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How do you feel when people call Amy a stalker?

People can call her what they want, however…

Do i think it's fair to call Amy a stalker?

In some of the games? Yes, and even in some of the ones she wasn't a stalker per-se, she still showed possessive and obsessive tendencies that are problematic irl. So i get it.

Generally? No. Her character originally wasn't supposed to be a harasser and she sure isn't one in the present. I feel like they really f*cked up by turning her into one at the time and - luckily - the franchise has been clearly trying to do better for her these past few years. not to mention, Fans put way too much preassure on Amy and want her to be this perfect being with no flaws,which is not what her character is meant to be.

I think Amy's changing characterization is an interesting topic of discussion, so even though i technically already answered your question i'll take this chance and proceed to talk about my fave for way longer than i need to :).

Note: This is just my take on Amy and the way i understand her character. Sorry for any writing mistakes in advance (english is hard) and feel free to correct me if i'm factually wrong about something (i wrote this thing mostly from memory so i imagine i must be.)

Amy has changed A LOT troughout the games and has been in the hands of many different writers across Sonic media ,so when talking about her is important to be specific about what game,series or comic we are talking about (and sometimes even language),and while i know that some of you might not agree and i respect that, i think that -looking at the subtleties- Amy has had at least 6 different portrayals through the course of the games. That being said,i believe the idea that she is a stalker comes especifically from the characterization they started giving her around 2003

Originally,Amy was envisioned as a sweet 12-year-old kid who had a huge unreciprocated crush on her idol and a passion for fortune-reading ,but who wasn't exactly much of a heroine herself. In the classic era,her place in the narrative was just to serve as a damsel in distress and a cute,funny detail. Ofc,in comics and animated shorts for games like Origins, we have gotten more content of classic Amy being fully independent and capable of defending herself (even more with the upcoming playable mode for her in Origins Plus), but i think we can all see how such aspects of her character weren’t included at the time she was created (only exception being Sonic Fighters)

Especifically in the adventure era (AKA the birth of modern Amy) they gave Amy her iconic strong,compassionate,romantic personality and an interest/love for adventure (and her sassy attitude ofc). She's outspoken,brave and honest. I also want to point out that in this first portrayal ,her love for Sonic feels more like innocent childish idolization than an obsession and that her character doesn't revolve exclusively around it (she will stand in his way if she doesn't think what he does is right). Tbh i think she's incredibly funny,cool and lovable.

They slowly started planting the seeds for her character to stop being a "damsel in distress" by making her playable and defeat ZERO all on her own at the end of SA1,then also being playable in Sonic advance and helping Sonic get out of prison in SA2 (and tagging along for the rest of the adventure). In all these games,her character revolves around empathy,optimism and kindness. The way she protects the flicky since the moment she finds it,how she defends Gamma from Sonic and the iconic moment in SA2 where she convinces Shadow to help save earth are all great examples.

THEN, in Heroes , they decided to try something new with her taking her confidence and sassy attitude to a whole other level. Giving her the chance to be a fully-fleshed hero who didn't need rescuing anymore. She became independent and the leader of her own team of friends who she wanted to help. I love this Amy cause she feels really strong,determined and empowered without losing her peppiness,silliness,positivity and kindness. Her flaws are also especially endearing to me: How much of a wild kid she is,How even if she means well, she relies way too much in brute force, How she has trouble getting out of her own head, etc. She really feels just as confident and energic as Sonic when insulting her enemies and reassuring her allies,but just like him,you can tell she has a huge heart.

HOWEVER, as much as i love how they made her strength and bravery shine in this game, Heroes was the game that gave birth to the idea that Amy is willing to chase and even fight Sonic just to insist that they should marry (in SA2 she did follow him to the prison but it was only to help him and tag along in the adventure).

Ofc this was supposed to be comedic and to be seen as childish,harmless behavior- I say this because the rest of the characters,including Sonic himself,don't seem to take it seriously- but what was supposed to be seen as an endearing flaw at the time, would rapidly mute into what's probably Amy's worst portrayal ,as the writers turned it into harassment for the next mainline games (Ignoring Shadow the hedgehog where she is the same as in heroes and only has a brief appearance.)

Before i go into Battle,i just want to say that the definition of stalker according to google is “a person who harasses or persecutes someone with unwanted and obsessive attention.” A definition that definitely did not apply to her before Heroes,but that i can't deny that does apply to Amy for the next few games:

In Battle, Amy is suddenly written as aggresive and self-centered. All her compassion and empathy from the adventure era is gone, intimidating people (even Cream) and demanding information from them from the get-go. Of course she does a few good things throughout the game too,like take care of Emerl and such,but she still mainly uses him for her benefit (calories counter and emerald radar). Right off the bat,at the start of her storyline she insists on searching for Sonic even when she herself assumes he is hiding from her -which implies she knows what she's doing is worth hiding for- and tries to justify her behavior by saying that Sonic actually loves her and that he is being “ just shy “ or that “ he got cold feet”- while others characters react in a way that implies that's obviously not the case and that her behavior is worrysome..

I think it's important to mention that before Battle, we hadn’t gotten a single line of dialogue that implied that Amy tought that her behavior could be hurtful for Sonic, nor did she ever threaten anyone at all unless it was self defense. She knew he didn’t reciprocate her feelings and was actively trying to make him fall for her anyways,sure, but we gotta remember that while the canon ages might have been scrapped recently, at the time Modern Amy was created they were still very much canon and you can tell they had them in mind when writing these characters. Amy was supposed to be 12 ,so it makes sense that she didn't understand why Sonic wouldn’t accept her affection. She idolized him and misinterpreted the fact that he always was protecting her as possible romantic interest,but never actually imposed anything on him. The worst thing she ever did to him was wanting to hug him without consent,and again, the games implied that she clearly didn't realize such a thing wasn't ok. Sonic also didn't seem to want to hurt her feelings so while he did run away and expressed being annoyed by her he never explicitly told her to stop. I actually think that if he had sat her down and made it clear to her that what she was doing was truly bothering him, The Amy from the adventure era would have stopped, but i doubt he cared enough to do that honestly (after all ,in his recap screens it is implied that what truly bothers him about Amy being near him is not her crush,but that he thinks shes exposed to danger.)

BUT in Battle and for the next three games,Amy doesn’t seem to be written as a 12-year-old who mistakes admiration for love anymore. This is where the writers started to portray her as someone who is clearly still young and definitely childish but not innocent at all (How she obsessively tries to burn calories to conform to beauty standards is a good example of how she feels more negatively influenced by the adult world around her than before.). Her whole character revolves around harassing Sonic and using her strength to intimidate others, and don't get me wrong,I like that Amy gets angry easily!! i like that she isn't afraid of a fight,that she complains a lot, that she throws insults around at her enemies and that she isn't a peaceful, submissive girl. After all,those are mportant parts of who she is. But Battle!Amy is on a whole other level: she gets mad at her friends just because they don't agree with everything she does or says. It's not about having a strong personality anymore,she's just generally aggressive. For the next few games she and Sonic can't have one normal conversation that isn't Amy imposing her own wishes over him and him trying to get away from her, so it's hard to believe she wouldn't realize that what's she's doing is wrong nor accidental as we were supposed to before. This time It just feels like she is deciding to ignore the signs.

This continued in advance 3 ,where she literally threatens him with her hammer just cause he shows signs of not being interested in spending time with her when they meet, Then in rush she becomes possesive and jealous the second he mentions Blaze and also seems to treathen him with the hammer in the credits scene because he is running from her hug.

Thankfully,they changed the direction of her characterization again after Rush. The best way i can describe the Amy that is present in Riders is a mix between all the Amys from before, one that has two very polarized sides to her personality. On one side,she is a peppy,sweet,over enthusiastic and romantic girl with a love for adventure, on the other she is a pretty intimidating one with an obsession with Sonic and very fiery temper. However,contrary to her last portrayal,she is more polite and actually asks Sonic if she can come with him various times,doesn't harass him and doesn't threaten people simply cause they don't agree with her anymore, but she still doesn't seem to have any sense of boundaries,still follows Sonic without permission sometimes and still clearly has no consideration for his personal space (and It's hard to tell if her disregard for consent when hugging him is accidental this time cause she isn't nowhere as innocent as she used to be before Battle but she is very childish still ). Another thing about this Amy is how her flirting is really intense, and even if she isn't as aggressive as the Amy from Battle,if someone messes a bit with her she doesn't hesitate to resort to intimidation or take her hammer out.

She still gets violent towards Sonic sometimes,but what's different from her last characterization is that instead of doing so merely because he doesn't show romantic interest in her ,its mostly because he doesn't follow on his promises (end of Black Knight) or shows up to save her “properly” (Referring to 1- that scene in Riders where he blows eggman -who had caught Amy- away with wind and she chases him with her hammer because “how could he not think that would hit her too “ and 2- the one in Zero Gravity where he arrives late to save her and she playfully throws him a few fists saying that “it took him long enough!”). I don't think she's right to do that but i don't consider it to be problematic either, since by that point the games had strongly implied that there was a non-spoken agreement between the two that he'll always show up to save her and the whole thing feels more playful than anything else. Mostly because Sonic seems to be fine with her being around again, as he never really denies her acussations or runs away when she gets mad,and even tries to explain himself to her. (which ngl is kinda cute from his part because he doesn't really have to.) I am,however, more critical of her getting annoyed just cause Sonic doesn't prioritize her,even if she doesn't take the hammer out and intimidates him in those cases.

So yeah,this Amy is one of the more famous -and infamous- ones,as her flaws and positive qualities are more balanced than the one from Battle. However,i personally don't like her much as there's almost no focus on the empathetic/compassionate side of her character that was so prominent in the adventure era and ,even if i wouldn’t call this version of her a Stalker , she's still is way too obsessive and possesive for my liking. The writing for her character is still pretty much completely based on being attracted to Sonic, to the point that In 06 she tells Silver that, if she had to, she'd “choose Sonic over the world"... which...i really don't like...

