#<<<THEY DID IT

[twig-tea]

Cooking Crush Finale: I'm Going to Miss This Show

Honestly tl;dr on this post is that this show is great, it ended leaving me the way the show has felt for me week to week, which is a good thing. I've said it too many times in tags and posts but let's say it once more: This show is fundamentally kind, it felt like it was giving me a hug every week, and I'm going to miss that a lot.

In my post after ep10 I mentioned that the writing on this show was making me so happy by having the conflicts converge on this one contest, and that did come to fruition in a way that I found very satisfying. The one nitpick I will say is the bullying storyline did feel dropped. Theoretically, from a thematic read, I actually love that, because these bullies had the best possible comeuppance by becoming completely irrelevant to Prem, Dy, and Samsee's lives and utterly forgotten. They failed at getting them kicked out of the contest, failed at eroding their self-esteem, and failed at preventing them from succeeding. The victory over the bullies is really how these three left that contest still feeling proud of themselves, good about what they accomplished, and optimistic about their futures. The show focusing on their group hug rather than the "winners" of the contest underscores that for me. And I love that we get the timeskip to see Prem's chef's table restauraunt, and that all of them are there as the first customers (including Metha, so glad this MVP stayed part of the group!). However, without the show telling me explicitly that should be my takeaway, I hesitate to assume that's what it meant to do (rather than the show just running out of time). It's satisfying enough for me, but I acknowledge that I had to fill in that detail on my own to be satisfied. And I am willing to do that for this show because it did such a good job with the other threads.

The conflict with Ten's dad was so satisfyingly tied up in Prem wanting to win the contest--not just to prove that he was worthy of Ten, but to be able to pay Ten's father back for the money he'd gotten--and I appreciated how Ten's resolution with his father was nuanced and not perfect. His father showed his support and gave verbal acknowledgment of Prem as a suitable partner but remained distant, and that visual contrast of him sitting at the restaurant table alone in the same spot he used to sit with Ten and his mother was telling. He doesn't apologize, but he doesn't get an easy redemption either; it felt very in character that he'd only accept Prem in Ten's life after Prem proved himself over time (and only after Ten continued to prove that he was still going to live up to his father's expectations while dating Prem).

I referenced in my Fire & Dynamite hype post that one of the things their relationship does for Dy is give him confidence that someone will be there in his corner. When he came out of the room having lost and was the only one without someone to hug, my heart dropped. But his did too, and it's because he knew, in that moment, that something was wrong. He had learned to expect and rely on Fire's presence, and that growth is something I loved to see. The way he went searching for Fire rather than internalizing that Fire wasn't there for him, and then was able to be there for Fire in the confrontation with Fire's mom--that meant so much to me. It was subtle, but compare it with the scene in ep10 when Fire shows up at the contest and Dy is surprised to even see him. My boy has grown so much! That confrontation with the mom was also really well done; I loved that Fire made it clear his sexuality was not Dy's 'fault' but was something he'd hidden from his mother and tied all of that up in his dynamic with her overall: that he's afraid to share his true self with her because he's afraid of disappointing her. This was such a huge moment for Fire, and I was so proud of him! And I love that it took her time to go away with that, sit with it, and decide to take it in and to change. And I also love that she still doesn't really like Dy, and that their relationship is antagonistic tolerance lol that was a satisfyingly realistic place for those relationships to land, and I really appreciated that none of that was easy. The look on Dynamite's face when he sees Fire's mother accepting him was so complicated; I absolutely loved Aungpao in that scene. Seeing someone you love being accepted for something you weren't by your own parent is so complicated a feeling--I don't doubt for a second that he was so happy for Fire, but there's a moment where I'm sure he was also feeling sorry for himself (rightly so). And Aungpao was able to communciate that complexity of emotion. I'm really looking forward to seeing more from him in future.

