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absolutebl · 4 months

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Best & Worst BLs of 2023

My Top 15 BLs of 2023 are (in order)

1 Our Dating Sim

Korea Viki

Nerds in love, deadlines, gaming, teasing, pining tiny idiots, casual affection, linguistic oops, ADORABLE. If you haven't watched this, it's a must. A perfect short form KBL, an office set reunion romance featuring geeks that really suits 8 eps with no fluff and no chaff. Just comforting and yummy.

I adored every aspect from the casting to the pristinely simple premise to the quietly smooth execution. Sure it’s low stakes, but that makes it high domesticity and extremely warm and gentle. This is a fuzzy blanket of a story - a cozy BL. It lives in my rewatch pile and you know what’s best about it? Every single episode is in that pile. There’s no skipping with this one, it might be good natured and calmly sweet but it’s tight and the pacing is excellent.

Also recieves my 2023 award for best giggle.

2 I Cannot Reach You

AKA I Can't Reach You AKA Kimi ni wa Todokanai

Japan Netflix

This classic friends-to-lovers BL is everything Japan does best. Angsty. Emo. Aching. Driven by real thirst. Yamato is deeply in love with his childhood bestie, Kakeru, and has been for ages, unable to hide his ungainly damaging high school need. He wants Kakeru in every way possible and it oozes off of the screen.

Kakeru is silly and a little simple, but not frenetic or overly camp about it. He is earnest, and genuinely wants to keep Yamato in his life which means giving a romance (and gayness) a fair chance. We watch him realize his affection and what form it can take in a truly authentic way.

This show was impossibly kind to both of its lead characters and I felt almost honored that I got to watch something so lovely and rare play out on my screen.

Also wins the best thirst award.

These were the 2 BLs that got 10/10 from me in 2023. The rest of these got 9/10 from me.

3 My School President

Thailand YouTube

GMMTV gave us a classic high school set Thai BL with tropes like messy boys singing their feelings that made this one Love Sick for the modern age with all the gentle sweetness and pining ache, but none of the dated damaging tropes or issues. Who let my BL be this wholesome and funny? My favourite GMMTV BL offering to date. And yes, I've watched them ALL.

Received the Namgoong award for best wingman 2023.

4 I Feel You Linger in the Air

Thailand grey

IFYLITA is an exquisite BL, from filming techniques to narrative framework. Steeped in history and family drama this is an elegant and classy BL. The main couple (both as a pair and individuals) were excellent, particularly Bright (Yai) whose eye-work acting style is a personal favorite of mine. It's a marker of how great it was that it's so high on my list despite the ending which was very much not what I wanted.

Additional accolade, sexiest moment of 2023 - (the oil scene).

You could try to fight me, but you'll have no grip.

5 Kiseki: Dear to Me

Taiwan Gaga & Viki

The plot is totally ridiculous and slightly unhinged. There’s a gum-ball machine of cameos, elder gay rep, great chemistry from all pairs (everyone is queer), and a KILLER side couple. It involves all the tropes under a very offhand framework of gay mafia gangs + food = love. As a result Kiseki is a poster child for Taiwanese BL, and I happen to love Taiwanese BL. Bonus? They also managed to END IT WELL, which we cannot expect from Taiwan.

Best side couple 2023!

(thank goodness Taiwan made this list!)

6 Jun and Jun

Korea Viki

A delightful office romance about an ex-idol who joins cubical life only to find his new boss is his first love. With a snappy (sometimes even raunchy) script, enjoyable sides, a pretty as peaches cast, and descent chemistry this show made up for in style what it lacked in substance. I like fluff. I loved this. I smiled every moment I was watching.

Best flirting 2023.

AKA "the tongue knows" award

7 The Eighth Sense

Korea Viki

This one is a bit chewy and sticky and less perfect than most KBLs. It’s got a bit of an age gap, country boy/city boy, stellar acting, complex characters, and leads with great chemistry and tension. This isn’t in the KBL bubble, there’s sharp edges and lots of triggers. For a BL the darkness of the content left me feeling unsettled (which is the only reason it didn't get a perfect score) but it has a glorious ending and that counts for a lot.

2023's most likely to appeal to non-BL watchers.

8 Unintentional Love Story

Korea iQIYI

The lead, Gongchan (maknae of B1A4) is a fucking GIFT, who carried this show. He was luminous with extraordinarily expressive eyes, which he used to carry a killer plot and challenging role. Forced into a totally understandable betrayal, falling in love despite himself, put into a corner he can't get out of, the AGONY, the eyes EMOTING at us in PAIN. Driven by external conflict, social tension and pressure this story seems simple but it's actually refined and quite complex. I loved this show.

Best story structure 2023.

9 My Personal Weatherman

AKA Taikan Yoho

Japan Gaga

This is classic yaoi of the kind that really only works from Japan. Basically: boys who fell in love in college end up living together but both are so repressed they actually don't realize they're in love. It's high heat is well done, but it leaned into the "why don't they just talk for fuck's sake?" which is exacerbated by the fact that they're already fucking. Sure is sexy tho.

Best use of props 2023 for the shower of sheets.

10 Our Dining Table

AKA Bokura no Shokutaku

Japan Gaga

Lonely salaryman and talented cook gets accidentally adopted by a college kid and his little brother. It’s a quiet & cozy little parable of found family alleviating loneliness. It's lovely & sweet with the romance beats used to build a family relationship, not just couple intimacy. Special.

First prize for domesticity.

11 Laws of Attraction

Thailand iQIYI

This is a great gay suspense thriller with several solid couples, fun plot, killer characters, queer rep, and a happy ending. It’s tons of fun and I had an absolute blast watching it.

Charn wins my favorite character of 2023.

12 La Pluie

Thailand Viki

This BL takes to task the fated mates trope and what it means to have love chained intimately to predestination. It’s about how faith in destiny before choice diminishes the authenticity of emotion, relationships, and connection. This is a high concept to examine through the lens of a BL. With good chemistry and decent acting all around, plus some excellent high heat and representation of consent and a few other rare tropes, this one has to (like it’s sibling show My Ride) earn high marks.

Most interesting concept 2023.

13 The New Employee

Korea Viki

So good, SO QUEER, so soft, a near pitch perfect office BL with conflict derived from that setting. Also found family and a lesbian bestie. This is what I wanted from this new crop of office set KBLs ALL ALONG. Rainbow rice cakes forever!

Best overall queer rep from Korea.

14 Step By Step

Thailand Gaga & YouTube & Viki

This was Thailand’s answer to The New Employee, and everything I loved about that show I loved about this one. This was an office romance between stern boss and sweet subordinate that felt more authentic to an office environment than previous Thai BLs of this ilk which added tension to the narrative and character development.

Chot wins best queer character 2023.

15 Love Tractor

Korea iQIYI

Most of this country-set BL had me feral for the beautiful broken city boy and his hot young farmer. Hyung romance, puppy/cat pairing, open frankness meets jaded reserve, language play, water hose frolicking, only one bed = all my favorite silly tropes.

Biggest "he so pretty" gasp of the year award.

