#But apparently she was also the romantic lead in some kind of sweeping drama that's not supposed to happen in 'real life!'

[stellaluna33]

I can never, ever forget that when I was 13, the school paper ran a "little-known facts about your teachers" column, and one of the teachers (science, I think?) said that she and her husband eloped just one week after meeting, while she was engaged to someone else! And they were still married like thirty years later! And I need, I NEED to hear the rest of that story! I want to watch a MOVIE about that story!

#Twue Wuve! #I love that you never really know what kind of extraordinary lives the 'ordinary' people around you might be living #Like. She was just your average middle-aged woman! #But apparently she was also the romantic lead in some kind of sweeping drama that's not supposed to happen in 'real life!'

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 16 part one

(Masterpost of All the Recaps)  (Canary’s Pinboard)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes

All righty, this one is going to be a laff riot...not. Let's do it.

The first half of this episode is like a beautifully executed standalone tragedy, while also threading together all sorts of themes and paying off all sorts of relationship building that's happened in the previous episodes. My hat is off to the writers, while I also shake a fist at them for making me cry an unreasonable amount.

We’re Sailing on a Strange Boat

The episode starts right off absolutely DESTROYING me with the Yunmeng brothers holding hands, fingers interlaced, in the first of many hand-touching moments that punctuate the episode.

Jiang Cheng has to be pretty far gone to accept this degree of comfort and tenderness. I think, from their positions, he is also holding Yanli's hand out of the camera's view. 

Zidian finally lets the trio go, and they immediately turn the boat around and head back to Lotus Pier. Wei Wuxian gets the clever idea to turn the benches into makeshift oars but nobody gets the clever idea to use magic to push the boat like they do literally every other time they are in a boat. 

Their emotional need to go back to Lotus Pier is understandable, but they are being disobedient and irresponsible by doing it. Jiang Cheng is the future of the clan, and should not risk his life, particularly after his mother chose to sacrifice herself to protect him and after both of his parents told him to go hide with his sister and personal bodyguard brother. 

On the other hand, Jiang Fengmian, as clan leader, probably had a duty to go into hiding himself rather than go home to die romantically, so his authority is questionable at this point. Anyway, this is the Jiang Clan, they get to kind of do what they want, except when that pisses Jiang Cheng off.

Lotus Pier Massacre

Back at Lotus Pier, the Wens are kicking Jiang ass. The fight choreography is pretty good, taking full advantage of walkways, railings, pools, and other features of the environment. 

Using the set this way always makes fights feel more kinetic and real, as opposed to simply sparring in an open area. 

(more after the cut)

Yu Ziyuan is fighting adequately with a sword, having given her preferred weapon to her son.  She's clearly been at it for a while, and is tiring; the Wen soldiers are starting to land more and more sword blows but no critical hits yet.

Wen Zhuliu is kicking ass and possibly melting cores, although we don't see him do it to anybody yet. Later we'll hear from Jiang Cheng that he crushed the cores of his parents, but it's not clear when that happens.

Sixth young master replays Jiang Fengmian's entire archery lesson in his head while he waits, and waits, for Wen Zhuliu to finish strangling a dude the right moment to shoot an arrow at Wen Zhuliu. 

Homicidal tart Wang Lingjiao notices him lining up a shot, strolls over, and stabs him in the back while he's still thinking about what Jiang Fengmian said. One could wish that JFM's archery lessons weren't quite so wordy. 

Wang Linjao normally doesn't carry a sword because of her low spiritual power, but apparently can use one just fine when she's killing kids.

If you start feeling like this episode is unreasonably painful, just think of it as building up calluses so you can handle Yi City when the time comes.

Jiang Fengmian to the Rescue

Jiang Fengmian shows up very far past the nick of time, although he is not actually useful, so it's questionable whether arriving earlier would have helped. But his wife is glad to see him.

Netflix subtitles say that Jiang Fengmian calls Yu Ziyuan "My Lady!" which sounds courtly and romantic in English. His actual words are "San Niangzi" which hunxi-gullai breaks out here.  I might render this as "lady wife!" rather than "my lady" but I don't think English really has a perfect equivalent.

Jiang Fengmian sails across the courtyard, knocking down a few Wen soldiers and becoming a young, slender man in the process.

I mean, come on, that stunt double does not look like a boxy middle-aged man from any angle.

The Dying Bit

The episode splits up the big death scene for dramatic effect but I'm recapping it all together to keep things simple.

Within moments of arriving, Jiang Fengmian gets shanked by Wen Zhuliu like Scatman Crothers in The Shining (or Groundskeeper Willie in The Shinning).

Wen Zhuliu stops a Wen soldier from finishing JFM off, just so that a different Wen soldier can deliver the killing blow from the back, which is kinda harsh. With all this spin-fighting there is probably not an implication of cowardice when someone dies from a stab in the back, but still. Too rude, Wen Zhuliu.

Yu Ziyuan sees Jiang Fengmian fall, and after having a moment of sorrow and despair, she stabs herself in the heart, falls down, crawls to him and interlaces her hand with his. He revives just enough to give her hand a squeeze and say "San Niangzi" one last time before dying. 

She dies next, with a smile on her face at the end. The soundtrack plays that amazing "horribly emotional death scene" music that isn't one of the tracks available on the OST, argh. This same music appears at the end of Xue Yang's story.  

Of the many things I love about the Untamed, the complexity of all the minor characters is possibly my favorite. These two people suck at parenting, and suck at being married, and ultimately suck at protecting and leading their clan, making stupid, selfish choices at every step of the building conflict. 

And then they have this incredibly romantic death scene, in which they both face the inevitability of failure, and find comfort in failing together. Yet their death scene is totally in keeping with who we know them to be, and who they are to each other; the drama doesn't cheat by making them ideal lovers or great people at the end. But they have a great, great moment.

Jiang Yanli, waiting in the woods while her brothers are presumably running toward Lotus Pier, drops her lotus pendant, which is made of the loudest jade ever discovered, and it breaks with a crash.  

Yanli, who is a well educated young lady, knows a moment of doomy symbolism when she sees it.

Jiang Yanli: Who put a giant rock out here in the woods? What are the odds I’d drop my pendant directly on it? 

It’s all Over Except for the Crying, Running and Choking

The brothers climb up on the roof and are shocked to see nothing but Wen soldiers and piled up Jiang corpses... 

...including one child who is either about to become a zombie or who is being played by a young actor who can't control their curiosity, judging by the way this eye is sneakily opened while the camera is running.

There's a moment where Jiang Cheng is saying they must have spared his parents, they must be okay, where Wei Wuxian's face is just...wow. You can see right here the gulf in life experience between these two. 

Wen Zhuliu roams around looking troubled while searching for more people to kill. He’s an interesting villain; someone who believes his loyalty to his boss makes him a good guy, but knows his boss is a bad guy. 

Then we are treated to a hell of a camera move, where it tracks over Yu Ziyuan and Jiang Fengmian together on the floor, heroic in death and still holding hands, and then sweeps up to show their killers sitting on the lotus throne. 

The dead couple were at odds for their whole lives together, while the evil people who killed them are acting like devoted lovebirds. It's a stunning shot and a terrific thematic contrast. When Wei Wuxian eventually comes to take his vengeance, he will spend some time turning Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao against each other, before ending them. 

The camera shows us JC's reaction, then shows his mother, then WWX’s reaction, then JF; each reacting to the death of the person who loved them. Some folks may feel that Jiang Fengmian actually did love Jiang Cheng but was just bad at showing it. But Jiang Cheng doesn't think so, and I don't think it's a given that parents love their children.

Side note: Macroexpression king Wang Zhuocheng is able to open his eyes so far that a giant strip of white shows above his irises, and keep them like that, which is quite a trick. Try it yourself.

Meanwhile Wang Lingjiao and Wen Chao gossip about YZY and JFM's bad marriage. Wen Chao admires YZY's beauty, and Wang Lingjiao insults her character, and announces that she's going to stab YZY's body a few extra times. Jiang Cheng briefly faints at this, taking a page from Wei Wuxian's book, and rolls off the roof. 

Run Run Away

Both young men run, and run, and run away from Lotus Pier while Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao mistreat the bodies of Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan 

The stabbing happens off camera, because it's ok to stab a live child on camera, but not a dead adult. (As always, there are cultural reasons for "what's ok" in any country, and I'm not saying anybody's wrong about these choices). 

Wen Chao follows this up with pouring a cup of wine across their faces. He does this in the style of a libation for the dead, but as a desecration, combining mistreatment of bodies with profaning a ceremonial rite. In a world where ghosts are real and have sharp fingernails, this is deeply, deeply stupid.

Yu Ziyuan’s actress Zhang Jingtong is able to have liquid poured INTO HER EAR without flinching. Mad props.

The brothers eventually finish running and arrive in a field with an extreme purple photo filter on it. Which I've done my best to remove for these gifs, with variable results. 

