#and it's the first piece of media i binge in 3 years

[livwifeofkarl]

So about 3 months ago I decided to return to therapy for multiple reasons. It’s been alright and somewhat helpful, but I know that I’m making the process harder because I have a very hard time opening up to people.

My therapist could tell I was putting up a wall in response to all the pointed questions about myself but she could sense that I’ve clearly been hurt and that I’m a “deeply unhappy person” (her words not mine although true), so a couple sessions in she changed tactics and just asked if there was anything at all that gives me relief from all the sadness I have.

And ooh boy did she open a can of worms. So I proceed to spend the whole session (plus an extra 20 minutes) gushing about OFMD and how I see so much of myself in Ed.

A week later at my next session I walk in and the first thing she says is “So Buttons turned into a bird”. I just break down and start bawling. No matter what I said I couldn’t convince anyone in my life to watch this show that means so much to me. But right after I tell my therapist the first thing she does is go home and sit down with her partner and binges the show.

She then uses the whole session to ask me questions about Ed and his responses to what he experiences throughout the show. I know what she’s doing, obviously, I know that she’s getting me to analyze myself by analyzing a character I connect with greatly. I’m just shocked that in 30 years this is the first time someone actually listened to my passionate ramblings about a piece of media and thought “hey maybe this person is passionate about this for a deeper reason”.

#I didn’t really have a point to this #but I wanted to share anyway #ofmd #personal

[vikugnavikugna]

BING BONG TWIG ARC 3 COMPLETE BING BONG

I don't like this art at all but I'm so done redrawing Sub Rosa. This is, like, my third attempt at making a sketch for this arc! I want to move on to Fray! She's SO MUCH cooler!!!

ANYWAY, anyone remember how I said I ought to write down my thoughts immediately after reading rather than weeks later? Yeah, lol, lmao. I think that when I read this arc for the first time a year ago I *really* disliked it (oh, right, we are now officially out of the "i read this twice before" territory; my first attempt at reading Twig ended on arc 2 whilst the other did around arc 8? all my memories on plot points from this point on are quite fuzzy). I can definitely see why I didn't vibe with this, I suppose - I always was such a big Mauer fan that Sub Rosa just felt weak as an antagonist, comperatively. This read, however, I found myself enjoying the arc quite a bit. Absolute favorite scene was the moment where the Lambs were seperated and entered the labs with the experiments - it's funny how disappointed Sy was in Mary considering this is their second mission together. He came to like her so fast and accepted her as a Lamb so quickly he simply haven't considered she lacks so much experience in working as a group compared to everyone else. Like, come on Mary, even Lil did it! KEEP UP!!! Helen also had a lot of funny moments this arc because she's a funny gal like that (screaming at the experiments in the hallway and all). Gordon continues to be my favorite for no reason whatsoever - I genuinely don't remember a single thing he did. He's just cool. Just a dudely dude. A ladsome lad. A guyly guy.

Also, damn, that interlude. I remember it really fucked me up during my previous read. Fucked me up a little bit less this time, but I still loved the way it was written. I am a huge fan of horror and this struck a certain note with me that very few horror pieces of media do. Truly tailor written for me the same way Mauer was. Good arc, VERY GOOD interlude.

#Vik's Twigs #sub rosa #twig web serial #my artwork

[queerfandomtrifecta]

I’m late to the Hazbin Hotel stuff, but I’ve binged it a few times recently and just have to say that I’ve never seen an abusive relationship that looked so much like mine portrayed so correctly (as in both accurately and in being completely condemned by the narrative) as Angel and Valentino.

I’ve seen a little of the discourse on this and I’m gonna add my thoughts under the cut.

Gonna start by saying 1. I was lucky enough to get out of my eight-year long abuse/DV situation in 2019 and I’m safe and okay now 2. I know everyone’s experience is different and I’m specifically talking about my experience of being in a long-term abusive situation and don’t mean to diminish anyone who’s experience with SA/DV was different than mine and 3. this is all high praise for what the show did, because it may not sound like it at first because it is legitimately hard for me to watch, especially the first time through.

I’ve realized I’m probably rambling out of order at this point and I apologize to anyone who’s chosen to read these words I just had to shout into the tumblr void but oh well.

Yes, I read the trigger warning at the beginning of e4. I braced myself because that one is typically fine with a heads up for me, but I still wasn’t prepared. I barely made it through that first watch because it didn’t warn about the DV tied to the SA. I’d already barely made it through the scene in e2 where Angel Dust is listening to voicemails from Valentino because jfc it’s so painfully accurate. I heard some of that stuff verbatim from my abuser. Word for word exactly the same.

The other part that’s accurate is how self-destructive Angel is as a coping mechanism and his reasons why. “If I end up broken, maybe I won’t be his favorite toy anymore. And maybe he’ll let me go.” It’s. So. Accurate. To my experience at least, which is one that looked a lot like their whole relationship.