In Sonic Chronicles , this Amy gets a lot of dialogue and she is...fine…for the most part(?. She does get jealous in a scene but its not as bad as in Rush (still bad),She tries to make Sonic jealous by inventing a fake boyfriend (terrible trope) and her levels of aggressiveness are up to the player's treatment of her. I am ,however , mentioning this game because of a scene in specific near the final section of the game in which Amy is scared they might die and aks Sonic if she can have a moment with him. She then tries to have a serious conversation with him and politely asks if he cares about her or if he likes her at all. if the player chooses to make Sonic say he does care for her she is legitimately surprised and thankful. Idk what happens If he rejects her cause i haven't been able to find any recordings of that and i never owned this game,but i'll assume that her reaction won't be too bad considering she is asking in the first place(?) feel free to tell me if you know…

This portrayal of Amy is still present in Unleashed (2008) ,in which Amy is there to cheer/support Sonic on throughout the game and to serve as an important indicator that Sonic is quite self conscious of his looks when he's a werehog. She is generally very sweet towards him in this game (especially when she shows no rejection towards his werehog form,which is a detail i adore), even if she does get annoyed when he doesn't pay as much attention to her as he does to Chip or reciprocate her feelings.

A good example is how, before the last temple ,she asks him if he'd like to go on a date with her after everything is over. If you choose the positive dialogue option she is ,again, positively surprised and thankful. If you make him say no she complains about how he's being mean, but doesn't insist on it and just accepts it.

In Free Riders (2010) ,Amy goes back to her violent portrayal and just generally acts extremely out out of character (like,she doesn't even fit into Battle's portrayal). It really feels like someone who didn't know anything about the character wrote her, so for the sake of my pink hedgie let's ignore it and go back to talking about portrayal 4.

I already mentioned her brief apparition in Black Night and there's nothing worth mentioning about her in Generations so i'll skip them.

This portrayal ended in Lost World (2013),In which they toned down Amy as a character in general,leaving out all of her flaws and iconic traits out. She feels plain and her strong personality,confidence,sass,energy,etc all seem to be completely gone. She's just sweet and that's it . For some reason there's a scene where she literally tries to confess to Sonic and is cut off before she can finish,which is very funny considering it had never been treated as a secret before??? it really goes to show how hard they were trying to pull some kind of reboot on her. Fortunately,this characterization was only a two-game-thing (She is just as plain in Forces (2015)) so i'll put it in the same bag as the Free riders one and we'll leave it at that.

After Lost world came Boom (2014) ,and then we got the most recent change of Amy's personality,which we all know has had a mixed reception from the fandom. Originally people thought that this Amy would stay just in the Boom universe ,but this personality has been showing up in the mainline games for a while now,like in Team Sonic Racing (2019) and Frontiers (2021).

This Amy feels older than any of the ones that came before her. She kept the sass,the love for romanticism,the positive attitude,the confidence and the strenght but her bad temper and over enthusiasm are gone,as she is generally more calm,less energetic and not childish at all. Most importantly,this Amy is extremely emotionally intelligent,as the rest of characters seem to look for her help and advice constantly ( to the point that she has been given the "therapist friend" title by the fandom and is even referred as "the nice one" by Eggman himself ). Another interesting thing about this Ames is that she doesn't flirt with Sonic anymore,In fact, she barely expresses her liking for him (She does so a bit more in Japanese chz the characterization varies) and Sonic seems completely comfortable with this version of her around.

A lot of people say that this version of her is out of character and I completely understand where that comes from, but i must disagree because this characterization of Amy is the first one since the adventure era that focuses on her compassion/empathy rather than on her crush on Sonic, which combined with her intelligence,makes her not out of character,just the most emotionally mature Amy to date instead. I actually think that if the og modern Amy had grown up,this is the kind of personality she would’ve developed while becoming an adult (emphasis on adult tho)

A good argument to defend this point would be that one Egg-memo you can buy through the fishing minigame Frontiers where Eggman talks about how Amy has "come a long way" and how it took her some time "to find herself" and get out of Sonic's shadow.

Only problem i have with this Amy is that i wish she was more flawed and bubbly,mostly cause she can come off as very plain from time to time and way too mature. She is a bit too perfect for my taste. I'd like her to mess up more,to not always be so smart,to be more brute,bubbly and impulsive,a little bit more clumsy,fiery and wild,just so she could have some more of the charm of the original,y'know?

Before i talk about her more recent Videogame portrayal (TMoSTH) i want talk about IDW Amy, which is one of my favorite "mature" Amys rn.

in IDW, all of Amy's flaws and positive traits are balanced pretty well: she is flawed and relatable and can mess up sometimes a little bit because of her impulsivity,but she's emotionally and strategically inteligent, optimistic and incredibly kind. She is a great fighter and leader,but also a wonderful friend who offers emotional support. She has a strong personality, lots of sass and can be very aggressive and intimidating towards her enemies, but not any less of an empathetic and compassionate person because of that. Her strength and confidence are pillars for her character instead of nonsensical anger,but she still shows self doubt and fear from time to time. She is energic, idealistic and still a romantic,but not obsessive nor possesive. Bubbly and peppy but also emotionally intelligent. She still loves Sonic, but her feelings for him feel authentic rather than childish idealization,and given that she now respects his space,she's written to be happy just with fighting by his side and jokingly flirt from time to time.

Feel free to disagree but i think this one of the best Amys we have gotten. IDW Amy is constantly praised by the fandom. But something i hear a lot is people saying how they love IDW Amy but despise "Main Amy" -by which i'll assume they refer to videogame Amy just in general- and that way of summarizing all of Amy's game portrayals feels very odd to me, especially because IDW Amy is a culmination of every single good aspect that has been added to this character combined with most of what she was meant to be at the start. In other words,IDW Amy couldn't exist if it wasn't for all the game Amys before her.

I know that IDW Amy still feels more plain compared to the OG,i'd still like her to be bubblier and peppier and mess up more. I've read a lot of people who support the headcanon of Amy being "an Empath who doesn't get social cues" which is a reading of her i like. But that is also one that i can see sadly not fitting as well with IDW Amy as it used to with other portrayals. However, i still believe this portrayal of her is one of the best we've gotten in the sense that she represents a good mix of most things that has made her positively memorable since the beginning and lacks every problematic aspect of her character that was added post her creation.

It's true that we haven't had many chances to see her character be as impulsive and outspoken as in the Adventure era or Heroes, and i miss that as much as every other Amy fan. But I do think that ,because so much assertiveness wouldn’t coexist very well with things like careful thought, the reason for that change must be that IDW is writing an older,more mature version of the character and It’s hard for them to keep such aspects of her personality intact without her being seen as childish by the audience now that they are paired up with big responsabilities. Especially since that super assertive,impulsive nature of hers probably came naturally at the time because she was supposed to be a 12-year old and wether we like it or not, it was implied by the narrative that it was one of the main reasons she got caught by eggman both in SA1 and SA2. Aka,idw Amy isn't allowed to make as many mistakes as the og.

After all ,Amy used to be written to be mostly seen as a comedic character and -unfortunately- as more of an "extra addition" to the main team rather than as an important,needed member of it. ( even in Heroes,where she had formed her own team,she was still trying to catch up to Sonic and his team because she had been excluded of it.) If she made a mistake becaus eof her overconfidence or innocence and got caught, the writers would just make Sonix fix things later. In IDW she doesn't just seem older,but she has also gotten to have important roles in the fight against Eggman and people rely on her with their lives,so it doesn't surprise me that the writers try to make her be more conscious and careful when it comes to her actions now that she has more responsibilities and can't allow herself to make as many mistakes as she did back when she was written to be more immature and impulsive because of that extreme assertiveness.

Now,I personally believe that Amy in TMoSTH is the same as in IDW, just that she feels more like her OG self in TMOSTH because ,for the most part ,Bday Girl is on that train literally to just have fun and do as she pleases. She doesn't have any weight on her shoulders nor expectations,she is free of responsabilities all the way until the climax and the game is very comedy-centric for the most part, so the writers pobably felt like they could set that impulsive,assertive side of her loose again.

In this game her character doesn't revolve around Sonic and she is relatable and funny (The way she was so ashamed of how she broke her hammer when she tried to escape the closet with brute force ,how she didn't realize Sonic was actually hurt because she was too excited about the game, how she was overconfident and impulsively tried to solve the case and completely failed ,how she and vector started beating a wall violently after realizing the train was alive,etc),but her positive qualities shine throughout the game as well ( How she took the time to organize a party that she'd think everyone would have fun at,How she is so thankful that everyone showed up and doesn't mind that Shad and Sonic didn't bring gifts, how she makes sweets remarks about others and cute jokes in distressing situations,how she has faith in Shadow's goodwill, The way she delivers the final blow at the end and says that despite everything,she loved the party because it was an adventure,etc ). Throughout the game,Sonic and the rest treat her in a way that really goes to show what a good friend and a lovely person she is ,and she expresses great appreciation for everyone's presence in her life.

It's honestly an amazing coincidence that this game takes place on her bday considering that it's the one that made this portrayal of her "game canon". As a fan of her, i celebrate it and hope we get more of it in the near future.

So yeah, i didn't talk about Sonic X Amy,Archie Amy nor all the comics,series and games that came out between the big videogame titles. There is much more about how Amy has been written that could be said, but i think i did a pretty decent summary of the most important changes her character has gone through the years mainline game-wise,at least good enough to defend my point that she wasn't a stalker originally and she definitely isn't one now. As i mentioned before,i agree that she was portrayed as possesive and obsessive for a looong period of time and as an actual harasser for a shorter one , and that we should definitely recognize it and be critical of such things being portrayed as “quirky” and “funny” aspects when they are in reality, so hurtful. BUT summarizing her whole character by calling her a stalker and an obsessive fangirl is defining her based on the worst examples of her characterization and ignoring her good ones completely.

Feel free to disagree with my character analysis and the way i categorize her portrayals,but i strongly believe that Amy rose isn't meant to be a harasser,an obsessive fangirl or personal space invader.

My girl deserves better.

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Fandom song animatic tournament: Bracket 2 Side B

The Mind Electric - Miracle Musical

"See how the brain plays around?And you fall inside a hole you couldn't see And you fall inside a hole inside a- Someone help me Understand what's going on inside my mind Doctor, I can't tell if I'm not me"

Rät - Penelope Scott

"And the worst part is I loved you, I loved you I loved you, it's true And sometimes I feel like I still f*cking do I lived here, I loved here I thought it was true I'm so embarrassed I feel abused"

Remember that we're voting on how Iconic they are for ANIMATICS, not for the song itself. In order to make things fair, the tone and mood of the song should not affect how iconic it is (for example, a serious song should not be considered more iconic than a joke song just because it's serious)

Propaganda and animatic links of the songs under the cut:

The Mind Electric - Miracle Musical

Propaganda:

the CLASSIC insanity song. you have a character that goes a little crazy? a little wacky? you will see the mind electric used for them. there are more well known tally hall related songs, but this one is def the one you see the most animatics of just because its so specific to this very popular trope. of going a little wacky.