And the way they retained the Ten and Prem communication dynamics all the way through was so satisfying for me! I wrote a really long post about this halfway through the series here, and I haven't felt the need to do anything as thorough for the back half because the show really just kept doing more of the same (and I loved it every time). But, just to highlight this moment in the finale, when Ten asks Prem to say he loves him, and Prem kisses him and asks if Ten can hear him--for once, Ten doesn't ask him to use his words, he just asks Prem to say it louder (i.e. kiss him more), because Prem is now using his words more regularly and Ten finally understands what he means with his gestures, he no longer has uncertainty requiring the reassurance of explicit communication. It was a really cute nod to their continued pattern through this show, and to the deepening of the understanding between them.

Tying this moment from the finale to one of the broader things I found so comforting about this show: The relationship between Ten and Prem took work, which they showed on-screen, both the initial formation and the maintenance. And in that work, we got to see a couple stay together through difficult times, decide together how to handle problems as they come up, support one another through hardships, comfort one another, give one another strength, and ultimately make one another better at the things they were trying to achieve. Even though there was very little fighting in a literal sense, these two are my ultimate battle couple to date. I wanted to hug this show back every week as these characters made choices I'd been yelling at my screen for protagonists to make for literally years. And there was still conflict, and the characters still had growing to do, and they weren't perfect. But they let one another not be perfect, they let one another be hurt, and then work through that together. This relationship has skyrocketed to one of my favourites in any BL.

And as much as I love this core relationship, as well as the incredibly nuanced queerness of Dynamite and Fire's dynamic, which was so satisfying to see depicted on my screen every week too, and which I will absolutely love forever--the way Dy gave Fire space to figure out how and when to come out even to the point of risking his own precarious housing situation, and then supporting him by being honest about what to expect (and what he will be risking) is something I will also hold this close to my heart as one of my favourite BL moments--the best thing about this show was the core friendships. I will be forever thankful for a show that treated its core queer friendships with the same or even higher priority to the romantic relationships. I've written previously about how exciting it was to me that one of the major conflicts in this show was between the friend group, and I want to call that out again because it was so rare and so satisfying as an arc. And that moment in episode 10 when Ten delays asking Prem to be his boyfriend in order to allow Prem his emotional reunion with his friends was such an important gesture--not just for Ten and Prem, but for the Cooking Crush audience. It was so rare and satisfying to see a show prioritize friendship first.

Alright I've ranted enough. If you weren't sure about this show for whatever reason (too much else to watch; heard rumblings about some of the early episodes; didn't want to trust GMMTV again), I am happy to tell you that if you like good character arcs, solid writing, class dynamics, queer representation, found family dynamics, good communication, couples that stay together and persevere as a team, and lovable dorks, this show was wonderful and it holds up.

AND IT LET TEN KEEP HIS GLASSES ON THE WHOLE WAY THROUGH!!

I'd recommend the uncut version, which is available for free with a Thai VPN on WeTV or grey, but the cut version is available on YouTube and a couple of very cool tumblr folks have summarized and provided clips of the cut bits so nobody has to miss out: @respectthepetty (here) and @keepthetension (here). Thank you both for your hard work every week!

#cooking crush #bl meta #typed so that i can stop thinking it #long post #let a main character be hot in glasses for the whole show you cowards!!! #<<<THEY DID IT #never have i been so proud to have a tag that did not apply #honestly though if you haven't watched this show give it a try #and if you watched it on YouTube please check out the cut scenes some great moments are in there!

[clandestinegardenias]

My therapist just told me my problem is that I need to write more fanfiction.

#NOT A JOKE SHE LITERALLY DID

[sunbentshadows]

Hey all, you know how internet searches suck now? When the results are awful, full-of-AI, death-of-the-internet levels of bad?

Start appending date constraints to your searches - "before:2023".

My results have gone from 90% AI bullshit to ~60% usable - which frankly at this point is a huge improvement.