10 Worst BLs of 2023 (that I watched)

My Blessing

My Universe: Casanova Begins

Boyband the series

Cafe In Love

Chains of Heart

Hit Bite Love

Only Friends

Senior Love Me

The Luminous Solution

The Promise

Yes, you read that right. I know I'm against the flow but I really did not like Only Friends. Everyone's taste is different.

However I DNFed faster and more BL's this year than ever before, so that means my 10 worst probably aren't quite reflective...

10 Probably Actually Worst BLs (I dropped 'em)

My Story

The Day I Loved You

Beyond the Star

Crazy Handsome Rich

Dinosaur Love

House of Stars

Mr Cinderella 2

Love Bill

Stormy Honeymoon

The Star Always Follow You

Codicils in General

I only carefully track/watch Thailand, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. Other countries are not fully represented.

My Numbers

So my spreadsheet chronicled 138 BLs that finish airing in 2023.

101 = watched & reviewed

2 = still in the docket (WDYEY2 & Love Syndrome III)

15 = CNF (could not find)

20 = DNF (which also accounts for how few very low scores I handed out in 2023 as opposed to previous years, I just stopped watching). Speaking of which...

Ratings spread

(# of stars. #of BLs given that rating)

0 (see the DNFs instead)

2 - IT'S DEPRESSING they killed the gay, save yourself

7 - I DON'T KNOW WHAT I AM WATCHING AND NEITHER DOES IT

7 - FATALLY FLAWED but still basically BL, however… do we want to support this kind of behavior?

9 - WATCH IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO but don’t expect much, it’s a total hot mess

17 - WORTH WATCHING BUT FLAWED probably around the ending or in narrative structure/cohesion or censorship

14 - RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS i.e. isn’t quite BL, convoluted, not strictly HEA, too short/long, or chemistry issues

30 - RECOMMENDED some concerns around tropes (like dub con) or story structure but still satisfies as BL

13 - ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED probably a few pacing issues or one flaw

2 - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED faithful to tropes, happy ending, good chemistry, few flaws, high rewatch potential

(source)

#Best BLs of 2023 #Worst BLs of 2023 #Top 15 BLs #Our Dating Sim #Korean BL #I Cannot Reach You #Japanese BL #Kimi ni wa Todokanai #My School President #Thai BL #I Feel You Linger in the Air #Kiseki: Dear to Me #Taiwanese BL #Jun and Jun #The Eighth Sense #Unintentional Love Story #Our Dining Table #Bokura no Shokutaku

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wen-kexing-apologist · 3 months

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HOLY SHIT EPISODE SIX!!!!!

I just need everyone to know that I spent the last ten minutes experiencing uncontrollable evil laughter after finishing Ep 6 of Love for Love's Sake. I am sincerely incredibly impressed with how expertly this show both rapidly and steadily became a horror show. We see the steady descent in the glitches that started popping up around episode 3-4, and know we are going nowhere good as those glitches start to get worse. We see the end of the steady spiral around the point where the system error first occurs and Myungha is transported to what I would consider to be a loading screen andwe get server errors.

But those couple minutes where Myungha just completely loses his grip on this false reality and phases through a number of locations in rapid succession? He was terrified.

And the last five minutes of Episode 6 really turned this in to a whole different ball game. I don't have access to these episodes on IQIYI yet, but I do on Gaga and I must say that seeing the line Forced execution of!@#^S@ pop up over his grandmother going in to asystole? Horrifying. Evil! The double entendre there from a coding standpoint and from a literal murder standpoint was fucking brilliant. I got chills.

Man I hope this show ends well, it is so so strong, it is incredibly assured in it's premise and of the way the video game components operate mechanically.

#love for love's sake

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vestaclinicpod · 9 months

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Audio Drama Sunday - 23rd July ✨

This week has been such an amazing week of listening! I’ve found three new shows that I absolutely adore and I can’t wait to tell you all about them ✨

Spoilers ahead!

🌲@hellofromthehallowoods (126) FIRST OF ALL 🚗🚗🚗 BEEP BEEP GET IN LOSER, WE’RE GOING TO GET MOTH 🚗🚗🚗 So glad to hear from you again, Ray!! This line: “the devil’s a better man than I am” had my eyebrows disappearing into my hairline and that’s all I’m going to say at this time. It’s always a risk listening in public, because the scene on the beach made me want to cry a little. I hope in my heart that they’re all going to make it out of there but I have no idea how right now!

📻 @monstrousagonies (106) the first letter this week made me laugh so much! I was fully expecting the ‘moocher’ to be a brownie or someone like that, so it was a fun surprise to hear of a demonic midnight snacker! I may have to use that excuse when my baked goods don’t turn out so baked or good . . .

🎞 Tiny Terrors (021) What a welcome VA jumpscare from Mx Wellman!! I loved the story (I, too, would feed the mega-toad to make it happy) but the surrounding footage was really creepy... I sure hope the gang goes to investigate the Riverside Institute. What’s the worst that could happen?? 👀

🌍 OOH the most recent episode of @lastechoespod was genuinely empowering! The political pressure the Archivist is under seems to have ramped up this ep, and reading @skyfullofpods’s thoughts on it last week makes me want to listen to it all again with fresh ears!

🧛‍♂️ @re-dracula What a great week! Alasdair Stuart nails it as the Captain of the Demeter. His voice in the first ep is the calm surface of the sea, hiding the teeming mass of life and death below. The Renfield arc honestly unsettles me so much, but I, too, would love a kitten if there’s one going spare …

🧬 Regina Prime (ep 4) The revelations!! I loved the sound design of the getting ready montage in this ep but I loved the lore drop even more! 300 clones?! And cloning is something that’s happening commercially? Damn. The last line actually made me grin, Epsilon is quick-witted and brave (or stupid!) and I like her a lot. Every episode I get more enthralled by this show and everyone needs to be listening!

💫 Wolf 359 (20-22) Hot damn. The tension aboard the Hephaestus is something else… the paranoia is written so well, you’re listening with your most suspicious face trying to unpick it and getting nowhere. I love how I have no idea where this is going but I know the ride is going to be BUMPY.

🎩 I started @ethicstownpod this week and it deserves ALL the hype. The show uses a well-loved audio drama trope to bring us a very interesting new story. The writing and voice acting are spot on from the get-go, and the sound design choices feel fresh despite the radio format. Most podcasts make me feel, but this one makes me think as well! I really love it!! I’ve been following the development of the show on Tumblr for a while and I remember the creator being so excited about January’s VA and yeah, I totally get it. Amazing. Hard to believe the role wasn’t written for him.

SPOILERS: I love how the main ethical issues are presented while January currently seems oblivious to the ethical quandary of keeping important information from someone and who has the right to make that decision . . . ALSO Artemis and Grace are very close in age . . . imagine if they became friends . . . and then Artemis found out . . . . HOO BOY.

🥾@doyoucopypod The first two episodes are very promising! In the first ep, the pod-within-a-pod recording leads to some fun & cheesy dialogue which contrasts well with the jaded but wary interludes from [REDACTED]. I love a spooky woodland mystery and I’m really hoping for a Blair Witch style descent into terrifying found-footage chaos! The second episode really tugged on the old heart strings. I need a Does The Dog Die for this show bc I’ve had Wilson for 8 minutes but if anything happened to him I’d make that Dead Zone REALLY much more dead-er.