“Loser Baby” is absolutely fine with me. Because again, it’s so accurate. Having someone sit with you and say “hey, I clearly see that you’re not being treated right no matter how hard you try and fake things, and that you’re at rock bottom and not doing good things with the ways you’re dealing with that, and I’m here for you anyway” is what pushed me to finally leave. My now-best friend who at the time was my co-worker who’d just been hired a few months prior is the one who said it to me. He saved my life in more ways than one and I’m forever grateful for it. I’ve read a few things saying the song was calling Angel a loser in a victim blaming way, and that’s not how I took it at all. Admitting how much things suck, saying that aloud, including the ways I’d changed for the worse was crucial for me in the process of leaving and trying to heal afterwards.

“Poison” wasn’t even the part that was difficult to watch for me, even though those scenes are (mostly) what earned e4 the trigger warning at the opening. But the lyrics hit me hard. “My story’s gonna end with me dead from your poison.” I lived this for years. I can’t overstate how much this was the reality of my experience. I thought that was how things would end up for me. I didn’t think I’d have a way out from this person who was both hurting me and making me the absolute worst version of myself possible. I was so sure I’ve of those two things would eventually be the end of my story. I’m very very lucky it wasn’t and I’m grateful for the resources I had that let me leave when I could.

This was a whole lot of rambling to really just say I’ve never felt so seen and respected by the representation of abuse in a piece of media. Maybe it’s because I’m coming off feeling weird about things in OFMD2 and withholding saying any on that because reasons. But I can definitely weigh in accurately in the abuse plot line in Hazbin and it’s all praise from me. Would I have avoided watching it if I’d have known how big of a plot line that would be? Yes, probably. I would’ve at least read spoilers ahead of time to try and gauge it. I nearly stopped it a few times because I wasn’t expecting it to be so painfully close to my own experience and shown so blatantly instead of being implied off-screen.

But am I glad I watched it? Absolutely. Mostly because the narrative so clearly frames everything as capital-b Bad. And I’m grateful they showed what they did how they did, and even more grateful and that the narrative (which is specifically working with a major, prominent, surface-level text theme of redemption/redeem-ability) frames Valentino as an irredeemable villain for his role as the abuser, while also giving Angel Dust three-dimensions in his own flaws that he’s responsible for. It’s done flawlessly imo. And I’m glad I watched it, even though it was hard.

#hazbin hotel #hazbin analysis #hazbin angel dust #angel dust #hazbin valentino #valentino #cw abuse

[peekychu]

I just realized it’s been three full years since I started watching Hunter x Hunter for the very first time. I asked Twitter for anime recommendations that I could watch during lockdown, and I had no idea that two characters that show up like a hundred episodes in would permanently alter my brain chemistry like no anime had since Pokémon LOL.

I genuinely feel like few things have affected me as deeply as the story of Meruem and Komugi had. Most of my strongest fixations are easy to digest Silly Animal Character related media, normally things that scratch the part of my brain that Pokémon or MLP does. It makes sense that I liked HxH a lot, because the bright visuals and immediately likable main cast felt familiar, but nothing could have prepared me for the bombshell of emotions that I’d get from the chimera ant arc.

I had binge watched the entire arc with my friend PJ (if you’re reading this hiiii hi!! Haii) and I remember making remarks abt how much I disliked seeing Meruem to someone who was biting their tongue bc they had seen the arc and knew how well he would be written later on LMAO. I remember both of us being in tears at the end of their story, and also how I had No Idea what to do with my feelings abt these characters for MONTHS afterwards xD They were both all I could think about and I needed so badly to draw them, but both of their designs were so out of my comfort zone to recreate faithfully.

Now the little kittycat versions of Meruem and Komugi that I created feel like little puzzle pieces that my brain needed :3 They live in my sketchbooks and in my thoughts. It feels like they’ve been reborn into simpler and cozier beings which feels so special to me. Nearly every day I try to dissect why these two have stuck with me in a way that No other character has, but until I figure it out I’ll just keep drawing them as little cats. Thanks for reading :3

#i rarely talk abt them online bc my brain has been rotted to Twitter Algorithm Pleaser #but they mean the world to me I have to be a little bit autistic abt them or I’ll explode #brainposting #merukomu

[twananas]

My least favorite things in DnD and fantasy writing in general

In no particular order

-Time is meaningless

A lot of fantasy stories have these periods of time (often centuries if not millenia) where just nothing happens the "age of peace" or whatever, and just NOTHING OF NOTE HAPPENS!

No major political shifts, no notable historic events. Like, a lot happens in a century, there are countries now that weren't independant nations then.

Our world is incredibly vast, there is no worldwide "status quo", things are always changing. I know it's unreasonable to make an entire world and all the details that entails, but making what happens in only a number of lands the only thing happening ever makes the world feel soooo small.