#information death of the internet etc #legit this has been SO SO helpful #shout out to mastodon infosec server for this one #before 2022 we did not really have the AI-content-farms because. the tech did not exist to the public. #and you can knock back the date if need be #obviously this does not FIX the problem but #me.txt

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

#yeehaw #1k #5k #10k #posts that got cursed. blasted. im making these tag updates after... 19 hours? #also i have been told it should say speech loss bc nonverbal specifically refers to the permanent state. did not know that! #unfortunately i fear it is so far past containment that even if i edited it now it would do very little. but noted for future reference #edit 2: nvm enough ppl have come to rb it from me directly that i changed the wording a bit. hopefully this makes sense #also. in case anyone is curious. though i doubt anyone who is commenting these things will check the original tags #1) my friend did not do this on purpose in any way. it was not intended to distract me or to hit on me. im a lesbian hes a gay man. cmon now #he felt very bad about it afterwards. i thought it was hilarious but it was very embarrassed and apologetic #2) “why didn't he use 🫵🏼?” didn't exist yet. “why didn't he use 🆗?” dunno! we'd been using a lot of hand emojis. 👌🏼 is an ok sign #like it makes sense. it was just a silly mixup. also No i did not invent 👉🏼👌🏼 as a gesture meaning sex. do you live under a rock #3) nonspeaking episodes are a recurring thing in my life and have been since i was born. this is not a quirky one-time thing #it is a pervasive issue that is very frustrating to both myself and the people i am trying to communicate with. in which trying to speak is #extremely distressing and causes very genuine anguish. this post is not me making light of it it's just a funny thing that happened once #it's no different than if i post about a funny thing that happened in conjunction w a physical disability. it's just me talking abt my life #i don't mind character tags tho. those can be entertaining. i don't know what any of you are talking about #Except the ppl who have said this is pego/ryu or wang/xian. those people i understand and respect #if you use it as a writing prompt that's fine but send it to me. i want to see it #aaaand i think that's it. everyday im tempted to turn off rbs on it. it hasn't even been a week

[diabloku]

Lucifer: *enters the hotel*

Alastor: I cast vicious mockery 😈

An animation my sis and I made for fun

Music is Perception Check by Tom Cardy.

#hazbin hotel alastor #Hazbin hotel #Hazbin hotel Lucifer #vivziepop #Hazbin hotel fanart #Alastor #Lucifer #Perception check #“you're much shorter in real life” #Alastor has no mercy if you're under 5“2 lol #I did: the storyboard; artworks and animation #And my sis did: the coloring; animation as well and the compositing #Team work makes the dream work lol

[bookwyrminspiration]

god I would be UNSTOPPABLE if I was capable of consistently initiating tasks. just you wait. you'll be waiting a while but just you wait

#executive dysfunction #shitpost #every day I get stuck in waiting mode for SO LONG and SO MANY TIMES #that one time I tried adhd meds it fixed it but then I. was like no I am going to be scared and not continue taking it <3 #and also. I simply did not like the psychologist and did not want to have to go back #so. rawdogging the world <3 #man if I could start a task right now...then you'd see...then you'd all see....

[temporalteardrop]

bass makes a dollar. i make a dime. that's why i think about lesbian sex on company time

#me serving customers while chappell roan's red wine supernova is stuck in my head #me: yeah that'll be £3.60 / my brain: she did it right there‚ out on the deck: put her canine teeth in the side of my neck #rose's incessant yearnings #rose's gay little job #rose's ramblings

[nothazellevesque]

a man self immolated in front of the israeli embassy in washington dc yesterday. not just any man. an active member of the us air force. he live streamed his death, and said that he refused to be complicit in a genocide any longer. he said that compared to what palestinians were facing every day, setting himself alight was nothing.

