, it’s comforting to be able to see a character with such strong elements of aspec coding and think to myself, just maybe, that there might be some intent behind it.

I also...really want to see interesting things done with Willow. We’re halfway through Season 2, and despite some promising setup for her arc in the Season 1 finale, she’s sort of been left by the wayside lately in favour of developing the more “plot-relevant” characters, such as Luz, Amity, Eda, and Hunter. Frankly, I think it’s a disservice to her Season 1 development, despite how much I adore all the characters I just listed - beyond any personal motivation, the prospect that Willow could be aroace adds a lot of sorely-sought depth to her, and, as detailed, a lot of this has already been set up in her earlier episodes. I just...I think it’d be neat. Rarely do you get a kids’ show so brazenly queer in its themes as Owl House, and aspec people deserve to be included in that.

Willow would also be great aroace representation because, well - those five or so aspec characters I mentioned being aware of are all white or “raceless” (...also written as white, basically), and so an aspec Asian character would be a really lovely step forward in this area. Additionally, all the characters I referred to are also conventionally skinny, and Willow is not only fat, but written in a way that doesn’t treat this feature as a caricature. People who are more knowledgeable on these topics than I are absolutely free to make additions, as is anyone who feels like I’ve left certain details out.

tl;dr: Willow’s association with plants could be read as a cool nod to aspec humour, her “late bloomer” narrative is eerily reminiscent of some common aspec experiences, her palette speaks for itself, and it’d be really cool if we could diversify the so-far fairly bland sphere of aspec representation.

I’m going to conclude this by linking Rose by The Oh Hellos, because they’re my favourite band, they share The Owl House’s initials, and I also think it’s a good Willow song. Peace out.

#the owl house #willow park #pspspspsps you will read my 1.5k word aroace willow essay #hooting #meta #willow #aroace willow manifesto #fuck it. this is getting posted

[erikoon]

Hello. I am the part of slavic fan club of Ercole. My friend told me about a situation with your Giulia/Ercole art. We don't ship it but. PLEASE READ IT TO END!

I think fan community is free to shipping everything they want without being bulled. I also consider that adult! AUs may and can exist. I am really sorry for my bad English, I (we are) just really want to give you some support.

Also some words for haters

Dear Haters. I also can understand your reaction (but I don't support it) and I think that when someone draws something you don't like or when author wrote some explanation for this ship and you're disagree with this, you don't need to write about it. Of course, there is a borders. I have it too. I am against pedophilia/rape/violence. But we see two characters, that were aged up. Giulia is about 12. Ercole is 16, as he said (but he's official 18-19). And I think age up is really okay. If you blame this ship for "incompatibility" of characters, please, agree the fact of possible AUs and theories, that can explain the relationship of this couple and make them harmonious, without pedophilia and vulgarity.

Dear Author. I know that there will be some people who will not understand me and you. They could tell me that I am homophob or pedophile. I am not. I just don't want that someone will bulled at this point. Have a nice day:)

Hello! Thanks for writing me this very kind message, it was completely unexpected and made me so happy! It’s great to know that there’s a fan club of Ercole 😊

Sorry if my reply will be long, but I’d like to express what I think about what happened too.

Yes, I drew a Giulia x Ercole ship artwork. I don’t know if you saw it, but it showed Ercole paying Giulia a compliment in a self-confident and a little arrongant way (not so effective xD); Giulia was looking away, appearing to be almost upset, but she was blushing too, because she actually liked him and she found his words very flattering, despite their conflictual and inflammatory relationship.

I want to say it OUT LOUD: the scene was totally clean and sfw, I didn’t have ANY intention to make it naughty or sexualised! I simply took the scenario from my adolescent memories: the first crushes, the first interests, the way I wanted to be considered cute and pretty, the way I desired an older boyfriend… and I thought it would be nice to draw something related.

Here where I live it’s perfectly normal to see teen couples with age gaps… for example, I was 17 years old when my ex boyfriend and I got together, he was 22.

However, I decided to delete the picture because I realized the situation was becoming problematic. I imagined many people would turn their nose up at it and wouldn’t approve it, and I was completely ok with it! Everybody should be free to ship whoever they want and however they want, without conditions!

But I didn’t imagine I would get several insults and shameful accusations towards me, as well as reports on my artistic profiles. All of this for having drawn a teenager couple, it’s crazy!

I support every kind of headcanon and I like the AUs and the adult!AU too! I find them interesting and I like seeing how a relationship evolves in the future. At the same time, like the Alberca couple, I believe that the ship between Giulia and Ercole works also without aging them up, due to their different characters, their fights, their arguments and their way to consider each other important without saying it directly: they are worthy rivals.

Some rude, aggressive and senseless reactions made me feel very sad, especially because, I repeat it again, I didn’t come up with an erotic or sexual idea, so who cries scandal should reflect on their view on things and on human relationships themselves.

Last, but not least: we are talking about FICTION, anyway. People need to understand that fanarts in general have NOTHING to do with real life, it may sound taken for granted, but it seems that many people have problems dealing with this. NO ONE bullies me for shipping Luca x Alberto, but I don’t think it would be perfectly normal to ship 2 kids like them in real life, it would be creepy.

This means that making differences between Luca x Alberto and Giulia x Ercole is senseless, because shipping young characters works because they are CARTOON, not irl people, regardless their estimated age.

Ercole and Giulia don’t exist, nor they have any connection with real life. I would also reflect about on how unproductive it is to get mad at something which does not exist and will never do.

My coscience is clean, I know I’ve done nothing wrong and I will continue supporting the ship! I don’t expect anything, but I hope people will learn to ignore what they don’t like, or at least to express their opinions in a more civilized and polite way.