🏴‍☠️ @levianpod This show has dropped its anchor right into my heart!!! DAMN. I’ve listened twice this week. I can’t recall the last time I was so immediately ALL-IN for an audio drama. I mean, firstly, that cover art is GORGEOUS. I genuinely think this show has it all, there’s LORE, there’s spiciness, there are sea captains who are also sea monsters (a GIFT for the wlw, thank you 🙏), there’s a teenage romance gone WRONG. Then there’s the voice acting!! Incredible performances right out of the gate. It’s safe to say that I am OBSESSED. Why are you still here? Go fucking listen to Levian.

🎧 In the most recent ep of The First Episode Of, W Keith Tims talks to Packhowl - a creator I greatly admire. I love these interviews! It’s so fascinating to hear how other creators came to audio drama and it’s shed some of the brilliant The Madness of Chartrulean in new light for me. I miss grumpy space Jesus.

That's it from me! PLEASE go listen to Ethics Town, Do You Copy and Levian!!

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nikki-is-a-nerd · 3 months

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Since The Percy Jackson s1 is done, i can now write my overall experience with it. Mind you i only read the first book of PJO because I couldn’t afford the books and because goddamn borrowing it from the university library was like a pack of coyotes seeing a slab of meat after 15 years of starvation.

(Side note: i once got scratched in the face by a girl who wanted to read Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, when i was gonna borrow the book for a second time. I learned it was better to just buy the books one by one per year.)

So i fully enjoyed the series. Regardless of how a lot of people have been calling it shit or a disgrace to the books. Like I appreciate how Uncle Rick managed to retell his own story, see it come to life, in a way that he wants. I appreciate Sally Jackson having a bigger impact to how Percy is as a person and as a character.

Yes, i too was shocked with the grover snitch scene in ep 1, then I thought about it, it made sense. Grover is my favorite character and i would like to say that the movie version of Grover made me feel uneasy but this version of grover, he made me long for that kind of friendship. I also love how Grover unlike in the movies, isn’t comic relief. You see his emotional struggles. You see him grow from “we have to keep the peace, let’s all be kind” to then showing us that he’s more than that. He is smart, cunning, manipulative if need be. He is also brave and he carries so much emotional baggage. The fact that he expresses rage about certain things, makes him feel more human to me. By giving him so much depth, by casting Aryan Simhadri, his depiction of grover would make book grover very proud.

Annabeth is also really really amazing in my eyes. Seeing a child give off an air of “i know things that you don’t” like an adult is so cool. Seeing her grow from “the gods are just and they have their reasons” to “The gods have flaws and they make mistakes, but i will be better than that” is very tear jerking. It helped me see Annabeth in those moments as a child who didn’t get to experience a proper childhood finally see what its like to be loved without having to give anything in return. Leah Sava Jeffries, shows emotions so well. Her posture changes depending on how she feels. She slouches a bit when she’s dejected or upset and is more poised when she’s feeling the most confident. Her eyes carry so much emotion in scenes where she doesn’t speak. She’s a lovely actress.

Percy, gods where do i even begin. Walker first off, played this character so well! You see how he’s feeling through his eyes, his face is so expressive and i love it. Percy also gets my mom approval card (which means my mom also loves his character). The way they show him to be loyal, caring, empathetic but also he’s just a child so you understand why he acts the way he acts. People complained about how percy wasn’t fighting like a pro, but i think that’s what makes it great. Percy is new, he’s learning as he goes, when we finally see Walker Portray the Percy that we all know, we can look back at s1 and we’ll see that truly, Percy has grown in skill. Also im always gonna sob over the fact that his scenes where he chooses to sacrifice himself for his friends, he always implies how he isn’t enough, we see how he sees himself and that hurts. Percy’s sass and humor though are also such highlights. I would love to see more of walker’s percy too.

Now honorable mention to my favorite backstabbing, pretty boy, luke. I love how he is such a good actor. Watching him play luke kinda immersed me in the moment, i forgot that this kind ,young man is the antagonist. Because when he played luke when we first saw him, i too wouldn’t be able to think that this guy, he can be cruel. But he delivers so much rage, so much resentment in his scene with percy in the finale. The way charlie acted in that scene, gods, i was shocked. I truly believe watching him and his character’s descent to something more is gonna be a rollercoaster ride of emotions.

The show in itself is really really good. Yes there are odd sudden black screens, but I don’t mind them. I don’t mind the changes, i just think that the episodes could be a bit longer. The story is captivating even with those changes, i love how Uncle Rick got the chance to give us an adaptation that isn’t an exact copy of the book, because i believe that a good adaptation doesn’t need to be a scene per scene copy, because if that’s what y’all wanted, listen to an audio book where people act out the scenes. Think of it this way, the book and the show are just two separate universes. Like how we have the MCU and the Marvel Comics. Same characters but different continuums.

People tend to find the negatives before they see the positives, its how we’re mostly wired. If we look past them, you’ll see that there are things that are better.

I would definitely be excited for a s2

#nikki rants pjo #percy jackson #percy jackon and the olympians #pjo tv show #pjo spoilers #essay

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coffeelovesdramasalatte · 1 year

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LITA Ep. 4 Rewatch Thoughts Pt. 2

Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

I see you being a GIANT SOFTIE Phayu, nice try

Rain looks so smug in this sequence, as he should be. Also appreciate the positive reinforcement Rain provides with his compliments

I love Phayu's side-profile right here! The reddish-brown tint of his hair is apparent and pretty, and it's just a nice shot all around. P' Saifah walks in and calls him a meanie, to which Phayu replies "don't piss me off." Look at poor Phayu being all grumpy bc he couldn't tease his Rain more.

P' Saifah, the voice of reason, reminds Phayu that while it's good that Phayu is worried about Rain losing focus, he shouldn't be too mean or Rain will run away.

Sidenote: P' Saifah, I don't think you'll get through if you're "straight" with him, just saying...

Ok I LOVE this sequence because yet again, we have Phayu having full faith in Rain's abilities AND confidence in his feelings as well as Rain's reciprocation of them. We stan one confident king <3 I also love the upbeat, kinda jazzy background music here - it makes me think of the word whimsical for some reason, except the point being made here is that neither Phayu nor Rain are acting on a whim. Weird mental contrast...

And then P' Saifah summarizes the whole PhayuRain situation for us in one sentence with a necessary addendum:

And then we cut to Rain taking his work seriously while my other son, Sig tells us about his atrocious hygiene habits

I love how even while showing us that Rain's working hard, we're also made aware that he's prioritizing his time with Phayu too. Yay work-love balance!

Only someone with the brilliance of Sig's single braincell could come up with a nickname like Cloud Jizz for Rain. Unparalleled and highly perceptive

Poor Sky, being responsible for 3 grown children on the daily

Then we cut to the next day, after everyone has turned in their homework. Ple invites Rain out for food together, and Rain's face goes through the funniest sequence of expressions as he tries to figure out a way to get out of it bc he planned for this time to be spent parading in front of Phayu dammit! He ultimately fails though and presumably goes to eat with her.