Jiang Cheng wants to turn around and go back to Lotus Pier. He says he wants to retrieve his parents’ bodies and to take revenge, but he's devastated and it seems likely he just wants to die with everyone else.  

Wei Wuxian pleads with Jiang Cheng to calm down and stay safe, while Jiang Cheng gives himself over to anger and shock as the brothers shout at each other.

Punching and running ensues, and Wei Wuxian tries to hold his brother back, grabbing him around the shoulders him in a gesture that painfully echoes the many hugs he's given over the years. 

This time Jiang Cheng doesn't just push him off. He turns around and chokes his brother for nearly a full minute, while screaming at him and blaming him. 

Just as when Madame Yu beat him, Wei Wuxian doesn't fight back; he pulls on Jiang Cheng's wrists but doesn't hit him or try to break his hold.

Finally Jiang Cheng lets him go, and cries out for everyone he's lost, while Wei Wuxian weeps silently next to him. Eventually they fall asleep in the grass together, their bodies curled up in the form of a heart. 

Damn, this episode really brings it.

Side Note: during their argument, Wei Wuxian says, among other things, that "revenge is a dish best served cold," according to subtitles. It's a French saying from the 1800s so it's probably not precisely what Wei Wuxian is saying. More importantly, as a longtime Star Trek fan I can't help but hear James Kirk yelling "KHAN!!!!!" whenever I encounter that phrase.

There’s Got To Be A Morning After

When they wake up in the morning, Jiang Cheng is still in his feelings, but now his feelings have moved along to despair, from anger.

I feel bad for noticing how handsome they both look in this scene. Let's all feel bad about this together.

Jiang Cheng is free to have this level of emotional breakdown because Wei Wuxian is there keeping his own shit together and focusing on what matters.

When Jiang Cheng refuses to get up, Wei Wuxian reminds him, very, very gently, that they have a sister, who has waited all night to know what happened.

At this, Jiang Cheng gets up, but won't look at Wei Wuxian, continuing to blame him for everybody else's actions, as he walks onward to find Yanli.

Wei Wuxian follows, hurt and bereft, as he gets to work internalizing everything that he's being accused of. This is good practice for his future as a widely reviled bogeyman.

Part two will be slightly less awful! Coming soon!

#fytheuntamed #the untamed #the untamed gifs #the untamed meta #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #restless rewatch the untamed #canary3d-original #my gifs #yu ziyuan #wen zhuliu #jiang fengmian

[siswritesyanderes]

This is a series of asks bc, while I do LIKE all the charas of Fantastic Beasts individually, much of the romantic pairings dont sit well with me. By that mean the messy love polygon w Newt & I think I finally figured out why & I'd like another's opinion on it. For starters, Newt's attraction with Tina is too fast for me considering he was friends w Leta, got expelled out of Hogwarts for Leta, carried Leta's photo in his case, & basically loved her for YEARS. But this is all undone by a [1]

jaunt in NY having met a woman, who he admittedly went on a huge adventure w, over the course of maybe a few weeks. He's so taken w her she replaces Leta's photo w her own &, after refusing to go to Paris for Dumbledore, leaves immediately once he finds out she's there. I just find this unbelievable. I can rationalize it from Newt's perspective where Tina is a fresh breeze sweeping into his life on (percieved) unrequited pining, but this is my conjecture based on my understanding of Newt. [2]

The audience shouldnt be left to rationalize endgame couple of the mc on their own. & the whole thing w Leta is so messily handled I dont think they can save it even if they bring her back in FB3. How she feels for Newt vs Theseus & unresolved lingering affection, etc. She & Newt were SO important to each other & we SEE that & they dont HAVE to get together, but they need proper resolution bc they have actual history between them. God Leta in general deserved so much better. [3]

But my main gripe is that this love polygon serves no purpose to what I believe is the main selling point of FB: the world. HP having love stories makes sense bc we're following the story of a boy as he goes through adolescence & his journey through that via school is part of that, which is why the romance feels fitting. It's a very personal story. FB on the otherhand is the best peak we have at the wider wizarding world beyond school. HP introduces the world of magic, but FB rlly expands it [4]

To that end Jakob & Queenie's relationship is the only one I find myself liking, bc it's deeply tied to the world setting, the series' biggest selling point (in my opinion, should have said this earlier). It underscores the attitudes of the period & the conflict they face feels suitably substantial & not like filler. There's a moral question between them of are they worth it? And how far should they go to be together?

Imma be real hear & say FB2 was rlly Queenie's movie & they should have been ballsy & just make Queenie the mc for FB2, bc her story was actually considerably more important to the overall development of the story than Newt's, which mostly came off as a rushed & a tad clichè soap drama. & making it about Queenie I think builds more room for good conflict & independent narrative for Tina that would serve her chara better. [5? 6?]

If I bad to be REAL ballsy, I'd say my big issue w/ the relationships in the FB series & how it enhances or impedes the main story & what I believe to be it's biggest attracter (the setting) could have been solved if they made Newt's romantic interest a muggle. It attaches a deeper meaning & relevance to them & the story so it felt more deeply that they truly moved WITH the narrative rather than beside it but I guess Im just picky. Thx for putting up w this! [Final]

(My response below the cut.)

Yeah, pretty much all of this is right.

Regarding the Tina thing, it was definitely rushed, especially since there was literally nothing romantic between them in the whole first movie, except maybe the end part where they're stumbling over their words. Despite knowing how movies work and knowing that they were the male and female lead, I still found that completely out of left field, because they don't really share any interests and I didn't feel like they felt anything in particular for each other before that. She really wants to be an auror and feels really intensely about it; he just wants to travel the world and write about magical creatures and take care of them. I don't see a lot of compatibility there, and the movie didn't really do anything to reconcile that gap.

Jacob and Queenie made sense, because they actually sowed some seeds for it. It's not even about the fact that they both like to cook; they showed an interest in each other throughout. They noticeably like each other. Newt and Tina never really had that, to me, so it was bizarre for her to become his primary motivation in the second movie.

Queenie's trajectory in movie 2 overall bothers me, so while I agree it would have been better if they'd centered it more around her, I definitely think they needed to drastically rewrite pretty much everything she did. Enchanting Jacob at the beginning never sat well with me; I usually only have to say this in the Descendants fandom, but if one half of the ship is magical and the other half isn't, we can't have the magical one enchanting the non-magical one for romantic reasons without addressing what a violation of trust that is. Like, Jacob would be justified for never trusting her again, over that. Also, the fact that she apparently holds it against people if they think bad things about her is not something I would expect from someone who has been a Legilimens as long as she has, and not a detail I like, at all. Especially since it was used to give her justification to be mad at Jacob after she enchanted him in the first place. I find it sad, because Queenie was definitely my favorite character in the first movie. (Also, joining Grindelwald was a nonsensical thing to do. I can only assume she's there to spy on him or something, because it makes literally no sense.)

As for Leta, I really don't like how that was approached. First of all, I don't like how their mention of her in the first movie was "She was a taker; you need a giver," because once we actually met the character, that only made me resent Queenie for representing her that way. Leta deserved better in pretty much every way, and they definitely shouldn't have killed her off like that. I find the whole situation really iffy from a racial standpoint. The first black character to be written three-dimensionally in all of HP lore, and they make sure to preemptively tell the audience that she's a "taker", kill her in the same movie we meet her, and manage to trivialize her death by turning it into a little "Who was she saying 'I love you' to?" mystery. I like her relationship with Newt and Theseus, and I'd definitely want to see more of it.

Yes, it definitely would have been better, thematically, if they'd made the love interest a Muggle. (I'd honestly say they should've paired Newt with Jacob, but I know they're unwilling to do that. That would be kind of cool, though, to see the movie shaping up with two male characters and two female characters and have the men end up with each other and the women just live their lives as humans.)

With the story they ended up telling, though, I don't think that is needed; since Queenie is already dealing with the wizard/Muggle storyline, Newt could have a different conflict. Maybe his love interest should be a werewolf or something, to tie in the wizarding world's unresolved dislike for "half-breeds". And if he were in a relationship with someone already regarded as a creature, the wider wizarding world might take a different view to his studies and look down on him a lot more. Idk, a thought.

And then, with Leta/Theseus and Grindelwald/Dumbledore (if they were willing to actually deal with that), they'd pretty much hit every controversial beat they've got: wizard/Muggle, wizard/"half-breed", interracial, homosexual. Credence and Nagini are both creatures, kind of, but I still like them together, so their relationship doesn't have to tie into any theme; it just has to be developed way more.

On the whole, Crimes of Grindelwald felt like they skipped a movie. It feels like they needed a middle installment to make these relationships happen, instead of jumping from "Do Newt and Tina maybe have feelings for each other?" to "Newt loves Tina and Tina is possessive enough of Newt to be outwardly upset with him when she thinks he's engaged to someone else," and creating a whole relationship between Credence and Nagini that we see none of.