Thanks again, a strong hug from Italy! ❤️

Erikoon

#luca #disney luca #giulia marcovaldo #ercole visconti #giulia x ercole #erculia #giucole #ship #couple #pixar luca #pixar #thank you #thanks for sending! #love and hugs #my opinion #haters #antis #anti shipping #purity fandom #illustration #fandom #fan art

[hawkinsschoolcounselor]

Why do you think so many fans, even those who wouldn’t be considered casual viewers of the show think that those who romantically ship Mike and Will are kidding themselves? Sometimes I feel like I’m missing something, like we’re not even watching the same show. From my perspective, it’s beyond me to how someone could look at Mike and El’s romantic relationship, especially after s3, and think it’s proper.

Great question. I’ve touched on this issue a time or two before, but perhaps never in such a direct manner. I think there’s several things in play here that lead to the more “mainstream” fans considering it crazy when Mike and Will are seen as a romantic pairing. I think these same causes also lead to fans missing how improper, to use your terms, Mike and El’s relationship is. Some of these things are more valid than others, but they’re all valid in the sense that they are real, meaning that people aren’t just being petty. There are those out there who are petty, of course, but I think it’s unfair to cast all fans we disagree with in with that group.

First, let’s get this out of the way, heteronormativity maintains quite the stranglehold on American culture. Yes, we’ve come a long, long way. Gay characters and couples are portrayed in a much more positive light compared to twenty or more years ago. Still, they continue to be treated as a shock, either in behavior or reveal. By that I mean that these characters are either blatantly obvious or a complete surprise. There is seldom any middle ground here. This is, in my opinion anyway, a remnant of the transition of gay characters from caricatures to genuine characters. Fans, American fans at least, want to seem accepting to gay people, but they also want it crystal clear that gay people are different from them. To quote Homer Simpson from Homer’s Phobia, a 1997 episode of The Simpsons, “I like my beer cold, my TV loud, and my homosexuals flaming!”

The 90s were a time when gay people were starting to be seen as decent people instead of deviants. They still weren’t equal, though, and were often used as props and novelties. The Gay Best Friend trope came out of this idea that gay people were fun and exotic, and many would also use them as a way to show how progressive they were. It was a step in the right direction, perhaps, but gay people were still not seen as equals.

Why is this important? Well, maybe it’s not, but not only is Stranger Things the product of two brothers who grew up in that era of thinking, but so is the largest segment of the viewership. Most Stranger Things viewers fall in the 18-29 and 30-44 demographics. I, myself, fall in the latter category. While we all laughed at Homer’s idiotic homophobia, we all knew deep down that we were similarly taken in by stereotypes and heternormativity. That is to say, that being straight was the normal, expected way of things, and gay people was something neat and trendy, but that only happened to other people.

This mindset persists today, though it does seem to be slowly eroding. We still expect most characters to be straight. I suppose, in some ways, this makes sense. The majority of people in America (and likely the world) still identify as heterosexual, so, technically, statistically, being LGBT is “abnormal.” Still, the degree to which I see LGBT people being open about their identities sometimes catches me off guard when I stop to think about it. It’s something that was unimaginable when I was a teenager, barring being in an identified gay club or neighborhood. The fact that it catches me off guard, despite identifying as bisexual, is proof that those mechanisms of my upbringing persist.

I am able to see the romantic undertones of Mike and Will’s relationship because I’ve been there. I’ve been in love with a same-sex friend and been afraid to say anything about it. I’ve agonized over whether it was real or just a phase. I’ve struggled with hiding it. I’ve tried to keep my feelings hidden while also letting them slip out in controlled bursts of not-quite-platonic gestures. I’ve even wondered how I could be “like that” when I acted and dressed just like any other guy I knew. Despite living it, I still saw “it” as something foreign and different. It’s only because I lived it that I can see through the heteronormativity and recognize homosexual love in “straight” TV and movie characters. I’m sorry, but Poe Dameron was definitely into Finn, and Finn, at the very least, idolized Poe, and you can’t convince me otherwise, no matter what Disney tried to pull by giving them both inconsequential female love interests.

(Christ, this is turning into a real rant here, oh well, the bottle has been opened.)

So, yeah, heteronormativity basically tells us that if characters are gay then they’ll act a “certain way” so we know. Mike and Will don’t do this, so, to most fans, they aren’t gay. Heteronormativity and pop culture tropes also tell us that male and female leads are meant to end up together. Now, in defense of other fans, the Duffers do play around with all sorts of tropes, so it’s understandable that people would expect things to be just as formulaic in Stranger Things. The problem these fans don’t see, however, is that the Duffers seem to like subverting the tropes.

For those of you who aren’t aware, subverting a trope means that we are led to believe that we’re being shown something we’ve seen time and time again, only to end up with something else. Season 1 was so big on this that I fell in love with the show. Adults Are Useless? Joyce did not sit around while the kids solved the mystery. Hopper wasn’t the ineffectual drunk cop I was expecting him to be. Jerk Jock? No, Steve is actually a nice, if dopey, guy once he stops letting his friends influence him. Virgin Survivor? No, sex is not seen as a vice needing to be punished, so Barb dies instead of Nancy. The Duffers know what we expect to see, they tease us with it, then pull the rug out from under us.

So, what do we expect in terms of romance? We expect our opposite sex leads to pair up. This would mean Mike & El and Joyce & Hopper as our kid and adult lead pairs, respectively. Mike & El, in particular, seems to be something they’ve tantalized fans with, both in the show and marketing. We can look at that relationship, though, and see that it’s not built on much. That’s somewhat in line with many kid relationships, so, really, it’s expected that it would similarly fizzle out as those relationships generally do. These are two kids who knew each other for a week, then spent a year apart. If anything, they’re more in love with the ideas of each other they created in that time apart than anything else. This could explain why their relationship was so shallow once they’re together again. We all experienced this type of crush or relationship before, the one where we don’t really know the person so we create a version of them in our minds. This version often clashes with the real one once we get to know them. Still, we’ve all been there.

