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friendfromdsmp · 11 months

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“Marinette Lesson of the Episode” Review - S1 E1: Stormy Weather

So I’ve long been vocal about not understanding the execution of the show Miraculous Ladybug’s rule of ‘Marinette must learn a lesson in every episode’. In theory the idea is fine, and many kids’ shows attempt to do the same thing, and usually with success. But Miraculous is increasingly known for poorly executing good concepts and have also acquired a bit of a reputation for putting main character Marinette, aka Ladybug, through the ringer in order to make these lessons happen. So I’ve decided, in all my pettiness and enjoyment of summarising my thoughts on my special interests, to go through all the lessons Marinette learns in each episode, with a ranking system at the bottom of my long-winded analysis if my write-up is TL;DR. Starting with the very first episode; Stormy Weather

Essay-Worthy Review (TL;DR at the bottom)

The episode starts with Marinette trying to keep Manon in check but getting repeatedly overwhelmed by this absolute gremlin running rings around her. She’s endangering Marinette’s work-in-progress hat design, stealing Marinette’s phone to vote for Mireille to win the contest (original phone stealer here guys) and causing Marinette to get hurt chasing her as she smacks into a table at one point. This does not so much as get a reaction from Manon. We don’t know how long these two have known each other at this point, especially since Alya then comes in and has to be introduced to Manon as “one of my mum’s friends’ daughters”, but Manon not even flinching at Marinette’s clumsiness implies to me that either Manon is no shits given right off the bat in a way that generally most kids would at least pause at if they see their current caretaker getting hurt or Manon knows Marinette well enough already to know she’s gonna bounce back

And honestly, the latter is what we seem to be supposed to believe, which makes Marinette’s inability to say no look even worse since she clearly has no handle on this kid at least right now but still agreed to take care of her once again even knowing this. Which is fine if the lesson of the episode is addressing exactly that; that Marinette needs to learn to say no. Instantly establishing a relatable character flaw in your main character in her very first on-screen appearance is a good start, especially since it’s one that isn’t so easily overcome in the span of a single episode. Strong opening

And then Alya waltzes in and helps us confirm that, yes, Marinette does struggle to say no and can be a pushover at times, even agreeing to do things she clearly doesn’t want to do and/or isn’t capable of doing without overwhelming herself. Follow this up by Marinette saying right away that she can’t do the things she herself would like to do, aka go to the park to see Adrien, because she accepted this responsibility and now she has to honour that? Even when Alya offers to take care of Manon in Marinette’s place, pointing out that Alya is far more knowledgeable and experienced in handling babysitting jobs? Marinette is now portrayed in her very first scene as honourable and responsible, but to a bit of a fault since her very relatable struggle to say no puts her into situations where she takes responsibility for things she isn’t quite able to handle on her own. This can translate to both Marinette and Ladybug, and we haven’t even met Ladybug yet! When it comes to establishing Marinette’s character early on, they’re doing a great job! And I’m so damn glad this ties in with the lesson of the episode so I can ramble about this because as much as I’m happy to salt we also need to give credit where it’s due

Anyway, Alya decides that they can all go down to the park together so that Marinette can see Adrien while still babysitting Manon with Alya’s assistance on both activities (also another more subtle example of Marinette struggling to say no because despite telling Alya that she had to stay home to watch Manon and assuring Alya that she couldn’t make Alya watch Manon in her place Alya whisks them both out the door regardless and Marinette’s response is “Okay!”) and Manon wants to get a balloon. Alya offers to take her to get the balloon, but Manon demands that Marinette take her, not Alya. Marinette, despite her and Alya both wanting Marinette to stick around for Adrien, immediately assures Alya that as Manon’s babysitter she should do it, despite Alya’s protests about Adrien. Once again, we see Marinette sacrificing what she wants to do in order to take on a responsibility she struggled to say no to. Of course, when babysitting you can’t just leave and do what you want, but since the show keeps highlighting how Marinette has to choose between her wants and a responsibility she didn’t want to take on regardless, it’s clearly trying to convey that this is a common thing with Marinette - and this tends to remain consistent in future episodes. They’re trying to portray Marinette as taking on too much for others to the point of prioritising the wants and needs of others over the wants and needs of herself

We follow up with Manon getting her balloon and Marinette wanting to go back to see Adrien, but Manon insists they go on the merry-go-round. Marinette at this point says “No, no, no, no, not right now, I gotta get back to Adrien…” which features Marinette explicitly saying no multiple times, ‘not right now’ assuring Manon that they will do the activity at a later point in the day and she won’t be forgotten, followed by Marinette giving Manon an explanation as to why they can’t do the activity right now. She’s made a very good attempt to be direct, but also reassure Manon and explain herself without denying Manon of what she wants. Great attempt at putting her foot down… except…

“Aw, please, please, not the baby doll eyes… You know I can’t say no to the-”

Aaaaand instantly Marinette’s foot is back off the ground, giving us the perfect on-screen struggle to say no as well as seeing that even when Marinette attempts to say no she can be pressured into giving in when others continue to badger her. We’re getting so much evidence to work with here, and since Manon is a little brat kid, it doesn’t all feel forced, but realistic

We then see Alya rush over to Marinette and Manon saying that Adrien needs Marinette to model with him. Marinette’s first response to this is “What? Seriously? But, what about Manon?”, followed by Alya saying that she’ll take care of her for Marinette. Despite Manon’s initial protests about wanting to stay with Marinette, Alya quickly wins her over and takes her away to play make-believe. Marinette doesn’t get a word in edgewise about this, her next line being a shocked sound when she sees Stormy Weather approaching, which leaves her to rush off and transform before saying to herself “Why did I leave Manon? I should never have done that! No. Alya’s right. She’s in good hands. I must trust her”

Okay points for cutting off your pity party to assure yourself that you’re in no way responsible for this, especially with the use of the word ‘no’ to counteract the guilt trip. Sometimes saying no to yourself is just as difficult as saying no to others. But we still have to address it since it was vocalised; Marinette, you left them alone for all of two seconds before a supervillain appeared out of nowhere and sealed them in ice, how could you possibly have predicted that or been able to prevent that should you have been in Alya’s place? And it’s not even like she ‘let’ Manon go, Alya kinda just took her. Marinette was still being responsible regardless, since she left Manon in the care of an experienced and willing babysitter who she knows and trusts. If Marinette had asked Alya to watch Manon for five seconds while she went to the bathroom, would she also be at fault and to blame because she left Manon with Alya? But fortunately Marinette did cut herself off and assure herself that it wasn’t her fault, so this point isn’t really the real ‘Marinette does something wrong’ moment and the show thankfully acknowledges that

And then after the Stormy Weather fight, Marinette returns to the park and Manon asks her for a lollipop, to which Marinette more confidently than before responds with “No, Manon. I have something important to do. Alya, you’ll watch her, yeah? I’m ready for the photoshoot!”