The fact that Queenie and Jacob were done well in the first movie gives me a fair amount of goodwill for them, but that goodwill only offers enough cushioning from the botching that movie 2 did that I'm near-indifferent to the ship, now, instead of actively opposed. I'd like to see things improved, but as it currently stands, I'd be just as happy seeing them end up not together as together. The fact that Leta's relationships with Newt and Theseus were more interesting than any of the aforementioned makes it that much more ridiculous that they killed her. What ship am I supposed to care about how? If I can't go into the next movie delusionally hoping Newt and Leta will get some moments, or enjoying the Theseus and Leta content, then I'll just be sitting there waiting for Credence and Nagini to share a screen, and who knows when that'll happen?

#long post #fantastic beasts and where to find them #crimes of grindelwald #newt scamander #leta lestrange #theseus scamander #jacob kowalski #queenie goldstein #tina goldstein #credence barebone #nagini

[carewyncromwell]

“I think that somehow, somewhere inside of us, We must be similar, if not the same, So I continue to be wanting you, Left of center, against the grain... And if you want me, you can find me Left of center, off of the strip, In the outskirts and in the fringes, In the corner, out of the grip...” ~“Left of Center,” by Suzanne Vega

x~x~x~x

I BLAME THAT OTP AU ASK FOR THIS COMPLETELY. Once I got the image of Hipster!Barista!Orion in my head, I just had to slap it down on paper to get it out of my head. 

A few notes on his tattoos: on his neck, you might just barely make out a hamsa, or Hand of Fatima, which can protect against the evil eye and bring good fortune; on the outside of Orion’s arm closest to us, we have a magpie surrounding by flowing ocean waves, and finally, on the inside of his other arm that you can’t see as well is the Orion constellation. And he has multiple piercings because of course he does. 

So yes. Orion Amari is a senior barista at a coffee shop called the Jam City Cafe (LOL) who’s best known for his wonderfully chill attitude and for his tendency to dispense oddly wise advice to his more regular patrons. It wouldn’t be unlikely to see him in a supporting role in some Hollywood hopeful’s screenplay as this odd sage that helps the leading lady with her romantic turmoil in the third act and then disappears into the void, never to be seen again. And honestly, as much of a fixture as Orion is at the coffee shop and therefore in many people’s day-to-day existence, not a lot of people know him very well. Most people don’t know that he was a philosophy major in college, or that he was the captain and second striker of his high school football team, or that he was raised exclusively in foster care, with no permanent home to call his own. But Orion isn’t troubled by this -- he’s always been sort of on the outside looking in and he’s more than used to people not understanding his thought process. As long as his life remains interesting and he’s able to eventually get where he wants to go, that’s all that really matters. And in the meantime, he’ll keep on making orders for his regular customers -- “Doppio with extra foam,” “Iced White Caffe Mocha,” “Cafe au Lait spiked with Kahlua” -- he knows them by their orders more than their names. 

One regular customer in particular, who Orion is rather fond of, is the one he calls “Salted Caramel Macchiato,” or just “Caramel,” casually. She’s always the first customer to pick up a cup of coffee every morning when the shop opens at 4:00, and she almost always sweeps back in the evening so as to work on her laptop for a few hours while sipping another. She’ll often have music playing in her earbuds while she’s working at her laptop, meaning Orion wasn’t able to talk to her for the longest time for fear of disrupting her focus -- so instead he would merely watch her curiously. From watching, Orion sussed out that she worked in a law office -- he noticed a logo letterhead featuring a set of scales on one of the documents she was editing on her laptop one day. And admittedly, she did dress the part too: every time he saw Caramel, she always wore sharp tailored jackets, colorful blouses, and vintage A-line skirts or wide-leg trousers, her ginger hair was always combed into a neat bob, and her lips were painted a daring red. Despite her conservative and very put-together look and the meticulous regularity of her schedule, however, Caramel did possess some interesting quirks. For one, her music didn’t match her look at all -- there were times Orion could hear the faintest sounds of rock and roll blaring out of her earbuds. Other times she actually would absently sing some of the songs aloud, and her half-hearted voice actually sounded kind of pretty. Her laptop wallpaper was a family picture with her standing with what looked like an older brother and her mother outside their lit-up house at Christmas with snow in their hair and trying desperately not to laugh while the older brother dances about, wearing his Christmas scarf like a feather boa. Whenever she’d turn on her laptop, Caramel would always take a minute to look over the picture and smile fondly before getting to work. Then there was the fact that she wasn’t the least bit stuck-up -- even if she didn’t really have time to socialize, she always looked every employee, from the baristas to the cleaning staff, straight in the eye and thanked them, rather than just treat them like automatons like a lot of the other customers that would stroll through. She also always tipped. 

And so, the one evening that Orion was closing and he saw Caramel not wearing her earbuds, he approached her. Apparently someone snatched the earbuds out of her desk at work that day, and so she decided not to play any music while she worked, so as not to disrupt anyone. Since Orion and Caramel were the only ones in the shop that night, Orion said he wouldn’t mind if she wanted to play something. 

“Preferably something softer than what you were playing yesterday, however,” he added with a wry smile. 

Caramel had to laugh behind her hand, her almond-shaped blue eyes creasing slightly. “Oh -- I’m sorry, did it bother you?”

“Not at all,” said Orion. “But it did make for an entertaining image, seeing someone so poised fighting back the urge to headbang to the beat in her ears.”

Caramel smiled. “What can I say? Queen is iconic.”

Turning her focus back to her laptop, she then proceeded to turn on some slightly quieter soft rock, including a song about butterflies that she said was by Michael Jackson. She couldn’t help but sing along to the chorus once or twice under her breath -- the second time when she caught herself, Caramel quickly glanced up at Orion as if to apologize, only to meet his eyes.

“You have a lovely voice,” he complimented her. 

Caramel glanced away, smiling modestly. “...Thank you.” 

“I liked the song you were singing last Tuesday,” he pressed on, as he brought his cleaning rag along the espresso machine behind the counter. “I would’ve said so at the time, but you looked to be in no state to have a conversation.”

Carewyn gave something of a grimace. “Mm...yeah, Tuesday was a bit rough.”

Orion placed his arms on the counter and leaned forward, clearly ready to listen. Caramel, however, shook her head dismissively. 

“Work drama. Nothing that exciting, just exhausting enough that you want an escape from it, when the workday is done...”

She typed away at her laptop as the next song in her playlist started. 

“Which artist sings this?” asked Orion, as he shifted himself back up off the counter so he could continue cleaning. 

“Suzanne Vega.”

Orion listened for a moment, closing his eyes absently. “...This is her, I think. The musician you were singing along to on Tuesday. There is a similar aura, to the lyrics -- detached and understated, and yet rhythmic in its poetry.”

Caramel’s almond-shaped blue eyes lit up. “Oh, I know which song you mean now...hold on...”

She opened her music directory and browsed the songs until she found what she was looking for and double-clicked on it. Once it started, Orion’s mouth spread into a full smile. 

“That’s the one,” he said.

He spritzed the counter with some cleaner and started to wipe it down.

“Sing as loud as you’d like,” he added without looking up. “Calming music can be very helpful in finding one’s center of balance.”

Caramel cocked an eyebrow. “‘Finding one’s center of balance?’”

“Certainly. One always does their best work when one’s mind is at peace, their spirit focused, and their aura balanced, wouldn’t you say?”

“I suppose so. I just don’t know if I would’ve phrased it that way.”

“As to be expected,” said Orion. “You seem like the sort of person who never is at a loss for how to phrase things in your own way.”

Caramel blinked. Then her lips spread into a full, wry white smile of her own. 

“And you seem like the sort of person who anyone would be foolish to underestimate.”

Orion’s black eyes glittered with something oddly like mischief as Caramel once again returned to typing away on her laptop. Not long after, he caught her singing along to the song in a fuller voice: the perfect accompaniment for him while he finished bussing the counter. 

Caramel’s voice was really quite pretty -- like a robin’s. 

From that day on, Caramel would take out her earbuds if she and Orion were the only ones in the cafe during closing hours. Sometimes they’d chat about philosophy, or animals, or the Olympic games -- once they even had a deep, meandering conversation about the movie Labyrinth being a metaphor for a young woman coming of age and the importance of fantasy stories to a child’s developing mind. And on those nights that were more crowded and Caramel had her earbuds in her ears, Orion couldn’t help but “reach out” anyway by drawing little custom designs in the foam of her Salted Caramel Macchiatos. One of his very first was a Michael-Jackson-worthy butterfly. 

#'football' meaning soccer to us americans XD; #because really could you see orion playing american football?? uh no #I think this'll just be a one-shot guys #I actually know nothing about coffee shops I don't drink coffee LMAO #but I did think the image was cute #<3 #hphm #hogwarts mystery #my art #au #coffee shop au #orion amari #carewyn cromwell #my writing

[mainadjacent]

Sticking to the Script

Pairing: Gwilym Lee x Reader, one-sided Ben Hardy x Reader

Summary: You are the star of the hit TV show, “Winthrope Manor” and you’ve just got a new costar, Gwilym Lee who happens to bring around his friend, Ben Hardy, to set. You develop feelings for Ben, but they’re not well received. Lucky for you, your costar is there to help make things better.