let me reiterate. an active duty air force member burned himself alive because he was so disgusted by what the us government was openly supporting. he live-streamed his own suicide, so the whole world could bear witness as a man in his military uniform set himself on fire to protest his government’s complicity in the horrors that we have all been forced to watch happen in real time. he became a new horror. footage of the immolation blurs him out the moment the fire catches, but you can hear him. it is over in seconds, really, but you can hear him screaming. he shouts “free palestine” until his body physically cannot make any sounds other than guttural screams of agony. and then he falls silent. a police officer arrives and points a gun at his still burning body, shouting at him to get down on the ground. and it is over.

his name was Aaron Bushnell. he was twenty five years old. and he isn’t here anymore because the political ruling class has decided that genocide is perfectly fine as long as it preserves imperialism. in the coming days, people will try to discredit him. to say that he was mentally unstable. they will try to bury his actions to save face and defend israel’s propaganda. do not let them. aaron knew what he was doing. he knew what he was doing when he put on his military uniform, set up his twitch stream, and made his final walk up to the embassy. he knew what would happen to him when he flicked that lighter. do not let them forget. aaron’s blood is on the hands of the political ruling class.

#free palestine #free gaza #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #Aaron bushnell #aaron’s livestream likely made it so much harder to bury this like the media did to the last person who self immolated #the least we can do is not forget him #gaza strip #gaza #palestine

[bananonbinary]

"menstruation is punishment for original sin" is a fairly common doctrine (altho in my experience it's usually more implicit than just baldly stated like that)

anyway this implies that of all the animal kingdom, humans are not UNIQUE in sinning, but are joined by bats, the elephant shrew, and the spiny mouse species Acomys cahirinus. (according to my 5 seconds on wikipedia at least)

#what the fuck did that one mouse do

[loathsome-sickness]

"people show their true colours in life threatening situations" no, they show you what they act like when they're mortally terrified, an emotion notorious for literally turning your entire brain off to the point where people who go into those situations as a profession need to be literally trained on how to not have that happen

#am i arguing with random 'philosophical' type villains in my own head? #yes #it's a favourite past time of mine i hate every one of those 'i know the true nature of humans because i did horrible things to them' types #with every part of my soul

[spiribia]

personal injury lawyer billboards are all like INJURED?

#talks #EDIT: I DID NOT MAKE THIS IMAGE. #This is the “people with blue eyes” meme originally posted by twitter user @Pubby_Kat.

[bahoreal]

obsessed with this

#like. not to make everything about good omens but #crowley #there are so many versions of this with him gazing at aziraphale its so fkabdkahdbw #i did a real bad job at positioning these fjsbdhs i also know the last one is 'no one knows what..' but. whatever #.jtxt

[aquilaofarkham]

every autistic person watching this episode of dungeon meshi:

#aquila talks #dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #dunmeshi #dungeon meshi spoilers #laios touden #SERIOUSLY THO I WAS WORRIED THEY WEREN'T GONNA ADAPT THIS SCENE BUT THEY DID AND IM SO HAPPY

[stonelions]

he thinks he's being so smooth with his little face on my leg. i SEE you, villain

#comics #benny dog tag #to his credit he did #wait quite a while before glancing at the sandwich

[dishsaop]

the worst part about being an adult is thay its no longer socially acceptable to just roll down a really big hill and then run back up it and roll back down again. "oh is this a syphilis metaphor" passerby would ask. "is this for a tick tock". no i just wanna come home covered in dirt and scratches and bask in the the solace of childlike mirth

#m text #everyone rbing this without the addition and commenting 'op did you mean sisyphus' yes. yes i did #'where did the discord screenshot reblog go did you delete it' well in the 10mn after posting it someone had a funnier reblog #so i was like oh. ill delete the less funny one i did for the funnier one #and then. guess what got big.

[chilpilled]

his smile and optimism…….gone………

#halflings being treated so horribly and being used as bait and him making a union so others dont get treated as badly as he did. ourgh #no wonder hes defensive and doesnt trust people. it makes me tear my hair out #my silly little rabbit………… #chilchuck tims #dunmeshi