shakti (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
permutative) wrote2021-08-01 12:35 pm
permutative) wrote2021-08-01 12:35 pm
Entry tags:
media round-up + thoughts (july 2021)
don't ask me what's going on because i won't be able to tell you!!!!
watching
tv shows
looking at this section like WHY DID I WATCH SO MUCH TV THIS MONTHHH ($@&#*% like what is wrong with me. but also everything i watched was super good and/or had COMPELLING GAY TEEN ROMANCE so umm <3 let's get into this
young royals (2021)
- s1: ★★★★
premise: what if we were two gay teens falling in love? except class differences?
07/08/21 | predebutit’s seriously the vibes of skam but then with a super merthur au premise |
07/08/21 | predebutBUT I LIKE YOU AND THAT'S NOT FAKE literally confession of the year. sorry i know we've said this 1000 times |
thoughts: ohh i really enjoyed this. i think a lot of Tumblr Fans have described it as rwrb meets skam which is like... well i guess you can say that but i honestly like young royals more than both of those things! so. like yes this is a scandinavian teen tv show but i think the main relationship of simon/wilhelm is a lot healthier than most iterations of skam s3. and yes this is about a gay prince but it's also about navigating class differences and it's immensely important to the plot that simon (the guy who isn't a prince) ISN'T FAMOUS OR RICH OR WHATEVER! like he's just a normal kid. let me just quote the comment i left on miss girlrock's SLIDE TACKLE fic:
i think one of the things that young royals does a lot better than similar shows (skam s3, itsay) is that wilhelm is like… like he’s just more likeable than isak or matteo or teh!... like yes he’s just a Guy but also (unlike all of the characters i listed above) i feel like he’s the most #TRAPPED_BY_CIRCUMSTANCES of them all and he’s pretty aware of how much he likes simon from the start and it’s about the STAKES of it all and wanting to be a normal kid…of course young royals has its flaws... aka they allotted way too much screentime to wilhelm's stupid COUSIN ($&@#(% but the [dreamy ambient electronic music] is so fun and i loved the cinematography and sheer teenageryness of this show. and simon is one of my fav questionable_gay_media mcs like he fucked up and made mistakes but i couldn't help but say "SIMON PERFECT BOY <3" every three seconds while watching. BTW IS ANYONE ELSE AN OMAR RUDBERG FAN???????
druck (2020)
- s6: ★★★.5
thoughts: druck is the german remake of skam and we watched season 6 because WLW PAIRING <333 i just want to say that i LOVED kieutou like they literally look perfect together... something about the cutest_girl_in_the_world animal luvr fatou and her hot tall astrophysics gf kieu my can be SO PERSONAL!! however i do want to say that i wasn't 100% a fan of the way their relationship progressed just because it was a lot of hot-and-cold type romance as opposed to a more linear progression? like sometimes i'd be like *(#$& KIEU MY WHAT ARE YOU DOINGGG but then she'd redeem herself pretty soon after so idk. but seriously their relationship is so cute and fatou is such an endearing protagonist ^__^ also i think it might be a little confusing to watch at the beginning if you haven't seen s5 (kaia and i hadn't seen s5 so kaia would be randomly googling shit as we watched for a bit more context) but i didn't think it was that bad/i didn't mind just not 100% understanding things. LOL
dark (2017—2020)
- s1: ★★★★.5
- s2: ★★★★★
- s3: ★★★★.5
thoughts: THIS IS LITERALLY THE MOST CRAZYINSANE SHOW IN EXISTENCE!!!! LIKE GENUINELY I AM NOT THE SAME PERSON BECAUSE I WATCHED DARK... it's so good. and i normally don't really watch shows that uh... idk i don't really gravitate towards sci-fi and mostly watch trashy gay teen shows or BLs or kdramas but i still really enjoyed this! the writing is so good and tight and i genuinely think the creators of this show must be geniuses or something like how can someone COME UP with a show like this??? i think the only real flaw that this show has is the music... like it's pretty good for the most part but it's sort of similar to inception in that there's a lot of BWAM BWAM WHOOSH noises when shit is "unsettling" LOL. like pls try and be a little more subtle? another thing that was sort of frustrating for me while i watched is that i couldn't TWEET about it. like this is a show that you 100% need to watch with zero spoilers, and all of the twists and turns that the plot takes are genuinely so... like (&#@(&% i lost my mind. but yeah i highly recommend this show! it has a slower start but once i got hooked i binged s2 and s3 so fast 😭
archiving some random dark thoughts (do not read unless you've watched dark LOL)
okay let's do this
FAVORITE DARK PAIRINGS:
- regina/aleksander — one of the few 2019 marriages with no cheating even if aleksander was hiding his past the whole time... also i’m just endeared by aleksander always trying to protect regina / saving her from bullies LOL