This is literally "QUICK, THINK OF SOMETHING, ANYTHINGGG"

Ok folks, here begins Phayu's complete and utter descent into ruination courtesy of Rain. We know Phayu is attracted to Rain from the beginning, but to me, this is when we really get to see what that means.

But first, Rain what is this sleeping posture? How are you breathing with your windpipe nearly smushed like that? Also how is your tummy not cold? Are your feet getting any blood circulation? Seduction should not come at the cost of safety

Then we get Phayu coming in wearing yellow and blue, a color combination I never thought I'd see on someone who wasn't Sonic the Hedgehog, wearing a fuzzy soft smile

This is honestly just a really good angle for Boss. Petition for over 50% of shots to be taken of this particular angle. Also there's something so sweet about Phayu helping Rain out with this little task - this scene makes me feel so warm. Loving the trend of backlighting with bi-colors every time they're in this room!

Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

#love in the air #lita the series #lita rewatch thoughts #bossnoeul #phayurain

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dykemerrilll · 6 days

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ep 4 rewatch

once again. obsessed with jane saying look we all know my husband’s a fool. also “the past tense is a very sturdy thing” you tell them.

tunbaaq having opposable thumbs is legitimately very creepy

“jopson, you hear everything”. once again further proof that jopson is gossip queen of the century

little pushing to move men from the terror over to erebus — little’s position as lieutenant and loyalty is legitimately up to interpretation, but i like to think of this episode as showing how his loyalty is ultimately to the men below him rather than to crozier (or franklin or fitzjames), and he will do what’s best for them (leaving a collapsing ship, abandoning the sick). i’m not fully set on this interpretation but i think it tracks and it also illustrates the overall position of lieutenant as kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place — saddled with a duty of care for those under you but unable to really act on that as you’re constrained by the orders from above. truly eldest daughter coded

crozier taking evans with him; unusual given he’s generally portrayed as distant from his men, though he obviously cares for them. and heartbreaking because it’s the first time we see him break that gruff exterior and it goes poorly. last episode he was fully prepared to leave them for their own good, and this episode he keeps one close and it gets evans killed.

fitzjames cunty sweater moments. if you’re going to get lost in the arctic you’ve gotta serve

“does one not bring one’s habits to Terror?” or should it be “does one not bring one’s habits to terror?” love this firstly because it’s obviously an example of how crozier consistently echoes stuff Sophia’s said to him and we find the source out later, but in this case, as opposed to saying the arctic wants them dead straight out, he’s saying it ironically, and it’s a joke only he will get. in this case i think he’s lamenting how he’s unable to escape the worst parts of himself regardless of their circumstances. the arctic’s pretty consistently framed as a place of change, sometimes explicitly through irving’s gay ass speech, and also through things like hickey’s slow descent into villainy and the men losing their humanity to cannibalism. at this moment though, i think crozier has realised he has been unable to rise above his flaws, though he hoped otherwise (see also franklin’s conversation with him last episode).

also a slight parallel between fitzjames and sophia. which could mean anything

“you discussed this?” — crozier genuinely sounds betrayed by this and i think this marks probably the moment where his working relationship with fitzjames starts to reach properly unsustainable levels of distrust.

hickey’s decision to kidnap silna is interesting because it’s equally plausible that he did this to get into crozier’s good books or because, having seen tunbaaq’s face and following the same logic as fitzjames assuming silna somehow controls tunbaaq, he genuinely thought capturing her was key for their survival. which i think actually rings truer to his character — hickey’s not actually really some machiavellian schemer for the sake of it, no matter how much he may enjoy that, but an opportunist bent on survival. consistently his motivations throughout later episodes (munity, cannibalism etc) are because he thinks them necessary for his own survival. ultimately one of the major questions the terror asks is how far men will go to ensure they live (“god wants you to live”), and hickey will do literally anything for it.

“i’m not sending men out into a squall” — obviously shows how far crozier falls next episode but equally illustrates fitzjames’ upward trajectory given that he is in this episode perfectly happy to do so. illustrates their respectivr flaws as well; crozier is an alcoholic, and fitzjames reacts very badly under pressure.

hickey’s dramatic storytelling one of the funniest things in this episode. i’ve said before how he thinks he’s in the wrong genre but this is the ultimate example. also hickey probably wasn’t lying by saying that tunbaaq ran off when silna tried to speak it, so we can probably assume that this is when it rejected her fully as a shaman, having given her the seal previously — not sure why this is

the fact that fitzjames clearly cannot stand hickey is hilarious.

also “yes, mr hickey, we know” — he’s legitimately confused by this and crozier’s later punishment. this is the moment whereby hickey recalculates, i think; he moves from trying to gain what power he can within the general order of the ship to actively disrupting it, presumably because he realises that his own survival is no longer guaranteed by proximity to crozier.

“disrespect to who sir?” “to the girl”

the whole concept of punished as a boy is so much. firstly, lays bare the barbarity beneath the victorian navy’s pretence towards civility. secondly, crozier reaches some degree of physical intimacy with hickey only through violence enacted by a proxy (johnson). thirdly, highlights the difference between his later relationships (jopson & fitzjames primarily) and current isolation. fourthly, there’s a lot to ‘as a boy’ that’s interesting and i’m just too tired to unpack. this whole scene is just so much but really quite difficult to parse?

hickey’s crimes include dirtiness — i have little to say here except. victorian ideas of moral hygiene go brrrr

the worst part of it all is obviously afterwards everyone just stops and hickey has to play it off. like to me that is the most dehumanising part of it all — there’s no comfort offered afterwards and no sense of absolution (unlike how hartnell sees this), just the brutal reality of senseless violence

also like. following that with asking who wants to go to erebus and then crozier being shocked almost all of them want to go. read the room man

rare stanley w by being bare minimum kind to morfin and asking fitzjames if he needs anything.

interesting as well how absolutely shaken fj is by the “incident” on Terror — this is tenuous but i think any level of being uncomfortable with violence is associated with naivety in the show. goodsir is obviously the most ‘gentle’ of the cast, and the only person to show outward discomfort with hickey’s punishment is jopson — who while not exactly naive is somewhat cast in that role anyway by virtue of his position as younger and subservient. fitzjames’ shock here is down to him being rudely awoken to the reality of command — similar to how goodsir never realises “england” is the source of the men’s rot, fitzjames has thus far i don’t think reckoned with the brutality inherent to his position. it’ll come up again when he asks blanky about ross, i think. this is also part of my overall nebulous theory about naivety & purity in the show. to be revisited.

the camera angles they use for goodsir are really funny cause they’re consistently trying to make him seem smaller in comparison to stanley when. they are the same height

GOODSIR LIB MOMENT — his absolute consternation that morfin would ask if he’d been whipped, because by virtue of his class privilege he is shielded from that part of naval life. like goodsir is so empathetic and open to other cultures but basically never critiques the structures of his own culture: he consistently falls back on class and never realises that

someone leaving tobacco in hickey’s hammock is legit sweet

DE VOEUX DICKHEAD MOMENT

#lol i started work again yesterday so u can see the downhill trajectory in these my brain is fried #the terror #want you all to know im genuinely unhappy with this. there was a lot more to say that i jusr. couldnt get out

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savagebisand · 7 months

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I don't have much to say about this week's ep but I do think having Ray and Mew together and Ray still evidently hugely fucking up next episode, exposing Mew to shit he never was interested in before when he's at a vulnerable low point, doing drugs at a party when he literally just did a whole spiel that if mew gives him a chance, he can change and be what Mew needs. It's very purposeful. seen a lot of people say Ray is a red flag and super confusing. Yeah as we can guess, it's intentional this far in to this show. They are making a point that Mew can't be the one to change Ray and that the two of them trying on a relationship is just going to prove it to them both.