1. It's a banger. 2. It's about a man going through electric shock therapy after being accused of murder. 3. It's got animatics in fandoms from FNAF to Gravity Falls to Hermitcraft. 4. It's by Miracle Musical, AKA Tally Hall. 5. It's just awesome.

Visuals alone are absolutely insane most of the time

Animatics with the song:

QSMP

FNAF

Deltarune

Spider Man: Across The Spiderverse

Gravity Falls

Life Series Martyn

Rät - Penelope Scott

Propaganda:

not only is the song a banger and a half, it fits SO MANY FOLKS SO WELL and was the song for my first full animatic, though not with the character I thought I was gonna make it for initially ^^; it's about losing faith in those you idolize. it's about kids who grew up and realized this isn't what they wanted. it's about how hard it is to let go despite all that because you still care or see them as good. it's about trying to be like those you look up to and finding out too late what that means. (...in my case, this is a song about what happens when a program is too human and expected not to act as such or lash out when hurt. this is a song about a teenager who was left believing his father betrayed him and was left wanting to hurt those he once held in such high regard.)

It’s a good song and I’ve seen LOADS of animatics of it

Animatics with the song:

The Owl House

Amphibia Swap AU

DSMP

The Promised Neverland

Ace Attorney

Please be cautious and read the title, description and warning cards on the animatic videos if you decide to watch them. If you've got specific triggers I'd recommend even more caution when watching animatics of fandoms you don't know, since sometimes canon-typical themes don't get warnings.

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Yellowjackets Characters Ranked from Most to Least Likely to be a Communist

The ghost of Karl Marx possessed me and made me write this.

Young Nat - I mean come on just look at her. Girlie hates the system!! My anarchist queen!! I love her.

Lisa - She's part of Lottie's intentional community, putting in the work to better herself and the community! You could tell me she's canonically a communist and I would not be surprised.

Adult Lottie - Now I don't think Lottie is a full communist. Like she's running an "intentional community," which is like basically a commune, but she also deliberately positions herself as a leader. You can even see it in the clothes she wears. Like put on the heliotrope comrade!!

Adult Van - Idk I know she criticizes Lottie's community but she just has comrade vibes to me. She's a small business owner (a girl's gotta do what she's gotta do under capitalism) keeping physical media alive!

Adult Nat - She's a bit more jaded than her younger self. Originally, she questions Lottie's community. But she does buy in when she sees and experiences the benefits!

Laura Lee - So I originally had Laura Lee pretty low because of the correlation between Christianity and conservative beliefs in our society. But our queen isn't like that!! She learned how to fly the plane for the good of the community! Helped Lottie cope when she ran out of her meds! And you know maybe neither of those things totally worked out but she was doing her best!!!!!

Crystal - If Crystal can get along with MISTY she can get along with anyone. And she was SHOOK when she learned that Misty had destroyed the black box, aka done something literally so selfish/bad for the group. I think she would do very well in a world where everyone worked together and shared resources for the good of the community.

Akilah - Idk man this is a long list they can't all be well thought out. @lottiesacolyte said she seems open to anything, so I'm just kind of putting her here. Sorry to the Akilah stans.

Young Lottie - Initially I had young Lottie super low on the list, since she's kind of a god/idol to the girlies in the woods. But upon further consideration, she doesn't actually Want that. She goes out of her way to try and Avoid becoming their leader. She just wants everyone to work together and survive. AND she said that if she died they shouldn't let her body go to waste.

Young Van - Young Van's vibes are very similar to her adult self's, but she does kind of buy in super hard to Lottie as leader. I think that under different circ*mstances she would be more of a communist.

Young Taissa - Young Taissa is a tricky one. Because she is soooo against the Lottie as leader stuff that everyone else is buying into. But at the same time, I feel like She wants to be the leader? Which tracks considering her adult life. I think that her and Van could have been happy living as communists together, but that's not the way life panned out for them.

Adult Shauna - Shauna is fed up with her boring suburban life. And you know what would make you happier, queen? Communism!

Randy - Okay this one is a little silly goofy. But he's just sooo down to help Jeff. Help him with blackmail, help him seem like Shauna is cheating on him. He's a real one. I don't think it's likely that Randy would be a communist but like if Jeff was doing it? Maybe!

Jeff - Very similar to Randy, I think that he would just kind of go with the flow with what everyone else is doing. He's pretty traditional, but if Shauna wanted to try communism he'd give it a whirl with her.

Javi - Javi is a child. He's an icon and I choose to believe he would adjust to communism, but let's be real he's gonna just go with the flow.

Sammy - Sammy is also a child, even more of a child than Javi. He'll do what his parents tell him to do.

Gen and Melissa - Okay I put them together because I don't know a single thing about either of them. They're side characters, they'll do whatever everyone else is doing LOL.

Mari - Mari is kind of a hater. And that's so relatable. She's kind of a go with the flow girlie. But also because of her hater energy I feel she would not immediately adjust well to communism.

Jackie - Jackie is a traditional girlie. She's used to being queen bee. She doesn' adjust well to living in the woods, and she wouldn't adjust well to communism. I think that she could if pressed! But she would be resistant, let's be honest.

Young Shauna - While Jackie's alive, Shauna will do whatever Jackie does, regardless of her own thoughts on the matter. After Jackie dies (rest in peace my girlfailure icon queen), Shauna's a little more ambitious. You think a girl who's mad she didn't get to be antler queen would be immediately down with communism? Absolutely not. I think she would adjust, but not easily.

Callie - Callie's in her edgelord, I'm cooler than everyone else era. Perhaps one day when she is older she will embrace the radical joy and love communism can provide, but for now she would Not be happy with a change in the status quo. She has big Jackie queen bee energy, and she doesn't want that to change.

Adult Travis - Travis' response to the trauma of the wilderness was to move to the middle of nowhere, so I don't think communism would quite be his vibe. But I do think that he'd be more open that his younger self, just due to life experience and Hopefully being less misogynistic now. But we don't really see a lot of him so who's to say!

Young Travis - Travis buys into so much heteronormativity and toxic masculinity nonsense that I think it would be really hard to shake it out of him.

Simone - She's married to Taissa, so she's clearly bought into the idea that a liberal government can somehow liberate us.

Adult Taissa - She's literally part of the system. Also she can eat dirt for free under capitalism, so why bother being a communist? She's a deadbeat dad, acting like providing for her family monetarily is the only thing that matters and not Love and Quality Time.

Adam - Adam would tell people he's a communist. He might even think it's true. But when push comes to shove? That man is not going to radically change his life. He's fake woke and I hate him, good riddance.

Adult Misty - She was NOT on board with Lottie's intentional community. She abuses the elderly. She murders people. Misty wants power and control, and communism wouldn't allow her to have that.

Walter - This man is RICH but instead of redistributing his wealth he bought a big fancy house and all he does is go on Reddit and be crusty and lame.

Coach Ben - They're literally stranded in the middle of nowhere and this man keeps trying to act like he's in charge? Like you only have one leg my dude, just let the girlies take care of you. And then instead of talking things out when he disagrees with the collective, he BURNS THE CABIN DOWN. Evil evil man.

Young Misty - I hate her. She's a creep. She broke the black box just because she liked feeling important. She killed Crystal to keep her secret, and doesn't even want anyone to eat Crystal's body even though everyone is starving. Keeping valuable resources from the community is NOT very communist of her.

Kevyn - ACAB!!

Jay - ACAB ACAB HE'S SO CRUSTY I HATE HIM HE'S A CREEP!!!!!!!!

47 notes · View notes

I have recently assisted to a short presentation given at my university by none other than Tony Gheeraert, aka THE currenty expert on Perrault's fairytales and one of the great names of the current scholarly study of literary fairytales (in France). To give you an example, the scientific edition of Perrault's fairytales I own was made by him. And since the topic of his intervention fits something I was asked about before, and that many people here took an interest for, I decided to put some of my notes here.

Because Gheeraert's intervention took place as part of a seminary centered around one specific subject: "The Middle-Ages in the 17th century literature" (in France of course).

Long story short: the main and defining trait of the Renaissance, in popular culture, in widespread knowledge, as taught in schools, is its rejection of the Middle-Ages, right? Renaissance is all about rediscovering the Antiquity, imitating Ancient Greece, the worship of Ancient Rome - and breaking off from this ghastly Dark Ages with their filth and their ignorance and their dreadful Gothic architecture... Right?

Well... Not really. You see, this whole idea of "Middle-Ages VS The Renaissance" comes from a time period ranging from the Romantic era (where the Romantic "rediscovered" everything Gothic and medieval, and heralded it as the greatest muse of all times, and built at the same time the golden myth of the idolized feudal time and the dark legend of the barbaric ages) to the 19th century (which is where the Middle-Ages took shape in institutions, "built" by historians such as Michelet who really marked the rupture between the 15th century, obscure and ignorant, and the enlightened and more refined 16th century). As a result, there is this idea that the Middle-Ages were completely rejected and forgotten during the Renaissance, and that the first ones to truly love, embrace or take inspiration from this era were the Romantics.

The whole point of the seminary is to prove that this is actually false - and that the Renaissance was filled and imbued with medieval culture and interpretations (or re-interpretations) of the Middle-Ages. One of the main reasons the "medievalism of the classics" stayed in a blind spot of researchers (the very expression is an oxymoron since today "classicicm" and "medievalism" are considered conflicting opposites) is notably precisely because the "Middle-Ages" as we know them today were not invented yet. In the Renaissance culture and language the "Middle-Ages" did not exist... But it does not mean Renaissance folks did not had an understanding or an awareness of the Middle-Ages - as so many people claimed. The fact is that Renaissance was the era right next to the Middle-Ages: it was a direction continuation, and for Renaissance people medieval times were the "recent" past. There hadn't been any official decree or historical theory claiming the Middle-Ages were done or the Renaissance had truly began at X date. And so, there was a "medievalism" in the Renaissance, but one that wasn't "loud and clear" so to speak, unlike the Romantic medievalism.