Girl! You did it! You actually did it! Not only did she say no to Manon and stick to her guns, she also felt comfortable enough to request - no, in the nicest way possible more or less expect based on previous discussions - Alya to watch Manon for her for five minutes. She finally actively puts herself first without worrying about her taking Alya up on her offer of help being a mockery of her responsibilities. She’s learned her lesson and she’s made progress, even if just a little! And sure, they don’t give her the reward of being in the photoshoot with Adrien and instead give the role to Manon, which I’ve seen some people consider punishing Marinette for her behaviour in the episode, but in this case I don’t believe that, even if I can see how people would come to that conclusion based on patterns in the show of Marinette losing out on things last minute even after learning her lesson as if to punish her for needing to learn that lesson in the first place. I’m happy to say this one is nothing more than just a funny gag at the end, even if I agree that it can be perceived as the start of a concerning pattern

——— Rankings ———

Intended Lesson

Learn to say ‘no’

Conveyed Lesson

It’s okay to set boundaries with others and stick to them, you don’t have to take on responsibilities for others, especially at your own detriment or when you aren’t prepared to take on a certain responsibility. You don’t have to struggle for the sake of others, sometimes you may need help with your responsibilities and so long as you find someone willing, able and trustworthy to help you out, don’t feel bad about delegating a little if you need the assistance

Appropriateness: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Marinette being a pushover and a people-pleaser to her own detriment is a consistent character flaw in the show and is absolutely a lesson Marinette needs to learn, as well as being a very relatable problem for audiences of pretty much any age group or demographic

Execution: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The episode consistently refers to both on- and off-screen examples of Marinette either being unable to say no or struggling to put her foot down and stick to her word after she says it. They do this in a way that feels relatable and realistic and not contrived. And by the end of the episode Marinette is able to put her foot down without being walked over

Blame Distribution: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Marinette has a brief moment of doubt as to her being to blame for Manon and Alya being iced because Alya was watching Manon in the two seconds that occurred in, but she saves herself by immediately saying no to her own doubts. Not only did she put saying no into practice on herself, but she also reminded herself that she was not to blame for Manon being put in harm’s way - it would have happened regardless of who was with Manon at that particular moment. Moreover, they don’t attempt to guilt trip Marinette about struggling to say no, but instead send in Alya to assist her and support her in her attempts to say no as well as the natural consequences of her actions, i.e. having to babysit Manon when she doesn’t want to and isn’t prepared to

Overall Ranking: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I’m proud to say we’re starting off very strong here with top marks all around. The Marinette Lesson of the Episode was easily identifiable as it’s intended message, appropriate to Marinette’s character and her consistent character flaws, didn’t unfairly place or remove blame and felt natural rather than contrived. It all hit home. It created a solid lesson. The only note I could possibly give would be to let Marinette do the photoshoot rather than having her finally being able to tell Manon ‘no’ give her the same result as continuing to be a pushover, or at least have Adrien say something nice to her so that it doesn’t feel like Marinette ended up in the same position regardless of success or failure. But that’s more of a nitpick than anything, and especially for the very first episode I’m very pleased with this!

#Marinette Lesson of the Episode #miraculous ladybug #adrien agreste #chat noir #marinette dupain cheng #ml ladybug #ladybug #mlb #miraculous #writing #alya cesaire #manon chamack #stormy weather #episode review #review #analysis #tl;dr

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starcrossed591 · 4 months

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CDrama Year in Review 2023

I'm still very much a CDrama beginner--I just started watching them in the summer of 2022--but since this is the first year I got into them in earnest, I figured I might as well do a year in review a la @dangermousie (whose lists I have found incredibly helpful in deciding which CDramas I really, really need to go back and watch as part of my CDrama education--so thank you!). So, without further adieu, here is my ranking of 2023 CDramas, in order of least enjoyed to most enjoyed*.

(See also: KDrama Year in Review 2023)

*Disclaimer: *not* a measure of objective quality

10. Royal Rumours: This drama was not great? Meng Zi Yi and Jeremy Tsui were fun, but the story started out messy and got messier. For some reason I still finished it, I think because I had a lingering cold and it was all my brain could handle at the time *shrug*

9. Gone with the Rain: I actually really enjoyed this one! The pacing was inconsistent, but Zhang Nan was fun as the irreverent Mo Xi, and we love a grizzled general. Special shout to the teacher who was not actually evil, just a sad lesbian whose gf disappeared on her

8. Love You Seven Times: Intriguing concept, not a strong enough FL to carry it through. The reincarnation stuff really worked for me at first, especially in their first mortal tribulation (as people, not CGI animals), but I got tired of it pretty quickly. I admit, the gifs of Ding Yu Xi as a sexy cat demon *did* pull me back in, but not enough for me to actually finish the thing, alas

7. Destined/Chang Feng Du: Started out really strong, and then stalled out on me. I think I only got up to about episode 22 or so, after their epic desert crossing and new start in a new state--they lost all narrative momentum for me there. I stopped watching and then just...didn't start again. I do, however, remain a big Bai Jing Ting fan, and will be keeping on eye out for whatever he does next

6. Hidden Love: (Contemporary) Age gap romances are hit or miss for me, but Zhao Lu Si absolutely stole/carried the show for me in this one. Although more fun imo when the main couple are in the the will-they-won't-they phase than in the family melodrama after they get together, still the only contemporary CDrama to get me to give it a go this year--and I'm glad I did

5. My Journey to You: Featuring my favorite murder girlies Esther Yu as Yun Wei Shan and Lu Yu Xiao as Shanguan Qian! Gorgeous costumes and sets, sweeping cinematography, and plot that kept me on the edge of my seat. Full disclosure, I have not actually watched the last two episodes because I got busy and then saw weird chatter about them, so I have no comment on the allegedly weird ending

4. Till the End of the Moon: Look, I know the ending wasn't ideal, but for the majority of its run, this drama owned my entire soul. It also introduced me to Bai Lu as Li Su Su, who inspired my first actual tumblr post (that wasn't a reblog) because I was so obsessed with her. And everyone knows that Tantai Jin is the CDrama ML of the year. 10/10, no regrets at letting it take over my life (and the OST my Spotify) from April to May of this year

3. The Story of Kunning Palace: More Bai Lu is always a good thing, and she's extra fun here as the transmigrated former evil empress and totally-over-your-nonsense Xiang Xue Ning here. The reverse haremness of it all totally shows why Bai Lu is the chemistry queen, especially with the princess (Liu Xie Ning) and cranky, morally grey, would-fail-gym-class strategist Xie Wie (Zhang Ling He). So glad this drama made it out of the CDrama vault and didn't languish indefinitely in censorship hell

2. A Journey to Love: Finished this one two days ago as of this writing and am still not normal about it. Ren Ruyi (Liu Shi Shi) and Ning Yuan Zhou (Liu Yu Ning) lead an exceptionally strong ensemble cast in this wuxia that explores the complicated relationships between love, duty, loyalty, loneliness, and companionship. Ruyi and Yuan Zhou are far and away one of my fave OTPs of the year, but just as compelling are the relationships between friends/brothers/fellow assassins Yu Shisan, Yuan Lu (ugh my heart), Qian Zhou, and Sun Lang. This drama definitely has one of the strongest ensemble casts of the year. And the character growth of Yang Ying from little princess abandoned in the cold palace to who she becomes by the end will stick with me for a long time. Plus another 10/10 OST!

1. Lost You Forever S1: I'm not normally a reverse harem girl, but the longing, loss, and hard resolve portrayed to perfection by Yang Zi as Xiao Yao really did it for me here. This whole drama struck an emotional chord for me, and where TTEOTM consumed my soul, LYF took over my heart. Xiao Yao's relationships with her power hungry, overprotective cousin Cang Xuan; hot snake demon Xiang Liu/playboy archery shufu Feng Feng Bei; and perfectly devoted Tushan Jing are all equally compelling to me, and while I may know who she ends up with in the end, who I *think* she should be with changes based on who's on screen at any given time. And A'Nian, my favorite bratty princess who really just needs some strong parenting, holds a special place in my heart. I know we may never get S2, and even if we do, censorship means it probably won't be what the drama makers are capable of, but I'm so glad for this little piece of absolute perfection. And, again, a top notch OST!

Fave Drama: Lost You Forever, by just a hair over A Journey to Love. See above.