Mew can't magically fix broken people ie Top and Ray and Ray can't expect someone else to make him better. Especially not at a time when the other person is equally as broken and influenced astray. Ray only got his chance with Mew when Mew knew Ray would drag him down alongside him because Mew was looking for self punishment on some level. The difference is that deep down Mew knows he doesn't need to torture himself over people equally as bad as him, he'll realise Ray isn't making him any better or making that hurt and love cocktail of heartbreak over Top disappear and Ray will end up truly getting his "oh fuck" moment. Because Mew and him don't work.

I definitely think Mew's whole "we don't realise the value of someone who loves us until it's too late" is actually foreshadowing Sand finally abandoning Ray as well, Rays realisation over Sand will come just a little too late and he'll be in Ton's shoes. Totally alone. And god is that gonna be a sucker punch. Because the one thing Ray hates the most is being compared to Ton. But they do mirror each other. Maybe Ray's response that "it's never too late" is also a hidden clue that he'll get his act together and meet Sand where he's at.

But boy oh boy let me tell you, Ray is only just beginning his descent into suffering whilst he blindly thinks he has the world on his shoulders. That he's living his Hannah Montana dream, Sand in the palm of one hand and Mew falling perfectly into the other. He does this. He's always liked to think he has them both where he wants them. He really really does not. How deliciously disastrous this is gonna get.

P.S but I am not immune to the sexy power of Book and Khaotung all up on each other in da club. You go you messy vindictive girlies. This is terrible but you look great doing it.

#only friends #sandray #raymew #ray pakorn

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somedayillbepeterpan · 1 year

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I want to write an in-depth analysis of Ji Dong-hui's murderous obsession towards Choi Chiyeol but my dumb brain can't figure out what to say.

So let's look at the timeline of Dong-hui's descent to madness. My ramblings are all over the place but I do want to talk to someone who may have a more cohesive understanding of how to explain Ji Donghui's character.

-early childhood to middle school: grew up with no dad maybe. Grew up with an emotional and physically abusive mom who took it out on both him and his sister.

-Middle school/high school: Even when the household was dysfunctional, sister grew up to be a positive person who loved to study (which is probably pushed mainly by her desire to get out of that abusive household). When mom says, her kids are her only hope, they might be poor and she wants her kids to save her from poverty. (which is never a good motivation to get kids studying). Mom does the unthinkable and pushes sister to the brink when she gave her daughter the answer sheet to "ensure" her future. Sister crumbs under the guilt and kills herself leaving the brother on his own to deal with crazy mom. He starts practicing his metal ball slingshot around this time.

-Highschool: Living with mom is hell. He is also pushed to the brink but instead of killing himself, he kills his mom. Due to being a minor (and this is also when he first starts to learn how to become manipulative), he was let go. He probably started killing animals with his metal sling shot around this time but he can never get back the feeling of revenge from killing his mom.

-Young adulthood: Ji Dong Hui is born from feelings of revenge and loneliness. Revenge probably started from the educational system and he found a "hero" he can wants to be a "support" for. Choi Chiyeol, the only adult that his sister trusted. He will serve this "hero" because this hero is the only person who showed him and his sister kindness. Also, he's just as lonely as he is.

-"Serving" Choi Chiyeol: He knows Chiyeol inside and out because he's made Chiyeol into who he is. But the Chiyeol that he knows who he thinks is "professional" is an empty shell because everything the Choi Chiyeol, the star teacher, is not really the Choi Chiyeol but Ji Donghui's projection. And he protects this projection fiercely by literally killing anyone who even comes near it (remember the girl who causes the "first scandal" that we become aware of who we never heard of again).

-Nam Haengseon comes barging in to Choi Chiyeol's life: From the get-go, Mr. Ji has done his best to keep Chiyeol to himself and to getting him away from the Nam family. From attacking them early on, to convincing Chiyeol repeatedly to get food somewhere else, from giving his disapproval to Chiyeol tutoring Haeyi, to controlling the situation by printing the materials for Haeyi, to blowing up on him when Chiyeol was angry over Mr. Popular exposing Haengseon

-Nam Haengseon and Chiyeol dating era: Nope nope nope for Ji Donghui and he starts to crack. He tries to threaten and manipulate Haengseon by showing two faces, making her believe that being with Chiyeol is going to end in heartbreak. He starts cracking even more and resolves that there is no other way of getting Chiyeol back to being his "hero" but to take out the blockage that is Nam Haengseon.

And now we're on Ep 14. I hate this character so much but I love Shin Jaeha is an incredible actor by portraying the duality really well. I didn't suspect him until I saw the theories when I jumped on tumblr late into ep 9.

The unhealthy co-dependency, worshipping a human who is just as lonely and traumatised as him, the projection of a "hero" is all so so so creepy. I can't shake the creepiness. And I can't stand his character. I don't think I even want him to stay alive in this show. I understand that what he went through is really past what can even be called trauma, if you think about it. But any person who resort to murder (or even just doing something evil like the evil moms of this show) and justify that as something they did for the good of another, is something I can't get my head around.

I think, if there is any redemption, it would come from his "hero", Choi Chiyeol, which is actually true to form. He is kind, even though he is lonely and depressed inside. I also think that Nam Haengseon would be a key factor in his redemption because actually, they are both kind who knows how to take care of the people around them.

I'm just hoping no one else dies.

#crash course in romance #ccir #일타 스캔들 #ji dong hui #mental disorders in kdrama #choi chi yeol #jung kyung ho #nam haeng seon #jeon do yeon #kdrama #please protect my family at all costs #the nams

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ririnya7 · 1 year

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Ok, so before I hop on yt to watch the latest between us ep i have to share my thoughts on:

The Hia Effect

Yes. The very one we all love to kinkshame Win with hehe /jk

Nevertheless, I wanted to analyse the effects of the term on teamwin because I won't be able to sleep if I don't. This is all assumptions and observations ofc so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

So here it is:

1. It's special

So as I've come to know, Hia is not an uncommon term. Personally I hadn't come across it on thai bl dramas before Between Us so it was interesting to dig in a little deeper. Typically it's used to refer to older males of Chinese descent.

Now to me to me the term rings special between teamwin considering how Win was the one ordering Team to call him Hia. This hints at Wins desire for Team to know that part of him, (his lineage, etc) to know him like that. So from very early in the show the term showcases boldly Wins intentions.

It's no coincidence that no one else at school calls him by that name. No one but Team, the only exception to the rule. Which takes us to our second point:

2. External Factors

As mentioned above, no one (outside his immediate family) gets to call Win by Hia. Everyone younger calls him by P'. Even Team does, though HiaWin seems to often get overused😅

As his friends point out, it is kinda weird to hear Team call Win Hia. He quickly defends himself by saying he's always called him that, which makes his friends even more suspicious of him (drunk Team tried 😭).