Author’s Note: I’m just getting the hang of fic writing so hopefully this is coherent! I’d like to thank the lovely @sevenseasofky for being so kind and inspiring me with her fic, “Nothing but a Number” which this fic is heavily inspired by. Really, if you haven’t read her work, you are missing out.

PART 1

“Bohemian Rhapsody” star Gwilym Lee joins the Award-winning Cast of “Winthrope Manor” as possible love interest

You sigh exasperatedly at the Google Alert on your phone. You knew that this was going to be a possibility, the press has a habit of making a big deal of your show’s guest stars and it really took away from the quality of the show.  It wasn’t even like he was the most important guest star you’ve ever had.

“Anything wrong,” asks your costume designer, Nicole, as she laces you into your corset.

“Nothing,” you say nonchalantly, “just a bit tight is all.”

“Sorry, but you know how they want it, it has to be authentic.”

“Right, right, the good name of Winthrope Manor rests on the tightness of Violet’s corset,” you grumble.

Nicole giggles but does not loosen your laces, and even though you’ve been doing this for a whole season, you can feel your own organ rearranging painfully.

It’s a small price to pay, really, as much as you complain to Nicole about it. You are consistently at a loss for words at how lucky you are to be in this position: one of the stars of the award-winning television show, “Winthrope Manor.”

“Winthrope Manor” or “American response to ‘Downton Abbey’” as critics often put it, was the story of the wealthiest textile family in America at the turn of the 20th century. It was soapy and dramatic and lots of fun. You played Violet Winthrope, the intelligent and determined oldest Winthrope sibling who was constantly trying to establish herself in the industrial world while dealing with all sorts of romantic and personal entanglements.

The show premiered to critical acclaim in part because of the writing, in part because of the star-studded cast, and the amazing production value didn’t hurt either. “Winthrope” had had an amazing first season, sweeping in awards, amassing a pretty impressive fanbase and gaining all sorts of acclaim. Apparently, Meryl Streep was in negotiations to play your grandmother for the upcoming season.

As for you, you were still adjusting to the fame since you hadn’t really had much exposure beforehand. In a way, “Winthrope” had really changed your life in that aspect; you were relatively unknown before it—most of the younger cast was—and now you had been catapulted into some sort of fame. You weren’t super famous, it wasn’t like you were getting mobbed by paps constantly, but you had gained a substantial following. People tweeted you, approached you on the street, and even had whole internet presences dedicated to you and your character. It still took a while to get used to it, but you were trying to handle it with the most grace you could muster, but you would be a liar if you said it wasn’t exhausting at times. It was a small price to pay though.

Nicole finished with your laces and you gave yourself a second to adjust. Speaking of prices you pay.

As Nicole is pinning up the hem of one of Violet’s evening gowns, you hear a knock at the trailer’s door.

“Come in!”

You were expecting any one of your female costars, as this was the woman’s costuming trailer, however, you were surprised to see your character’s newest love interest and the subject of internet articles, Gwilym Lee.

“Hi,” he says as he awkwardly stands at the trailer’s threshold.

“Hey” you great him coolly while holding the hem of your dress up as Nicole took measurements.

“Right, hi, anyway. I was wondering if you had lunch plans today? One of my friends is on the lot today and I thought we could all get lunch together?”

You lean down to fix the train of your dress while you think about it. In the last month on set, Gwil had never invited you to do anything, which you were completely fine with. You had tried to keep Gwilym at arm’s length for the last few weeks of table reads and preliminary filming. You’ve learned not to get too close to the leading-man type, and you have yet to figure out whether or not he is someone you can trust enough with your friendship. Your experiences have been mixed with male actors on your set, to say the least.

“Who’s your friend?” you ask, slowly rising upright.

“Ben, Ben Hardy. We were in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ together. He’s on the lot doing some post for ‘X-Men.’”

“Um, sure,” you say, although you’re not entirely sure why.

“Great, so, I’ll see you then,” Gwil takes one last look at you before heading out the door.

You catch Nicole giving you a long look.

“What?”

______

You spend the first half of your day in fittings which is pretty exhausting. Nicole remains cryptically silent on the significant exchange this morning, which strikes you as odd because she loves to talk about any possible set drama. Instead, you keep the conversation light and talk about how nice it is to be back on set and what each of you did over the break. While Nicole and a few other designers pin and prick and pull at your complicated wardrobe pieces the tv hums in the background and you comfortably set into a rhythm. You are too entertained that you don’t even notice three short knocks at the door, you also miss one of the seamstresses letting your costar and his friend into the trailer.

“Hello,” says Gwil, “is this a good time?”

You look up from the inseam of a pair of riding trousers you’re trying on. Gwil is back in plainclothes and behind him is a shorter, blonder man. You recognize him instantly from his feature films and even though you knew to expect him, you’re caught off guard by how handsome he is. He smiles flittingly at you and you can feel a blush creeping on your cheeks.  It’s at this time you realize that you did not have a shirt on and instead were still in your 220th-century underthings. Now you’re really blushing.

“Oh, sorry, we kind of lost track of time. Give me a second,” you say as you step down from the fitting platform as you try to keep cool, “let me change.”

Two costumers usher you behind a partition and both try to help you out of your costume and back into your plainclothes which is an affair all of its own.

“Hi nice to meet you!” you say as you stumble out from behind the partition extending your hand out.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Ben,” the blond man chuckles as you reach to shake his hand, “I’m sorry we barged in like this but Gwil just wouldn’t stop raving about his beautiful new costar and I wanted to meet the famous Violet Winthrope myself.”

You can feel yourself growing redder by the second, Ben Hardy had called you beautiful.

“Well, I hope I don’t disappoint, Violet is much more interesting than I am.”

“I beg to differ,” Gwil says, reminding you of his presence.

The three of you decide to eat close by since Ben only had 30 minutes until he had to be back on set (“Those angel wings take forever to get on!”) so you find one of the cafes on the lot.

While you eat, Ben tells you about his recent shoot on the “X-Men,” what he hopes his next project and asks you if the Richard Winthrope was going to lose ownership of the family business to his brother.

You laugh, “There is no way you watch ‘Winthrope Manor’!”

“What do you mean by that?” Ben gawks playfully, “I will have you know that I am very interested in the rich tapestry of 20th century American life woven by ‘Winthrope Manor’ and maybe I might have had a crush on the beautiful and charming Violet.”

You blush, which you seem to be doing a lot today, “Well if you must know—”

“We aren’t allowed to spoil anything!” Gwil interrupts forcefully.

“Right,”—since was Gwil so concerned about spoilers? —" I guess you’re just going to have to watch and find out!” You smile cheekily.

You and Ben carry most of the conversation during the short lunch, which you really don’t mind. You would be lying if you said you didn’t find yourself utterly charmed by Ben: he was funny, interesting and very attractive.  Before you knew it, though, your short lunch came to an end and the three of you had to go to your respective sets. Before leaving, Ben shares that he would be on the lot tomorrow for some time too and promised to try and stop by your set if he could. You try to not look too giddy when he says this and instead play it cool while you bid him goodbye.

______

“He’s nice,” you say casually to Gwil as the two of you walk back to the set. He hadn’t talked much during lunch and while you did not know him well, usually Gwil was talkative between takes and during reads. He had always struck you as someone who was naturally friendly, as someone with something to say.

“Yeah, Ben’s a nice guy,” Gwil says, his brows furrowed.

“Yeah, I mean, I can see why the two of you stayed friends after filming ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.”

“Right.”

A beat of silence.

“I’m sorry, did I do something wrong?” you ask, and regret it almost instantly when you see the look Gwil gives you.

“No, why would you think that?”

“Well, it’s just,” you sigh, “you just seemed really quiet at lunch and now it’s like you don’t want to talk to me. Which is honestly confusing, considering you invited me to lunch.”

“You think I’m confusing? You’re the one that won’t say more than a sentence to me at a time but when Ben I’m-a-literal-angel Hardy shows up suddenly you can’t stop talking.”

“Wait, this is about me being friendly to Ben? I thought you wanted us to get along, he’s your friend,” you stop in the middle of a crowded lot.

“No, that’s not it,” he reaches a hand to his temple, “its just that, we’re supposed to be playing love interests and you barely talk to me. At first, I thought you were just shy, so I invited you out with someone else to make it easier for us to get to know each other, you know? Without so much pressure. But you aren’t shy, at least not with Ben which sort of leads me to believe that you just don’t like me, which is fine I guess, you’re not obligated to like me, I just thought—”

“You worried that I don’t like you?”