This brings me to my final point: identification. We identify with characters when we watch TV shows and movies. I dare say most, if not all, of us can identify with these kids getting these crushes and early relationships. The youngest fans probably identify even more since they’re currently in those stages of life. I’m sure many young fans identify with either Mike or El, and perhaps fantasize about being with the other (or both?). Whether we realize it or not, we’re casting our own wants and needs onto the characters. Some fans want Mike and El together because it validates their own feelings and experiences.

I know that I certainly identify with Mike and Will through my own teenage experiences. I identify with other characters for more mature, adult reasons, as well. Yes, a part of me ships Mike and Will because of this. The difference here, compared to other ships I’ve gotten behind, is that this actually seems real. There is canon evidence that Mike and Will appear to have non-platonic feelings for each other, feelings built over a very long friendship. Mike legit seems like the closeted, possibly not even aware, gay kid going through the motions of a straight relationship. Will seems like he’s actively suppressing any romantic urges because he’s spent his life being bullied for being queer. They’ve been written to have more genuinely romantic moments than Mike and El have had. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the writers will have some explaining to do if they don’t get together. Many fans will miss it, due to the reasons mentioned above, but it’s all been laid there before us. Nobody should be surprised, but they will be.

#stranger things #byler #heteronormativity

[callaxe]

you know what?

all might has dad hands. no you can't convince me otherwise because im right

like both forms. beefy 'murican is BIG big hand, very warm and calloused. he could crush your head with one hand so he pats your back instead. yagi form . also calloused (it's a very important detail) but not as warm. his body generally just kind of runs cold but in this form he gives very good head pats

hand also big enough to cradle an entire human skull, but unfortunately too weak in this form to crush it

i call them dad hands but really its just . nice person hands. he'll pat ur shoulder and u'd be like "nice! im safe" bc it's all might and he's just. (slighty questionable) supportive Strong dad who's more than willing to deck and maim someone's face but will also cradle a child's hand with the same one

its gotta be obvious that all might is good at giving hugs . both forms. he is big and that includes his ARMS.

in his beef body, hugging is kind of awkward purely because of his height. he keeps having to bend down or completely squat down to hug people. he doesn't mind but it's not ideal yknow ?

so what does he do? he just picks people up

that's it

he'll let kids n teenagers hang from his arms like they're monkey bars, carry smaller children either on his hip or shoulders. he's literally built like a climbing wall. if you have a good enough grip he can literally carry you anywhere

hugging adults absolutely just depends on their personality. typically he'll pick them up in a hug and they'll dangle like 5 feet off the ground but it's ok bc they hug back

unless it's aizawa. he just hangs there like a boneless noodle

he can! hug people normally! but does he want to? i don't know. probably. but it's also the slightest bit akwaed because depending on the person's height their face is either in his armpit of justice or eye-level with his belly button

yagi form.... he is smaller so it makes for less awkward-normal hugs. he can wrap his arms around literally anyone!!! they're long as fuck bro!!!!!!! bonus head pats too!!!!!!!!

both forms he likes picking people up and swing them around like sacks of potatos

bonus hc one time during a free training period all might was dared to somehow carry everyone in the class at once and he actually did

(bonus bonus hc, sometimes he'll just pick up both deku and katsuki on his shoulders, especially prevalent when they're finally pro heroes. all might is absolutely that dad who loves embarrassing them in public, even as yagi he'll see them out on patrol and go "MY BOYS!!!!" and pick them up like they weigh nothing. because i said so. wonder duo. will ramble about that soon)

#bnha #boku no hero academia #all might #yagi toshinori #mha #my hero academia

[nozomijoestar]

Some words on KumiRei since I’m in another Hibike renaissance and can give time to how I feel I don’t agree 100% with any major camps on how its perceived in the anime though I do consider it romantic 

First off I believe KumiRei is not only romantic as a WLW, but both characters are aware of this romantic nature they don’t show anyone else, they are not in full denial nor are they just friends- instead its a complex weave of the two, and they act accordingly

Neither do I believe either is heterosexual but rather Bisexual (Reina) and questioning Lesbian (Kumiko)

I’m drawing from deeply personal experience on it which is part of why I think this way regarding them so in saying that I think the issue is people are too used to formulas when viewing media, if A is seen as true then it must lead to B then C and maybe D and so on, but while I’ve been guilty of the same I think that’s a limiting way to view/engage with art, love doesn’t have to follow the old They confess, Everything is fine in the end, They get married, They have babies etc. path

There’s nothing wrong with liking that concept but when you fixate on holding something to a rigid standard of expectations, then you’re missing other perspectives and bigger pictures, you’re kinda locking yourself away from accepting life is made of lives not just your own, experiences not just your own, and how you choose to deal with those lives and yours (See only the tree, miss the forest and so on)

Hibike! is a show dedicated to human interpretation and expression in all of its characters and their intricate relationships so applying formulas to it to me is inherently missing the point to paint it as something its not trying to be (and reading it as strictly heterosexual is ignorance of an lgbt perspective)

All of that out the way and being said, every Kumiko and Reina interaction is a progression of romance that has the complication of being between two girls in a contemporary setting; every word, every silence, every touch or look is framed as openness for two people who’s entire foundation is struggling to find a place among humanity and peers and even initially toward each other, they have a defined separation between how they see themselves as together, as one, with a completeness they show others only in shades, so that every gesture they make as people with others has consideration they practiced and established first between each other, they are the genesis for a measure of each other’s overall humanity