Least Fave Drama: Royal Rumours--truly why did I finish this, what was past me thinking

Biggest Disappointment: 2023 is also the year I read Dreamer in the Spring Boudoir, my very first CNovel! But then I didn't even bother checking out its adaptation, Romance of a Twin Flower, because it got rid of everything that made the novel such an addicting read, including a brilliant, strategic, ice cold FL and an ML who actually kind of sucked at the beginning, only to grow on you very, very slowly over time. I'm grateful that the chatter around the drama is what brought the novel to my attention, but other than that, hard pass.

Favorite Male Character: Lots of good ones this year, but I'm gonna go with Cang Xuan (Zhang Wan Yi) from Lost You Forever. The conflict he faces between getting enough power to protect the people he loves the most and that power making him incompatible with those loved ones is so compelling, and his yearning for Xiao Yao even when she's right in front of him is wrenching. Full disclosure, I also just really love the sound of his voice

Favorite Female Character: This could easily have gone to Li Susu (TTEOTM), Xiao Yao (LYF), or Ren Ruyi (AJTL), but I'm gonna go with Bai Lu's Xiang Xue Ning in The Story of Kunning Palace. Something I really loved about this character was just how jaded Xue Ning really was, even in her second go round at life. Yeah, she wants to make amends for the harm done in her previous rise to power, but that has hardly turned her into a good--or even pleasant--person. Instead, she's incredibly skeptical and still plays most things ice cold, especially with her family. As a bonus, we got plenty of Bai Lu's fantastic side eye as she basically had to do high school all over again when she gets called into the palace despite her very best efforts not to be.

Favorite Ship: Ren Ruyi and Yuan Zhao from A Journey to Love have got to be it. They balance each other out so well, and over the course of the drama, learn to communicate effectively with each other whenever they have a problem. They also recognize that not all problems can be solved by ~love~, which makes their relationship even more compelling when they decide to prioritize each other in a way that respects what the other wants from life.

Favorite Secondary Ship: Little princess Yang Ying and Yuan Lu absolutely broke stole my heart in A Journey to Love. Doomed love even more than the main OTP, these two's youthful romance was such much fun to watch, especially as they egged their respective mentors on in their own romance. Yang Ying's recognition that her first love did not have to be her only love is also something I always love to see, even as it broke my heart that (spoiler) she and Yuan Lu never really had a chance at an HEA. Their relationship really exemplified a key theme of this drama: that you should love the people you love while they're still with you because tomorrow is never promised.

Non-2023 Dramas that I Watched: Two non-2023 dramas I watched that deserve a special shout out are Love and Redemption and The Sword and the Brocade. Love and Redemption prepared me to really appreciate the big swings that Till the End of the Moon took, and The Sword and the Brocade went a little way to filling the Story of Ming Lan shaped hole in my heart. The Sword and the Brocade also had absolutely searing critique of the concubine system, even as it featured one of the most genuinely good-hearted FLs I've seen. Would recommend both!

Most Looking Forward To: Yes, I'm a sucker and the censors (not to mention the characters) will probably break my heart, but I'm still crossing my fingers that Lost You Forever S2 will live up to the promise of part one. See above: still a CDrama beginner, have not yet had all the optimism knocked out of me. Sue me.

#CDrama #year in review #Lost You Forever #A Journey to Love #The Story of Kunning Palace #My Journey to You #Hidden Love #Chang Feng Du #Destined CDrama #Till the End of the Moon #Love You Seven Times #Gone with the Rain #Ren Ruyi #Yang Ying #Yuan Lu #Bai Lu #Meta #CDrama Review

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tovesaiko · 1 month

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Listen the ending of The Legend of Shen Li is everything I ever wanted 🥺🥺 give me angst that will make me cry like i haven't cried in ages, resolve everything an episode early (and have the reunion after a year instead of a vague it's been 500 years and maybe the ML will come back but you know it only if you've read the novel 😤) and then have the last episode be teethrotting fluff 😍

Also I'm begging for Miss Jin x Mu Zi Chun spin off 🙏🙏🙏

ALSO x2 I watched all the episodes in one go and other than on bathroom breaks I wasn't even tempted to look at my phone once! In all these hours! With my raging ADHD and the attention span of a goldfish this is the best possible review.

#this is a till the end of the moon call out post #the legend of shen li #the legend of shen li spoilers

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mikuni14 · 1 month

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Jazz For Two - Ep 7-8

I was very into this series from episodes 1-6, but regarding episodes 7-8: wtf lmao.

First of all, I'll honestly admit that after Tae Yi's reaction to the kiss and his werid, sexual attack on Se Heon, I wasn't able to enjoy this series as much as I used to 🤷‍♀️ I don't know if it's because of that or in general, but the tone of the show changed for me from previous episodes.

It seems to me that the series wasted its potential, that it had some intentions that it was unable to implement, either due to lack of time, lack of willingness, or lack of opportunity to delve into the topic of homophobia and abuse. In my review of episodes 1-6, I wrote that the series has a The Eight Sense vibe, but that's what it was- just the vibe. Because The Eight Sense didn't leave issues behind, they didn't deal with them half-heartedly, barely touched upon (well, maybe apart from the issue of "friends", but that was at the end anyway and it wasn't something important for MLs). Unfortunately, JFT touched, skipped over and completely ignored literally every topic: domestic violence, homophobia manifested in violence, including sexual one, depression, internalized homophobia, fear…

Personally, I prefer BL series that take place in a "bubble of acceptance" where homophobia doesn't exist. For many reasons, one of them is how homophobia is most of the times treated and "cured" in the series. I think that homophobia in JFT had the potential to be a very good main theme of the series, but unfortunately the series failed to meet the challenge: homophobia exists, is very unpleasant and is not resolved in any logical way. People affected by it just magically "heal" themselves, or after a while… it stops being an issue. Seriously.

The story is there, they just had to delve into it and not be afraid of difficult, heavy topics. I have the impression that I know what the creators wanted to convey, but they chose the wrong scenes and the wrong "means of communication". For example, why Se Heon's agony when he realizes that his brother indirectly caused the suicide of his boyfriend's brother was not shown. How he struggles with it, how he thinks that breaking up with his boyfriend is the right thing to do. Instead, he is shown as someone who knows that his brother rejected Tae Yi's brother's love, resulting in tragedy, and he does the EXACT SAME THING. I thought about this connection immediately, didn't it occur to the creators?

The second couple: a tough, harsh babygirl and his "love nemesis": they simply ceases to exist. WHY. Again - the potential was right there.

This series had incredible potential, killer couples, a great story and a theme that could have turned this series into another The Eight Sense or Love For a Love's Sake. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. (So I decided to focus only on nice scenes and ignore the rest 😚)

#jazz for two #jazz for two the series #bl drama #korean bl

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genericpuff · 7 months

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A while back you made a post mentioning Down to Earth is trash and I would like to here your take on it. No pressure on it I just like hearing your opinion on things. FYI I hate Kade lol

I did, and I've been meaning to post about it, but I've been taking some extra time to re-read as much as I can so that I could better collect my thoughts :' )

Now I will mention, I have not caught up to the most recent episodes. Most of my thoughts here will reflect the earliest parts of the series, as I didn't end up sticking with this one. So please take my criticisms as someone who just never got into this series for various reasons, not as someone who was incredibly into the comic and fell off it (like I am with LO). I will try to judge it and review it fairly based on that context.

Most of my issues with Down to Earth don't stem nearly as deep as my issues with LO, Let's Play, or even Big Ethel Energy. Frankly, I think the comic is 'fine', but I don't think it's necessarily all that good either, and the amount of attention it gets from the platform lends to the fact that I really think its success is due to a lot of generated hype. This is one of the other comics on the platform that gets a LOT of priority advertising, not quite as egregious as LO, but still a lot.