- noah/elizabeth — UMMMM something about noah (child murderer who also killed his father) having this soft spot for elizabeth is actually so endearing... btw i’m noah fan. but like it’s fine
- jonas/martha — ah yes. the entire Point of the show... that they can’t deny what they want from e/o... tbh from season 1 i wouldn’t have guessed their entire thing for each other and the whole “WE ARE PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER NEVER FORGET THAT” would become such a big deal but whatever
- magnus/franziska [2] — yes i know all they did was fuck BUT... in martha’s world they were kinda endearing idk :’)) hence the [2] i liked it especially since magnus wasn’t a stalker and he learned sign language for franziska... btw magnus’s character is truly so useless lmfao
- bartosz/silja — SORRY I KNOW THEY WERE JUST KINDA THERE but i suddenly started liking bartosz for some reason... i think his little shocked face every time his wife named the kid was sooo fucking funny. like yes your kid is a child murderer
- agnes/doris — ah yes lesbians... they were cute honestly <3
- hannah/anyone — why the fuck did this woman go after so many married men... can she calm down pls
- claudia/berndt — DUDE THAT AGE DIFFERENCE IS A LITTLE CREEPY IS IT NOT? sorry i’m just not a fan of intergenerational relationshipssss lmfao. also i never got romantic vibes from their initial interacts in ‘86 so it’s like :D???
- agnes/creepy cleft lip dude — SORRY BUT I FIND THE EXISTENCE OF “THE ORIGIN” TRULY SO FUNNYY like he really goes doing shit with 2 other versions of himself experiencing the same life three times over... a deliberate allusion to the whole we all live three lives i guess... like i can’t believe martha and jonas had a kid who was so fucking evil. actually i can believe it this is why you shouldn’t have sex with your aunt
- helge/peter’s mom — WHO WOULD HAVE SEX WITH HELGEEEE FBDIWUSHENGKGIWHXKWIRURJRTOTOIT it’s fine.
- ulrich/anyone — ngl he definitely redeemed himself / i sympathized with him and katharina a lot at the end. but the fact that he cheated twice is like 2);&:&;74 CAN THIS MAN CALM DOWN!! but yes i still liked the optics of young ulrich/katharina even if they were bullies to regina outta nowhere
- hannah/michael — are we supposed to believe that katharina telling 14 y/o hannah to stay away from mikkel is enough for her to find michael kahnwald hot... like what is going on there. 😭 😭
prettiest gurls: YOUNG REGINA!!! franziska and young elizabeth were cute too... and agnes is what the teens would call a milf i guess.
the queen's gambit (2020)
- s1: ★★★★.5
thoughts: tbh for a show with this many "flaws" in it it's sort of unusual for me to give it 4.5 stars but i think the good parts are sooo fucking good and the flaws are pretty minor? like it's just surprising how much i liked this show... but also as someone who spent several years in competition math, i'm just really impressed with how the director/writers managed to make chess so riveting. like chess is seriously soo fucking boring and drawn out and yet... this drama managed to make it interesting! truly a feat imo. also beth being the only girl playing a bunch of dudes... chess & cs & math are still like that to this day and it sucks!! but yeah. i just loved the cinematography and the MUSICCC and beth's character arc. the final episode was genuinely so satisfying and well-executed and elevated my rating of the show overall.
as for the flaws... (?? minor spoilers?)
i think the first episode is really bad compared to the rest of the show — i understand the choice of making the color grading super dull and stuff, because beth doesn't enjoy that part of her childhood, but that aspect of the show combined with beth's child actor being a little flat in her delivery made the first episode sort of boring. BUT ANYA TAYLOR-JOY LITERALLY BREATHES LIFE INTO THE SHOW!!! she's so good <3.
and then another thing i really didn't enjoy was beth's relationships with men LOL. like literally every single romantic entanglement seemed really unsavory and she's literally FIFTEEN when she meets all of these haggly men and (@&#%&@( she has no chemistry with anyone besides townes i guess but even then i'm like ISN'T TOWNES LITERALLY SO MUCH OLDER THAN HERRR. also thomas brodie sangster in a mustache was such a crime like how dare they do that to him. i guess her romance scenes were kind of funny though like it's iconic how bad she is at flirting yet she gets away with it because these are all just fugly chess men
movies
why did i watch so many movies but then not enjoy any of them... like what is wrong with me. since i don't particularly care for movies that much i'm not really going to go "in depth" on these (*@#&% the trends this month were... shitty korean rom-coms, mediocre superhero movies, and decent anime films?- sweet & sour (2021) ★★.5 — shitty korean rom-com. THIS LITERALLY ISN'T A GOOD MOVIE... but also krystal is perfect in it and i think it's fun to watch with a friend?? the only reaction i had was "what the fuck" tbh
- the old guard (2020) ★★★.5 — mediocre superhero movie... but also joe/nicky is kind of iconic.