“Well, you never really talk to me and whenever I’m around you find a way to not spend time with me unless you have to,” Gwil says, almost sheepishly, “and with everyone else, you’re so nice and personable.”

It’s true. You had been avoiding Gwil, but it wasn’t because you didn’t like him. Up until this point, you hadn’t really formed an opinion on him.

“You’re right, maybe I have been avoiding you, but it’s not because I don’t like you. I just haven’t decided what to make of you yet,” you say, biting your lip.

“What?”

“Well, last season I got involved with the guy who played William, Charlotte’s love interest. The actor’s name was Aaron Mayfield and, well, it ended badly, like, really badly. Lucky for me, William died on the front lines, so I didn’t have to see Aaron again. After that though, I decided to keep my relationships with any new costars as professional as possible, until I could figure out if I could trust them to be friends with. I guess I didn’t really think that through though, because now I’ve hurt your feelings and you actually do seem like a really nice guy,” you say all this with your eyes trained on the ground, part of you relieved to have come clean.

After some silence, you look up slowly, hoping to gauge Gwil’s reactions.  His head is tilted to one side, and he looks like he’s trying to figure out some sort of mathematical equation, his bright eyes catching the midday sun.

“So, does this mean we can be friends?”

PART 2

#bohemian rhapsody fanfiction #gwilym lee #gwilym lee x reader #ben hardy #ben hardy imagine #ben hardy x reader

[sometimesrosy]

Alright I need to ask cause I'm in the positive boat. If you had to bet which episode clarke and bellamy FINALLY share their first kiss in this season what would it be? lol

I think mid season will be the time when we’ll see a physical manifestation of their feelings for each other. This could be anything from a continuation of our hand holding metaphor (laced fingers?)  to some version of a hug/non lip to lip kiss, to getting stuck in an enclosed space all up in each other’s business and clear sexual tension, to any version of kiss on the lips, to full on sex. I DON’T KNOW. There’s an argument to be made for any of it. And depending on your definition of kiss, the chance of a kiss happening goes up higher or lower. Anywhere from 25%-75% by midseason. Talk to me after I see the first 4 eps for more definite guess.  Which one is the one Antonio Negret is doing? I tell you, Antonio Negret directing makes sex more likely. He did a fantastic job with Olicity. And what is that? 8?

I think as season B goes on, whatever happened physically in midseason between them, will add to the emotional stakes and drama and angst of the action heavy season B. If there isn’t a kiss midseason, I see it as nearly definite by the finale. 99% The absolute LEAST amount of Bellarke I see happening is lots of sexual and romantic tension for the whole season ending in a full canon confession in the verrry end, with something like “I won’t lose you again.” linked hands. raising hands to lips and kissing them. “together.” But I think it just as likely that they have a full on sex scene mid season. So those are my two extremes of bellarke canon. Full on sex then angst then together commitment at the end. Romantic pining, sexual longing, and angst for the whole season leading to a gentle confession and physical expression of love. Which way will they go? IDK. Most likely somewhere in the middle. Also I think they did the pining/gentle confession last season so I think they won’t do it again, which makes early sex then angst more likely.

Before listening to all this fandom drama, I was really positive about Bellarke happening in season 5. It’s remarkable how fears and anxieties can just rise up like a tide and sweep you away. But most of them don’t have a basis in reality, I think, and some of them actually take what I consider to be near confirmation that Bellarke is happening to mean that they are saying Bellarke will never happen and we are being baited. And I don’t really understand that kind of circular logic. But it’s shouted with such passion and carried up so widely by the fandom that is more focused on a kiss proving canon than on the story being carefully crafted, that it makes me hesitant to make my predictions. I even came across someone who implied my meta was bullshit and has been twitter ranting about how we’re being baited. It turns out that when someone challenges my meta, I don’t rant, I go deep and explain my evidence on my own time, so this is apparently what I’m going to do.

I think this is the season. Not for established Bellarke relationship, that’s next season, but for them finally addressing their feelings for each other as more than just platonic partners. They showed it last season, with plausible deniability not just for narrative sake (mutual pining) but also for fandom politics sake (too soon! be respectful.) 

Wow. OKAY. So there’s my guess. If you want to know WHY I am predicting this, then you get to read after the jump. Because the thing is, I’m basing my prediction on narrative structure, romantic tropes, storytelling techniques, and ALSO what JR, Bob, Eliza, and reviewers have said about the new season. As well as the ep 1 spoilers (so don’t read on if you don’t want to know.) BTW. LONG because I have a lot.

Bear with me, I’m putting the new details together with my old speculation based on season 4 and development from all 4 seasons. This is to show you WHY I think what I do and that it’s not really about shipping for me, but about crafting a story. 

I’m a writer, and when I write romance into a story, I need to make sure there is enough conflict and uncertainty to make it interesting. It is built into romantic plots. However, my romances happen within one book, not 5 seasons, and fair warning, because romance is not the point of my books, they are not the finale, climax or reward. They generally happen sometime in the middle and then we see an uncertainty, fear, angst and a narrative conflict that might separate the love, leading into the plot climax/conclusion. Because I write sci fi, not romance. The goal is a non romantic one, and the romance is about character development and motivation. So love is HOW they reach the goal, not the goal itself. Which, I think, is the way this show is treated. But, this is my interpretation, and you should know that going in, it comes from someone who is also writing science fiction this way. It’s a writer’s perspective. I am trying to figure out how JR is telling HIS story.

In SDCC JR declared that Bellarke was the central relationship and it has always, in some way, been about their relationship. Listen. This means he has ALWAYS been telling the story of Bellarke. I can confirm, as can the rest of the Bellarke meta community as we’ve been analyzing it the whole time. This is important. This means that not only are we looking at Bellarke in the current season, but looking at the WHOLE show and how it’s developed. Because he did it DELIBERATELY. HIs Bellarke story has taken all four, now five seasons. (huh. he admitted it. it was the plan. it’s not a bait. it’s not fanservice. it’s the STORY.)

So when I look at the WHOLE story, this is what it looks like to me.

Season1: Trust. Get her whatever she needs. I trust him.

Season 2: Devotion. He’d do anything for her, it just makes sense. Bellamy is the key.

Season 3: Commitment. Together (drink poison) I trust you. I believe you. Holding hands.

Season 4: Romantic Love: If I’m on that list you’re on that list. She centers you. You’ve got that backwards. She’ll see how special you are. Sacrifices humanity for him. I got you for that. 6 years of pining.

Season 5:  ???? what could it be? we’ve had The 100 tell a love story by defining the elements of love, so what’s next? The next level I think is Physical Attraction.

In Conageddon, Bob and Eliza said that Bellarke had it rough. That they come back together immediately, trust is in their dna, that they are confused about who they are to each other, about their platonic relationship (if they are confused about the platonic nature of their relationship that means something isn’t platonic or it wouldn’t be confusing,) that it’s an intense relationship (upping the level of emotion,) that it’s turbulent, up and down, and first they love each other, then they hate each other, then they love each other then the verry end…we get something that is described variously as great, sweet, *silence with a smirk* and will make Bellarkers happy.  All of that description sounds to me like a description of sexual tension, except for the ending which sounds to me like canon confession of love or commitment. Or showing them TOGETHER in the transcending romance kind of MARRIED way. Not dating. Committed. Soul mates. Beyond time and space kind of thing. (but possibly not physical at all.)

Some people take the B/E concerns to be proof that there is no Bellarke happening but I take it to mean that there is. Because I’m looking at character and relationship and narrative development over the seasons (as JR said that was the story.) And B/E was always a possibility to push the story from platonic to romantic by adding conflict, jealousy, a choice, and contrast. IT’S A NARRATIVE TOOL TO MAKE THE STORY HAPPEN. We get an article saying there is no love triangle and fandom takes that to mean there is no Bellarke. And the article itself was covered with photos of Bellarke. idk. that’s a funny takeaway. When to me, it was saying the B/E issue would be resolved early in the season. 

The most relevant detail to timing of romantic development, however, is the issue of pacing. Which is a new revelation for us.

Episodes 1-4 happen within hours, apparently. The spoilers from the first episode must happen right before spacekru discovers The Eligius. Whatever happens in ep1 between BE will be brushed aside for the need to do something to GET BACK DOWN TO EARTH. And JR said that when Bellamy finds out that Clarke is alive EVERYTHING CHANGES. Now HOW exactly do you think it changes? What could the changes mean? Why is a way down to earth not more of a change for Bellamy/spacekru than finding out Clarke is alive? Because that’s pretty life changing, yeah? What’s the element that Clarke’s existence could change more than going home? Loyalties. Family. Love. ??? Their bond snaps back into place. Does it override other bonds? Which bonds are in question here in the first 2 eps? Who is unsure of her place in the family? I guess we’ll have to see, but do we or do we not have a question of B/E over B/C?  Could it be POSSIBLE that one of the things that change when B finds out C is not dead is B/E? Hmmm? When B/C was what kept B/E from happening in the first place? Hmmm? Like. Is this not simple math? someone do the math.  I know there’s an equation there. (why do I, miss mama don’t do math, keep putting math into my analysis?)