The short answer: I think the comic is just overrated and pretty basic in terms of its storytelling and art, and I don't think it's necessarily a good "romance" comic for some of the same reasons I don't think LO or Let's Play are good romance comics. I think the only reason I don't get quite as mad at it as I do with LO or BEE or LP is because (as far as I can tell) it's not really advertising itself as some feminist progressive piece of work. It's sorta just "what you see is what you get", and what you get isn't really all that great (for reasons listed below) but at least it doesn't try to sound smarter than it is most of the time. Read it the same way you would watch a fluff anime.

Moving into my long answer, I will say some of the things that were initially appealing about it: the art is very colorful and cutesy, the comedy (for the most part) is inoffensive and simple, and the story is really easy to pick up and get into.

That said, I do think some of those praises are also part of its weaknesses.

While the art gets better over time, there are certain aspects of its stylization that still feel very "baby's first webcomic" to me. Which is great if you're someone who's into that style, but when I read it, it never really stops feeling like a Canvas comic, if you catch my drift. Nothing really sets it apart from the flood of Merryweather-esque fan service comics that are in the Canvas section.

And boy, is there a LOT of fanservice in this comic. I think the main plot point itself is fanservice in and of itself - cutesy anime alien girl crashes on earth, and winds up living with the depressed NEET-like guy, shenanigans ensue from how "inexperienced" she is due to her alien status. Everything from the circumstances of this character's plot to how she's drawn screams "this is for people who like to read about small titty girls with big asses being put into a situation where they have to rely on a man". The comic takes many opportunities to draw the FL, Zaida, as wide as possible (and of course, the ML Kade loves this trait about her, it's one of the first thing he notices aside from the fact that she speaks an alien language and can do weird alien things like telepathy and flying).

Thankfully this does get a little better in the later episodes, you can tell the creator was struggling with anatomy in places and then honed their skills, but there are still times it regresses back to the extremely-pinched-waist-mega-badonker-hips look.

Don't get me wrong, having a protagonist with wide hips like this is all fine and dandy, but there's a point where you can tell it's purely for fanservice and that's definitely what the comic wants you to know from the starting gun. She fits perfectly into that "born sexy yesterday" trope that so many romance FL's do (cough Persephone cough) while also having that "uwu I'm so inexperienced :(((" vibe that you get from characters like Sam in Let's Play. Shit, Kade pretty much starts sexualizing her before he even knows what her deal is as a person. Does he even know how old she is? Is "she" even a "she", do these aliens have different concepts of gender identity or even different types of reproductive organs than what you would find on Earth?

Look, I get it that I'm probably WAY overthinking it, you can write comics about characters from other dimensions and planets without having to get into the nitty gritty of whether or not they have periods, that's fine. But the real problem is the fact that her being from another planet seems to be used purely for creating an infantilized character with extra steps who's easily laughed at for not knowing things (don't even get me started on how "alien" could be replaced with "someone who doesn't speak English or have access to modern devices" in a lot of this comic, but I feel like that's way too deep of a criticism to be pinning on something that's literally designed to be a quirky fanservice fluff comic.)

Like, you want an alien girl who looks human but still acts reasonably like an alien - while even tackling subjects that come with being an "outsider" - without making her act like a literal baby? Starfire from Teen Titans.

(granted, the whole "smooching to transfer information" thing is definitely a little weird in hindsight, and there are definitely moments of fanservice, but that's about as weird as it gets lmao you don't see Starfire acting like a literal toddler, she is smart and capable, she just isn't from Earth, which is the whole point of her characterization being parallel to that of what foreigners experience ! She's not stupid or incapable of taking care of herself, she's just not accustomed to life on Earth!)

Like, this is in one of the newer episodes and I just-

(I suddenly have to throw up-)

It really dials the creep factor of this whole relationship dynamic to 100 when they drive home just how "babylike" she is through panels like this. It's not really her being unaware of customs around her, it's just her being written as babylike as possible with the fact that she's an alien being used as justification.

But it really makes you think about Kade's intentions when he goes straight to buying lingerie for the girl he just met who's been forced to stay with him in his home. He doesn't even really make efforts to help her get on her own feet, he just accepts this as his fate and goes "welp I guess I gotta make sure I don't get fired from my job" because now he has to support the baby girl that landed in his backyard. So Zaida ends up having no agency as a result. It just feels like a contrived situation meant to force an unaware, vulnerable girl into being taken care of by a guy who's, frankly, a creep.

And boy, Kade is actually kind of a creepy scumbag.

Kade makes for a really uninteresting and frankly pathetic character, he's just sort of a whiny man baby and you just know if Zaida was an earthling who had spent time on this planet longer than a few days, she probably wouldn't put up with this shit LOL Like, deadass he basically threatens to harm her within the first few episodes of the comic-

Like, this is after she's ruined his Playstation or w/e, and it's just like DAMN girl, this is a RED FLAG. But of course, she's an alien girl who's ignorant about everything, so it creates that power dynamic where he basically has full reign to take advantage of her at any time. Ladies, if a guy says you shouldn't trust him, take him at his word.

Zaida's characterization is also very inconsistent between her being an alien and her just being an "uwu baby girl". Often times it just makes the whole "alien" thing feel like it's only there to justify writing yet another "I'm babyyyy" romance. Sometimes she's WAY more privy to things than you'd expect her to be and then other times she's doing the dumbest shit for laughs.

Now to be fair, she DOESN'T put up with his shit here, but the fact that the writing for Zaida is inconsistent makes scenes like Kade being a creep being more about the creator realizing they're leaning too hard into her being vulnerable to abuse and so they quickly have Zaida combat it with some strange amount of awareness despite the fact she's only been living with him for a few days... but not enough awareness to maybe realize this isn't a good living situation. Like, again, she may be able to speak English, but that doesn't mean she's fully aware of what Earthlings are like, so she's suddenly really smart about what it means to be taken advantage of by a human man even though everywhere else in the comic she's written like a toddler.

And of course, like many of these webtoons tend to do, they don't linger on the implications of this scene too long, so they quickly turn it into a punchline to ease the tension. Audience comfort restored.

And that brings us to the comedy. The "jokes" in this comic basically boil down to, "haha, the alien girl doesn't know how to take care of herself on Earth!" , which frankly, I think is just a very thin veil for infantilization. I mean, really, the fact that she's an alien doesn't even really matter in the world of this comic, it takes a while for the comic to even really give us a glimpse of what her life was like off Earth so most of the comic is just typical slice of life cutesy moments you'd find in literally any shoujo or romance webtoon. You could switch out the fact that she's an alien with her being from another dimension, or turn it into an isekai where she was the female character in Kade's favorite video game who suddenly got zapped into the real world, and it would make fundamentally zero difference.

They even sorta lampshade this fact but swiftly move on from it.

There's nothing really that makes her an "alien" in any unique or consequential way, she's just a carbon copy anime girl with pointy ears who could be replaced with any other trope from other romance subgenres like this. She can eat human food just fine, dress in human clothes, and as long as she wears a hat over her ears, she's literally indistinguishable from the humans around her.

I will add as well that there are a lot of little ways they hint towards the implied dynamic between these two, at least in the beginning. The whole "second rule: obey" bit, while passed off immediately after as a joke, feels like it was inserted there JUST to create that imbalanced power dynamic that so many "romance" webtoons rely on, similarly to LO and Let's Play. The fact that he corrects himself from this just feels like, again, lampshading.

And again, after this we do see Kade legitimately acting like a creep and he DOESN'T DO ANYTHING to help Zaida get her footing beyond paying for her room and board and telling her to mind her vocabulary, so this seems more like him trying to create a situation that's beneficial to him where he's effectively trapped this girl into relying on him.

They even lampshade this as well so that leads me to believe they're fully aware of this dynamic and how creepy it is, so they try and play it off as a "haha so funny" joke to ease the tension or create suspension of disbelief.