Kumiko shoots higher because she sees Reina live it; Reina humbles her pride for empathy because she saw Kumiko try it, the list goes on and has been said by many- Kumiko is Kumiko near Reina and Reina is Reina near Kumiko, no gimmicks no tricks no hung up reservations on trust like there is with others, they simply are together and that is so hard to achieve, to be understood

People get caught up on Reina’s unreciprocated (thank god jsdifsj Edit: i rewatched the scene where Kumiko tells Reina she's rooting for her after learning Taki's wife died and I love the sentiment but that's still fuckin gross and I'd really like the entire Taki crush situation squashed completely in S3 whatever form it takes- I get they're teenagers so they don't know better and that kinda thing does happen (I know from personal experience even) but it's still wrong) feelings for Taki-sensei as they do the Shūichi + Kumiko situation then think that means KyoAni has no concept of homosexuality for not depicting the expected formula cishet couples (and Yuri as an exploitative genre) depict rather than remember that for now and for most including myself lgbt relationships are not part of the accepted normal and so can't be compared nor should they be expected to integrate in the exact same way to be valid- and Kumiko and Reina themselves seem to operate on knowing this which lends them an air of sadness to a degree because they can't (for Kumiko and her CompHet/Side that dislikes upsetting people which I feel lead her to accept then leave Shūichi's romantic interest even more so because in the end being in love with him isn't who she is and walking away there is growth on her part) be their entire selves and act in more intimate ways on their homosexuality than they already are

They know their closeness is special to them, their attraction is special, they know it's not how they treat other friends, and they know by how they keep treating each other that it's a level of romance especially in the way they say This is a confession of love not just in having said such a thing, they're not in denial enough to stop being as they are together but they are struggling to reconcile and build on how they see their other relationships which includes the men in their life and social expectation given their lgbt sides in their identities, not just because the series treats them as people but because they're teenagers (I feel like people forget they're kids all the time), and no teenager ever has all of themselves sorted out at their age even more than most adults, teens should be allowed to safely explore what the hell the world and other people mean for them to discover themselves and that's what I think is happening

When I was their age I didn't consciously realize my best friend was the love of my life since we were 11 in my eyes because of denial and fear to act on it or take a chance on my intensity being reciprocated, instead I loved her more than I loved myself while still having crushes and being in love with other girls all the time- even as she and I had what I felt was the same level of intimacy, love, and openness, we even entertained the idea of growing up to live together and it was only as an adult that I finally looked back and saw what she told me she already knew about me being in love

Reina and Kumiko canonically mull over the idea that they'd be separated as time goes on, and I think the observation shouldn't be When will they be a couple but rather They're too scared of going all the way as a couple for life to pull the rug from under them, they are for now in love and guarding it, preserving it with the last bit of distance they possess in themselves, and the question is when will they be comfortable enough to not need that fear

Human relationships are complicated and multilayered and can never be fully defined by set order and if the show accepts that then it's how I want to see it

#kumirei #hibike! euphonium

[hello-nichya-here]

Zucest - Is It Really Flirting?

(Originally posted on AO3 as chapter 43 of Defending and Analysing Zucest)

@azdaema-does-art asked: So I think a big stumbling block for me with this ship is that I very much adhere to the reading of the show that holds:

Quasi-Seducer!Azula (as seen virtually anytime) and Quasi-Seducer!Zuko (as seen in "The Waterbending Scroll") are not actually expressions of desire from them. Rather, this is Zuko and Azula trying to be intimidating by modeling their behavior off their father (circling, personal-space-invading, low seductive tones, etc)

When actually trying to flirt neither Zuko nor Azula acts anything like that. When Zuko goes on that date with a girl in the Earth Kingdom, or Azula flirting with that guy on Ember Island, they're both awkward disasters.

I'd be curious to hear you address this. (Or point me to some awkward disaster!zucest fanfic.)

***

That is a really good point and I'm glad you brought it up. While I understand that reading of the show, I disagree with it slightly for a few reasons (beyond my own bias).

Need to be in control: No one can argue against the fact that neither Zuko nor Azula know how to have "normal", healthy relationships with others, mainly due to how unequal 99% of the relationships in the Fire Nation are since imposing your own will over someone else's has become part of their culture. Both Zuko and Azula accepted being treated like mere tools/punching bags by their father, Zuko was constantly insulting Iroh over the smallest things and Azula full on threatened Ty Lee's life to make her join her on her chase after her brother and the Avatar - both were scenarios where desire wasn't a factor at all (thought I know many fans that would like to think otherwise XD)

However, during The Beach, we saw how both of them try (and fail) to deal with romance. Zuko was extremelly paranoid that Mai was interested in another guy, for no real reason, and was constantly trying to intimidate her into either admiting to it or into saying she disliked the guy, even though she had clearly said she was completely indifferent to him. And Azula, after her kiss with Chan, decided, on her own and not giving a damn about his feelings on the matter, that not only would they be officially a couple, but that they'd dominate the earth together. Control is, more often than not, a major factor in all of their actions and relationships, so Azula wanting to intimidate Zuko in the bedroom scene (which she very much tried to do and succeeded at) doesn't automatically rule out the possibility of atraction.

Mixed feelings: While "I wanna fight/kill my sibling" is sort of these two default state, there are moments that show that they do have at least some positive feelings for each other. Zuko doesn't give a shit that Aang is going to kill Ozai, but seeing Azula falling "to her death" and then chained up and defeated after their Agni Kai quite clearly made him emotional, even if he tried to control himself. Azula's positive feelings for Zuko are so obvious I had to do an in length discussion of it in chapter 12 "Is Zucest just about sex?" Combine all of the conflicting emotions they have for each other with their need to control the other, and some scenes end up getting some connotations the writers weren't planning them to have... supposedly (I'll get into that in a bit)

Awareness and familiarity: Don't get me wrong, Zuko and Azula are two extremelly traumatized, socially awkward teenagers who have no idea how to flirt (or how to fit in with people their age) but we also need to take context into consideration, especiall when it comes to Zuko's date with Jin and Azula's interactions with Chan.