-Technology peaked millenia ago, so now we're all in the "Middle Ages" forever

"Our most advanced piece of technology is full plate armor, and the first of those was made 1945 years ago..." uh-huh, nobody in all that time made something new, huh? "These bodies must have been in these ruins for centuries", and the gear they got is on par with ours, the heroes'... the most frustrating thing about this is that with 15 minutes and 2-3 google searches it could be fixed

Oh, my world's era is around 1400s? This one thing happened over a millenium ago? aight that was late Roman Empire in most of Europe, google what that stuff looked like, bada-bing bada-boom, it's not super elegant but it shows you at least considered what that time difference means

- This weapon/item/ritual is ancient, it's unbeatable

In the centuries that have passed nobody, not one great wizard, ageless dragon, crazed alchemist, whatever was able to make something to challenge the evil thingamabob? All of human, elven, dwarven, etc ingenuity could not hope to triumph something some dickhead made so long ago they wouldn't even be alive for the concept of wiping after shitting?

Frieren is the first piece of media to actually do something fun with this that I've seen (maybe I just have been looking at the wrong shows until now, idk)

Spoilers for the first episodes but here's what happened : 80 years a demon made the Ultimate Destruction Spell tm, and has been sealed away, in those 80 years magic evolved so much that Ultimate Destruction Spelltm has been surpassed by every new attack spell, being reduced baby's first offensive spell

Anyways, I have more of these, maybe I'll post more if I want or enough people care...

#dungeons and dragons #dnd #frieren anime #pathfinder #fantasy #writing #tolkien

[iamfabiloz]

So, how'd ya get into transformers and/or warrior cats?

basically around 2020 my dad put on the first season of transformers prime on Netflix and we was watching it together and at first I was like ‘BOOO I DONT WANNA WATCH DUMB ROBOT SHOW 😡’ but then the more we watched I ended up rlly liking it!! And bc Netflix sucks and didn’t have any more seasons I went searching on other sites and finished all of tfp :3 but then I heard there was more robots still and I was like WOAHH and so I began to watch more and MOREE I binged tfa and some of cyberverse, the bayverse movies etc and discovered/picked up lots of knowledge from tf fandom posts on tumblr and things 🤔 i read a bunch of idw comics like mtmte/ll and I even went to TFCON toronto last year :3 so that is so the story thus far of how I got sucked into robots MWAHAHA

As for my warrior cats obsession that began when I was like 9, so it’s been with me for much much longer 🫡 around 2016 ish i I remember seeing a reference to it in one of pinkbunnygirl43’s videos, a youtuber I used to watch a lot, and then my mom was like look at the cat books while I was at the library and I started to check them out!! Also I began to watch multi animator projects Abt wc too, and i gained lots of info Abt the plot and story Thru osmosis n watchinf so much fan made content till eventually I begged to get all the books and read them all. Like in 2017 I began my digital art journey and some random warrior cats ocs were the subject of the piece :3 and wc basicallt what got me into drawing and art related things and it still has its claws in me even after 8 years good lord SOMEONE HELPP!!! I have so much pre 2020 art in my files like a whole heap I am grateful I didn’t have social media back then (aside from my wattpad era) but yeas!!

Ty for asking it was fun to reminisce :3

#ask #ty for the da ask YAYYY #majachee

[aciddaffodil]

When fandom and media are how I express love to important people in my life:

I express my love for people through media, it's the way it's always been for me. My brother and I went through every phase under the moon: Scooby-Doo, Power Rangers, Romcoms, every Tom Cruise movie in existence. My mom when I'd wake up from night terrors or just plain insomnia would always have some horror related thing on, I vividly remember Friday the 13th episode plotlines even if it's been 15 years. I've watched my other mum beat Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odessey to near 100 % completion. Whenever I make a new friend and I'm trying to find a common ground, I almost always end up watching something for them- it's how I got into Hermitcraft and what pushed me to be a cosplayer. I finally gave Critical Role C2 The Mighty Nein another try, and now send updates to my brother and get cryptic replies back. The first time I watched Mob Psycho 100 S3, I waited weeks for my best friend to fly in to visit and we binged all the episodes that were out together. And then 9 months later when my partner flew into town to visit, we watched all of season 3 again for her first time watching the series.

And to get to the point of this post and what prompted me to write this: my papa, my adopted dad of sorts, has been watching and reading One Piece for 10-15 years. We share the Crunchyroll account and as I've watched and continued on my One Piece journey, I noticed he hadn't been watching it recently and I didn't think much of it- maybe he's been too busy or busy watching seasonals. Come to find out, he's put watching One Piece on hold for me so I can catch up and we can watch it together. Which is just a huge expression of love, in my eyes at least. I cried about it and just wanted to share :3

#nerd talks #love langauges #media #fandom #anime #growing up #one peice #hermitcraft #mob psycho 100 #just a bit of everything #sappy

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hello Steph!!