When it comes to the actual execution of punchlines, again, 90% of the jokes in this comic are "haha alien girl so stupid!"

(I will admit this scene did make me laugh, but it's telling that it was the only one that stood out to me for that because every other joke in this series is very mid and resorts to the same type of "haha she's a stupid alien girl" punchlines.)

(omg mental illness! so funny! /s)

If you really want comedy written around aliens describing human things in weird ways, then just go read Strange Planet. They're actually aliens and they're consistently funny through much smarter writing that doesn't rely purely on "lmao they're stupid because they're not from here". If anything the aliens in Strange Planet are way more welcoming and endearing to the concept of being a fish out of water than simply making them stupid for a punchline.

(i swear to christ, "crisscross flop disc" and "prohibit anxiety" are lines that have lived in my head rent free for like 3 years now, it never gets old and THAT'S how you know it's a good joke LMAO)

And the story, as mentioned, is easy to get into, but ultimately that winds up meaning it's not really all that well done. Like, it's fine! It's a cute comic to read if you're into this sort of thing, there are a lot of sweet little moments that feel good to read between Kade and Zaida, but ultimately because of the focus on the fluff, that's all it ends up feeling like - weekly doses of fluff. Even when it tries to have some semblance of plot, it's quickly undercut by fanservice. So it's just kinda boring and vapid.

Case in point, one of Kade's observations of Zaida is that she apparently looks "just like his ex girlfriend" who he still clearly hasn't gotten over, but we don't actually see even a hint of what his ex-girlfriend looks like until MULTIPLE episodes later after the "sparks" have already started being formed between him and Zaida.

Um... she doesn't really look like Zaida at all aside from them both being generic anime girls, but okay lol by that logic the girl he served at the store in Episode 7 also looks like Zaida.

So it kinda makes the whole relationship feel superficial, like he's only interested in her because she vaguely reminds him of his ex, and it's taking so long to get through any amount of plot through all the fluff that I can't be sure if they ever actually address this. I'd like to think they do eventually, though from what I've heard of the later episodes after his ex-girlfriend makes an appearance, it seems more like they go the LO route of making the two relationship "choices" just be complete opposites where one is actually sweet to the ML and the other is abusive JUST to make the sweet FL seem like the "better option". IDK, obviously my criticism of this is lukewarm because I haven't kept up on this comic in ages, but I have the sneaking suspicion the whole ex-girlfriend-the-ML-can't-get-over plotline isn't gonna be used for his development, just to further propel him and Zaida into a relationship - and by extension, manufactured drama to make their relationship more "interesting".

Overall, I don't think Down to Earth is anywhere near as egregious as Let's Play and LO, but it's definitely cut from the same cloth, and that's why it frustrates me to see it - alongside LO and Big Ethel Energy - being marketed as "new voices in romance".

(also real talk, it's so disingenuous for them to include LO in this "new voices in romance comics" panel when it's been around for so many years that everyone and their grandma who uses WT knows about the comic, if they aren't reading LO by now they REALLY don't want to. It's not "new", if anything it's one of the oldest ongoing webtoons on the platform and it REALLY needs to end already lmao)

Far be it from me to gatekeep an entire genre, but this brand of romance comic isn't really "romance". It's vapid fluff loaded up with egregious fanservice that's meant to give you a hit of dopamine every week, while never lingering on serious scenes for too long because they don't want you to realize just how imbalanced the relationship is between the two main characters. It's not quite as concerning as LO or Let's Play, but it does have a vibe that's really uncomfortable when you start to feel it. So having comics like these held up as the "golden standard" of romance is just... it's really telling as to what WT's priorities are and how unhealthy "romance" has become in mainstream media.

And if I can get a little "old man yelling at cloud" for a second, I miss when romance was sweet and soft and earnest and heartfelt. I think the only mainstream and successful romance webcomic (and it's not even an Originals!) that I've seen in the last several years that isn't loaded up with these problematic tropes is Heartstopper. Heartstopper is sweet and soft and earnest and heartfelt. Heartstopper is way more of a pillar for a healthy romance than what any of these "new voices in romance comics" can provide. It literally couldn't function as an Originals series because the definition of a WT romance comic would undercut the actual point of Heartstopper.

These unhealthy standards and dynamics that we've set in the romance genre have been so pervasive for years now and I really just wish they'd go away.

y'know what, this whole essay is really just a promo post for Heartstopper now, go read it-

#just go read heartstopper #webtoon critical #down to earth critical

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gale-gentlepenguin · 11 months

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So I know Representation came out today. And any good fan would wait a week before reviewing it as we still have episode 23 to watch.

GOOD THING IM A DEGENERATE

Gale Reviews: ML Season 5 episode 24 Representation

spoilers below

-So as expected, Chloé didnt stay mayor long. But Apparently Ms.Bustier is running for Mayor and might win

-Oh its the Fencing teacher/ guy who was Darkblade. Well clearly Ms.Bustier is going to win

-And Adrien and Kagami are a power couple? But Adrien is watching the news report while they are in London. Something seems VERY off

-Ah, Gabriel is behind it. And Adrien HATES it.

-"By letting your father decide your life and selling your story through a fake narrative as usual." DAMN Plagg holds no punches

-Plagg appologized though.

-Kagami is also pissed about it

-HEY ITS FELIX/ARGOS

-Wait ... is that really my chaotic son? HEARTS ON WINDOWS.

-Thats adorable, WTF

-Okay so THEY got some development.

-Adrien deciding to just say f*** it. He is heading to paris and Telling Marinette he's chat noir!

-Marinette back in paris looks miserable. Poor baby girl. Also its a lovely dress.

-Marinette has been crying. I am going to kill Gabriel

-Marinette being strong for her friends to enjoy this dance. Thats really big of her.

-Unfortunately, Spotlight.

-Wait, how did Argos and Kagami get to Paris BEFORE Astrochat? Unless they left much earlier but even then. My bet is Argos made a sentimonster that would warp them places... but that seems like BS.

-KAGAMI KNOWS MARINETTE IS LADYBUG?! Since perfection. Damn.

-KAGAMI TOLD FELIX!?!?!?! FELIX?!?!?! Okay I am a bit salty about that

-OH S***! THEY KISSED. The Feligami stans are Eating today.

-Felix is dressed like Adrien? Oh I do not like where this seems to be going.

-And Marinette thought she saw Adrien and wants to go after him while her friends are thanking her for everything she's done. Way to ruin a good moment FELIX you ass!

-Side note, WHY is Marinette the only one in a dress? Like its a dance? Why couldnt everyone Have dressed up? Seriously, I know outfit renders are expensive. DID THE KITCHEN COST THAT MUCH?

-Marinette avoiding the Lesbian bee and accidentally interrupting the Bi artist and writer. Sure is Pride month in Paris.

-Okay this is just cruel. Marinette thinks she is having a break down over this. Side note. WHY ISNT ADRIEN ACTUALLY HERE YET? HE IS ASTROCHAT!

-Alya and Nino trying to comfort her. But she aint listening.

-Adrien and Kagami escaped and the parents are pissed

-Oh no Nathalie looks really bad right now. Poor thing. All she can do is watch videos of her true love Emilie

-He took the ring back, guess now that Nathalie is too weak to fight him. Which really brings up the question, WHAT HAPPENED in the last episode that Nathalie took such a turn.

-Gabriel is being a d*** as usual

-Nightormentor sounds like a cool name. And while I thought the color scheme is weird... its probably the best akumatized form Gabriel has taken. Sad but true

-AND OF COURSE RIGHT AS SHE LEAVES ASTROCAT ARRIVES. I know its plot convenience but thats bull s***

-"His father CANT have that much control of him" Oh if only you knew Nino

-And BOOM! Gabriel the bitch agreste arrives

-I am liking Rose so much recently. She is calling out EVERYONE

-So he basically has the powers of Sandboy mixed with Darkerowl

-the guy has the power to make you experience VERY intrusive thoughts. That is evil

-Chat noir is like "Hey ladybug gonna go beat up my father text me later"

-Dude Felix must be an Olympic speed walker

-Marinette is basically being nightormented without that bastard even being here. Felix, Kagami this is just a jerk move.