In Ba Sing Se, Zuko was outside of his comfort zone, away from home, in enemy territory, and so paranoid that he assumed Jin came into the tea shop so often because she knew they were Fire Nation, not because she had a crush on him or simply enjoyed their tea. And while he liked her and the date was nice, Zuko was very "stiff" and even looked a bit uncomfortable (not to say very uncomfortable) at some points - which is oddly simmilar to how he was acting during the bedroom scene (hell, Azula was quite clearly looking at him just like Jin did, as I pointed out in "The most important parallel in Avatar"). Finally, we cannot forget that, even though he was awkward as fuck during 90% of the night, Zuko did manage to do something kinda romantic by lighting up the place, meaning he isn't completely oblivious to the concept of flirting (which is proved by his relationship with Mai).

Now, when it comes to Azula, the poor girl has almost no idea how to flirt. Almost. Talking about Chan's sharp outfit shows she's got some of the basis down, like "say something nice" - the problem is that her concept of "nice" is very different than that of most people. She did sort of know what to do once Ty Lee gave her some tips... but she quickly reversed back to her regular ways - which once again shows that flirting/seduction has an element of control and intimidation for her. She probably doesn't always mean to act in ways that could be considered flirty, but that doesn't mean she is completely oblivious to the implications of, let's say, invading her brother's personal space and talking to him in a low tone while wearing nothing but a robe.

And since I mentioned Azula going back to what she knows, that leads us to another thing to take into account: the fact that Zuko and Azula quite literally knew each other their whole lives - meaning if they were to ever flirt with each other, it would probably look at least somewhat different than when they were out of their element. Azula was the one in control, so she was far more comfortable and confident than she had been with Chan, and Zuko was the one being intimidated, which explains why he kept his guard up. Once again, that "theory" is sort of confirmed if we compare how Zuko acted while flirting with Mai on The Headband versus how he tried to interact with her in The Beach - when he used a non-traditional, but very Mai-esque "You're so beautiful when you hate the world" he got her equivalent of an "I love you" when she told him she didn't hate him, but he tried to do more "normal" things like getting her a pretty shell it blew up on his face. He knows Mai since they were both kids, meaning he usually knows how to deal with her, just like Azula usually knows how to deal with him.  

Intensity: While a lot of Azula's behavior can be explained by her copying Ozai, we need to remember that there's only so much he could affect, especially since her way of "intimidating" Zuko was far more touchy and incestuous than his, and lasted a lot longer. Azula gets close to people when she's intimidating them (see how she toyed with Aang in The Drill), but not as close as she did with her brother. The sole exception to that being Sokka on The Day Of Black Sun - but that is on somewhat shaky ground despite the accidental sexual tension since the first time she got close to him she was being launched by the Dai Li and he just happened to be standing a little bellow the direction she was launched at, and the second time had him pinning her to the wall (which is in character since Sokka usually goes straight at his foes to intimidate them while fighting), and as soon as she had her firebending back she pushed him away. On top of that, she was trying to distract him, Aang and Toph, meaning he wasn't her focus at all, and she ignored him on all the other times their groups were facing each other.

With Zuko on the other hand, she was going full force, like I said on my analysis of the bedroom scene. She played coy, stared at him in a very intense, weird way, circled the pillar on her bed, stretched in front of him, got on his personal space touching his shoulder and chest, and bit her lip while talking basically purring her words. That is all a bit too much for me to believe it was just about intimidation. And the touching gets even more suspicious when you notice Azula does enjoy and is willing to give physical affection - she hugged both Mai and Ty Lee after seeing them again, pulled Ty Lee close while conforting her and apologizing for her harsh words at The Beach... and put her hand on Zuko's shoulder while saying he restored his own honor to reassure him after he was feeling bad for betraying his uncle.

Intention of the actors/writers/animators: Avatar is no stranger to parallels. It also isn't a stranger to adult themes/jokes, fanservice, and ship teasing. For instance, even thought they didn't end up together and were never canonically interested in each other, there was A LOT of hints/teases of Zutara - dude fucking took lightining to the heart for her.

Just like the writers and producers were aware of Zutara, Tokka and many, many other ships, they were also aware of Zucest and even jokingly shipped Azula and The Blue Spirit at a panel. The animators habit of sexualizing the characters speaks for itself, so I won't even go into that. Finally, Grey Delisle, Azula's voice actress is a Zucest shiper, has brought it up many times, asked people to send her fanart and fanfic of it, created the phrase "Zucest is best cest", and has full on said she voiced the scene as if Azula was trying to seduce Zuko,  - which regardless of whether or not the writers intended for the character to be doing, means that there is a very strong incest subtext to the scene and that, in a weird way, "Azula" herself confirmed her motives to act the way she did.

#zucest #azuko #shipcest #meta #azula #zuko #fire siblings #atla #avatar

[aclosetfan]

I’m still mad about Bunny from an earlier post so here’s some headcanons for an au affectionately titled “what could have happen if CN didn’t nuke the one ppg with an intellectual disability”

Long post! Look under the cut!

Bunny has Down Syndrome!

The Professor is a little...tifted when he finds out his children made another child, but Professor is a man full of love, so he takes it in stride. He’s never mad at Bunny, but the triplets have a very long and thorough talking to.

Bunny is an adjustment, but so were the triplets. Professor adjusts well to the change. He doesn’t like his lil honey bun (cause ofc he has embarrassing nicknames for her too) to go out and fight. He doesn’t want her getting too overstimulated and would rather leave the bigger villains to the girls. He can’t stop Bunny from running to help when her sisters call though!