I just wanted to say how overwhelmingly happy I am that I've found someone who is still 'at it' after so long…

Ever since I was little, I wanted to study forensic science just like my mother was, I've since decided i'd like to study a double degree in criminology and criminal justice/psychological science.

i'm in year 12 now, and we are finishing up the last of our units before our external exams at the end of October. counting down the days has me looking back on my past and life in general while also looking ahead to a hopeful future of academia in honour of my mother... you could say i'm sentimental (hehe). sorry, i'm getting way off-topic. anyway, our last English unit is looking at representations of death. And by chance, my lovely english teacher introduced us to the wonderful world that is sherlock.

Honestly, sherlock and john - the whole universe, really - have saved my life. I had got myself in a really bad way and was struggling. The media, theories, and possible research from all of the renditions of sherlock, including the original text, gave me something to occupy my mind with. It ended up reigniting my love for learning and criminology/psychology.

Even more so, i'd say it was the fandom that saved my life. From hilarious old theories on tumblr to the fandom's general crack and chaos, it made me smile and brought back some joy when i could see it nowhere else.

i'd like to thank you personally. simply put, your blog and, more specifically your fanfic recommendations are the reason i am still here today. reading through them has helped me to laugh and cry when i needed it the most.

i'm getting to a much better place and finding my feet again. But I wouldn't have made it to this point without you and the fandom. so thank you. thank you so unbelievably much Steph.

... so yes, many of the blogs I've come across have long been inactive. So it's lovely to see the fandom still thriving :) i think i'd like to be you when i grow up. thank you again! <3

Have a lovely day!!!

Warm regards, Baie x

p.s: a note on johnlock... (after we watched the hounds of baskerville in class) my first exposure to sherlock was actually the bbc series which i binged. twice. then read acd's novels. somehow, the possibility that johnlock was not cannon never crossed my mind? like idk. maybe my view of love is skewed, but i tend to think love manifests in so many different regards. and to me, john and sherlock look at each other like a couple of old married best friends. so imagine my supprise when i made my way to the online discourse on the matter!! seeing people trying to prove their relationship exists was so odd to me at first. anyway yeah, point being, i'm asexual, so seeing a relationship dynamic portrayed in such a way that resembles my own relationship is very comforting. i love johnlock and the fandom to pieces <3

HI BAIE!!

OMG I am SO SORRY that I took so long to reply to this quick-reply ask, UGH.

First off, thank you SO MUCH for your unbelievable kindness in this ask. I am humbled and undeserving of such praise, but I am SO honoured that my blog has played a major role in your fandom experience. It always shocks and humbles me to read such praise.

Secondly, thank you so much for sharing your fandom story. I too had a lot of life-changing things happen because of this fandom, and I wouldn't change that for the world. It helped me understand myself in ways I never would have without it, helped me cope with a lot of family drama, got me through a sexuality crisis, encouraged me to finally seek the therapy and diagnoses I really needed, and just... helps combat the loneliness, honestly. My blog keeps me busy, so it does feel like a joy to work on it and KNOW that people enjoy being here as much as me.

I feel you on the asexuality, and on the personal interpretation of their relationship, and I do get it. I think for me it's just I spent SO MUCH TIME analyzing their characters that the only logical outcome of the series Pre-S4 was canon Johnlock. But alas, LOL.

This fandom is a fantastic place, and good golly I would not wish my neuroses on anyone to "be like me" LOL. I'm only still around because I have weird obsessions and I love running this blog and being a beacon for newcomers and old friends alike. BUT I am humbled that you aspire to be like me, so thank you <3 But you should be like YOU, because there's only one of you, and we admire you for that!!

THAT ALL SAID, good luck on your studies, sounds SO exciting! You'll be amazing!!!!!

Thank you again for this beautiful ask; now that I had a chance to sit down and read it, I am floored and sobbing, and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Thank you so much <3

Have a fantastic day, Lovely! <3

#steph replies #happy posts #testimonials #my blog #nonny stories #just the tag i have for them is all #thank you so much

[byebyelemonpie]

byebyelemonpie's july 2023 recommendations

My july top 5 movies:

Nimona (2023, dir: Troy Quane, Nick Bruno) [First time watch] Nimona is a shapeshifter who wants to be an evil sidekick. This premise is already brilliant, but this movie adds to it a lot of love, acceptance and so many feelings that made me cry a lot, and it suddenly became one of my favourite movies of the year. Add to this wonderful animation and really funny sequences: genuinely a perfect movie. -

Rye Lane (2023, dir: Raine Allen-Miller) [First time watch] This was cute and fun! A very nice indie British romcom that is mostly set over the course of one day. Almost like Before Sunrise, but with more messy situations and, maybe, lies? -

Fire Island (2022, dir: Andrew Ahn) [First time watch] Five guys spend a week at a gay retreat on an island: will they find love? I still cannot get over how this movie is a queer version of Pride and Prejudice. I loved how clever it was at translating the story in a more modern (and more gay?) setting and I loved how well the characters were developed. -