Duusu: "This is so sad" Felix: "Dont worry its for Our happy ending" Duusu: F*** yea lets keep it up

-Oh he made a sentimonster... wait. I know its not human but like a sentimonster MAKING sentimonsters. Feels even more f***ed up

-THEY ARE DOING A F***ING PLAY FOR HER!?

-OH MY GOSH! ITS THE STORY OF EMILIE AND AMELIE!

-Meanwhile, Chat noir is working through his daddy issues.

-Back to the play

-Oh this is interesting.

-Oh and we find out Felix's dad was a rich Cowboy. But also an asshole. (Oh right, this is a French Cartoon, thats why American's suck in this)

-Back to Adrien fighting his father

-This is Cathartic watching Chat noir beat Gabriel's ASS

-HE WAS GOING TO CATACLYSM HIS DAD! Adrien, my boy. Patricide adrien? Well Monarch is still alive, so I guess you think it wouldnt kill him. BTW, Monarch should have had ptsd from that.

-And Chat noir got hit, so his worst fear is... and cuts back to the play

-Oh the twins were infertile. Emilie returned to try and get medical help but still nothing.

-The peacock, that was the sentimonster reference

-Oh so THATS how Gabriel got Gorilla to guard adrien.

-Also yea, any doubt that they arent sentimonsters is dead now.

-ITS CHAT BLANC WITH BLUE HAIR!?

-Oh s*** that is f***ed up.

-"It will end if you give me your miraculous"

-"Take it." ADRIEN NO!

-Oh so thats why Felix's dad was an a**hole. Okay I will give this credit. That is something.

-Welp this explains why Felix might be a sociopath

-Felix revealing why he did what he did

-THE RESISTANCE! COMING IN CLUTCH

-THE TRAY!

-ALYA JUMPED ON HIS BACK.

-They got the akuma in a jar.

-Wait, Chat noir defeated an akuma without Ladybug. (sure he had outside help, but Ladybug has done that too). Good on him

-WELL S*** THAT WAS TRIPPY.

-Felix and Kagami asked for Marinette's help. so was that all the sentimonster doing so? I am lost

-Okay so, I may not LIKE exactly how they went about it. But I cant really hate them for what they did. They are just kids that want to pick someone they trust.

-Oh s***, Ladybug never cast miraculous cure. So Adrien has some perminant trauma from the fight with Nightormentor. He still sees the antichat visions (its not chat blanc, and its just reverse color pallet)

-Chat noir left. before he could tell her. Cause the nightmare messed with him

-WAIT DID TOMOE AND GABRIEL JUST LOCK THEIR CHILDREN IN STERILE ROOMS? WTF!

_________________________________________________________

Okay! This episode was A LOT.

Well there is no denying Sentimonster theory. Its confirmed. Its done. 100% GUARANTEE NO MONEY BACK.

It did explain a LOT about Felix and Adrien.

So I am still iffy on how it was handled.

Now this DOES NOT justify Felix's Actions. He was still an a**hole. And Kagami shouldnt have told Felix. Marinette is Ladybug. That was NOT her secret to tell.

BUT the play that explained what happened was very well done. It explained a LOT about the Graham de Vanily family and Felix's a**hole father.

I will say that I hated how tortured Marinette was during this. Felix and Kagami could have done something less cruel to lure her there.

I also greatly enjoyed Chat noir vs Nightormentor. very good catharsis and we have Adrien going through some additional mental trauma, inflicted by his father (I wouldnt call it Ironic, more of EXPECTED)

I give it 7.5/10

I will say its the most I have enjoyed the second half of this season since Emotion.

#ml #ml spoilers #gale reviews #miraculous ladybug #ml representation #ml representation spoilers #feligami

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a-fantasy-lover-surfing-the-net · 3 months

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Till the end of the moon review

I recently rewatched the drama and felt like reviewing the first Cdrama I ever watched. After watching some cdramas in the past 7 months since I first watched the drama, I now trust myself to write a decent enough review after somewhat familiarizing myself with the genre and overall cdrama space.

Rating: 9.5/10 (1000 bonus points for searing itself in my mind and staying there even after 7 months)

Acting: 10/10

Story: 9/10

Chemistry: 100000000/10

OST: 10/10

Costumes: 10/10

Hair & Makeup: 9.5/10

Production/Set Design: 10/10

Visual Effects/CGI: 10/10

Rewatch Value: 10/10

Li Susu, an immortal time travels 500 years into the past to prevent the ascension of the Devil god, who goes on to destroy the world in the future. It's a story of love and hate, good and evil, redemption and damnation. The characters are very well conceptualized and depicted beautifully by talented actors, stunning costumes, really good hair and makeup, and great cinematography. The amazing production and set design along with impressive visual effects and CGI really immerse the audience in the world of TTEOTM. This was a high budget drama and it shows... each and every frame of the drama, it feels lavish. If you are even a little bit interested go watch the first episode and l promise you'll be hooked and end up finishing the drama.

Now unto my spoiler filled thoughts:

I find it interesting that the typical backstory themes and some character arcs of the male lead and the female lead have been swapped here. The FL usually has a dead parent or abusive household or terrible luck and so on. The ML usually comes to the FL's rescue or stands up for her and so on. We all know that Tantai Jin is Disney Princess coded given his dead mother, abusive and neglectful upbringing and his animal telepathy powers. LSS both as Ye Xiwu and LSS repeatedly saves TTJ and stands for him. While TTJ also saves her many times, he does not get a chance to stand up for her because she usually takes care of herself and she is not suspected or wrongfully accused where she would need someone to support her. Also, TTJ basically became a part of LSS's family as her uncle took him under his wing and he promised to stay in Hengyang Sect with her in ep 35 before all hell breaks loose. And who can forget that LSS marks TTJ with her Phoenix mark, typical ML behavior.

Their romance is my ultimate enemies to lovers pairing. It has just the right amount of fighting, messiness, animosity and angst for me. I feel that other pairings don't have enough of it for me to consider them as an enemies-to-lovers couple. Their visuals, their chemistry, their acting and the story everything was so great. Who else has three epic weddings in one drama? I am still not able to move on from this couple and drama.

While the misunderstandings were obviously supposed to lead to a turning point in the story, I feel like it was in character for them to jump to conclusions and assume the worst without fully thinking things through and which then led to them acting rashly. I mean both TTJ and LSS had bad history between them so in the early stages of their relationship where their trust in each other was shaky, it's understandable that they were prone to misunderstandings. Also, they're both not good at communicating with each other. In the mortal arc, LSS was never fully honest with TTJ and they never addressed their past misdeeds properly (like OG Ye Xiwu was very cruel to TTJ and he never talked to her about it and just brushed it off). In the immortal arc, TTJ deceived LSS when he became the Devil God.

For the most part the story was gripping, progressed at a good pace and conveyed many themes that become apparent on rewatches. Though it was obvious that the last 5 episodes and the ending were rushed because the censorship rules changed as they went into production. This was one of those dramas that needed at least 5-10 more episodes to properly flesh out the story. It was a missed opportunity that we didn't get to see LSS ruling the Demon realm and Ami's antics.