- a silent voice (2016) ★★★★ — anime movie about school bullying. i saw this pop up on netflix and just randomly decided to watch it?? idk i think i just will always have a soft spot for films that are about people trying to make up for past mistakes/searching for redemption in some way. but also i didn't 100% like it so... lol. also i feel like it's not super woke to ship the main characters but at the same time i kind of DO... why do i live like this. don't inbox me
- black widow (2021) ★★★.5 — mediocre superhero movie... BUT ALSO FLORENCE PUGH WAS PERFECT <3
- steal my heart (2013) ★.5 — shitty korean rom-com [2]. this movie is like actually so bad and the plot makes no sense AND the subtitles were um... well my friend pirated it so the subtitles were really questionable at times, bordering on terrible. overall not a great time
- ocean waves (1993) ★★★.5 — i feel like objectively this movie is probably worse than 3.5 stars but THE HIDDEN GAY SUBTEXT OR WHATEVER... i literally thought the movie was so gay until they added in that random straightness at the end and even then it didn't even MAKE SENSE? but then i watched this [INSERT] youtube video that went over it and read a [INSERT] small fix-it fic and felt a little better <3.
- grave of the fireflies (1988) ★★★★ — THIS WAS SO FUCKING SAD AND MISERABLE FOR NO REASON!!! i wonder why it's one of the most highest-rated ghibli films on letterboxd because i feel like it's kind of Too Endlessly Depressing to be a favorite for me? regardless: i really liked some aspects of it, like the sibling relationship and the moments of tenderness that are shared between them. also the animation was genuinely so beautiful despite being set during wartime in japan and i liked the music... so idk. when something is good yet not the best but not quite bad but also good? i feel like a testament to how uselessly sad it felt is that i didn't even cry — and i'm someone who cries really easily at movies/tv shows in general LOL
kpop content
wait huh i didn't really watch much this month... tbh i think i've started to reach this balance in my watching where i'm fine with not being 100% caught up with enha vlives and just watching whatever i'm interested in?? the highlight of this month is definitely the SUNJAY VLIVE btw... i'm so shook at how much they LIKE e/o now.just off the top of my head but like
- why the heck was this live 50% GREEK TRIVIA and 25% SUNOO (AND JAY??) SINGING SO JOYFULLY…
- #jay: yeah i’m not someone who embraces everyone. I PICK AND CHOOSE. FAVORITISM, IF YOU WILL. like damn i noticed :D??
- the growth from their first vlive together is genuinely insane and sunoo being like “the jay that i knew before i-land, during i-land, at debut, and now are all different people” KILLS ME
- jay randomly calling out fans for typing their comments in english but adding kekeke to the end of their responses… sorry that took me out
- “it stresses me out when i can’t tell the truth” WE ALREADY KNEW THAT KING <3 i love jay embracing his heart_on_sleeve honesty and earnestness
- ++ lackingdaze commentary was perfect too.. yes we’re sunjay fans it’s that serious.
also watching en-o'clock is so much better with friends <333 i think enha is sort of terrible at variety but whatever it's still enjoyable most of the time.