Barbie (2023, dir: Greta Gerwig) [First time watch] My goodness, this was just a fun movie! The photography and direction were perfect in composing this story about the dolls most people grew up with. It was fun and lighthearted (the songs sung by the Kens were hilarious), but it was also a thoughtful piece of media talking about feminism and inequality, and the fact that not everybody knows what their place in the world is, but just being there is (K)enough. Just lovely. -

Another Cinderella Story (2008, dir: Damon Santostefano) [Rewatch after twelve years] This was a blast from the past! Sometimes I still hum to myself Tell Me Something I Don't Know, but rewatching the movie it came from was an experience. Recently I had also rewatched the Hilary Duff Cinderella Story, but I found the Selena Gomez one a bit more fun: maybe the dances and the songs made it feel less long? I'm not sure.

Favourite series in july:

Good Omens - season 2 (UK/USA, 2023) [First time watch] Aziraphale and Crowley need to take care of an Archangel with amnesia, make two women fall in love, and reminisce of their history together while not talking about any of that at all. Binge-watching this show is always tragic, because sure! I want to see my favourite supernatural entities do things and interact and fall for each other a little, but once I arrive at the last episode wide-eyed and speechless (actually in my notebook I wrote "Shaking Crying Screaming", but who's counting), what am I supposed to do to wait for the fated conclusion except re-re-re-re-rewatch the whole thing again? -

Little Women (South Korea, 2022) [First time watch] This is the story of three sisters who are poor and try to live in a rich world. What could happen if they found each other involved with rich people and join a long string of suicides, murders, money laundering, and political scandals? The three will have to investigate in the name of justice and to protect their family from the privilege and power that people who are richer than them have. It was very hard to watch the first episodes of this series: they were so heavy that I couldn't get through more than one of them without a headache, so watching this whole thing took me months, but I was fond of the characters and the cinematography being stunning were great incentive not to drop the series at all. -

3 Will Be Free (Thailand, 2019) [First time watch] Three people find themselves inside a mob family affair and they try to escape, while getting to know and growing fond of each other. I loved the characters!! The three main character were very easy to like, from an audience perspective, but I found myself rooting for Mae most of all: she was the best character of the show, in my opinion. -

Abbott Elementary - season 2 (USA, 2022/23) [First time watch] As usual, this sitcom brings me laughter and happiness, and makes me think fondly of my time as a kindergarten teacher (which ended last May). The situations these characters find themselves in as usual are blown out of proportion and their response to them is always hilarious, but the fact that they could happen is very realistic and fighting for the right to a free education for all is very important. I hope that after the Writers and Actors' Strike this show will continue, because it is lovely, and one of the few US sitcoms from recent years that I enjoyed watching.

[byebyelemonpie's 2023 recs]

#a post #byebyelemonpie's 2023 recs #about movies #about series #nimona #rye lane #fire island #barbie #another cinderella story #good omens #little women #3 will be free #abbott elementary

[mitzvahmelting]

random ask! what's an upcoming piece of media you're excited for and why?

it's actually kind of funny you asked this, because the answer is sort of... nothing? i don't usually watch media properties that aren't already finished, because it makes me anxious to think about leaving the fates of the characters i like in the hands of the creators, who could choose to take the story in a direction i don't like. honestly the first and only time i watched a series where i was waiting for new episodes to come out every week was when Avatar: The Last Airbender was first airing. Waiting through the breaks between seasons was agonizing. I don't think i've ever had that experience since then... i just don't watch things in that way anymore.

that said, i guess i am cautiously looking forward to some things. i'm not invested in these fandoms the way i'm invested in, like, a Main Fandom, but i think they'll be nice:

next season of leverage: redemption. i've got complicated feelings about leverage after reading some more about the way the portland production company treated women workers back in the original show production, but i think the reporting wasn't quite horrible enough to turn me off from the show completely. it sounded like neglectfulness on the part of leadership more than malice. (the stuff about tim hutton is different, but he's not on the show anymore so that's fine). so i'm not fully soured on it, and i think the writers on the show are incredibly kind and warm in their writing, so i'm looking forward to more.

good omens season 3, because season 2 felt like an incomplete story and i want to see what the hell neil does with the chekov's arsenal he stocked up

once ncuti gatwa's first season of DW is complete i'll watch it. i just don't like watching weekly so i'll wait until i can binge all at once. but i can tell he's gonna be marvelous.

anything the bluey writers do is gold. so i'm sure that'll be nice whenever there are more bluey episodes. but i'm still watching season 1 lol so i've barely made a dent in the backlog.

i just watched dimension 20 fantasy high freshman year. i'm gonna wait until junior year is complete before binging sophomore and junior year together probably

#me #thanks for the ask! #i don't really like to reply to or forward on chain asks because the implied obligation puts me off #(though i'm still flattered when people send them to me to try to include me) #but i like that this ask wasn't a chain ask it was just something dropped in my inbox #with no obligation to pass it on or anything #so that was nice! #thanks #my writing

[3dnygma]

Fave TV and Films of 2023

Thank you so much for tagging me @stvlti !!