Another victim of the decreased episode count is the arc of the second leads. Tbh, I wish that Pian Ran and Ye Qingyu were the SLs but I think I would have enjoyed seeing the complete character arc of Xiao Lin/Gongye Jiwu and Ye Bingchang/Mo Nv and the resolution between them. That said it was appalling that they didn't bring back Pian Ran and Ye Qingyu in the immortal arc. I really missed their dynamic with each other and with the main leads. It is disappointing that they didn't even get an open/ambiguous ending to give us some closure and satisfaction.

The actress did a phenomenal job in making us hate her as Ye Bingchang and Tian Huan. Those characters as villians really worked as they were in a way the ones who had the markings of the female lead (these characters at the start of their stories could easily be heroines in any other story) but they turn into villians. Tantai Minglang was a good, serviceable villian and the actor did a lot with how little he was given. Di Mian was selfish and manipulative traitor who was almost scarily competent. I mean he did achieve what he wanted by becoming the Devil God and opening the Tongbei formation. The point of Devil God as a villian is not his character and his motivations but rather he represents our inner demons and how each of us has the power to overcome them.

Out of all the dramas I've watched, only TTEOTM's entire OST is on my regular playlist to listen to. Every time I listen to "Let's be like this for 10,000 years", I feel the love and tragedy of Sang Jui and Ming Ye's story all over again. It's impressive that a song can make you relive those feelings and the story every time you listen to it. All the songs fit wonderfully in the scenes they're played over and also make us feel those emotions again when listening to them separately.

On my first watch, the dream arc felt a little out of place and jarring, which, in hindsight, was probably due to the fact that it was my first cdrama. Upon rewatch I've come to appreciate that it gives a look into the age of Gods and it shows that the Devil God was so powerful that to stop him the Gods had to sacrifice themselves and only Ming Ye was able to survive. The action sequences here are just magnificent to watch and they definitely seem movie level. It also serves as a warning to the audience, LSS and TTJ that they could also have a tragic end if they don't learn the lessons from it. Unfortunately, in the mortal arc they did have a tragic end. However, in the immortal arc, TTJ is able to learn from his experience as Ming Ye and succeeds in defeating the OG Devil God and becoming the Devil God himself with control over his own destiny.

One of the most prominent themes of the drama is redemption and that love and compassion are powerful enough to change a person's fate. The themes of Taoism and Buddhism are evoked throughout the drama. There are also many other minor themes like the food is used as a guesture kindness (when LSS first gives TTJ a proper meal), affection/care (when TTJ gave LSS the goose themed meal), love (when LSS gives badly cooked meals to TTJ), betrayal and trickery (the poisoned porridge) and comraderie, friendship, brotherhood and familial love (when TTJ shares meals with his sect brothers and master). Both TTJ and LSS have dead moms, terrible fathers and great adoptive dads (Zhao You and Qu Xuan Zi), these are just some observations I made.

I may not love the ending but I don't hate it either as it was obvious to me that they reunite once again and live happily as a family (the audio ending really makes it clear). Even though I'm irritated we don't get to see it, I'm still satisfied that we get a hopeful ending rather than a tragic one.

Until now I've mostly been lurking in fandom spaces by liking and very rarely commenting and reblogging but never posting my own original post. The fact that my first ever post is on TTEOTM shows how much I love it. I'll probably be posting more TTEOTM analysis stuff so be on the look out for that if you're interested. Also, I welcome your recommendations as I'm still a newbie to cdramas and kdramas.

You can also check out my costumed cdrama rankings here.

#till the end of the moon #tantai jin #ye xiwu #luo yunxi #bai lu #cdrama #cdrama review #tteotm

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princess-of-the-corner · 4 months

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IOTA just posted his review of the ML S5 finale, and in it he has a link to commentary from three of the writers (one of who has publicly stated her favorite episode is Derision), and IOTA summarizes some of what they say in parts of his review, and apparently one of the main reasons Adrien was kept out of the final fight with his own father was so Bug Noire could happen

And that was planned back in 2014

Adrien was benched from the finale nine years ago for Bug Noire could solo Monarch

What the fuck is in the water in France?

YEAH JUST FUCKIN

YOU CAN HAVE BUG NOIRE WITHOUT COMPLETELY SHAFTING ADRIEN

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nathalieswiftie13 · 1 year

Text

Review season5 episodes 3-6 while listening to all too well by taylor swift

Ep3 destruction

The story is confusing as fuck and i have a difficult time following both mari and gabe are being smart at the beginning but it's they got stupid in the end bc the writer said so.

2/10 won't watch it again

Ep4 Jubilation

I don't care abt this one got nothing to say bc i'm not a love square shipper but that one sean where the pig kwami is hungry and gabe just throw the food at them is the only thing i can remember and also ladybug ugly wedding suit.

4/10

Ep5 illusion

Very entertaining episode gabe is fooling the kids again adrien is so cute in this ep nino starting a gang that i hope was relevant in the future ep.

Ep6 determenation

This ep takes me back to pupatear 2 and i hate it like u mean to tell me that adrien starts to have feelings for mari when kiss him while he pretent to be a statue like that shit is embarrassing and creepy on the plus side kagami is carrying this ep she is hilarious .

4.5/10

These episodes are just exist to me i don't have a lot to say i'm so sorry abt that.let me know what u think babe.

#miraculous ladybug #adrien agreste #gabriel agreste #hawkmoth #ladybug and chat noir #miraculous fandom #ml s5 spoilers #ml episodes review #all of them are ok

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clairedaring · 1 month

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Hi, I've seen your blog and it appears to me that you've watched a lot of gdh movies. So I was wondering this: what is your top 5 gdh movie? I, for my part, have only watched two so far: oh my girl ! and you, me and me which is one of my favorite movie this year so far.

it brings me to tears (happily) whenever someone talks to me about GDH films ಥ_ಥ so here are my favorite GDH films (in this order as of this moment, no. 2 to no. 5 interchange from time to time depending on my mood)

1. Bad Genius (2017) and Bad Genius: The Series (2020)

So whenever I'm asked about GDH, the first film I instantly recommend would be Bad Genius. Because not only is Bad Genius imho THE film that puts GDH on the map, I think it has a lot of influence on Thai cinematic works, and to some extent television works.

Essentially, Bad Genius is a story about Lin, a straight A student who team up with her friends to pull off a large scale cheating scheme on an SAT-like exam. It's a heist thriller drama that definitely leaves me feeling stressed out as hell as if I was there in the testing room with those students.

I know it's kind of a cheat to also add this, but whenever I recommend Bad Genius, I also must recommend Bad Genius: The Series which is a 12 episode series that serves as a more detailed+sequel version of the film. I love this series because the young actors of the series gave me a fresh take on the characters I already know and loved so I had a great time falling in love with all of them again. The series fixed a few plotholes/qualms I had with the cinematic version as well as an extensive background story on Bank (played by Nonkul Chanon in film, Jaonaay Jinjett in series), my favorite character from this franchise so Bad Genius: The Series is the one work I cannot recommend enough.

One of the things I love about the series as well is that it also maintained the exact same vibes and cinematography like color-grading, camerawork...

2. OMG! Oh My Girl (2022)

I am a sucker for 'seemingly unrequited love' and 'right person, wrong time' tropes so this film really hit ALL the spots for me at its release.

Stylisticaly speaking, I absolutely love the Wes Anderson-esque zoom-in-from-afar shots for comedic effect. many stellar comedic moments where i laughed out loud. I think the humor in this film is poignant, accompanied by great comedic timing from both leads.

One of the highlights of Oh My Girl aside from the many subversions to romcom clichés, I like how Guy (the ML played by the incredible Sky Wongravee) was a morally grey protagonist and that the film isn't afraid to call out his problematic "nice guy" facade. He's a self-aware jerk and I genuinely love his self-awareness.

3. One For The Road (2021)

So I didn't watch this at release and it took quite a while before I gathered the determination to sit down and watch this on Netflix on a late rainy evening. Little did I know, I would soon be crying screaming bawling my eyes.