reading
books
goddd maybe i'm finally going to be illiterate! no but i seriously tried to start so many books this month but i only ended up reading the ones that really grabbed my attention... so i guess i "liked" and "enjoyed" everything i read this month but that's because there are like five other books that i read 10 pages of (or more...) and then never bothered to finish. any HOW MUCH OF THESE HILLS IS GOLD haters here?breasts and eggs by mieko kawakami ★★★★ — when i went to a bookstore with my sister, she pointed out this book and was like "i've been meaning to read it" and like... well who doesn't like reading about the struggles of BEING A WOMAN and BODILY AUTONOMY? just kidding. i feel like the novel was kind of umm well it was a little overly long and it's pretty disjointed. the first half is stronger (imo) and it's pretty slow-moving/introspective and focuses on the perspectives of a struggling author, her sister, and her sister's daughter. and then the second half is like... well it's set much after the events that occur in the first half and the mc interacts with a whole host of different people and i remember being like "this feels a little pointless like why is this happening" at points. but also i think one of the strengths of kawakami's writing is that she presents characters with really strange/interesting perspectives, all who don't necessarily agree with one another, and she does it with this sense of neutrality/doesn't really advocate for one side or another through her writing. IDK!!! like i didn't think this book was super good but at the same time i couldn't stop thinking about it after i had finished it so i was like okay maybe this book is better than i thought... the very definition of strange and offputting imo but i also liked it. except idk. being a woman sucks btw
the magic fish by trung le nguyen ★★★★.5 — lol i literally got this from the bookstore because i had a giftcard and i didn't know what else to get (usually i check books out from the library/i don't see the point in owning books unless i really love them...?). anyways i loved the art (it was so intricate and beautiful!!) and it was just a really sweet and simple middle grade graphic novel :')) also i was super shook by the random allusions to uhh (spoiler alert) pbairefvba gurencl?? fbeg bs?? but in the author's note trung le nguyen made it clear that this book was based on his experience growing up in the 90s so TT___TT truly we've come so far... also the difficulties of being an immigrant/dealing with deaths overseas with a sense of futility just reallyy resonated with me esp with what's going on in india right now.
heaven by mieko kawakami ★★★★.5 — this was a really short book and i remember finishing up my lunch and then sitting on my bed and then just starting and finishing this book all in one sitting T__T and ofc because i read it pretty soon after breasts and eggs i inevitably compared the two... i think kawakami does better with shorter stories in general and i also liked the focus on the mc's strange friendship with a classmate where the basis of their bond is like... their "shared terror" or whatever. kawakami is pretty good at capturing the minute details of daily life and describing things in a unique way and i feel like she rendered the details of this middle school friendship_with_subtle_romantic_undertones really well... and then the bullying was awful of course but again kawakami's presentation of different perspectives was interesting at least?
craft in the real world: rethinking fiction writing and workshopping by matthew salesses ★★★★.5 — i think i just read the epub of this on my computer?? like normally i wait and request the paper copies of things at the library but i was really fascinated by the premise of this book and then i ended up reading it over the course of a week or so. i'm not really a "writeur" so i guess this book isn't, like, directly relevant to me, but it made me rethink the way i approach books from other countries (see above??) and writing in general. idkk i just feel like i learned a lot from this book / it made me think a lot more about how i approach stories & formulate opinions about the writing i consume LOL
one last stop by casey mcquiston ★★★★ — LOL IDK? this book took me three starts to get into but once i was a couple chapters in i liked it... i guess...? i felt pressure to finish this because i borrowed a copy from my irl though... like idk if i would have finished it if i just got it from the library.
07/25/21 | predebutwell idk i think it's pretty good but i still think fic writers should stop being so obviously fanficy when they write books... is that mean |
i think it's really sweet and i loved the time-travel/historical element to it, too — it felt really refreshing and fun. but also i wasn't super unhinged obsessed with it?? like it was just fine. ohh and now i'm remembering this i think one of mcquiston's weak points is that she sort of intros characters the way you do in fanfic, i.e. without much exposition, but with the mc getting a bunch of flatmates all in the same scene i feel like i had a pretty bad grasp on the side characters until i was like 1/3 of the way through the book. but maybe that's just me being bad at paying attention to these things T__T
fic
sorry i read so much fic this month... in particular so much DRARRY fic... don't inbox me. but also i do want to recommend the things i read??? a little bit??- far from the tree by aideomai // T___T i've been meaning to read this for literally eight months ever since i read this post... whatever i finally got here. for some reason i've had time travel on my mind and i liked this magical execution of it... i've never read any aideomai fics before but i feel like they're definitely underrated in the scheme of Big Drarry Fics on ao3. idkk this was just the perfect slowburn two steps forward one step back approach to drarryism n__n
- dwelling by aideomai // i love lotus eater dreams so this was really funn and although far from the tree is definitely a better fic and ties everything together more nicely, i actually teared up at the climax of the fic for this one?! i think there's something so powerful about Being Needed even if throughout the fic the lotus eater dream was like 70% of the r/s development. this was good!! i love when harry is brown btw
- by the grace by lettered // %(&#@&(%%#(% goddd this really hammered home the Draco Is Unsympathetic And Is A Bigot perspective... in general lettered writes from a very harry-focused perspective and i actually don't like a lot of what they've written BUT i did enjoy this fic!! it went heavy into the world-building and the whole "problem" of blood purity and politics which is definitely like... well it's a choice to make. but i really liked it because draco's slow character development was soo satisfying even if i was mortified for him at first, and i liked that he wasn't immediately absolved of all of his crimes bcs it was a drarry fic even if lettered really did hammer it home. also why was the process of harry falling in love with draco so facking satisfying... like he starts out with this apathy and then just gradually warms up to draco and it's so nice tbh
- away childish things by lettered // i think this is my favorite drarry fic? it's definitely my favorite drarry fic that i've read recently (i.e. i first read it in 2020 during quarantine and have since reread it twice) as opposed to fics like what we pretend we can't see and the fic below that i've been into for like four years... de-aging is rarely a trope that i gravitate towards but i love how it's used here, how draco and harry both have these preconcieved notions of each other but meeting the younger versions of their love interests help make them more sympathetic towards each other T___T like i feel like a lot of drarry fics gloss over harry's fucked up childhood and how those things might affect him as an adult but this fic addresses it perfectly and seeing draco take care of young harry is just soo lovely. SOMETIMES YOU JUST WANT TO BE LOVED AND CARED FOR OKAY!!!