3. The power it holds

The word alone holds power. It does in equal value to both parties. Despite the fact that Win initiated the use of Hia, Team seems to often weaponise it against Win.

The tone they use with each other is a sign of that rule.

Win seems to really like hearing it coming from Team's mouth in every occasion (either sexual or platonic, it matters little) and it shows. He's whipped.

Team, also, enjoys the term a lot. He immediately changes terms the moment he was ordered to and exclusively uses it in front of him. He knows the power it holds and uses it to his advantage, namely snacks. He whines, he grumbles and stretches the word to get his way and it works each time! Good for them!

This is not a definitive list. I might add stuff to this as new episodes come out!

#teamwin #winteam #thai bl #between us #between us the series

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absolutebl · 8 months

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This Week in BL - Korea drops my favorite cameo ever & gives KISSES

Entirely subjective yadda yadda. Organized sorta by favs in each category.

Sept 2023 Wk 1

Ongoing Series - Thai

I Feel You Linger in the Air (Fri grey) ep 4 of 12 - Well that’s one way to find out if he’s gay, see how he reacts to reading a het sex scene out loud. Yai is flirting so hard it’s like he knows everything.

Dangerous Romance (Fri YT) ep 4 of 12 - Oh no! I love them. Also cohabitation trope! Also ALL the other ones: hair dry, meet in childhood... GMMTV going no frills with this one.

Hidden Agenda (Sun YT) ep 9 of 12 - Zo’s drama over Pat helping Joke flirt seems awfully manufactured. I’m losing faith in this show. Could GMMTV PLEASE hand JoongDunk a decent script?

Only Friends (Sat YT) ep 5 of 10 - Sand & Ray are the only interesting couple, and I’m pretty much only watching for them. They gonna go south fast, tho, and they're already ruined by persistent singing. Ooo. When Sand said Top "stole his ex" did he mean Boston? How gay.

Naughty Babe (Sat YT) ep 2 of 8 - The pronoun conversation had a bonkers translation but I enjoyed the actuality of it. The reasons for Yi's trickery are very convoluted soap opera. But I suppose that is the amnesia trope for you.

Be Mine Super Star (Mon Viki) ep 10 of 12 - Boys. We discussed this already. No sex in onsens! I found this one dull, until the end when LLS showed up. Happy to just have him in everything. Thank you Thailand. Looks like it is a classic ep 11 DOOM next week. Who cares?

Venus in the Sky (Tues iQIYI) 1-2 of 10 eps - The usual Thai pulp claptrap this time a reunion romances in and around a convenience store between a boy who recently quit his job and his former bestie who is now a doctor. Mostly not great acting, plot, or production but the sound is okay and no bad effects or singing (so far), so that’s something. The gay brothers have a fun relationship. It’s vampy and campy but fun. I like it but not sure anyone else would.

Love in Translation (Sat iQIYI) ep 4 of 10 - The date was cute but I still don’t like the lead or the premise (we moved into Cyrano de Bergerac territory). It’s moving slowly but it seems like we might be over the crush/stalker part of the narrative, so that’s a relief.

Crazy Handsome Rich (Sun Gaga) ep 2 of 10 - I just can’t. The sound is too weird. With punch down humor and other issues incoming I may DNF this. You’ve been warned. This ep we got to see LLS with his shirt off. Did anything else happen?

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Jun & Jun (Korea Thur Viki) ep 8fin - No wonder he is everyone’s favorite hyung, boy can read the room like no one else. I love that we got to see exactly how clingy and demanding Choi Jun was always going to be. Only Lee Jun is easy-going enough to put up with him. Also I’ve never watched a KBL with more innuendo. For Korea this was… raunchy. I gotta say had Laws of Attraction not come along, Simon might have been my favorite character of 2023.

Final thoughts on Jun and Jun:

A delightful office romance about an ex-idol who joins cubical life only to find his new boss is his first love. Others boys are sniffing around too. Operative word being "sniffing" as much of this romance involves smell. With a snappy script, enjoyable sides, a pretty as peaches cast, and descent chemistry this show made up for in style what it lacked in substance. I like fluff. I loved this. I smiled every moment I was watching. With tons of rewatch potential (especially the last few eps), my only caution is this is for fans of the BL genre only, I don’t think it’ll work for anyone else. A solid 9/10 from me. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I like that Korea is trying high heat, but Taiwan and Thailand are leaps and bounds better at it.

Love Class Season 2 (Korea Fri Viki) eps 9-10fin -

Omg they so cute as flirty bf. Eeeeeeee! CAMEO!!!!! My fav guest couple ever! So exciting!!!! I love that they intersected with MY Strongberry couple (Private Lessons). I’m not used to this but Holy innuendo Korea, what with Jun & Jun and now this show? It’s a bit much for my gay little heart. The final episode was entirely unnecessary, but it was fun to see them being all domestic and stuff. Maru with his dumb lettuce leaves was hilarious. I feel like I need to rewatch this one to really understand it properly, so I will likely do that soon.

Summary of Love Class 2:

3 couples form within a semester of university: 1. a hyung romance reunion of exes, one of whom has a dangerous past, 2. a friends to lovers romance, and 3. a mature student and TA one night stand + complexities (many aspects of which had me laughing). I enjoyed the characters and dialogue of this show immensely. It was a little bit more breezy and friendly than I was expecting after the first installment, Love Class. I’m not entirely sure Korea can handle multiple couples like this because it definitely felt disjointed, especially the 3rd more mature couple (also my favorite) who probably should’ve had their own series. But it was definitely fun and something different from Korea. 8/10 RECOMMENDED

Also, Korea tried to give us higher heat... that was... interesting. I mean, you tried hon...?

Kisseki: Dear to Me (Taiwan Tues Viki & iQIYI) ep 4 of 13(?) - Everyone is a sad sack this ep. Ooooo. Teach/student my favorite. We never get this one. It’s messy. I’m not sure if there is a plot. I’m not sure they’re sure if there is a plot. But I am still enjoying it.

Why R U? (Korea Wed iQIYI) eps 5-6 of 8 - Why is the Fighter character always so frustrating regardless of name or country? Ji Oh stalking his crush via IG is so relatable. He’s very first crush awkward, unsure, and sweet. They also gave a nice kiss - I love the backpack drop (kiss version of a mic drop?) I still hold that if you haven’t seen the original this might not make much sense. But I am enjoying it.

My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho (Japan Sat Gaga) ep 4 of 8 - Oh goody, another JBL where we have to pay attention solely to what they do and not what they say.

Minato's Laundromat Season 2 AKA Minato Shouji Coin Laundry Season 2 (Japan Thu Gaga) ep 9 of 12 - Big fat sigh.

It's Airing But...

My Universe (Sun iQIYI) ep 3 of 24 eps - I couldn't get hold of it and I'm not mad. I'm putting it on hold until distribution gets sorted, or icky get their shizz in order (like that'll happen).

Next Week Looks Like This:

Starting

9/15 You Are Mine (Taiwan Gaga) Secretary has to deal with grumpy boss.

