Just some disconnected, inchoate and probably defensive thoughts on "HARD," the reaction to "HARD," and where it fits within SHINee's discography (written in bullet-point format, since I'm supposed to be working):
I'm not here to discipline anyone into liking the song; it's perfectly legitimate to feel disappointed by an artist embracing a sound you don't personally enjoy.
Having said that, I also tend to roll my eyes at knee-jerk dismissals of "fourth gen" music. Pop music changes, or else it stagnates. If I'm weighing a piece of music as a critic, and not just as an individual with strongly held generic and aesthetic preferences (which, again, require no defense), I can't begin and end by totaling up the number of chanted choruses and anti-drops—I mean, I can, it would just make me a very conservative and not particularly illuminating critic.
Other than excellent production, what stands out to me about "HARD" in opposition to any number of more po-faced recent boy group releases (cf. Kayla Beardslee on how too many boy groups right now "are obsessed with coming off as really cool") is how much fun the members are having in playing around with goofy fourth gen motifs. There's nothing ironic or parodic about it—they are, as a friend said, sincerely committed to the bit, but also clearly relishing in the ridiculousness of it all. I mean, consider the dick jokes.
Is "HARD" a good song? I think so. Is it a good SHINee song?Putting aside the question of whether "HARD" feels sonically distinct from other recent boy group releases (or how much), the underlying playfulness of it feels distinctly SHINee. In that sense, it reminds me of "LUCIFER," which also embraced a more hard-edged sound/aesthetic already popular in K-Pop at the time, but which still feels/felt distinctly SHINee in its flamboyance (see Occupied Territories' brilliant write-up).
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Why did i get the random idea for an GF au filled with angst and tragic situations at 3 am.
Just chilling and all of a sudden im like 'what if ford got kidnapped by a cult [probably almost definitely Bills] at a young age and got raised with the idea he'd be the one to built the portal and free Bill or maybe be raised as a permanent vessel. It'd be like pre-betrayal Ford but he was told that since he was like 7. What if he wound up leaving for Gravity Falls [either leaving the cult because he found out something bad like idk the destruction of the earth] and MET STANLEY and they'd have to reconsider everything they know.
What if Bill didnt know any of it because when you're tryna find some poor shmuck to built you a portal you wouldnt look at your own cult which is already full of idiots
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Just watched Chapter 14 of Legion. Amy was an underdeveloped character who was completely forgotten about until mid way through the season (to the extent I at one point thought they had actually literally forgotten about her) and as a result her death in Chapter 13 lacks the emotional punch it could have had; it's devastating to see David's reaction to the loss, but we don't see enough of Amy to fully feel her loss ourselves.
Chapter 14 is clearly an attempt to rectify this - with David trying a failing to create an alternate version of reality where things for Amy and him are better (which is not at all clear, I only know this is the case because I read a recap after, watching it I thought it was just a peek the multiverse as a random framing device). We still largely see Amy as how she related to David and don't really learn more about who she was as a person outside of theur relationship. However, the thread that does run through all the different versions of her we see (bar the version in the millionaire David universe) is the love she has for her brother and how she will do all she can to try and care for him. Is it a bit of a gimmick to try paper over the problem of our lack of connection to Amy rather than fixing it? Yes. Did it still absolutely get me emotionally and cause me to cry? Also, yes. Not least because of Katie Asselton's excellent performance. Say what you will about Legion, the acting is all round phenomenal. I don't think I've watched a show before where I've ended up googling the actors because I want to see more of them.
On a different note - knowing now these are alternate realities created by David, I have so many questions about the reality where he's almost attacked by droogs. Does A Clockwork Orange exist in the Legion universe and if so is David a fan? Was that reality a self insert fan fiction? If it doesn't exist does this mean David is the author of it in the universe of the show. I know it is a fun homage and reference not meant to be analysed and that's how I took it when I thought it was a standard multiverse scenario. But David creates these realities and that casts the reference in a very different light (I'm not criticising btw, I think more multiverse media should throw random homages to creators favourite films in there)
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I know there are as many religious good guys as there are religious bad guys in IDW, but I think I pinned down the reason why it feels like the most prominent religious figures are all bad guys and it's pretty much due to the worldbuilding.
Maybe my memory of the comics is just really bad, but the religious worldbuilding in IDW is....kind of trash honestly. I'm not sure there's a single religion or religious custom that doesn't exist solely to further the plot along. Like, it's one thing for the Camiens to worship the Primes and that causes a lot of stuff in exRID/OP, but what does that worship actually look like? What are their holidays, customs, religious texts? What about "spectralism" which basically the only thing we know about is the Festival of the Lost Light and some hippie color coding and aura shit? Like sure, there are characters who are religious and their beliefs come into play sometimes, but it honestly feels (especially in MTMTE) more like their religiousness only exists when it's relevant to the plot and it's just kinda. Disappointing eh. Lacking in worldbuilding. Plus the more religious a character is the more it's written as their entire personality and the driving force making them evil so it just kinda made me cringe to read honestly.
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Chiming in to ramble about ship bias
Canon-wise, Octatrio will always be my top ship bias for Jade, but on a broader introspection, my favourite ship with Jade will always be Jade and a Situationship regardless of the muse in question.
It's easier to picture shipping Jade with someone he worships, that he admires, or that he adores, but for both personal and impersonal reasons, he doesn't initiate the official relationship or even accept it if he is offered by the person in question. Instead, Jade prefers to live in a parallel reality to this person to whom he's devoted himself, by going to lengths to ensure that their lives will never interact or overlap each other yet always staying close by just an arm's reach away. Even if the person in question got into an official relationship with someone else, it doesn't dissuade Jade from moving on because part of him expects this possibility and it's all within his expectation that the way he lives his life isn't the way everyone else wants to live their lives.
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Just realized i had an incredibly weird dream where apparently the world had ended and Jesus had come back, but we were all just ... waiting for the judgment. And you could still read books and stuff, but all the "bad" parts had been taken out??
I mean, i had been reflecting earlier on my struggles to understand how both original sin and eternal hell can justly coexist, but this was not a good solution.
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how in the WORLD did you get your blog to post once every ten minutes that's incredible
:0 the petrichorvoices aka radiomogai in the flesh!? sending an ask on my hoarding blog!? /pos
anyways, it's because of the queue 2.0 which you can enable in tumblr labs. then you can control the queue a bit more. this is what mine looks like! :D
you can't do it on the app though, so you'd have to do this on desktop, or in the browser of your phone.
also, happy new years, Radio! :3
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Giggles !! Hey here’s seven stupidly powerful characters in the Octonauts AU. Only three of them look even remotely like Octonauts characters btw
From right to left:
Rosemary, Philliam, Polly & Jarvis, Charley, Lars, Theatre
I’m just gonna say what they are (not in order) so that you can have a GRAND time wondering who’s what :) In our roster we GOT
• Someone who figured out the secret to immortality
• Some Guy™️
• The Literal Actual Grim Reaper
• Act of Love gone horrifically wrong
• Narrator^2
• Colours Georg
Closeups :)))))
can i just say that is the most gorgeous these characters have ever looked
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