One For The Road is about Aood (Ice Natara) who enlists his estranged friend, Boss (Tor Thanapob) on a road trip to return items to his exes before he dies.

If I had a nickel for every time GDH wanted to give me a selfish, jerky male protagonist, I would have like four or five nickels but it's crazy that it's happened so many times (formulaically one would say) and here I am still empathizing and crying over these kinda jerky male protagonists.

The soundtrack was just brilliant. To quote a review I once wrote, the director, the music score and composer were truly out for blood with the soundtrack for this movie and they did it. This film is a good example of how important soundtrack and film scores are to elevate the narrative being told.

There are so many things to praise about the production but if I had to choose one thing, it would be the excellent mise-en-scene of this film. Every shot is dazzling, intentional and fill with metaphors. It was truly beautiful.

4. Not Friends (2023)

So I went into this thinking it would be Thai take on Dear Evan Hansen but I was so glad that it wasn't the case even though there are similarities.

Not Friends continues to deliver GDH's classic "selfish jerky male protagonist" with Pae (Anthony Buisseret) who just transferred to a new school in his last year of high school. Seeing no chances in getting into university through the entrance exam, Pae decides to enter a film contest by making a film about Joe (Jump Pisitpol), his seat mate who recently passed away.

The film had me bawling my eyes out in theatres by the end. I love that there were a lot philosophical questions like how much we value a friend's worth in the film. If you like Baipor/Anthony tandem in You & Me & Me, Not Friends is a must-watch for this acting duo reunion.

5. The Con-Heartist (2020)

So for the last spot, I debated a lot between two romantic comedies (both starring Baifern Pimchanok), The Con-Heartist (2020) and Friend Zone (2019). I recently rewatched the former and was reminded by how much I love the zany humor in this film so she gets the last spot.

The Con-Heartist is about Noina (Baifern Pimchanok), who is in debt because of her ex-boyfriend so she hires a con artist, Tower (Nadech Kugimiya) to help her get revenge against her ex-boyfriend by swindling him.

Even though it's billed as a romantic comedy, I think it's more comedy-leaning compared to Friend Zone but I love the comedic moments the two leads, Baifern and Nadech. พี่ไม่หล่อลวง by BamBam is the OST song for the film and it has never left my Spotify Wrapped for the last 3 years 😭

+bonus: How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies (2024)

This is the first GDH film from 2024 and although it comes out in like two weeks, I can feel it's going to dethrone one of the films in my top 5 list for sure. If you're thinking of going to watch something at the cinema soon, I hope you consider checking out Lahn Mah this April!

I hope you give one of these GDH films a chance. I love watching GDH films because although they can have different directors/team of scriptwriters, they always end up with certain similarities (be it cinematography or screenplay or characters). While not all GDH films are incredible masterpieces but out of the Thai production houses for films, I would say GDH 559 (and its predecessor GTH) has the most solid record of having strong and compelling cinematic works.

#claire replies #gdh 559 #gdh films #thai cinema #asian cinema #thai film

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friendfromdsmp · 11 months

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“Marinette Lesson of the Episode” Review - S1 E2: The Bubbler

Essay-Worthy Review (TL;DR at the bottom)

So obviously the overarching lesson of the episode is that ‘you should always listen to adults even when their rules sound boring or unfair because ultimately they keep you safe’, and I could write a whole separate essay on that, but ultimately what we’re here for is Marinette’s lesson, which is partially used to explain that after a superpower is used the heroes have five minutes before they transform back and partially used to say ‘don’t put off your responsibilities. There’s not much to write about here, in all honesty, but I’ll see what I can do

First off, we see Ladybug use her Lucky Charm to stop Chloé and Adrien from slow dancing, which results in her having to leave the party to transform back and recharge. Tikki scolds Marinette for using her superpower out of ‘jealousy’. While I’m in full agreement that Marinette did let her personal feelings have a say in this one, I’d also like to point out just how uncomfortable Adrien looked; he was cringing and physically recoiling from Chloé trying to get away from her without being rude. Aligning with Marinette’s personal desires and not being directly related to the akuma are not Marinette using her powers for personal gain, which we know Tikki is adamantly against

Marinette counters this argument by saying it was an emergency, which isn’t exactly the best choice of words but certainly isn’t necessarily incorrect; she still protected Adrien from a clearly non-consentual kiss and I’m sure that was ringing alarm bells in his head to say the least. Tikki then takes the chance to inform the audience remind Marinette that she only has five minutes between using her power and transforming back. The dialogue is a little ham-fisted, but I can understand why; it needs to be clear for the young kids watching why they can’t just keep throwing power after power at the villains and why they’re suddenly worried about the time

And now to the second Marinette lesson of the episode, Alya encourages Marinette to come into the Agreste Manor so that she can sign her present to Adrien. Tikki reminds her that they need to deal with the Bubbler first, but Tikki is still eating at this point and there’s no reason why this shouldn’t take more than a second so what’s the problem? In fact, even when they’re inside and Marinette is just finishing writing up the note, Tikki then says that she’s ready to go, implying that Tikki finished her cookie at the same time Marinette finished with the note. Marinette then sent Alya outside so that she could transform inside, only to see Ivan had been bubbled,to which she exclaims “No! You were right, Tikki, I never should’ve waited this long!”

How long were you waiting? The three seconds it took for you to acknowledge Tikki and then send Alya out of the room? If Tikki herself only just finished eating, you couldn’t have transformed earlier even if you hadn’t gone to sort out a note

——— Rankings ———

Intended Lesson

Teach the viewers how the Miraculous function and what limitations they have, don’t use superpowers for selfish reasons, prioritise your responsibilities and don’t put off important things

Conveyed Lesson

Superpowers can only be used once and after that you’re on a timer before you transform back, prioritise responsibilities over personal desires

Appropriateness: ⭐️⭐️

Marinette is the type of person who generally does prioritise her responsibilities over her personal desires. Adrien can cause this to fluctuate a bit, but considering this is only the second episode, with the first and only other episode highlighting that Marinette often prioritises her responsibilities over her personal desires to a point of fault, this lesson is poorly-timed at best. In general, over the course of the show, this message can stand to be reminded gently to Marinette when it comes to Adrien in S1-S3, which is why it gets a bit of a higher ranking, but in general Marinette’s good at this and this lesson sort of counteracts the characterisation of the last episode

Execution: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The dialogue was slightly ham-fisted as I said but I’ll excuse that since it was meant for explaining plot mechanics to kids. Ladybug using her Lucky Charm to save an uncomfortable Adrien from Chloé and Tikki taking this to mean Marinette is using her powers for selfish purposes are both in-character and don’t feel forced. A safe ‘meh’ rating is the best I can give

Blame Distribution: ⭐️⭐️

Marinette was in trouble with Tikki for using her powers out of jealousy. Technically she isn’t wrong, though Marinette also had valid reasons outside of jealousy to act. They did allow Marinette to defend herself and her reasoning as well though, which I’m pleased with. But Marinette blaming herself for ‘waiting this long’ to transform was silly considering that she couldn’t have transformed any earlier regardless. Still, they brush over this quickly and mostly reduce it to a one-liner from Marinette herself, so it’s an easy one to overlook

Overall Ranking: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Meh. To be honest it didn’t really feel like there was a Marinette-centric lesson this episode. Which, don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about. There were enough overarching lessons as it was. I can’t really give this one anything other than three stars of ‘not bad, not good, just kinda happened’

#Marinette Lesson of the Episode #miraculous ladybug #adrien agreste #writing #chat noir #marinette dupain cheng #ml ladybug #ladybug #mlb #miraculous #the bubbler #episode review #review

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