9/15 Bump Up Business AKA Bump Up Project (Korea movie) suspected cinema release? I don't know much about what's going on. Last status update. Love story between a trainee who is about to debut and a celebrity from the same agency. Kpop boy group OnlyOneOf has signed up to star in this idol-based BL (based on a webtoon). They’ve been auditioning for this since Libido IMHO. You can watch me chronicle their BL MV series in this post. It’s from Idol Romance who will do sad but can do good kisses (Wish You, Nobleman Ryu, Once Again, Kissable Lips, Poongduck 304, Tasty Florida, Tinted With You).

Still To Come In September

9/26 I Cannot Reach You AKA I Can't Reach You AKA Kimi ni wa Todokanai (Japan ????) - Adapted from the manga, childhood best friends: The cool, smart one who’s good at everything, and his average, dorky friend who struggles. Always by the other’s side, but not together in the way they truly want to be. No matter how hard they try, their hearts cannot reach each other.

9/27 Absolute Zero (Thai iQIYI) - from 2021, Studio Wabi Sabi and New Siwaj finally bring us this “time loop to prevent tragedy” romance. We don’t always get HEAs from them, so I'm on my guard.

9/27 Bon Appetit (Korea iQIYI) - from 2022, 8 eps from GoGo Studio, romance between an office worker who lives off junk food and the man next door who cooks well.

9/? Mr Cinderella 2 (Vietnam YouTube?)

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED).

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

I love him. And I love his version of this character better than Jimmy's.

I also love it when a show gets meta. (Both Why R U? Korea) Why they didn't just go for YRU? the world may never know.)

(Last week)

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akajustmerry · 10 months

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hi merryana! what are your top 5 favourite succession episodes?

hellooooo. top 5 are:

'What It Takes'!!! literally my favourite FAVOURITE episode I could write dissertations. atm the only thing keeping me motivated with my spring cleaning is the self-reward of reading the episode script when I'm done

'Turn Haven' - only recently realised this is one of my favourite eps when I realised just how many scenes of it are some of my favourites in the whole show. I love the family vs family descent from comedy into borderline horror at the dinner table. love that the point is that the Pierces and the Roys are literally the same

'America Decides' - I mean it's the spiritual and literal direct culmination of the plot bunnies introduced in what it takes so this one was doomed to be a favourite of mine and it is! Theee vibe check episode. theeeee perfect catharsis episode for those of us with relatives who have fox/sky news brainrot.

'Prague' - literally to me the funnest episodeeeeee. i feel nothing but (mostly, apart from the cage revelation lmao) total joy when I watch it, almost every scene makes me feel like I'm munching popcorn, scoffing cake, being spoiled with treats. loveee all the stewy in this ep, love roman scurrying about trying to seem Very Normal, love Tom suffering at his own bachy do, love my girl tabs - delicious!!!

'Lion In the Meadow' - Adrian Brody wearing those fiftyleven layers and discreetly trying to kill Logan's antisemitic ass, with the stewy twist at the end too is why TV was invented.

Honourable mentions specifically to Lucy Prebble eps, Argestes and Honeymoon States. Miss Prebble has never written an episode of television that wasn't absolutely perfect and didn't make me wish to be a better writer and also swallow my own face from feeling extremely specific emotions I cannae name. the only reasons they're not listed in the top 5 is because I struggle to rewatch them without wanting to boil myself. Also honourable mentions to literally every other episode they're all amazing and they have all permanently altered me in some way and that's really not an exaggeration.

#succession #anon

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dead-set-goat · 4 months

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Although spotify does it for you, i think it’s better to make your own music-year-review list. I want to share a few songs (and maybe a few words about them too) that have inspired, helped, impressed or spoke to me. This is also a very light personal year-review.

No particular order!

Every Day is Halloween by Ministry

Obviously, listened to this constantly in October but really works any day of the year, the message gets me going. Moving away from my parents and my hometown that very October, I felt free as all hell, free to be who I want to be, dress how I want to dress (or at least try!), it makes me want to fight for my skin :

I exclusively listen to music from an MP3 player when I’m out, fuck smartphones :))))))))), so the story of this: downloaded this whole album to my MP3 player for my trip to Greece this summer because I’d be out a lot, was just curious about ska punk, never listened to it before. And yeah, I fell in love with this, and Capdown. I listen to this when I’m on a rush always, gets me flying! (Yeah, nothing beats running and panicking about being late to an appointment to this)

Can’t recommend Swans early stuff enough! And the new stuff as well. Could swap this for Power for Power on Filth as well. Really good mechanic beats and cold lyrics, walking through a city as lively as it is decayed to this feels just right. A great inspiration for what I’d like to achieve with my music.

I quite enjoy (love with a burning passion) this album for the most part, I don’t listen to drum n’ bass on it’s own but, the metal combo to me hits just perfect. I think this song has the perfect amount of agression, melancholy, explosive distortion, and the best whiney guitar ever! I swear I can hear words of lament in that guitars voice… it’s awesome. It’s a very good song to drown out the noise of the Subway…

This album as a whole. My anxieties and anticipations for the future, my nostalgia and existential terror, agitated into soundwaves. Listening to this, on a suffocating late August afternoon while driving, feels like a thousand spent lifetimes.

I listened to this on easily one of the most emotionally charged days of my life. I was on a car trip across the country, it really hits different with neverending crop fields and rural sights and abandoned factories… For more context about the song, it’s a mockery of the former communist regime, the singer is posing as the dictator, singing about a carefree land preparing for winter, in which “everything is wonderful” and “perfect”.

This is a commuting staple. An industrial rock banger! I think the sound is easy to get into, good for guitars, good for the dance floors, a perfect combo. A fair bit of Machines of Loving Grace songs hooked me instantly.

Absolute dance staple. Strapped it to a wall in the hall of dancing-with-your-last-breath.

I had a panic attack while driving to this, on a bridge. That was an exciting time. I was going to the beach. In the winter. All the vibes were off that day, but in the best way possible. And this song took them all, it’s preserving them like alcohol. Oh also, saw a guy at the gym near my house that had a HEALTH tshirt and I was like, yoo, cool! Because really, rarely do you see people with taste here hah.

One of my industrial fascinations. Not exactly the eye opener (I’ll have that guy show up later), but my, sound has never felt so powerful and it’s not even booming-lound. I highly suggest listening this surround, but even stereo, it’s such a disorienting, enveloping experience.

OH SHIT. Audio limit for this post???

Look out for part 2

#Spotify #SoundCloud #music #industrial music #ministry #year review #🦞chat #godflesh #david bowie #coil #machines of loving grace #tackhead #health band #swans #timpuri noi #capdown

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galaxyspark-6e16 · 1 year

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god this season.. what i really love about sweet tooth is that not everyone is a one dimensional, they're fleshed out characters with depth and core that make you feel for them, even if they're the antagonist and villain.

my favourites are Jepperd and dr Aditiya, i swear to you i cried during ep 2 opening, you know the scene with Jepperd which then prompt why he joined the last man and what he did for them.

and then we have dr Aditiya and i kid you not this guy is going the worst right now; in season 1 we saw everything unfold into how he become in charge of finding the cure, and i got really scared for him cause was pushed to his limit of his morals because it feels like the series is showing us his descent into madness with being obsess to finding a way to save humanity but most importantly his wife, which was established very clear from the beguining that he would do anything for her to the point of murder and well.. you know. i don't want to spoil anyone so i'll just say season 2 eceeded my expectation, it made me laugh, cry, on the edge of my seat, gave us some anwsers, gave us more questions, overall im really exited what they have in store for us in s3.