Anyway, back to the speed. If it’s really moving that fast, though, then there won’t be time for anyone to really PROCESS what Clarke being alive means. Bellamy won’t have time to understand it or make rational decisions about who comes first. Except we know he’s changed his MO, so maybe we’ll see him fighting his own head vs heart thing going on with no time to sort it out. INTERESTING. Clarke won’t have time to settle back in to the family or adjust to not being one of them. Echo won’t have time to make peace with Clarke’s possible usurpation of her place with the family. OR maybe it won’t be an issue at all. Clarke and Bellamy will just naturally slot back into place as partners, since there’s no time for thought… which would leave Echo feeling out of place. Well, we do know that Eliza and Bob did say trust was in their DNA, and they did say that Echo was struggling with her place in the family. So that seems likely.

What does this mean to romantic BELLARKE? It lowers the chance of them addressing their feelings head on. Because they have no time to process or talk. But it raises the chance of them DOING stuff without conscious thought, touching, non verbal communication. Hard to tell until we see them interact, but if you move things fast, and there’s no time to address things, and they are intense and confusing and there is “love and hate” then we’re going to see things boil over without being logical. The emotions that I see as repressed here are going to be their feelings for each other. Love and desire. 

Sorry y’all. I know how many of you think it’s hopeless and have lost faith, but what I see is a really great CANON SUBPLOT of romance trying to break through the danger and action and adventure and survival and fast pace of The 100. It won’t be subjective. It won’t be all told in fades and music, it will be part of the story, and addressed directly. I can’t guess the details, but I can tell you the Bellarke story this season will be canon romance. (Please just remember that it is not a ROMANCE GENRE STORY so it will not be the majority of the plot,  but buried within the scifi survival story.)

I’m apologizing for being pro canon bellarke. Can you believe this fandom? They ship a thing by ranting about how it’s not going to happen. I do believe they are not allowed on my ship at all. Go sink your own, you blorkes.

#the 100 meta #the 100 spoilers #the 100 s5 spoilers #spoilers #bellarke #believe in bellarke #bellarke development #bellarke speculation #romantic development

[tammyhybrid21]

So... I have had a day.

A big long, and rather tiring day. I finished at least half of my school work and then I got to chatting about some things. And-- I found myself super disappointed and hurt by what kind of response I got sooo-- let’s talk about AroAce representation and why

“I’m scared to mess it up”

Is absolutely no excuse. Starting with point numero uno. If you really were scared to mess it up then, why are you not asking for a second opinion on how you’re representing it?

So-- well, under the impression that is the problem. Let me talk about this and let’s discuss it’s not really as hard as you people seem to think it is. And in some cases, it’s just as simple as DON’T WRITE A ROMANCE IN.

Of course, I’m not-- not the authority on this despite being aroace myself, there is a wide range of the spectrum and it’s been... some ride even discovering for sure that I’m definitely aromantic despite having feelings for a best friend I think most would put in the romantic category. It’s not, I don’t want to be with them as anything other than friends, maybe loosely defined honorary family. Shut up, I know I described them as the person I orbit around and would destroy the world for, it’s not in a romantic sense.

Annnyway. I’m aroace. And so I think, I can actually start talking about this.

So you claim that you’re worried about representing us wrong. I would like to say it’s as simple as leaving it open and not writing a romance plot at all then as your step number one. Oh, you say “but how is that fair, a plot isn’t interesting if there’s no romantic tension” And-- Okay stop. I’m going to hold you up right there.

And-- and--

What kind of dumb reasoning is that? Like come on, how is romance always required? Like do you really need romance to spur a magical duel into happening, or in the middle of a football match, or a magical adventure quest to save the world? Look, I don’t know what your process is but like-- is it wrong for us to want that wizard or witch to just be themself, or a football player to just roll his eyes at the screaming fangirls. Or hell--

Maybe we’re talking people who’ve already been stated to dislike dealing with people for various reasons. Or who’re outsiders due to how they’ve been raised. Come on, why is the most interesting thing in a plot the romantic tension?

Does it really have to be there if we’re following someone learning about the world and going around learning all about society? Right not just let them make friends and find a make-shift family. Or hell, maybe they find that people just aren’t their thing. Or that veterinarian character who finds animals better company than people-- cut the romance cut the drama.

“Okay so does that mean they need to be emotionless then?”

HOLD UP WHAT?!

Look, this is the last thing that we want. Like come on, is romantic love really the lynchpin that all emotions hold onto? Come on, you people are better than that right? Anger, Joy, Fear, Sadness, Disgust. All those emotions are things that people feel everyday independently of any sort of romantic feelings that you may or may not have-- and honestly, we’ve had enough of this kind of reasoning.

Look. Look, we’re not unfeeling robots or “broken” for not wanting to be in a relationship. Romance is not where life stops and starts--

Okay... but this... doesn’t actually say what I set out to say sooo--

Let’s talk character shop and stories. Let’s talk about this topic. So first of all, I am-- still hurting from what was basically aphobic after aphobic response to an attempted discussion where my one question was “why is the romance angle so important” especially because-- here’s the thing. A lot of you people out there who write shipping and romance, can fall into that trap of using it as a prop or making it feel like well obviously love. And if you’re going to be resistant to someone coming along and asking “but why?” well--

We’re going to have to go from there.

Because here’s the thing. I really, really do not get the point of romance plots where it soul sucks a character or pain of characters into the same dynamic every single time, or is used as an explanation for everything. Like-- is romance really that powerful? I don’t get it! And then you people act as if asking for just a little bit of some aroace representation is such a grievous sin. As if we’re the one attacking you when you can’t explain why the romance is necessary.

Cool you want to have these characters manipulated into betraying and fighting each other to the death! But why is romance even needed as an ingredient?

You can’t answer? It just makes me wonder all the more. Because there are so many other reasons for it. So many ways to manipulate people and lead to such a situation. Like seriously. What’s more interesting.

Two boys fighting over the heart of a girl after being manipulated into that position?

Or two boys who’re fighting one another to prove that one of them is more worthy of getting some kind of item of power? Or hell fighting due to some misunderstanding in how to gain power in the first place!

Secondly-- let’s talk about something I really, really hate.

Romance Redemption

Can-- Can I just say in general I want this trope to die a fiery burning death. I have-- seen and heard horror stories of what this does to people. And also-- a lot of the time... This is really damaging for how you present your villains. Especially because there are-- so many better ways of setting someone on the path of romance and it’s... really kind of horrible to stake redemption on a love interest. Especially when it’s the only reason for a redemption. And then I wonder-- but what about everything else?

Especially when this is used to just-- sweep things under the rug and ignore them.

Like come on, where’s the consequences, and what of the implications when the villain’s previous victims meet them again. But they’re so clearly redeemed and in love now.

...

And-- honestly.

A lot of the time with these-- I just wonder why?? Like, why does the villain need romance at all? Why does that need to be what leads to redemption? Is it even necessary? Like come on, please, educate me if you have a reason, because for me it just kind of-- strangles them back to being good. “For love”

Like-- okay maybe villains aren’t the best to ask for representation from but-- like-- Is it any kind of good to ask for-- less redemption romances at the least?

But anyway.

Points being. Just write them as you would any other character for crying out loud. Ask people if you feel unsure of how to write them “sensitively” and think about a reason for the romance if you really have to have a romance. Don’t just make excuses.

“I’m scared of doing it wrong”

We’re here to ask.

“But what’s wrong with leaving the option open?”

This reminds me of the old “You’ll find the right person one day” rhetoric and really, we’ve had more than enough.

“So I have to make them emotionless then?”

No! NO! Worst response, just focus on other emotions for crying out loud. Please and thankyou.

And above all. If someone complains about something you’re doing in general. Stop. Take a deep breath and don’t just snap back defensively but try and listen. Take it on and see what they’re trying to say. Like-- look okay, if someone complains about something making them uncomfortable because of what the story implies.

Are you saying female characters can never hold positions of power on their own?

But why would you make the canon leader suddenly not the leader, is it because she’s a girl?

Why are the female, or female coded characters always so satellite or empty. Aren’t they allowed to be interesting on their own?

I am uncomfortable with a character who’s abusive being redeemed by getting into another relationship.

Why do they have to hate the canonical female love interest again? She hasn’t even done anything.

How is anger one note, rage comes in so many different forms and levels from petty to absolutely furious.

I don’t feel comfortable shipping this anymore and making it basically give this character their original dream whilst undermining all their character development and just kind of reducing them as a group to “big family”

You know it’s sad I can’t remember anything about this character other than their status as “love interest” and the fact they’re apparently a necromancer.

I thought he wouldn’t hurt children because that was his one line, why is that now because he has a love interest to impress?