Here are my 9 fave first watches (not necessarily first releases) of 2023! I listed them in no particular order.

Orange is the New Black: My girlfriend and I finished watching it in 2023 and I was amazed by the quality of the show and how many wonderful things it achieved that so many shows nowadays still struggle with.

Once Upon a Time: We needed another show to binge after OITNB so we moved onto this one. I love the characters + ridiculous plotlines lol. It kinda reminds me of Gotham in that regard. We're at season 4 rn and binging it currently makes up a big part of my weekly routine!

GOTG vol. 3: Been looking forward to that one for years and loved it <3

Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: Did not initially intend on seeing that one at the movies but so many friends recommended it that I simply had to. It delivered :) Great story and performances.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter: Dracula is one of my fave novels of all time whose epistolary storytelling has deeply influenced me and my studies over the years. The portion on the Demeter was always my favourite chapter in the novel and I'm glad that someone decided to turn it into a movie on its own because it often gets ignored in other Dracula adaptations.

May December: Starting watching it for Cory Michael Smith but really enjoyed the movie as a whole.

Across the Spider-Verse: Soooo fun and energetic with great characters and animation. Looking forward to the final one.

Five Nights at Freddy's: Once again, been waiting for that one for ages and the fact that the Henson Company worked on it made me even more excited for it. 100% how I expected that movie to go and I'm glad for it.

One Piece: My gf is a huge fan of the anime and it was fun watching that adaptation with her :) Also a good introduction to ppl like me who are only vaguely familiar with the characters.

This just made me realize how much my 2023 was defined by "fun" media haha. There are not that many "serious" movies to be found here. But I'm guessing that's because I just find "fun" first-time viewing experiences more memorable.

If you feel like doing this challenge, consider yourselves tagged!!

#tagged #about me

[theyarebothgunshot]

i was tagged by @trampledundercas to talk about 8 shows to get to know me, thank you for the tag!

i’ll be talking about the shows in the chronological order in which i started to watch them, to make it easier for myself lmao.

1. buffy the vampire slayer: listen. if there is just one show. one piece of media on this earth, that you need to know about in order to understand me, it’s buffy. this show came out when i was a kid, and i watched it even though i hardly grasped what it was about back then. all i knew was that david boreanaz was hella hot and also buffy + angel forevah. obviously, as i grew up, my opinions changed, and they continue to evolve even now. (for example: season 2 was my favorite season for the longest time, but the last couple of years, season 5 sneaked up on me and is now my favorite season). every time i rewatch it, i get something new out of the experience. the way i talk, my humor, my taste in media and ships, my very being has been influenced by this show. i know in my heart that this will always be my favorite show.

2. dawson’s creek: listen. i can’t really explain this one, except for the fact that it definitely solidified my love for the friends to lovers trope, and the enemies to friends to lovers trope. it is just *chefs kiss* and yes i also watched this way too young but ehh i survived. 

3. the o.c.: i was old enough to browse the internet when this show came out, thus i finally stumbled upon livejournal, and by extension, fanfiction. this was the first show i ever read fanfic for, and also m/m fanfic that i wasn’t looking for but that definitely rewired my brain for good. so. yeah. ever since, i have been permanently online. so there is that! plus - and this is a big factor too - it literally shaped my music taste to this day. next to the national, my favorite artists/bands are death cab and rachael yamagata, who i was introduced to by the o.c.

4. the office u.s.: next to the o.c., the office u.s. was a show i read a LOT of fanfic for at a formative time in life. jim/pam was my jam (hah. the ones who know, know). again: friends to lovers.... cannot get enough of it. i will say this though: once they get together, unfortunately the show did lose it’s spark for me. but alas. season 1-3 will always have a special place in my heart.

5. how i met your mother: i have a very complicated relationship with this show. a love/hate relationship, if you will. those who are familiar with it, undoubtedly know why. but this WAS a great show imo, at least when it went with the flow. again, the enemies to friends to lovers of it all.... yeah. that plus nonlinear storytelling? hellooo. sign me tf up. 

6. the wire: this show was just so good. SO GOOD. it was like watching a novel come to life. it definitely changed the way i look at tv, and made me appreciate long form storytelling.

7. breaking bad: this is purely a case of excellent television. it didn’t change me as a person, perse, but i cannot picture my life withouth this experience. i binged the first 3 seasons when i was sick, in the hiatus before season 4, and watched the last two seasons live. my friends and i had a watch party for the series finale, we baked a cake and made fake blue crystal meth, it was a whole thing lmao. good times indeed. 