Bunny is no damsel in distress!

But for the most part, Bunny does her part for the team by helping the professor in the lab! She’s a little uncoordinated when she gets excited, but so is the Professor, so it’s a match made in heaven. She has her own lab gear and happily hands over tools and chemicals (w/supervision!) at the Professor’s request. She also very good at reminding the professor when it’s time for a break. Bunny doesn’t let him miss snack or bedtime.

She also makes sure his experiment have a touch of cutesy because Bunny loves her a bit of sparkle and frills!

Having a sister with an obvious disability is difficult for the girls in their own ways. But Bunny really teaches the girls a lot!

For Blossom, she has a hard time puzzling how Bunny was going to live a fulfilling life in an unforgiving world. Since Blossom strives for control over things she doesn’t understand, it takes her a little bit (and a few lectures from the professor) to realize that Bunny will find her own place and that she doesn’t have to be so anxious. Bunny will be fine. She’ll be okay. She’s not so fragile. (But Blossom still has bouts of extreme worry that her little sister won’t ever be accepted) Like I said though, Blossom strives for control and tries to help the Professor keep Bun well structured and safely entertained, but Bunny’s has an independent mind of her own and teaches Blossom that while structure is good, everyone deserves a little fun!

For Buttercup it’s a giant lesson in calm and patience, which if you follow the show, is generally the lesson Buttercup needs to learn. But Bunny isn’t Bubbles or another kid on the playground, she’s special in a different way and even though she has super powers too and can get a little rough—because Bunny often forgets her own strength—Buttercup has to often be remind that she needs to be gentle. It takes a little bit for Buttercup to realize that Bunny doesn’t get things right away and what Buttercup thinks is funny can be hurtful to her. But Buttercup does learn and she’s extremely protective of her baby sister. She finds games and sports that they both enjoy, and every once in while Buttercup will buckle down and play the princess that Bunny has to save. Fr Bunny and Buttercup never give up on each other.

Bubbles is immediately the best with Bunny. It’s not so much her disability that Bubbles has an issue with, it’s more like the family displacement. Bunny gets a lot of the extra attention Bubbles has been use to. Bunny and her like a lot of the same things—dolls, coloring books, things that glitter and sparkle, bright colors, stuffed animals etc. They’re both very much into everything girly. And that means Bubbles really has to learn to share. Her stuff, her sisters, her professor—everything. Sometimes she gets a little jealous, but after an incident with Octi (where the beloved stuffed animal was ripped in two and crudely taped back together by her little sister in apology), Bubbles eventually realizes that Bunny looks up to her as a strong, tough older sister and that’s A-Ok w/ Bubs. And I know it’s cliche but I think Bubs would give Bunny Octi—not forever mind you—they share.

School’s interesting! Bunny goes to preschool with them and gets her own special teacher. But kids can be cruel and the bullies of the preschool (which is, yeah, Mitch and his group) do what they do. The sisters learn early on how to deal with insensitivity and it’s not easy (especially for BC/Blossom), but with the help of Ms. Keane, the Professor, and Bunny herself, the preschool learns that Bunny’s just a little girl who likes to play too!

I mentioned this one in a previous post, but I think Mr. Green should be her parateacher instead of the girls substitute. That way his character can stay in the show and they can have the “don’t judge a book by its cover” episode. But now it can wrap back into the episode of Bunny’s first day of school to really hit the point home! Mr Green can explain that Bunny was “different” but the girls loved her anyway, so “hey give me a chance to, I promise I won’t let you down!” (The intensity of the episode would be heightened because the girls would be extra protective of Bun) (Bunny absolutely adores Mr. Green and Ms. Keane appreciates the help!)

Bunny teaches them how to stim!! Whether it’s flappin around or playing with slime the sisters like doing it together (and tbh they’re fun stress relievers that the triplets carry into adult life)!

Also, now that I think about, I don’t feel like Bunny would get over stimulated often, but it takes her a bit to calm down when she does. Bubbles is the best at calming her down when she gets too excited, but when she’s angry, it’d be BC. I think that’s because Buttercup’s marked as an aggressive kid and, like I mentioned earlier, her and Bunny’s relationship would be filled with “learning to be calm” lessons.

Bunny has sensory issues! Nbd we all do, but Bunny doesn’t like her ears being touched so sometimes it’s hard to brush her hair. She loves Blossom’s hair though and Blossom can usually convince her that if she wants long pretty hair she needs to wash and brush her own. Blossom and the Professor are the only ones allowed to touch her hair!

Sensory wise, Bunny only likes soft cotton clothing. Everything else is too ichy. She also only wears dresses because they’re both pretty and light. good thing t-shirt dresses exist!

Purple! Bunnies! Purple! Bunnies! She has a niche and my baby fills it!

Hard ‘T’s are hard for Bunny. They round into ‘D’s instead. So Buttercup becomes Buddercup except Buddercup can sometimes be too much too, so Bunny more often then not calls her sister Buddy and that’s how Buttercup eventually earns the nickname Bud.

If you h/c the girls with fingers, the Utonium’s learn sign language, which helps when Bunny become too over stimulated or has bouts of being non verbal! Buttercup has the hardest time, Blossom catches on the quickest, Bubbles and Bunny keep making up their own signs, and Professor’s just trying to teach them all!