But even with this fact acknowledged today, the idea that the Renaissance was "medieval" too has a hard time getting recognized. There was a mention of a very recent book published last year, "Le dictionnaire du Moyen-Âge imaginé" (The dictionnary of the imaginary Middle-Ages) - and it did mention that there was a strong medievalism during the 16th century, dawn of the Renaissance but also remaining lights of the medieval dusk... But then it claims that it all stopped by the 17th century, "Le Grand Siècle", all about Antiquity with no medieval thing whatsoever - only for the Middle-Ages to return by the mid 18th century.

And the seminary is all about proving that, no, there were medieval things in the 17th century French culture and literature, underneath the whole "praise and glory" of the Antiquity. Tony Gheeraert was invited to share his insight on fairytales - the iconic literary movement of the end of 17th century, and one of the most "medieval" cultural movements of the Renaissance France.

[Side-note: One of the main examples of the medievalism of the 16th century is the enormous success in France of the translation of the Spanish chivalry novel "Amadis de Gaula", in French "Amadis de Gaule" - you know, the best-seller that Cervantes wrote his Don Quixote as a reaction to. It was even called in France "La bible du roi", "The bible of the king", in reference to Henri IV's great love for this book.]

Of course, the 17th century did not have an exact, faithful or correct understanding of the Middle-Ages - but the interest here is to see how the century imagined and remagined this era, how they accused it of certain things, or attributed to it others ; how they twisted and reused medieval motifs for themselves, or how they created "false" Middle-Ages.

And so, what can a quick glimpse at these 17th century fairytales can tell us? Gheeraert focused on four authors part of the aristocratic circles and literary salons of the fairytales: Perrault, of course, because he is the most famous today and one of his three tales in verse, Griselidis, was inspired by Boccace's Decameron - a most medieval work. Madame d'Aulnoy, the one who started the entire trend and wave of literary fairytales. Mademoiselle Lhéritier (sometimes spelled L'Héritier), the niece of Perrault, who was a member of prestigious academies and had received numerous great literary prizes in her time (but who was erased by the sexist historians of literature) [Plus she also evoked in her writing the "style troubadour" centuries bfore it became an actual thing]. And finally Fénelon - who left some famous lines about his strong distaste and disgust at the Gothic architecture, but also wrote fairytales (published posthumously, originally written for his pedagogical work as the preceptor of the royal heir). Gheeraert also included in his study corpus Fraçois Nodot, who didn't write any fairytales but did wrote a "fairy novel" - Histoire de Mélusine, itself a 17th adaptation of a 14th century novel by Jean d'Arras.

Again I am simplifying and recaping things here: Tony Gheeraert, to shortly and simply prove that medievalism DID exist in 17th century fairytales, took all the major and important studies (French or Anglo-Saxon) that define medievalism, in the context of the Romantic movement for example, and extracted from it seven criteria. Seven main traits that sum up what "medievalism" is. And then applied them to the fairytales of the 17th century France.

Trait 1: Nostalgia for chivalry and knighthood (a la Walter Scott). A passion for knight-like heroism with a code of honor and loyalty, the courtly behavior of the old knighthood...

Yes, we find this in fairytales. After all, the French fairytales are THE archetype of the knight in shining armor saving a damsel in distress from a dragon. However, beyond this, Tony Gheeraert pointed out something truly fascinating: the fairytales of the time were aimed at an audience composed of people part of, or close with, a nobility in decline. Louis XIV had entrusted most of the political power to the bourgeoisie, while the original nobility beware a powerless "ornament" at the court, only here to look pretty. As Raymonde Robert pointed out in her extremely informative book about the French literary fairytales, the nobility of the time used of a form of "escapism" with these tales of idealized knights and princesses. An example would be madame d'Aulnoy's fairytale "La Princesse Belle-Etoile et le Prince Chéri" (Princesse Beautiful-Star and Prince Darling): it depicts three brothers and their sister, who discover that they are actually cousins, and princes and princesses, they are all brave and generous ; and the titular Prince Darling embodies all the knightly virtues (he is loyal, courageous, devoted). He undergoes typical "knight-trials" and in the end the courtly love wins as he gets to marry Princess Beautiful-Star... Who is his cousin, yes, that was regularly kingly things.

Trait 2: A reaction against the rationality of the Enlightenment (a la Radcliff, Lewis, Grimm or Keats) - a love of ghosts and curses and the supernatural...

Jean-Paul Sermain, in his own studies of fairytales, called the end of the 17th century a "post-critic" era. A time when "naivity" and "naive" things were asked for, revendicated and proudly presented, as the triumph of rationalism. A rationalism that might have even been perceived as "drying out" reality - for example, we have to remember that great rationalist minds such as Descartes or Malebranche were very hostile towards literature as a whole. Jean-Paul Sermain refers to these fairytales as "metafictions" and compares Perrault's stories to those of Walpole - fairytales delight in "putting to sleep the reason of the Classics", and while it tells of the supernatural, it is with a distance - just like how the Gothics wrote about ghosts and demons without believing in them, Perrault wrote about fairies without believing in them.

Trait 3: A taste for Gothic architecture, or for the neo-Gothic (a la Horace Walpole, or like Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame-de-Paris). As I said before, Fénelon is remembered for his strong dislike of Gothic architecture, that he saw as bad and imperfect due to its grotesque extravagances, its excess of ornaments - he much preferred the simple, "natural", perfectly-balanced Greco-Roman architecture. However, when the first editions of Perrault's "Stories or Tales of the Past" were published, the illustrations invoked a clearly medieval architecture - such as Bluebeard's domain, which is depicted as a medieval castle. In fact, there is a very amusing fact when one reads Perrault's Bluebeard (I already evoked it on my blog before): when the story begins, Bluebeard's house is presented as a typical wealthy countryside house of the times of Louis XIV, but when the story reaches its nightmarish climax, the various descriptions and location hints prove that Bluebeard's house is suddenly a typical "creepy Gothic castle" - such as how sister Anne is located at the top of a CASTLE TOWER. Speaking of towers - we cannot list all of the fairytales involving a princess locked up in a tower, nor can we list all the references to a "castle" (château) rather than a palace "palais". Madame d'Aulnoy could be the most revealing of those authors - ranging from her famous story "The Blue Bird" about a princess locked at the top of a medieval tower, to "The Gold Branch" about protagonists locked in another old castle-tower filled with stained glass and medieval illustrated scrolls. We know that madame d'Aulnoy had a great knowledge and passion for everything that touched to paleography: she liked to collect old medieval manuscripts, and had an habit when younger of "customizing" her books and journals so that they looked like medieval tomes and grimoires.

Which makes us jump to... Trait 4: A taste for erudition and old manuscripts (a la Francisque Michel).

As I said before, we know that madame d'Aulnoy had this knowledge, experience and passion of medieval manuscrits - a very revealing trivia is how at thirteen years old she wrote on the entry pages of the books that belonged to her all sorts of occult warnings and curses for anyone that would dare steal or degrade the volume - proving her interest for old grimoires, dark magic and a certain "mystification", the invention of "fake medieval manuscripts". Because what made a teenage madame d'Aulnoy dream was the same thing that made Gothic authors dream: dark, obscure, Gothic Middle-Ages filled with supernatural, and threats, and curses - Tony Gheeraert even made the joke that she was not so much interested in the Middle-Ages than by "medieval fantasy". Even though, as she grew up, she gained a true knowledge of the actual medieval era. For example, Nadine Jasmin, in her study of maame d'Aulnoy's fairytales, found out that the fairytale "The Pigeon and the Dove" was actually a rewrite of a medieval novel called "Floire et Blancheflor", with explicit references to this medieval tale in d'Aulnoy's text. We also know that she and Perrault both were aware of the existence of the Arthurian novel "Perceforest", from which they took the idea of "inviting fairies at a meal after the birth of a child".

Trait 5: An interest for medieval Christianity (such as Montalembert's Les Moines d'Occident). The Romantics loved to see the Middle-Ages as a time of intense faith, but what about the fairytale authors? Well, as you might know by now (because I evoked it several times on my blog), the writing of the fairytales took place in a literary and cultural feud that shook the 17th century: the Moderns vs the Ancients. The dominating artistic model was the Ancients - the belief that Antiquity had been the peak and golden age of art, and that as such all modern productions had to imitate and recreate what the Greco-Romans did. Perrault was the unofficial head of the Modern movement (to which almost all of the other fairytale authors belonged) - artists claiming that one could invent new things instead of just repeating old models, and that there were other valid sources of inspiration for art, beyond Ancient Greece or the Roman Empire. Fairytales were part of this feud - one of the "Modern" genres, proving that you could write interesting stories by using local folklore and medieval sources rather than the Greco-Roman myths.

And of course, this feud extended to the religious domain. The Ancients defended the idea that you could only make art using elements not part of the "one true religion" (Christianity) - as such this is why they insisted on using the religions of the Greek and the Romans, "false" and "dead" religions. However, in return the Moderns accused them of perpetuating paganism, and one of their main effort was to prove that you could do things such as Christianity-inspired epics. (Which in turn led to accusations of blasphemy, overall this was a circle without end). While not overtly Christian, the literary fairytales of the time did have Christian elements psrinkled here and there clearly showing the tales' belonging to the Modern movement - such as how the fairies of Sleeping Beauty are invited to the princess' christening ; or how Bluebeard's wife demands to be able to pray one last time before dying. This was in direct opposition to the "ornamental paganism" that was asked by the unofficial leader of the Ancients - Boileau, Perrault's archnemesis. Overall, as Tony Gheeraert pointed out, in a twist compared to modern days, the Moderns formed a "counter-culture" to the mainstream model of the Ancients... A national and Christian counter-culture, prefiguring the Romantic medievalism. Yep, Perrault and co were "rebels" for writing about purely French stuff and openly Christian things.

Trait 6: An interest for folklore (a la Achille Millien, and the widespread tradton of collecting folk-tales, oral literature and folk-art). Now, this trait is... more complex than the others. The Romantics collected and published folklore and folktales - the brothers Grimm are the most famous example of this practice, and in fact today we like to oppose Perrault, an elitist and courtly author who wrote and invented fairytales, to the Grimm, who collected "authentic" folktales directly from the lower class. But... are Perrault and Grimm so different?