Why is it as soon as a character is in a romantic relationship that is all the information that seems needed to tell you who they are and they no longer need their own dreams or goals to pursue?

Why does this character need to have romance at all, isn’t his entire motivation animals first?

Is romance really the only way that this duel to the death can be manipulated into happening?

How do you get that villains = emotionless, that’s not how it works at all! I thought you said his sin was pride and how high he saw himself.

Why is being single the worst thing that could happen to you and make you “broken”?

I thought you said they grew up completely isolated, why do they perfectly know how to respect other people and their identities?

Why is humanization always a love interest or kids, and an almost complete softening?

HOW ARE YOUR CHARACTERS GOING TO DEVELOP AND CHANGE IF THEY’RE NOT ALLOWED TO MESS UP?

Why do the backstories exist if they're ultimately meaningless since the character doesn't suffer any of their effects?

Why is the only time a character is allowed to show negative emotion, a time when they can immediately be coddled and comforted?

...

Are we really broken for being aromatic?

#Thybrid Speaks #Thybrid Teaches #THybrid Writes #LGBT #Writing #Romance #Romance Repulsion #Because OMG if this doesn't confirm that #I'm so so tired #being hit with all of this #Like honestly I came out to talk aromantic ideas with a friend #And feeling so attacked over it #I'm so tired #And thus a rant #To end the week and just blow it out #Aromantism

[sadiebutdigital-blog]

The Only Man To Travel Through Time - Part 2

IN THIS PART, A VISION IS TAMPERED.

       Evan’s apartment building was nestled on a dimly lit street somewhere within the depths of Van Nuys. I always found it odd that for being a highly populated Los Angeles neighborhood, the residential streets were never well lit. I pulled over towards the curb on the other side of the street, and put the car in park.         My nerves were biting my throat as I feasibly managed to shift my entire focus on Evan, who was in the process of gathering his belongings, before stepping out into the night. He looked at me and smiled, one hand on the door handle.        “Thanks for the ride. I’ll see you tomorrow?”          He opened the door, and began to slide out, when I stopped him. “Hey Evan, can I talk to you?” His eyes flicked over to his house, and back to me - the true safe haven.         “Yeah sure, what’s up?”           Every time I think back on those few minutes, I feel the most honest blanket of shame wash over me. I remember how confident I was in my declaration, separating mind from body. It really is the greatest feat to be able to detach in such a way. It’s the one ability I have mastered far beyond Evan. Unfortunately, it was Evan who sent me spiraling back to earth this time.

“But we’re not dating.”

But we’re not dating?

But we’re not dating?

Murder.

        “What about the rides I give you?”          “I don’t own a car and you know that.”         “What about the phone calls at work?”         “We work together, yes I call you – because you’re usually the easiest to call off when we’re overstaffed.”           I sat back in my seat, horrified. I knew he was my boyfriend. The ever affectionate, breezy, and warm Evan. The only person to ever truly understand me.          “What about the time travel m-”           “What about him? We’re coworkers who bonded over an internet conspiracy. Sometimes you give me a ride home.” We sat in silence. The seconds stretched in obscene branches of never ending internal chaos – manifesting in very different ways from both of us. I decided to break the silence, and lean forward to kiss him.          “I’m sorry baby.” I whispered, and extended my hand to caress his face. Evan jerked back, his body – the body I knew so well, coiling away from me. He muttered something about a psychopath as he left the car and scrambled up to the lobby entrance to his building. I shook my head, and laughed. Affectionate, breezy, warm Evan. I figured that I had to have gone wrong somewhere down this line. Maybe I wasn’t giving enough? Didn’t listen when he needed it.            I pictured the writers room in my brain, assembling this moment. ‘How about she runs into some trouble with her boyfriend on this day?’          ‘Yes, that’s brilliant! He’s feeling neglected – so he tells her that he feels as if they aren’t even dating.’          ‘And then she has to prove herself in a showstopping romantic gesture!’          ‘Absolutely! I’ll jot this down for storyboarding today!’

THIS IS WHERE THE CAT SCREAMS.

          It’s about a week later. Don’t ask me the date. If I knew I would tell you. After Evan told me he was feeling more or less emotionally neglected, I became a bit of a recluse. I did not show to work – which – if I’m being completely honest, most likely was not the biggest loss. Ev and I had been working in the same clock shop for about two years. I hate to be so candid, but frankly there just isn’t much of a market for time anymore.           My next objective came to me in this clock shop, as if sent from the future itself. The man looked like an old money New York monopoly owner. In fact, he seemed to be the prototype for the Monopoly game itself, skinny and well dressed. The Monopoly man introduced himself as a ‘grim collectibles representative,’ (awful name) and he brought his new clock in to be repaired and polished.           It was a cuckoo clock, built like a small floating wood cabin. On the hour, a black cat would burst through the doors, with it’s carefully painted tongue rolled out. It’s eyes swiveled in different directions, and let out a muffled scream, before dragging itself back swiftly behind the doors as quick as it appeared. “The story behind this item is controversial – but I think it’s one of a kind.”           I stared at him, thinking he was going to launch right into the story, but he just stared at me with the ease and subtle smile that you find on a videogame choose your character screen. I guess his writers wanted me to speak next.                         “What’s the story behind this?”          “Word on the street is that this used to belong to Rex Quaker, heard about him?” Rex Quaker.  I read a forum about him once, I’m pretty sure he was leading a sex trafficking ring in some other country.          “Rex Quaker? I read a forum about him once, I’m pretty sure he was leading a sex trafficking ring in some other country, right?” The monopoly man lowered his voice and leaned forward a bit.          “Rex was runnin a Red Room. Ever heard of a Red Room? He would find people – young girls and seniors mostly, kidnap them, take them to one of his ‘work stations’ overseas. Apparently he’d have ‘em out in the open while traveling too. He’d walk through airport security with someone so terrified and drugged up that they couldn’t possibly say a word. He was operating out of Australia mostly, in a remote warehouse. The way a red room works is kind of a sport for people like Rex. You get a vulnerable person, someone capable of fear and empathy, pain, all that. He would lock them in a room, strapped to a chair, and start a live feed on the deep web. You ever been to the deep web?” I shook my head.           “The deep web is sort of an underworld for the modern internet. Websites are untraceable, so criminals along with those who have peculiar appetites flock from anywhere with a strong enough internet connection. Rex had built somewhat of a name for himself on this scene. He liked drama, and suspense. He wanted something beyond the likes of selling drugs or stolen credit cards. He was a man with an appetite for audience participation and fan interaction. He’d take comments and suggestions during his feeds from the sickest humans this earth has ever thrown out. These lurkers – the symphony – as he’d call them, would enter different torture methods for a hefty sum of bitcoin – untraceable deep web currency.”             “How would he torture them?” I pictured what a website like that must look like to a passerby. Trying to put myself in that position, I felt nothing. Maybe my ability to detach is quite useful in these situations. I can’t feel the suffering personally. I am safe as an audience member.               “You ever tried to count the ways to torture someone? You can’t! His goal was to keep the victim alive for as long as possible. Some say he had military or medical experience which kept him within realistic limits during his shows. It depended mainly on audience suggestion. I’ve heard everything from plucking fingernails off to painting over eyeballs and pouring bleach in different holes once the victim was blind. He’d experiment a bit too – pulling out and stacking molars on top of one another, attempting to extract fully intact veins from the arm like they were noodles.”               The doors of the miniature wood cabin burst open and the cat sprang out, it’s tongue bouncing and it’s eyes pulsing. A warped yowl echoed through the shop. The man burst into laughter, and picked the clock up off the  counter.             “So yes, that is the alleged story of Rex Quaker. It is decidedly not for the faint hearted. Don’t think they ever caught him either. They always find his work stations after he’s abandoned them. Smart fella. Apparently this clock was used in one of them. The auctioneer I bought it from said that the rumor surrounding it goes that this clock would chime in the room as the victim was tied up and waiting. It was used to announce the commencement of Rex’s shows. Spooky, isn’t it?”.                                                                                                                                 

          It was rather eerie, but I was not too concerned with a technology age boogeyman. He’s doing his thing, and I’m doing mine. I felt that he had reasons I would never be aware of. The real point of intrigue for me surrounded a level above Rex – the deep web. Evan was fascinated with the bizarre online, and I couldn’t help but feel that this was it, this was what I had been waiting for. I could win him back with a sweeping gesture of exotic and thrilling romance. 

         TOR, also commonly known as The Onion Router, is used to access websites with untraceable IP addresses. It’s original development was overseen by The United States Navy, before eventually becoming accessible to the public by just a few clicks. Once installed, this allows access to the deep web; a collection of webpages which covers a mass of 99% of the internet. It is the most honest reflection of the state of human nature.             I wasn’t sure of exactly what I was looking for, but I knew it was going to be the greatest feat modern love had ever known.