8. supernatural. need i say more?

this was a lot of fun ngl. i’ll tag @regardingjenmish @clarkenting @blanketforcas @thosewildcharms but, no pressure, feel free to ignore lmao

#tag game

[thedragonofbadasstemple]

A little late but was tagged by @klutenpetter to do a thing! It supposed to be 9 each of like games, TV, movies, etc that you enjoyed for the first time in 2023, but like him I'm just gonna do nine piece of media overall. I'll do my layout of pictures, showcasing each one via the character(s) that were my favorite from each piece of media, and in the order in which I saw them (approximately).

Buddy Daddies, Jan 2023. Super cute original anime. Really enjoyed the QPR thing the MCs had going on. You don't get a lot of found family media like that.

Golden Kamuy, March 2023. I was sick with the flu and binge read the entire series in like a week. LOVED IN. Filled with beefy studs and its a fun ride from start to end!

Psycho Pass, May 2023. I got into cyberpunk recently and gave this a whirl. Really enjoyed the first season, not so much everything that came after tho LOL.

Komi-San, June 2023. I'll be real, I never would have picked this for myself to watch, be me and boys have been watching stuff together and this was a pick from one of them. My first impression was this was just another dumb waifu bait show, but honestly its super cute and super funny. I enjoyed it a lot and can't wait for season 3!

Yakuza Kiwami, June 2023. I started Yakuza Zero, got halfway through and then stopped in 2022, and finally finshed Zero and got through Kiwami last year. I enjoyed it way more than Zero. I really enjoy Kiryu as a character and hope to start the next game soon!

Undead Girl Murder Farce, July 2023. A seasonal anime I picked up and enjoyed greatly. I think its a fun use of public domain characters and the OCs were delightful. I hope we get another season! It was a real sleeper hit for the season I think.

Columbo, August 2023. Yeah, I watched my first episode of Columbo because of a mystery kick UGMF put me on. The first episode I watched naturally was the first episode. I watched another episode on Christmas. I really enjoy this character, I wish I had more free time for this.

Slay the Princess, November 2023. An indie game I've had my eye on for a while because of ManlyBadassHero. The full thing came out and I really enjoyed it! I highly recommend it if you like spooky and romantic things.

Good Will Hunting, December 2023. Its a classic movie, and its been meme'd to death, and yet I've never watched it before now (Its not [my] fault). On my flight to Spain the plane had tablets built in for every seat where we could watch movies and stuff so I took that opportunity to watch a bunch of films I had never seen before (others were Top Gun, John Wick, and Elemental (which I saw in 2024 but otherwise I enjoyed it the most, a morbid curiosity/hate-watch that I loved unironically). I also got halfway through Mission: Impossible but ran out of time.) I'd recommend giving this a go if you haven't seen it. Its a classic for a reason and might give you dark academia peeps a good time LOL.

For this I'm tagging @solanum-iycopersicum, @netnettart, @shinladyanarki, and @the-jar-of-dirt.

#tag game

[tokkias]

Would you rather binge watch the entire fairy tail series in one sitting, no sleeping (eating and drinking is allowed), or only get to watch one episode every other month (and not being allowed to consume any official fairy tail content outside of that single episode)?

wow! these both sound like terrible options LMAOOOO

328 episodes at about 22 minutes each totals to 7216 minutes which is 120 hours or 5 days. it's no one piece but it's certainly not the easiest watch in the world either. see the thing is i value my sleep a lot, so if this had let me get 8 hours of sleep and then do nothing but binge it i would be all for it, but if i don't get that 8 hours of sleep i would feel like shit! i would not be able to enjoy it because i would be too busy feeling like fucking shitty poopoo garbo and trying to stay awake

the other option also does not sound better! let's say that "every other month" means once every 3 months. for 328 episodes that's 984 months which is 82 YEARS. i would be dead. the poor nurse would come in to give me by semi-annual fairy tail episode and i'd still be on tartaros. doing that would be fine, but to not be able to consume any official media outside of that??? that's my hell!! i can only read so many nalu fics with the word luce in it. i need to ruminate my brain in the anime or manga to refresh their voices in my brain and make good, in character fics or i will Die

so gun to my head if i had to choose, i'd go with the first one, because at the very least it would be over quickly

thank god this is just a hypothetical

#mya's mumbles #asks #anonymous #sorry this is long but you did ask a hypothetical to the person who is notorious for rambling

[ashesandhackles]

8 TV Shows

Thanks for the tag @yletylyf <3 <3

Rules: list eight TV shows for your followers to get to know you better! 1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Years, years ago, I sporadically watched earlier seasons of Buffy and enjoyed it for the campy fun they were. And then I watched, "Innocence" - Season 2, episode 14 and I was obsessed with Buffy Summers. Buffy Summers is that one character of all time for me - she is heroic, aspirational but she is also flawed and messy and so delightfully complex. I love her and I forever have a soft spot for Sarah Michelle Gellar for playing her.

2. Fruits Basket

I first read Fruits Basket as a manga, saw the first anime adaptation and the reboot came out during the pandemic. Fruits Basket is a very important piece of media to me because of the way it tackles abuse and the nature of systemic abuse. The show/ manga's ideas of rehabilitative justice were truly ahead of its time. Also the anti hero of the story is my all time fixation - Shigure Sohma.