#sweet tooth #sweet tooth spoilers #my thoughts

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dollsome-does-tumblr · 2 years

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i rewatched the last few episodes of ofmd to celebrate the renewal, and man, i just love how in ep 10, both ed and stede have this long sequence of “killing off” themselves via an elaborate performance, and stede’s is so funny and ed’s is such a nightmare. thinking about stede going “now that’s a fuckery!” + ed's entire descent back into blackbeard (which is revealed to be a painful performance in our final shots of ed for the season) ... sob! and i still can’t get over the parallels of ed smearing his face with black paint and saying “i’m the kraken” to his reflection in the knife + stede smearing his face with blood and looking at himself in the mirror as he does it.

this show is truly an english major’s delight!

#it's just so satisfying to watch something with so much thought put into it!!!!!!#anyway see ya all for season 2 in like 2024 or whatever #dollsome's deep thoughts #our flag means death

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spacedlexi · 1 year

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have you watched tlou? thoughts?

ive made a few posts about it if u search tlou on my blog but i never made a final thoughts or anything

this kinda turned into a final thoughts ramble (essay) so under the cut it goes

honestly it kinda peaked for me at ep 3 (which was a REALLY good ep so the bar was high and i was mostly enjoying the changes up through that point),, i still liked it but i feel like some of the changes they made altered the impact of the og ellie/joel relationship. theyre dedicated to rewriting ellie to have some "violence" problem to attempt to set her up better for part 2 but i just hate that they actively have chosen to do this to her character. they took a lot of her sweetness away which is a huge shame to me. theyre so weird about ellie honestly i dont like the way they talk about her half the time these days i had to stop watching the bts because the way they kept talking about "violence" made me ill sick even. like you can still have your character have a "descent into madness" type plot after experiencing an extremely traumatic event (after a lifetime of traumatic experiences) without being weird about how "violent" people are. they love to throw that word around but they dont like to investigate Why exactly people are being violent and to Who. its typically just violence and/or revenge=bad 😐 (<-and that i think kinda leads into other problems i have with the plots they write in general)

i had less problems with joel. my only real problem was that they really played up the old thing a little much like save it for part 2 lol also not enough accent i didnt hear a single "elleh". i wasnt a fan of how they decided to change joel and tommys convo about ellie, and while i can appreciate it more now knowing that they still committed to portraying joels actions in the final episode as the selfish acts they are, and seeing joel have fears of failure makes sense because im sure he feels he failed as a parent, im still not a fan of how maria doesnt get to chew him out for his selfishness (important character moment of reflection on selfish behavior and consequences of actions on people around him), and how it changes the atmosphere of his and ellies argument when half of the reason he doesnt want to take her is because he feels too old and slow to protect her. and Then when he Does decide to take her its like? werent you crying last night about being slow and deaf and the impact that has on your combat ability? did that change? i understand why they added the lines they added but i dont feel like it made sense with how they continued to play out the episode with line for line scenes from the game...like these are two different things now. similar, but different enough to introduce problems where there didnt used to be. and then hes stabbed and dying 10 mins later

the pacing in general was a little iffy to me. it was only 9 episodes and 2 of them are separate from the main plot. that, plus rewriting existing characters/plots, plus not being able to fit in the more softer personal moments between joel and ellie that would just happen throughout a map(i know its hard to make watching 2 people walk cross country interesting but we needed more of those moments), plus ellie being preemptively hardened so we see less of her soft side slowly cracking through joels tough shell really impacted the believability of their relationship for me. we're supposed to see ellie become more hardened over the game but honestly in the show she always feels at the same level to me :/ those soft moments Are still there but i wouldve liked to have seen more of them. especially felt the loss of the scene where ellie sees real fireflies for the first time

the reason why i love the original last of us so much is because i think it is an INCREDIBLE character piece. every single character plays a very important role in shaping the development of the main two protagonists relationship (the two of which are Also impacting each other) over the course of the story. while i loved bill and franks ep, i wish they would have introduced a new character to fill the role that og bill left. because og bill was very important for joel. he was like a ghost of christmas future showing the man he could become if he continued to push people away. and throughout bills segment joel frequently pushes back against his ideas and this usually lent to a little bonding moment between him and ellie. but this also showed us that joel was open to new connections. whether he would get over his fear of that or not to be solved at a later date (ie: the tommy incident that was altered for the show and my problem with it because joels choice to take ellie after their argument is EVERYTHING and the show muddied it a bit). but by the time they leave bill, joel and ellie have begun building a true connection

sam and henry also suffered from this imo. by writing in all the kathleen stuff, it takes the focus away from how sam and henrys familial relationship is the foundation from which joel and ellies closer familial bond is allowed to grow (which also becomes a source of division when ellie wants to talk about what happened to them but joel wants to move on, which leads into their conflict during tommys section which boils down to more "talk about it vs move on"). i also feel like the story is weaker for choosing not to include the story of kyle and ish. because although it happens mainly through notes, its a story about letting yourself learn to trust new people and the things you can do with a strong community, its a story about how even though good things may come to an end, the time we had together was important and meaningful and WORTH IT and i wouldnt have done it any other way. id much rather focus more in on that as a theme (compounds with the riley/left behind segment/plus joels final act of selfishness) than whatever tf was going on with kathleen and her revenge plot. plus i thought the first game was all about "love" so why not go harder into these "light in the darkness" themes? kathleens plot is just a watered down part 2 anyway i still dont think we needed that :/

all my grievances aside however they Did stick the landing and i was so relieved plus i enjoyed the added anna segment. as someone whos played tlou like at least 10 times over the last decade plus watched others play, it was going to be impossible for me to not constantly be comparing the two. to be fair i think one of the strongest points of the show was how they really nailed how it felt to actually BE the player in these scenes that i had already played a hundred times myself. im sure this show was great for someone whos never played the game since a lot of my problems come from how they decided to do certain things for the show. i hope the people who enjoyed the show but havent experienced the game go watch a clip comp or something because i definitely believe the og game is still the best way to experience this story. video games also deserve more respect as an art form but thats a whooooole other conversation

i wish my opinion was stronger than 'it was fine overall with a couple solid episodes' but welp....definitely couldve been worse tho so im glad its at least as good as it is. it is good!! but the game is very near and dear to me so...i am biased but i tried to at least give it as fair a shake as possible. i think it started pretty strong. peaked with bill and frank. then dipped a little lower than the first ep. then picked back up to first eps strength again for the final stretch. the bill and frank and left behind eps were my favorite parts of the season. its a bit of a shame that the 2 eps that are most removed from the plot are the strongest to me, but also i guess it makes sense

#replies with lexi #incognito #half of this is me gushing about why i love the game so much but it gets at where my problems with the show come from #after u get past my ellie grumblings #tlou critical #but also pos :)#i really did a deep dive hoo boy #time to post this at an unreasonable hour #time to stop agonizing over Opinions and go to sleep

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