Can’t stay in preschool forever! Kids grow up! Sucks though :/ because the girls don’t stay in the same class. But don’t worry the triplets make sure they always eat lunch with their sister! And two weeks into middle school they realize that their baby sister doesn’t need them much anyways. She’s the queen of the SPED room. She’s so helpful, kind, and popular that she’s socially doing better then her sisters 😂😂

Bunny really gets into gymnastics! She wants to be in the special olympics, but she has super powers and the Professor has to explain that having super powers is a bit like cheating. She throws a tantrum and Bubbles, with all her crafty genius, saves the day by making fake medals and trophies. The Utoniums though are still very involved in the special olympics and other like activities . It makes them all happy and Bunny gets to hand out the medals! (Helps that she’s a superhero 😏😉 always getting that special treatment)

Guys, my gal? She’s a huge flirt! If you’re like ew no, that’s morally wrong, you need to re-evaluate what YOU know about Down Syndrome! Yes developmentally she’s a little slower, but Bunny’s still a teenager—a growing young women—and very much human, so romantic idealtions are very normal. And that applies to all our friends irl too. It just depends on a persons mental capacity! Admittedly, the Professor was a little uncomfortable at first too because there’s consent and power imbalances to think about, but the people of similar age that Bunny interacts with on the daily are people just like her—like minded individuals with puppy crushes. You can’t deny a person their humanity, so when one of the boys in her SPED class gets the courage to ask her on a date the Professor buckles down and calls the boy’s mom.

Their date is a at a park, properly chaperoned by their parents. They swing and have a good time. They end it with a hug! It’s very exciting and Bunny doesn’t stop bragging about it. Two days later she’s broken up with her new BF for the next brave soul. (Truly everything stays completely innocent don’t worry. I can understand anyone’s concern—Bunny isn’t a sexual being she’s just a romantic. Also there’s ALWAYS a chaperone)

Her family still worries though. Blossom because she always worries about Bunny and the things Bunny could be missing out on. The Professor for much the same reason + she’s his little girl. Bubbles because her LITTLE sister keeps getting more dates then her. And Buttercup doesn’t worry much, but she is annoyed because if the Professor isn’t available, she’s the one who ALWAYS has to chaperone.

Why buttercup? Don’t let her fool you. She actually volunteers. She’d chaperone any of her sisters’ dates if Blossom and Bubbles would let her. Ain’t no gross boy touching her sisters.

Tbh bunny flirts with boys most of the time to embarrass and get a rise out of her sisters. She’s a lil shit sometimes. (It’s the spice in her)

Bunny also makes sure to keep her sisters IN CHECK. If she thinks they’re being too judgmental or mean to the “bad guys,” she makes sure they remember how they were mean to HER.

Most of the main villains though don’t know her. Mojo tried something once and ended up being carted back to Townsville Correctional Facility in a gurney. Bunny has an aversion to violence after the “you’re being bad” incident, so she isn’t one to fight/protect herself (protecting her sisters is another story tho lol she’d kill for them), but her sisters are fiercely protective. Incredibly protective. So protective that when the other main villains saw Mojo carted into jail they went 😬😬😬 and stayed away.

She meets Princess though! She likes Princess for all her glittery dress-up shit. Idk how yet, but I think she’d be a good catalyst for Princess’s redemption arc (along with Robin, who yes is also Bunny’s best friend). She thinks Princess’s hair is pretty and really let’s be honest Princess goes soft because she likes the positive attention. In Princess’s defense, she was never insensitive to Bunny’s disability. She’s a ppg and a ppg is what Princess wants to be. Sure, she’s petty, but goodness gracious, Blossom, she’s well versed in etiquette and that’s just uncouth.

And she meets the boys because she’s a flirt remember? Boomer’s name is her favorite but she never gets the “-er” part out. Just likes the way BOOM sounds. Her sisters have to remind her to use her inside voice, but Boomer’s a good sport about his ear drums being blown out and usually yells right on back. She thinks they’re cute! Like Princess, Bunny makes the boys feel liked and needed and helps them along their redemption arc! But they’re hesitant to be around her because they saw MoJo and....😬😬😬 (hell would freeze over before the girls let them near her anyway) (their fear is also why they aren’t completely insensitive shits towards Bunny—Mitch is a human so he got away from a beating, but someone like Butch?? Nah, BC’s always actively looking for a reason to decimate him)

Bun’s fave villain though is Fuzzy. He’s like a giant fuzzy pink teddy bear!

Bunny’s essentially made out of the exact same stuff as Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup. Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice. So what if she’s a smidge bit different. Everyone loves her just the same!

#headcanons #ppg Bunny #I’d die for this girl #she deserves love #and the next story I write I’m putting her in it #if someone thinks I need to amend of change anything lemme know!! #no intention here to be insensitive! #I wrote this in a daze so sorry if it isn’t coherent

[bookaddict24-7]

I said at the beginning of the year that I would share my reviews more on my blog instead of just on Instagram and Goodreads. I’ve been reading a lot so far this year, so my reviews will be delayed on here.

Friend me on Goodreads here to read my reviews in real-time!

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107. Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wow, this book had more of a punch than I anticipated! I think books like this one are super important--not just because of the content, but because of the audience it's geared towards. Young readers now are learning more and more about society than a lot of us did at their age, so I think it's perfectly fitting that a book like this one is out there for kids to devour. One of the things I liked the most about this book was the allegory of racism in a magical community. Usually in fantastical novels for kids (older ones, anyway), there's this belief that no matter what you look like, the moment you go to another magical place all of your worries about racism goes away because MAGIC. But in this one, not only did our MC have to contend with the racism in her normal life, she had to face more racism in her new life, just with a new title. So many of the actions taken against her by those around her, and the comments (like putting her brother on a pedestal because he was the star of the school and calling him the exception to the rule, or one girl actively telling her that "You can take the girl out of the ghetto, but not the ghetto out of the girl) really made me think that this poor kid went from one ignorant situation to another. Not only is she trying to find her brother and solve the mystery of his disappearance, but she also has to deal with racist and ignorant people around her. Imagine calling a child evil because of something they can't control. Imagine going out of your way to ensure that they fail. Imagine you or your child hearing the things this child heard while trying to just do her best in a system that's always been made to be against her, both in the human world and in the magic world. Imagine, imagine, imagine. Another thing I loved about this book was her resilience. She is brave, and smart, and has such a big future in this new world of hers. I'm so excited to read the rest of this series as it comes out. This book was POWERFUL and I highly recommend it. Not just for the young readers in your life, but I think parents and other readers would highly benefit from reading Amari's story.