The topic of folklore in French literary fairytales has been wiely discussed and debated - first by Marc Soriano, then by Marc Fumaroli. However, when it comes to the angle of medievalism, of the fantasy and phantasm of the Middle-Ages rather than a real influence, the answer is definitively - yes, medieval folklore did play an important part. Take Mademoiselle Lhéritier - when she wrote and published her fairytales, she openly described them as "folktales" that were originally created by medieval literature. In her "Oeuvres mêlées" (her first collection of fairytales), she wrote that, the stories she published were originally the inventions of troubadours, medieval novels that then were passed through the people, became popular culture and folktales - in short, the fairytales she writes in her book are "degraded" versions of medieval literary works. This was her main thesis - and in this theory the people, the "folk" of folktale, was both topraise and blame. To praise for keeping and allowing the survival of these medieval works, to blame for "degrading" and "soiling" this great literature into vulgar and dirty stories. Now, that being said, we know today that, historically speaking, this is an entirely false and absurd belief - but for mademoiselle L'Héritier, it was actually a very plausible and likely theory. Because of one precise phenomenon, most embodied by La Bibliothèque Bleue (The Blue Library) - a famous brand of cheap books sold by peddlers all across France. The Blue Library, like all peddlers-sold literature, were cheap products for a low and poor clientele, uneducated if not illiterate - as a result, what these books did was usually take back a literary work or a famous story of the Middle-Ages, and reprint it in a simplified, heavily-edited or degraded/misunderstood way. If such a big degradation could happen to the most famous novels, it was plausible to understand that folktales of the countryside were just similarly degraded medieval novels we lost the originals of.

Back in the 17th century everybody, no matter the social class, knew of Huon de Bordeaux or the story of Mélusine. They might have been badly edited or misprinted - they were still everywhere. The best-sellers of the time were not "La Princesse de Clèves", "La Clélie" or "L'Astrée" - despite those works being today emblematic of 17th century literature. No, the best-sellers were Huon de Bordeaux, L'Histoire de Mélusine, Renaud de Montauban... When Perrault wanted to mock Boileau, he pointed out in his "Apology of women" that Boileau's work will never reach the same sales as the books of the Blue Library - medieval literature was literaly flooding the masses. The Antique and humanist culture of the time was limited, and for a scholarly audience - medieval literature was massive, but was more of the counter-culture of the Classical age, that had been ignored and made invisible precisely because it was "popular" in the first sense of the term - for the "people". But this was a memory of the Middle-Ages that was perpetuated among the people - especially through women, according to Perrault, women that made themselves the guardians of an old national memory they "passed on". And this was the entire propaganda of the Moderns: they wanted to defend and rehabilitate a national past, a medieval literature, that had survived through the memory of the people and "folk-culture".

As I said before we know today that mademoiselle Lhéritier's theory of fairytales being an immensely valued cultural treasure degraded by mass-publishing and a spreading among the lower classes is false. BUT it gives us a wonderful insight into how people IMAGINED the Middle-Ages at the time. Notably, we know that the "courtly literature" of the Middle-Ages was treated with utmost respect - the art of the troubadour was compared with the elegant and galant literature of the 17th century ; Moderns perceived the literature of the Middle-Ages as a great one. And this is how they wanted their own work to be perceived by the audience of their time: they wanted to have their fairytales received as "re-established medieval texts", as "medieval literature restored into its original purity". And as I said before - when mademoiselle L'Héritier described her own fairytale project, she literaly wrote of "le style troubadour", LONG before this term an actual artistic movement.

We know that mademoiselle L'Héritier influenced the wwriting of her uncle, and within Perrault's fairytales we find a similar process of "restoraton": take Griselidis. Griselidis originally comes from Boccace - and Perrault wants to give back to this story the "shine" and the "light" surrounding it, so that people could read it like Boccace's audience had originally read it. But why does Perrault feel a need to "re-shine" Griselidis? Because Griselidis was reprinted, and re-edited, and massively spread in an altered form by the Blue Library. Perrault wanted, by his rewrite, to restore the original medieval work - the short story of Boccace. It was the closest thing we had to medieval research at the time. And when Perrault pre-published his prose tales in Le Mercure Galant, he explicitely described what allowed them to go through the Middle-Ages and reach modern audience : a "millenial, feminine, national and clandestine tradition".

Perrault and his friends did the same thing the Romantics could later do: put at the heart of a counter-culture folktales, against the universitarian, academical "freeze" of the Ancients, while also pushing forward national and Christian works. Now, that being said, we now know that Perrault's medieval claims just like mademoiselle Lhéritier's so-called "troubadour style" are but artificial inventions, literary tricks, false applications. Constance Cagnat for example proved that the fairytales of Charles Perrault and madame d'Aulnoy were actually literary games playing and interacting with other French authors (such as La Fontaine and his fables), and that these stories were mostly built up using common sayings and various puns, twisting wordplays and cleverly highlighting proverbs that the aristocratic readers of the time would understand. When Perrault claims to have collected his fairytales from old grandmothers and nurses, he blatantly lies - because Lhéritier and Perrault are not about preserving the Middle-Ages, but reinventing and reshaping it. Just like how Viollet-le-Duc completely redid cathedrals by claiming he was giving them back their "original" style when his choices were clearly more personal and imaginative. It can also be compare to the creation of the Ossianic poems - we are quite close here to what Perrault or L'Héritier did.

Now, as you all might know, there is a traditional opposition of Perrault, this old royal secretary falsifying fairytales into the stuffy and censoring world of the court... And the Grimm brothers, who supposedly managed to preserve the "genie of the German people" and transcribed "faithfully" German folktales... Cough cough. The truth is more complex than that - one of the main sources of the Grimm was a woman named Dorothez Viehmann, who was a German woman yes... But of French descent. The Viehmann family were direct descendants of the Protestants that fled France during religious persecutions... And the other main source of the Grimm, the daughters of the Hassenpflug family, also had some ties to the French Protestants that settled in Germany... Long story short - after the Grimm brothers composed and published their first edition of their "German folktales", they realized that... they had several Perrault fairytales in there. By going on a quest to find back German folktales they discovered... French fairytales. Oh the irony! They had for example a German version of Puss in Boots, and an altered version of madame d'Aulnoy's "The Orange-Tree and the Bee", and various takes on Perrault's Bluebeard - which all promptly got removed from further editions of their märchen collection. They only kept French-related stories that felt "different" enough and more "German" - hence their alternate versions of Perrault's Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood. But even beyond that, the brothers Grimm weren't as honest as they liked to pretend - because they heavily edited their fairytales to fit their own morals and "unify" their material in a true literary effort. For example, they made a great effort to systematically give "happy endings" to their stories (see how in their Little Red-Cap the little girl is saved), and they also systematically changed all evil mothers into evil stepmothers (Snow-White's evil queen or the bad wife of the woodsman in Hansel and Gretel were originally their victim's mother, not stepmother). Tony Gheeraert evoked how "The Twelve Brothers" changed so much between its collected version and the final rewrite of the Grimm you hardly recognize the story - even though personaly I haven't studied this fairytale's evolution so I cannot say. Utte Heidmann even described the Grimm fairytales as "window-dressing". So, looking at the prefaces Grimm wrote allows us to understand the gap between their openly claimed and declared intentions, and their actual "falsifications" or rather "artificialization" of fairytales. Ultimately... The Grimms "cheat" with their fairytales, just like Perrault or L'Héritier did. IT IS ALL THE SAME FOLKS, IT IS THE NEW FAIRYTALE ORDER!

(Sorry for the little joke, back to serious stuff)

Fun fact: Something people tend to ignore (myself I did not know that), due to the Grimm systematically erasing from their work all French fairytales, is that the brothers actually ADMIRED Perrault. They adored him - but they hated all the female fairytales writers. In their eyes, people like madame d'Aulnoy or mademoiselle L'Héritier were bascally "imitations of Perrault, but with less talent".

Finally, we reach trait 7: An idealization of the past, coupled with a criticism of the present (a la William Morris)

Is this medievalism we saw until now ALWAYS an idealization of the past? Well things are a bit more ambiguous: Victor Hugo clearly idealized the Middle-Ages, whereas Michelet was much more negative towards this era. And this same ambiguity can be found in French literary fairytales - whose authors have a very complex relationship between the past, and their century of very fast modernization and of all sorts of new techniques. Because yes, the 17th century was a time of great inventions and great revolutions in all sorts of domains: sciences, politics, commerce, engineering... The 17th century was truly a time of aggressive industrialization and massive social changes - almost a prototype of the Industrial revolution, with the same enthusiasm and the same worries manifested inside fairytales. Of the authors of the time, men of letters such as Fénelon or La Bruyère expressed a regret of the past which was "stable" and "sober" and "simple" - Fénelon's fairytales have a strong nostalgia, they are turned towards the past, you have this idealiation of for example the little self-dependant farmer who gets everything from his land and needs nothing else ; which is in complete opposition to the present where businessmen are becoming the new wealth, with the creation and development of the famous "manufactures" of France, the ancestors of factories. Fénelon and La Bruyère considered this materialistic evolution to be happening much too fast, and predicted only disasters for it. But other fairytale authors rather glorified the present times - there was a rejoicing of how society had evolved, of how progress gave access to new luxuries. Madame d'Aulnoy kept evoking in her fairytales all the recent culinary and gastronomical inventions of her time in very positive terms. So we got this enjoyment of the present, mixed with worries of what said present might cause... And this results in tensions towards the past - or more precisely, in a muddling of what the "past times" are supposed to be. People are understanding that society is moving extremely fast, and that they are entering something never seen before - but as a result they find their work and tales "invaded" by their modern life. People did not see why one who wants to write about the Middle-Ages should remove everything about the Classic era - for them it wasn't a contradiction, they didn't care much about anachronism, which results in this confused and unclear past. The past of the fairytales does then fit with what medievalism was truly about - because medievalism, as a fantasy of the Middle-Ages, ended up evolving beyond a "faithful research and reproduction of the medieval times", and became... well, basically "a set of times and places seen as the "before" or as the "elsewhere" of the current situation." And thus, we can compare that to the ambiguous "past times" of stories such as Perrault's (Histoires ou contes du temps passé, literaly Histories or tales of the times gone"). The fairytales of Perrault are clearly taking place during the Renaissance, in terms of social hierarchy, political power, everyday items... And yet you have so many medieval elements that blur the timeline - you have woodsmen, and mills, and millers... We could even push forward this thought by wondering if the Moderns, by purposefully accumulating falsehood and misunderstandings and confusion of stereotypes, weren't trying to mock or parody the historical chronologies of all the snobs and insufferable "know-it-all" of the time (aka, the Ancients).