- hermione granger's hogwarts crammer for delinquents on the run by waspabi // i mean this is a Classic, isn't it... i also think it's the first brown harry fic i've ever read?? so yeah life-changing for me in every aspect. also waspabi is just so FUNNY!! like i don't remember hp being that funny nor are the other fics above that humorous either?? but waspabi's style of narration is so witty and perfect and infinitely readable. this was so fun and i loved the drarry here because it was like... not the main focus of the story but it still Was a focus and it was just perfect <3
listening
total scrobbles: 1893
average scrobbles per day: 59
top artists:
- the 1975 (102)
- the japanese house (101)
- glaive (81)
- isaac dunbar (76)
- wonder girls (61)
- the kid laroi (59)
- red velvet (53)
- machine gun kelly (51)
- wei (50)
- banks (47)
- female goat — lakeyah (46)
- makeup drawer — isaac dunbar (42)
- astrid — glaive (33)
- on & on — ha sung woon (32)
- fuze — wei (30)
- dionaea — orbit (23)
- forget me too (ft. halsey) — machine gun kelly (20)
- maybe you're the reason — the japanese house (18)
- fever — enhypen (17)
- my ex's best friend (with blackbear) — machine gun kelly (17)
sometimes getting cultured is that seriousidk can you tell that i normally just only listen to kpop LOL. i had a japanese house phase in the beginning of the month and i think she's soo good and then this past week i've been obsessed with """"hyperpop""""" and these two minute songs by MGK and glaive ($&#&@%(*@& like seriously i need to get help. but also STAY by the kid laroi is soty for me??
writing
hmm i was going to be like "i didn't do that much writing!" except... i kind of did?? idk i feel like most of the time my writing process is writing a small amount every day and then that wordcount sort of accumulating gradually but then i also wrote 8.5k in two days for my JAYWON PRIMER so like i don't even know.anyways... here's what i worked on
- ficmix [5k] — finished the first draft of this and it's like. well i don't think it's super great or revolutionary but i'm just trying to finish up my assignment without being too disappointing LOL
- heejay canon compliant [7.5k] — ($#@%& this fic is ACTUALLY BAD!!! but also i just want to clean it up and then put it up T__T why do i keep on writing things that are mediocre. like honestly this kind of does a disservice to heejay but ummm [insert redacted thoughts] u already know
- understanding enhypen dynamics [3.5k] / 🔒 enhypen dynamics [haterism version] [1.2k] — i feel like i finally Get what's going on with enhypen and like sure this is going to be out of date in like 6 months... but i'm glad that i got my thoughts down right now!! i can't believe i had that post in the works for like six months but then finally finished it up due to being bored while flying to chicago + randomly getting the energy to finish it within a day two weeks after that. also there's nothing more enjoyable than BEING A HATER.
- 🦅🐈 JAYWON PRIMER [8.5k] — &@&#%@(#*@ THIS IS GENUINELY LIKE. now that i have some distance i'm pretty proud of it but when i was writing it (8.5k over the course of two days) i genuinely thought it was the worst thing ever and hated all of it... i can't believe that i've been jaywonist for 7 months now though. LIKE THE EXPERIENCE OF SHIPPING THEM DAY TO DAY IS... it's something <3. btw the worst part of this was literally FORMATTING ALL OF IT??? like i had it all finished by ~7pm that night and then i spent four hours dealing with HTML... please keep in mind that i crimed all of my html/css stuff from kaia's minizsong post so it's not even like i came up with anything new, it's just that ELEVATED COPY AND PASTING literally takes that long. tysm to ecbc+c for tolerating my spaciness while i was figuring that out :')))