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Mitski – Be the Cowboy

Mitski Miyawaki (mononymously known as Mitski) is a powerhouse. The Japanese-American artist is only 27 years old, and her new album; Be The Cowboy is her fifth album in six years. Her 2016 album Puberty 2 was released to universal critical acclaim, single “Your Best American Girl” landed on multiple “best songs of 2016” lists, and starting in March this year, she joined Lorde as an opener for the New Zealand artist’s Melodrama World Tour. To say that Mitski has been having a hard working, busy, few years is an understatement. Within Be The Cowboy, there’s a new central focus for Mitski: the loneliness that accompanies a young woman as she relentlessly tours to continue being a musician for a living. Of course, her words are as sharp and powerful as ever. There’s no one who has so effectively mastered the art of explosive, endlessly fascinating songwriting. She switches between personifying fictional characters, while a number of tracks follow her relationship with music (“Geyser” and “Remember My Name” spring to mind) rather than other people, or herself. This is undoubtedly Mitski’s most ambitious album yet, and also the culmination of all her past work. The album has an unbelievable amount of musical ideas wrapped up inside it, and in any other artist’s hands, it might not work. Be The Cowboy is only 33 minutes long – only three songs are longer than two and a half minutes, but it all flows beautifully. All the ideas are anchored by ethereal vocals and haunting lyrical gems. Just looking at the singles, it’s clear that Mitski is confident in making yet another sonic departure. Take second single “Nobody”; an infectious disco-pop banger that’s nothing like anything else in her discography. Album opener “Geyser” is bombastic and combines the piano and organ found in her first two records, Lush and Retired From Sad, New Career In Business and joining them is the crashing, distorted guitars that defined her breakout album, Bury Me At Make Out Creek. Final single “Two Slow Dancers” is a gorgeous, nostalgic piano ballad. There’s no one who tackles nostalgia and loneliness like Mitski. Apparently, Mitski has a real knack for writing pop songs, too. Is there anything she can’t do? “Nobody,” “Why Didn’t You Stop Me?,” and “Washing Machine Heart” are some of her grooviest songs yet. They should be mega hits. “Why Didn’t You Stop Me?” is deceptively upbeat. It’s also pretty crazy, featuring horns, a fun repetitive synth sample reminiscent of the one that framed Puberty 2’s “Happy,” and a synth-and-guitar-lead climax to close the song. Of course, it’s not all fun and games. Mitski sings in a slightly higher register than usual – this immediately caught me off guard, I thought I knew her voice and different tones like the back of my hand. She is dissecting the end of an important relationship, and asks to just “paint it over.” “Washing Machine Heart” could easily be a companion to “Why Didn’t You Stop Me?.” It’s another poppy, unusual song where someone is invited to toss their dirty shoes into her washing machine heart, and “bang it up inside.” The contrast between the self-destructive lyrics and the catchiest melodies in her entire discography is so very Mitski. Be The Cowboy could’ve been “Washing Machine Heart” x14 and remained a captivating listen. Personally, I couldn’t be happier that “Old Friend,” a song that captures wistfulness for a “blue diner” that I’ve never seen but would now love to visit follows “Why Didn’t You Stop Me?.” “Old Friend” is a plain but lovely track that features Mitski back on the piano, and simple acoustic strumming holds it all together. Her longing request to visit the blue diner and “take coffee and talk about nothing, baby” takes listeners to a place everyone in town would know; it’s retro but familiar. Mitski has a talent for writing songs that sound old-timey, like the Angel Olsen-lite “Lonesome Love” and the misleadingly jaunty “Me And My Husband”. In the mournful “Lonesome Love,” we hear Mitski trying to prove that she’s over someone. She spends an hour putting on her make up. She walks in wearing her high heels, “all high and mighty” but ultimately loses once they say “hello.” She then takes the blame for getting hurt again, and explains that “nobody butters me up like you” but “nobody fucks me like me.” “Me And My Husband,” on the other hand, is a bit more unusual. There’s a deep sigh just before the piano and drums come bursting in. Again, Mitski sings in a higher register. She’s already indicating that while the music is joyful, the story is not as it seems. In an interview with the 405, Mitski says this about “Me And My Husband”: …I think a lot of marriages are like that because that’s what it is; it’s no longer about being in love. It’s really hard to stay in love and keep the spark. When you get married and you’re with someone for years and years, it no longer becomes about infatuation or having your heart aflutter. But the song is just about “you know what, this may not be love anymore, and I may be unhappy, and I’m going to die one day and this is just going to be my life.” But then turning around and saying “this is the decision I made, and you’re the person I chose, so I’m just going to stick with you. We have our problems, but this is our life and we’re going to live it.” And that’s what it’s about. It’s heartbreaking, but fits right in to the multiple narratives and themes running throughout Be The Cowboy. Hearing her misdirect listeners with accessible, uplifting sounds and juxtaposing them with some of her most self-deprecating (“I am the idiot with the painted face”), candid lyrics is genius. “Nobody” is arguably the song that accomplishes this the best. “My god, I’m so lonely / so I open the window to hear sounds of people”, Mitski croons in “Nobody,” one of Be The Cowboy’s standout tracks. Like a majority of her lyrical content, “Nobody” is raw. We hear a woman completely vulnerable, and that vulnerability is seeping through the wonderful pop song. In the music video, it’s largely Mitski ft. Mitski in an eerie nightmare scene. It’s interesting watching the colourful, peculiar video for “Nobody” compared to the equally dramatic but grey video for “Geyser.” Be The Cowboy is fully immersed in drama and intimacy, and most importantly: confidence. Mitski continues to explore intimacy in the album’s second half. She shares the softness she feels in her heart through recurring motifs. Recurring motifs in music have always been fascinating to me, and I find it unfortunate that most artists don’t experiment with their lyrical approach and apply a motif or narrative. From “Nobody” onwards, we hear Mitski express a desire to be kissed. She’s “just asking for a kiss,” just “one good movie kiss” and she’ll be all right. In the beautiful, sweeping love ballad “Pink In The Night,” she’s glowing pink because she’s so infatuated with somebody and confesses, “I know I’ve kissed you before, but I didn’t do it right.” In the delightful “Washing Machine Heart”, she’s exasperated and craves to be kissed already! Then, she pleads, “somebody kiss me, I’m going crazy” in “Blue Light.” Mitski is an artist who knows her ambitions, is extremely self-aware and allows herself to portray the need to burst open through her music. Although she’s threatening to burst at the seams, there is something Mitski won’t let herself or listeners forget: she is a woman in control. For Be The Cowboy’s press release, Mitski explains the album title as “a kind of joke”, and continues to say, “There was this artist I really loved who used to have such a cowboy swagger. They were so electric live. With a lot of the romantic infatuations I’ve had, when I look back, I wonder, did I want them or did I want to be them? Did I love them or did I want to absorb whatever power they had? I decided I could just be my own cowboy.” Be The Cowboy is electric. The music seems to effortlessly veer from sombre piano ballads to upbeat pop, to slight jazz to sublime indie rock. This is something Mitski has always excelled at – making the complex sound remarkably simple. And, the simple things she does do are always fantastic. The straightforward fuzzy guitar riff running through “Remember My Name” has been in my head for days, and “I need something bigger than the sky, hold it in my arms and know it’s mine” is already a fan-favourite line. As is “it’s just that I fell in love with a war, and nobody told me it ended” from the epic and melancholic “A Pearl.” “A Pearl” may be the most essential song on Be The Cowboy. It’s the track that nails what Mitski asked herself in the press release – did she love them or did she want to absorb whatever power they had? “A Pearl” finds her rolling the pearl that was left over in her hand, only looking at this pretty object and avoiding examining toxicity that lies inside a relationship. Mitski doesn’t just look at something pretty, for nostalgia’s sake. She takes her listeners on journeys. She brings us to a school gymnasium in Be The Cowboy’s album closer, “Two Slow Dancers.” She keeps her dry wit with her as she reminds listeners of the smell of school gymnasiums; “It’s funny how they’re all the same.” The school gymnasium is the chosen destination for two ex-lovers to share a final dance. They are “two slow dancers, last ones out”, wishing the moment could last forever. “Two Slow Dancers” is mellow, but Mitski doesn’t hold back from sharing the anxiety of growing old. Though she’s still young herself, she can’t help focusing her fifth album on longing for the past and imagining relationships better than they actually were. To be honest, I’m relieved that Be The Cowboy breaks from the album closers of her past work. While “A Burning Hill” and “Last Words of a Shooting Star” are stunning, intense songs, they are worryingly frank songs that had me feeling like I was snooping through her diary. But here, she embraced fiction and larger-than-life storytelling. She became her own cowboy. With Be The Cowboy, Mitski has a newfound assurance that’s just wonderful for fans new and old to watch blossom before their eyes. Do you want to be your own cowboy? I know I want to be. --- Please consider supporting us so we can keep bringing you stories like this one. ◎ https://chorus.fm/review/mitski-be-the-cowboy/