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108. Mindy Kim & the Yummy Seaweed Business by Lyla Lee--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Okay, this book was ADORABLE. I haven’t read a 6-8 book in a long time and I’m thankful to my friend on Instagram who recommended these books! Mindy has to deal with not only her grief about losing her mom and her dad’s busy schedule (as well as his own grief), but she’s also at a new school in a new State where she is the only Asian student. I’ve mentioned this in some of my most recent reviews, but I love that these important topics are being discussed in children’s books. We see moments of racism in this book where Mindy is left upset, even if she doesn’t fully understand just why certain comments and actions are so hurtful. And even if she doesn’t dwell on it, a parent reading this with their little one would notice and hopefully learn if they see their own behaviours mirrored in the actions of some of these adults. But we also see moments of kindness and love as a young girl tries her best to find ways to make her dad happy. Despite the heavier undertones in this book, there was an overall feel of sweetness and childhood innocence. The ability to apologize when you know you’re in the wrong, the innocence of emotions getting away from you, and the sweetness of a daughter loving her father. This was a great read and I highly recommend it for everyone, but especially the little ones in your life who will be entering situations where books like these and their lessons are really important.

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109. The Dead Zone by Stephen King--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This one, I felt, held more of an emotional punch rather than a creepy feeling. I really enjoyed it! I loved the psychic angle and the MC proving the people who didn’t believe him or mocked wrong. Also, this was a King book that actually made me want to cry at the end. I didn’t give it a 5 because of some really slow moments. While I love that his stories always have a way of coming together at the end, certain scenes sometimes feel long, boring, or confusing. I’d recommend this for anyone who wants to read a King book that isn’t scary and if you’re a fan of 11/22/63!

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110. Takane & Hana Vol. 1 by Yuki Shiwasu--⭐️⭐️⭐️

This one took me a while to read. I found that I wasn’t really in the mood to read it every time I picked it up—which is so different from when I pick up a manga I really want to read. The story had some funny bits and the artwork was gorgeous, but it really bugged me how every new chapter re-introduced the love interest. Over and over and over again. I get it: he’s rich, arrogant, and an asshole. Can’t you trust us to remember these key personality traits? But it wasn’t even just that. We were constantly re-introduced to the premise of the story. I don’t know how common this is WITHIN the same volume, but I haven’t encountered it yet—and if I have, it wasn’t as annoying as this one. I’ll keep reading the story because I’m curious, but this first volume was a bit of a rougher read for me.

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111. You Have A Match by Emma Lord--⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

I think the thing with this book is that the cover tells a different story than what really matters in this book. Yes, there’s a friends to more relationship in this, but the main storyline is about two girls who find out they’re sisters and are trying to solve that mystery. This isn’t a romcom—the romance is a super side story to the main storyline. And to be honest, I really enjoyed it. I wanted to see why these two sisters lived their whole life separated. I enjoyed the process and the friendships created along the way. I felt for the parents, but at the same time, I felt more for the girls. There were instances where I wanted to yell at the parents because they kept putting the reveal off. This was enjoyable overall—a great summer read. Not particularly memorable, but it does what it sets out to do: makes you question the strength of friendships and what they can overcome. Also, Instagram.

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112. Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When my friend raved about this book I was both excited and intimidated. I usually try to avoid hypes surrounding books because I go in with too-high expectations and a lot of the time, the expectations crush me while I’m reading. Thankfully, the hype is very well-deserved with this one. For me, the most important aspect of this book that stuck with me wasn’t the mystery surrounding the MC’s cousin’s death, but the character growth the MC himself experiences during the time of his investigation. Identity sounds like a pretty clear cut thing sometimes, but it’s a lot harder to know your own when you’re the child of an immigrant family. You live in a new country, get accustomed to new expectations and customs, and inevitably feel a culture shock when you’re re-introduced to the culture your parents grew up in. I saw myself so much in this MC. From my childhood to my current adult years, people have thought that they could define me and who I am simply because I say I’m this or this. But while others make a quick judgment, they don’t see the internal struggle. They don’t see you questioning yourself on whether you’re enough of this, or whether you’re enough of that. I think teenage me would have loved this book even more. The MC is constantly faced with criticism about his father choosing to move them to the States from the Philippines. The judgments and the preconceived notions of him and his family make him not only weary because he recalls how his uncle treated his father the first time he visited, but also wary because it sets him down this road of self-reflection. I haven’t read many (if any, unfortunately) books where a character goes to the Philippines. I’m so thankful to this book. I learned so much about the culture, the foods, and the struggles faced not just financially, but politically as well. I remember reading about some of the topics brought up in this book and it was extremely eye-opening. It’s so easy for us to look away because we have that privilege, but this book says, “No, look at me. I exist.” The MC, in his journey, also learns to speak up and use his voice. Not just against ignorant friends, but an annoyingly smug and verbally abusive uncle (who I hated to all hell). He also learns to listen. He learns that though not every story is perfect, they still have power. I think this is a great read for those who have one foot in two different worlds (hands and arms can be in other worlds, too). Especially if you’re trying to understand this part of you that wasn’t developed as you grew up. I’d also recommend it to readers who want to learn more about this struggle, learn more about a different culture that is more than its stereotypes, and/or want to read about a young teenager trying to come to terms with his grief and guilt.

___ Have you read any of these books? Would you recommend them?

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Happy reading!

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