What was Gheeraert's conclusion?

Yes, there is a "classical medievalism" that did exist in fairytales. It was mostly the expression of a nostalgia for a more-or-less mythical aristocracy, a time when nobility had real power, and when knights were courtly and chivalrous. There is a medievalism all throughout the 17th century, from the helmet-wearing knights of L'Astrée to the tournaments organized in La princesse de Clèves. In fairytales, medievalism was a NEEDED ingredient, needed to go beyond the primal conflict between the popular, folkloric origins and the Antique literary sources, rewriten or crypted. The "culture of the Middle-Ages" did exist in fairytales, but as an "imaginative appropriation" mixing together in one big soup Boccace and Perceforest, with a dash of Marie de France, and several contemporary sources - until it became unclear what came from where. People did not care for how much of each story was taken from each work - they only cared about the effect produced, about the result. And the result was that fairytales were written to give the illusion of a medieval text, fitting how people imagined the Middle-Ages as a courtly and chivalrous time all about the love-adventures of knights and princesses. Take Perrault's Sleeping Beauty: it is the perfect balance using as much folkloric as literary material. A rewrite of an actual medieval work, the Perceforest, but remade so as to give it back a "style of the past time" - aka rewriting a medieval work to make it look... more medieval. Today we like to denounce Perrault and co. as being falsificators, liars, cheaters inventing stuff out of nowhere... But that's because our vision of the Middle-Ages, and literature, and cultural evolution changed - but for the people of the time, it was all honest rewrites or serious pastiches. And here is where the misunderstanding lies: unlike us, who, to "restore" a lost work go dig for the "original" version or context, the people of the 17th century, in their quest to restore the forgotten and lost works of the past, were ready to reject what the past actually was, as long they could establish a strong and solid continuity. Mademoiselle L'Héritier truly believed herself faithful to the medieval texts by transcribing those "medieval" stories into her courtly and aristocratic culture. Today we might laugh, "Troubadours didn't speak like the précieuses!". But at the time, there was a strong belief that the courteousness and gallantry of the Renaissance was actually a return, a resurrection, of the old practices and ancient sociability of the past. For mademoiselle L'Héritier, the golden age of courteousness was... the golden age of the troubadours. As a result, for all those authors, "appropriation" did not rhyme with "unfaithful".

But all this talk of "medievalism" in the Classic era, and the deep ideological extent of the "gallant" literature, are only recent rediscoveries - for example this all was nowhere to be seen when Marc Soriano wrote about fairytales.

A final note for this extensive recap, which was also evoked and discussed during Gheeraert's intervention but had been repeated several times across the seminary - you think the nobles and the low-folks were part of two different worlds? Well think again! As it turns out, in the 17th century, artistocrats and peasants were far closer than you would believe... united by a same culture. Medieval culture. You see, the top and the bottom of the social hierarchy were both part of those people to whom nobody ever said "Middle-Ages are over, time to go to the next era!". The lower class' lifestyle hadn't much changed, and they preserved all sorts of medieval tales and legends through either oral folktales or through the best-sellers of the peddling literature (Blue Library). Meanwhile, the nobility and the high aristocracy was in decline, as Louis XIV was slowly creating absolutism and putting in place the dreaded bureaucracy that rules everything today - and so, as we said, they lost themselves in the nostalgia of their golden age (the Middle-Ages), and glorified the knightly feats of their ancestors, they kept dreaming of themselves as knights competing in tournaments. They didn't regret so much the Middle-Ages per se (they greatly enjoyed the new mercantilism of their time), but they did regret the medieval social position of the nobility. And so this medieval culture survived and stayed strong among those two social extremes, and brought them together - yes, as it turns out nobles and common folks were quite close, especially in the countryside, where you had your local lord and his peasants, and they directly interacted and co-existed. This "cultural union" appears in the duality of the medievalist works of the time: gallant novels of the time filled with knightly elements (such as L'Astrée) vs the badly but massively reprinted medieval Arthurian novels of the Blue Library ; the folktales of the countryside told by old grannies by the fireside vs the salon literary fairytales. Two sides of the same coin - a same appreciation and knowledge of the Middle-Ages, not so much ACTUALLY known, but rather dreamed an fantasized in a similar way...

The REAL cultural divide, the REAL social fracture, actually came from the "third" group, the newcomers of the Renaissance... The bourgeois. The bourgeoisie did not share the ideals and concepts of the nobility ; but they also rejected the culture of peasants and common folks to better split apart from their "low" roots. To be confused with a mere peasant was a bourgeois' worst nightmare! As a result, being at odd with the two "medieval" poles of the cultural-social hierarchy, the bourgeois, the bureaucrat, the "noblesse de robe" and other nouveau riches imposed their own, new, unique culture: a Latinized culture, a culture all about the Greco-Roman, lture of universities such as la Sorbonne, a culture of recent scientific discoveries and new technological inventions.

The aristocrats did not reject the lower-class' culture - they had an interest and passion for it... But they needed to "clean it up" and remove the "folk-filth" and "common crass" before fully embracing the lost pearls in the muck. But the bourgeois? Full rejection of this "popular culture".

And in fact, this is also why this whole medieval survivance during the 17th century was ignored by most historical, literary and cultural authorities up to this day. The Middle-Ages did survive during the "Great Century"... But as popular culture, and as we unfortunately know, for a very long time "pop culture" was thought as undeserving of any real study or attention.

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Wait a minute... I’ve seen 'em before?

BL Actor Guest Cameos!

I’m choosing only leads or mains or icons showing up in other shows.

A Man Who Defies the Wold of BL 2feat Izuka Kenta from the p*rnographer (AKA the Novelist) series - I love this one because he’s an iconic character in the Novelist, a college kid seduced and gaslit by an older man, where as in ABL2 he plays the opposite, a seductive older man who messes around with the heart of a younger one. Japan is, as usual, being very trixy. (He ALSO shows up inAmeiro Paradox)

Kieta Hatsukoi AKA My Love Mix-Up! feat Shirasu Jin from Life Love On The Line- Japan being cheeky again by putting an actor who perviously played a character who could not come to terms with his sexuality, having a real hard time coming to terms with someone else’s sexuality this time around.

Secret Crush on You feat Saint from Love By Chance & Why R U? (Thailand) - yes he’s got a producer credit, it was still fun to see him pop in and smile.

Cutie Piefeat BounPrem from Until We Meet Again(+others) - they came, they shilled for marriage equality in Thailand, they conquered.

What’s Zabb Manfeat Bas from 2 Moons (+others) - yes, Thailand’s Star Hunter studio does a lot of crossovers, but I found this one particularly amusing.

SOTUS S feat Gun (for OffGun) at the time from Puppy Honey (Thailand) - it was just amusing to see OffGun show up in their nascent form.

Plus and Minusfeat Akihiro Kawai & Lance Chiu from See You After Quarantine?(Taiwan) - they even snuck in the name Haru (the fake name that started the romance in SYAQ) but they clearly aren’t playing the same characters.

Plus and Minusfeat Arron Lai & Hank Wang from Be Loved in House I Do(Taiwan) - ostensibly playing different characters but only JUST.

Nobleman Ryu's Wedding feat Lee Sang from Wish You (Korea) - this was really cheeky since he was previously paired with the same lead, in other words this was a cameo of“the other man”.

Ocean Likes Me feat Park Bum Jun from Behind Cut (Korea) just looking gorgeous in the background of a crowd scene. I mean, I get it, why not?

Mark from Bite Me and Love By Chance popping in to play an actor member of the cat tribe in Meow Ears Up, he also showed up in love

Mechanics as the momentary love interest for Nuea we all actually wanted to see happen.

About Youth featWilson Liu from HIStory 3: MODC & HIStory 4 as a senior student speaking English.

Choco Milk Shake featYeon Seung Ho from Long Time No See (Wild Dog) as the one good ex-boyfriend.

I dithered over Mean and Prem in The Yearbook, but then decided not to bother. Kinda my general feelings about that show.

And...

BL Character Crossover Cameos!

Since characters are IP this is a much more dangerous territory. Often you’ll notice they aren’t called by name, or the name is spelled differently than the original. But we ALL KNOW what’s going on here.

Why R U? feat TeeFuse, the main characters from Make it Right (Thailand).

Why R U? feat TharnType, the main characters from TharnType (Thailand).

Korea also got in on the game and had MaxNat (whose couple originated in WRU?) appear in their remake of Why R U? as a background couple. Very clever.

Tan & Dr Bun the leads from Manner of Death (MaxTul) in Triage the series (Thailand) - this is a full on character couple cross over, named (and married) and authorized, and rare to see. It’s because the same author is responsible for both source y-novels.

HIStory 3 Make Our Days Count feat Cheng Qing from HIStory Stay Away From Me (Taiwan) - he’s not named, but he is referred to as an idol and he alludes to his secret relationship so I think we can assume he’s the same character.

The side dishes fromHIStory 3 Make Our Days Count (they got engaged) show up and get married in HIStory 4 Close To You. Which was cute. It’s a bit more than a cameo spanning several episodes, but it was very fun to see. And they play the same characters.

Be Loved in House I Do feat Hao Ting from HIStory 3 Make Our Days Count (Taiwan) - I think we can assume from the advice he gives that this is the same character on the, shall we call it, Taiwanese timeline as opposed to...

My personal favorite, Hao Ting & Xi Gu (in an alternate timeline and billed only as Taiwanese tourists) from HIStory 3 Make Our Days Count (Taiwan) showing up at the end of Life Love On The Line (Japan) in the only known country cross over of BL characters. I love the irony of this, since apparently took Japan (NOTORIOUS for it’s unhappy and dark BL endings) to give these two an actual happy ever after.

For once, we all preferred the Japanese ending.

And then they did it AGAIN in Plus & Minus.

And AGAIN inKisseki: Dear to Me!