3. Inuyasha

Another long running manga turned anime. Something about this series turns me into a nostalgic goo. It's probably Rumiko Takahashi's brand of characters, where there is something interesting going on with each of them. But my forever love from the series is Sango, the girl who crawls out of her own grave <3

4. Fushigi Yugi

I greatly dislike the main lead in this anime, I great dislike the romance in this series but my heart went out to the antagonist, the main lead's once best friend Yui Hongo. And if this series wasn't so enamored with its ridiculously cheesy and tiresome main romance (i do not have enough criticism for how truly bad it is, believe me), it had decent worldbuilding and politics. A fact that the original manga author knew and corrected with her spin off prequel - the vastly superior manga Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden (with likable main heroine! an intense romance that never takes over the plot!). She is currently writing Fushigi Yugi: Byakko Senki and I am curious to see what she does there.

5. Nana

Nana is about my early 20s life lol. Co-dependent, almost romantically charged friendship with a roommate/best friend? Check. Misogynist, controlling boyfriends? Check. Intense but fucked up relationships? Check. It's like this show reached into my heart and displayed it to the world.

6. Shadow and Bone

I'll be honest: my interest in the show is largely due to the fact that I have read the Six of Crows duology and loved those books. I only read the original Shadow and Bone series recently, just so I can keep with the main plotline in season 2 and boy, the original trilogy is very poor lol. The only thing that has bones of something interesting is Darkling and his relationship with Alina, and watching Season 2, I feel the show writers aren't comfortable tapping into that. Too much time moralising "this is bAd!!" - lol, yes we know. It is very childish finger-wagging writing, and it's very boring and not at all reflective of human experience (Shadow and Bone writers need to watch Nana to understand how to write abusive relationships without making it look like they are doing 'Toxic Ex Boyfriend for Dummies'). The reasons why Crows shine so much is because they are based on books that are good. And I agree with general consensus that the moral universe of the Crows and the Shadow and Bone stories do not match at all, and it creates horrible discrepancies in narrative framing.

7. Cowboy Bebop

This is a show that has influenced my writing the most: dream-like vigenettes for characters? People dreaming and having nightmares? Characters stuck in the past? I wish I could be as subtle and genre-bending as this show often was. So beautiful.

8. Death Note

If you have inhaled animes during your teen years, you won't go without bingeing Death Note. Fantastic premise, fantastic protagonist and just outright brutal to watch. I keep returning to it time and again.

Tagging @merlins-sequined-hotpants @hinnyfied @bluethepineapple @phantomeo @thedreamermusing @turanga4

#tag games

[leofrith]

Rules: list eight shows for your followers to get to know you better.

Tagged by @aeide 💞✨ I've had this sitting in my drafts for almost a month and completely forgot to finish it 😭

Not all of these are shows that I would ever actually recommend to people, but are rather shows that I either vividly remember regardless of quality and/or because the experience of having watched them is intimately tied with the memories of certain times of my life. Okay.

Seinfeld - was a staple in my house growing up, and it's the piece of media that my family and I most often pull quotes from.

Cybersix - I have vivid memories of begging my parents to let me stay up to the late late time of 8:30 in the summer time to watch this baby on Teletoon. Also the gender fluid cyborg was probably one of the first hints that I might be a little bit gay.

Harper's Island - I know for a fact that this show that absolutely nobody knows about or has heard of was NOT as good as I remember it. But to describe it briefly, this was a little murder mystery about a serial killer running rampant on a resort island during a destination wedding. I was at summer camp when the last episode aired and my parents sent me a copy of it because I was tearing out my hair over who the killer was. Do NOT look up spoilers for this on the off chance that you decide to watch it, because trying to piece the thing together was half the fun!!

In the Flesh - I miss my gay zombie show!!!! 🔪

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - after finally watching all the Star Wars movies in 2015-16, I reluctantly started watching this because my friend recommended it and I needed more. Then I got really into it and I remember running back and forth between my room and his in the first year uni dorm and screaming at each other about it. And I no longer speak to that friend but that was a fun time, and it introduced me to my girl Ahsoka :)

The Americans - another one I binge watched in uni. Beloved under appreciated historical drama. Everyone Go Watch The Americans Right now. 🔫

The Mandalorian - everything about this show has been terrible as of late, to say the least. But the first season is still very close to my heart and I have met some of my dearest friends through this show so it can't be all bad!! <3 2019 Mando era I adore you I miss you.

Derry Girls - beloved comfort show with soooo many Cranberries needle drops.

I'm not tagging anyone this time because I feel like I'm tagging people in these things a LOT recently but anyone who wants to do this can feel free!!

#i was gonna put black sails on here if i couldn't think of an 8th but it is altering my brain chemistry #ky posts text #tag games