Honestly it feels like, sometimes, Taiwan is constantly trying to apologize forHIStory 3 Make Our Days Countwith all these cameos, WHICH THEY SHOULD.

In Thailand it’s director Cheewin who likes to do this a lot. He’s also very cheeky in Y-Destiny doing a love triangle (sort of) between YoonLay (YYY’s KnottPunn) and PerthLay (My Engineer’s RamKing) as one of the story arcs - making his pair (from YYY) the“winners.”

He got ahead of himself by featuring the main couples for Middleman’s Love in Cutie Pie but then JimmyTommy pulled out. So this is a very brief look at a series that never was (in this form?) crossing over.

Like faux crossover.

However, TutorYim, also from Cutie Pie, show up very briefly in Jun & Jun as friends of Simon for no apparent reason.

When Korea goes all on of a trope they really, the same year all their crossover couples started to appear (2023) they also had Love Class original couple show up in Love Class 2.

Honorable mention to Ae’s Tote from Thai BL Love By Chance getting a cameo appearance in Taiwanese BL About Youth.

(source)

post dated Aug 2023, not responsible for studios being cheeky after this date

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Nugu GG of the Week #153 : Fiestar (part 4)

Fiestar over their 6 year career only officially released 2 mini albums, Black Label in 2015 and A Delicate Sense in 2016. Both the concepts for these albums were "we're sad but sexy about it", a very iconic concept! Instead of including the singles I chose my favorite b-side from each album in case no one ever checked out the albums. IMO Black Label is there better album, it has more tracks (6 to 5) plus it's a more enjoyable and unique listen. A Delicate Sense has like 2 songs on it that I feel are a little boring/not super interesting in it's hooks/melody so they make the album fall a little flat.

Hello from Black Label, nice vocals and production plus the word Hello is just fun to sing along with.

Mr. Black from A Delicate Sense, the synth horn or whatever it is, is just sooooo good. They got a nice attitude on the track too.

Meanwhile while they were releasing these albums the group was doing okay for solo promotions on variety shows etc, Yezi on Unpretty Rapstar 2, Cao Lu being the "funny" member/comedian and being on We Got Married. Also 😔 Jei on Her Secret Weapon. Let's get it into it. I'm gonna copy & paste the wiki in case you have no idea what I'm talking about :

Her Secret Weapon is a show that : "focuses on members of lesser-known K-pop girl groups. The show explores what it is that turns people into fans of a certain girl group or individual idol by exposing the charms or "secret weapons" of each contestant. As ten contestants show off their hidden talents and charms through competition, their rankings in various missions are decided by a panel of ten judges who were reporters, industry experts, and passionate girl group fans."

😭 ouch, these lesser known groups are Jei, Dahye (BESTie), Yerin (GFriend, which pissed me off at the time like she just debuted why is she here), Alice (Hello Venus), Solbin (Laboum), Sihyun fka Juhyun (Spica), Daye (Berry Good), Jisoo (Tahiti), Minhee (Stellar) and Daeun (2eyes). Like the only nugus here are Berry Good and 2eyes no offense but still, GFriend just debuted that year and the rest of ladies are my queens 😭 I was so offended. Basically the show used famous idols as references and did challenges, so like the Suzy episode was about filming their own CFs etc. a memorable moment also was that they did like a questionnaire challenge (?) to intrigue the judges interests and if the answers were boring they got docked points or whatever (it's been a minute since I watched it) Jisoo was asked out of all the contestants which GG will never succeed, all the judges were ready to buzz her if she gave a "boring" answer or whatever but she said Fiestar and the judges didn't buzz aka they agreed 😭 I was traumatized. She said afterwards she only said Fiestar because they both debuted at the same time and promoted regularly together and noticed they weren't that successful either soo....yeah. Jei did not do well on the show, eventually on "midterms" episode the bottom four were to either be eliminated or replaced by a fellow member of their group, she chose to bow out and Cao Lu replaced her. She did a great job finishing 5th by the end.

Below 👇 I included their MVs for the singles (wow we love cinema!! You're Pitiful is like one of my favorite MVs ever tbh) + YouTube music app audio

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My favorite Going Seventeen episodes

In honor of the return of GoSe, my favorite past episodes!

2019 ep 5 Caratland Behind - Solely for DK and Jeonghan's recording of BRING IT. Jeonghan's lil "tu~rn left" was so cute but I was totally blown away by DK's angry rap. So much 'tude, possibly fiercer than the original. :0

2019 ep 17-18 Karaoke Escape Room - The moment Hoshi is dramatically drawing out the last lyrics to some random old song that they don't know and the 100 points shows up on screen and everyone absolutely loses their sh*t. Also, the members being relatable AF because they can't do math.

2020 ep 5-6 Past Life Destiny - Where do I even start? DK full on grinding the floor and getting up close and personal with the camera during his intro dance. JiHan's chaotic reenactment of a scene from "I'm Sorry I Love You" where Shua throws himself out of the car (not scripted). All the SeokSoon drama. As a bonus, Seungkwan sang DBSK's Hug while DK was choosing his partner and I squealed!

2020 ep 9 Insomnia Zero - Birth of Wonwoo's iconic ~tasty~ and when I learned that Woozi has no chill.

2020 ep 21-22 Kartrider - "Booster! Booster! Booster! YAH! BOOSTER!" - Hoshi failing to get a booster, 2020

2020 ep 23-24 Seventeen's Got Talent - Seventeen is so good at adlib humor, they just take the concept and go hard. Too many amazing characters! My favorites were diva judge Boo, sloth rapper Hoshi, musical actor Jun, angry ballad singer DK, robot Shua, and of course "Jun" aka mischievous Minghao.

2020 ep 25-26 The8 and the Shadows - Minghao wanted to be the leader for a day and the GoSe team gave him what he wanted... kinda lol. Favorite moments include the impromptu "We Will Rock You", DK's sogo dance, Jeonghan casually throwing water at Shua, and Shua getting everyone to imitate the voodoo doll he threw on the floor multiple times.

2020 ep 33 Mousebusters - Not so much for the actual Mousebusters part but the orange and grape games they did after. Seventeen takes games EXTREMELY SERIOUSLY.

2020 ep 40-41 Don't Lie II - Hoshi absolutely slayed this season of Don't Lie and he knows it. There's something so satisfying about seeing his chaotic thought process pan out to actually be correct.

2020 ep 44-45 TTT - I enjoy all of the TTTs but the focus on "hyperrealism" made this one even better because it seemed like the members were simultaneously more and less aware of the cameras and making content for the show. It had all of our favorite SVT pastimes - eating and drinking, badly played sports, games they've played a thousand times, and overly-enthusiastic karaoke.

2020 ep 46 Going Magazine - Minghao styled Hoshi sooooo well for the shoot, holy crap. Praise the denim crop top. And Mingyu was carrying this whole project so hard, this is when I first started to appreciate how hardworking and talented he is in other artistic ventures outside of just performing.

2021 ep 11 Ad Genius - Honestly too many meme-worthy moments to count, but my top are: Shua putting Shin Ramen in his hair, Jeonghan putting gochujang on his eyebrows, and Coups proposing to Dino with all kinds of products while Hoshi sings 2AM's "This Song" in the background.

2021 ep 24 Tribal Games - The Whispering in Silence game is probably my most rewatched Seventeen clip ever. Hoshi "epik"-ly screwing everything up makes me laugh every time.

2022 ep 37 How to Eat Rice - We must pay our respects to two members who threw away their idol image for this episode: 1) DK, the hungry rice monster, and 2) Shua, who poured a bucket of ice water over himself to prove that ramen tastes the best when you're cold. Double respects to Shua because he didn't even win after all of that lol.

2022 ep 50 GOING Radio Show - Dino going "look at my fit!" while Vernon is fighting for his life keeping his laughter in is one of the first clips I ever saw of Seventeen and it's still hilarious. The whole corner with Jeonghan and Dino learning English from Shua and Vernon was peak comedy.

Anyway, the two episodes that have been released so far have been really enjoyable! Lots of pun humor, member banter, and a surprise twist! I'm looking forward to Wednesdays now~

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i was just happening to read your ayyo concept analysis and was reminded, did u know snsd tiffanys solo (ijwd <3) was also partially shot at the same pink motel?? i just found it a bit funny that sm returned later for another release

I think the repack was not well planned, but they still made one bcs they could tell ppl wanted it, so it was pushed out half hearted. Lets now set the bar reaaal low they thought. If ppl had given up and we skipped this release, waited until a real new concept (maybe a mini?) i wonder if we might have dodged this mess

idk.. i also think 127 needs another career evolution? like im not sure how or how to put it, but something...preferably outside the nct bubble. socially? with more of the ent industry or? hm i could keep going i just realized haha

i cant believe i didnt recognize the motel but i havent seen that mv in yearsss. ok just went back and watched it and i guess the only part i should have recognized from the ay-yo teasers is the empty pool but otherwise i dont think i would have realized without you telling me bc they mostly used different areas of the motel.

my memory is a bit fuzzy with the details of the repackage timeline but im pretty sure we were told a while ago that there would be a repackage so thats why everyone was expecting one (or maybe not, maybe we just assumed there would be one). i really dont know what kind of strategy they were going for with this awful repackage. but sm are no strangers to delays so i dont get why they couldnt have just delayed it a few more months if they needed more time.

the 127s DO need a career refresh. wayv and especially dream both feel fresh and interesting at the moment even with dream currently promoting a 90s cover song. their concepts feel distinctive and characteristic of their respective subunits and both have progressively evolved over time in a way that makes sense. 127's concept just feels stale :/ i think the 2 baddies concept photos were ALMOST THERE with the jack henry inspired photography especiallyyy his rosalía pics and rob pat pics for gq. i think they could have really pushed the visuals. i would LOVE to see 127 with a bit more edge to them. and instead of worrying about staying as pretty as possible. theyre already pretty they dont need to worry about that. i want to see them be INTERESTING and PUSH THE BOUNDARIES for whats the norm in kpop ok i have a vision. dpr ian is a wonderful example of what im talking about, though i would like to see 127 go with a bit more editorial/futuristic/luxury branding.

also look at some of the other pics from those shoots im obsessed

there are also some really great korean photographers too who have done really interesting work that i think would fit 127 like:

cho gi-seok, an icon. everyone knows cgs! and for a reason! i especially love their matrix inspired series it would be sooo good for 127 but their other futuristic/tech shoots are perfect for 127 too

pakbae is also great and while they focus more on fashion photography, they do occasionally work with idols for magazines. i love that they always throws a few interesting and unexpected images

go won tae has done plentyy of idol photoshoots that you would probably recognize.

less, aka kim taekyun, my tried and true. has also worked with a bunch of idols and with sm for superm and solo taemin and baekhyun concept photos in the past. i also love his editorial shoots but i'll just show some of the work he's done with sm. i think he could do something REALLY interesting if only sm would allow it

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Dilemma pt. 1 - Charles Leclerc

{Slow burn & series}

Warnings: mentions of cheating, harassment, sexism, swearing and for those of you who don’t like imagines that involve non F1 related themes there is some K-pop written into this. (Y/n is adoptive sister to a K-pop idol nothing romantic related).

Disclaimer: I am hoping people like this enough to turn it into a progressive series, so please if you liked the content, writing or anything like that let me know. Sorry if it’s sh*t I’m still getting back into writing after 2 years away from actual stories.

Love always ❤️

———————————————————

Y/n spent a long time working for this pulled from the W series after just her first season, to be a driver for Haas who were down one driver before testing rounds for the new 22’ car they needed someone and Gunther was please with the pick his very own “breath of fresh air” as he put it. She worked so hard to prove him right and going into the first race all looked promising, she was determined to prove not just for Gunther but all fans that she could race just as well as any man on the grid it was now the day of the Bahrain Grand Prix and to say you were anxious was an understatement. You had grown close with a few drivers on the grid them wanting to protect you your big brother squad if you will which consisted of Daniel Riccardo, Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri bottas and George Russel. They never gave you any advantages on track as they knew you wanted to race fair plus they wanted their jobs, but they did all grow to love you like family, Daniel in particular he could tell when you were anxious, hyper, depressed, drained or on verge of breaking down. Unbeknownst to you so could a driver you barely interacted with Charles Leclerc, he had taken interest to you while an eligible bachelor it was funny how he wasn’t interested in anyone else until you came onto the grid he knew he wasn’t the only one but he was here to race and that’s what he’d do! Apparently so were you, P5 in your debut F1 race the garage erupted you swear you could hear them even as you crossed the chequered flag.

Y/n’s perspective

It was a high like no other while P1,2&3 were a dream coming P5 cemented what my point was, I was here to race and race my little heart out I would. The whole garage including my teammate group hugging revealing is what we both achieved P5 and P11 in a Haas, f*cking mental. Mick came over and hugged me while I knew there was pictures I didn’t care “you killed it” I hear him whisper I shove him back pointing towards both of our bodies “no we killed it” laughing pulling him in for another victory hug.

It was a nice sight to see drivers happy however I noticed some weren’t so happy, I know how much racing means to them all so I make my rounds congratulating and trying to cheer up where possible. They seemed more astounded by me coming to hype or cheer them up than I expected it was just what I was used to doing, after all we are all humans and feeling down on yourself was the worst. I go back to the team shortly after for briefing and team meetings, then to media for interviews nothing but supportive questions so far which made me calm a lot and then finally a shower and change into my clothes I wore a baggy graffiti style tee that had the tag ICON and black ripped jeans with white airforces. On my way out I see the gang aka the brother squad talking in the paddock I go up to them putting my bravest face on “I can’t believe him of all people” I hear Daniel scoff “hiii” I surprise them all “oh sh*t” seb let’s out before they burst into laughter “whatca talking about” I ask only to be shut down but bottas “nothing important” he shrugs nice I’m being left out of gossip how rude “we were gonna go for a few drinks and dinner want to come?” Danny asks wide eyed and hopeful “yeah sure why not, I’ll go get changed” I smile and they scoff in sync “nothing fancy please keep as you are, we’re starving we want fast not fancy” George pats your back and you nod “we’ll hurry I’m hungry” I stomp my foot tryna fake anger only for them to laugh at me. Unbeknownst to y/n boys were all sharing a knowing look being that close with the girl that quickly they knew she was having a hard time, her boyfriend cheated on her, she moved to F1 and she was falling hopelessly in love with a driver who had some seriously pressing love life issues. They vowed to protect her from any hurt from anyone outside F1 or inside it, she was quite literally their happy virus she was too fragile and precious to them to be ruined, she was the type to fall hard a quick they learnt that quickly.

We arrived at a restaurant and I felt really under dressed so much for nothing fancy “bro I look homeless compared to these other girls” I look around at ball gown, formal and sequence dresses “you look fine, you just finished a race I bet half the girls here couldn’t do what you did today” Daniel pats my back my phone buzzed and I see the contact name ‘do NOT answer’ my best friend back home Chris did that so I wouldn’t pick up my exs calls real easy to remember when drinking “whose that” Daniel whispers “cheating ex” I choke out why wouldn’t he leave me alone I broke it off 2 months ago “block him?” He suggests “calls me off other phones and numbers” I sigh “dude that’s harassment” I laugh dryly “oh trust me I know” I roll my eyes my ex was back in South Korea now, it was confusing for many reasons one being I was adopted, my adoptive brother was a K-pop star in a popular group and I don’t know my real parents, I never wish to either. He got me into karting when I was 6 and from there I fell in love with speed and racing, he was my guardian angel he saved me, gave me a second chance at life. The boys were yet to know this yet, my first language was Korean, then English which I learnt with help from my friend Chris who was Australian and now here I am Daniel Ricardo’s mini me according to most the McLaren team already, same vibe different body I guess. Dinner was accompanied by drinks and quite a few of them more than needed considering we would be having to be up the next morning at 8 am for a flight at 10 am to Saudi Arabia I was on the same plane and Daniel, Seb and George to my knowledge, I was happy hanging out with my friends feeling like I fit in until I heard a certain shocked monegasque enter the establishment “oh hello” he stands in front of our table some Ferrari higher ups and Carlos with him great now I wanna die in a hole, “hello winners” I smile my phone rings again and Daniel checks it “Christoper🐺” is calling I answer quickly excusing myself “Channie!” I smile through the phone “you killed it out there, we had a schedule but I just watched your race, I am so proud of you” I was gonna cry “thank you Chan I love you” I missed home “when do we see our little star again?” He asks his accent seeping deep telling me he was tired “probably not for another 3 weeks” I sigh they were so busy preparing for their comebacks “we will be here okay” I smile at his reassuring words “I better go back before the guys think I’ve been kidnapped, I love you Channie. Take care of yourself please” I hear him sigh slightly “love you too y/n/n” and with that he hung up. I walk back inside “superstar there you are” bottas smiles laughing along side the boys.

Charles perspective

I shouldn’t be so hung up over another driver let alone one looking this strong early on sure she wasn’t gonna be in the championship running in a Haas but any driver is competition, Carlos must have noticed my far away gazes “you’re gonna make it obvious if you stare any longer” he whispers as he nudged me. “What do you mean?” I laugh away the burning as I watch her get closer to Daniel and whisper something in his ear “you’re little fascination with the Haas girl” Carlos was being dead serious he wasn’t letting this one go. “Dude it’s nothing don’t worry” he chuckles painfully it wasn’t nothing right now she was his everything in way he wanted to win to show off, partially for her partially for him. “Just talk to her, the sex eyes aren’t going to work on this one” he pats my back and I knew he was right she wasn’t gonna be easy to make mine but I was determined, I should maybe actually talk to her before falling stupidly in love. However he knew it was a bit too late for that you had him aware of it or not. After seeing you make friends, smile, laugh act silly and carefree during testing he was sold. Oh boy did you have him. They enjoyed dinner with the team mangers but Charles was in another world for half of it “thank you for meeting us again, congratulations let’s continue to do Ferrari proud” they shake us drivers hands and leave Carlos grabbing me by the shirt over to where the gang of drivers still sit chatting “mind if we join?” Carlos smirks at the group “come on sit down boys” Daniel laughs shoving over as we squish in I am somehow sat next to y/n thighs touching arms almost interlocked, f*cking Carlos. “How’re you feeling after your win?” I hear the angelic like voice to my side ask while the table is entertained in their own conversations “pretty good, weirdly lonely but it feels good to be up their” I smile being uncharacteristically open with her, “well trust me I’ll always be here if you need” she smiles and I feel comfortable but she’s simply being friendly “what about you P5 is amazing” looking for excuses to hear her talk “honestly I can’t believe it still, I just wanna make everyone proud. I gotta fight extra hard to prove myself” she looks down to her chest and I think I know what she means, it must be tough “you’re setting an amazing example for race fans and future racers around the world” I put my hand in hers “thank you that means more than I can explain” I felt like the world stopped when I spoke to her gosh I was 24 acting like a kid in love.

The night ended shortly after a few more drinks, some laughs and we all headed back to the hotel. When I let go of her hand I realised I missed the close feeling of her skin on mine, as weird as that sounded. She wasn’t the most of that made sense, I’d dated models, famous content creators the lot but she was just so real for a racing driver she wasn’t the slimmest, not that had much to effect on how I felt but I could already imagine the articles. I went on my own tangent in my mind to didn’t realise I was sitting beside her in the car back to the hotel until I felt a head on my shoulder, upon looking down I noticed the girl asleep on my shoulder smiling to myself. “Don’t get too comfortable, you’ll be lucky if we let you near her again” seb warns a serious tone telling me he’s not joking “what?” I question confused “you’re not using the new driver and our friend as a rebound” Daniel quickly interjects it became clear what they meant after his break up he stupidly admitted to some the the driver he was looking for someone to fill the time until his ex realised he was the one and come running back. But he knew that not to be the case now, “I promise it’s more than that” but they just scoff are me clearly I had to work to gain the trust of her gate keepers.

Y/n’s perspective

I wake up in my hotel room alone and confused as my alarm sounds I don’t remember coming back, maybe I had one too many. My phone was on charge there was water and pain killers on my table, who put me to bed? Anyways I check the time and it’s 7:00 am I had to leave in less than an hour I showered and got changed into some green joggers, my white airforces, white oversized shirt and matching green bomber jacket. When I go to do my hair however there’s a knock on the door and I see Charles standing there “good morning” he smiles how is he so put together at this god forsaken time “hiya” I mumble letting him in “you look nice” he smiles and I feel my insides flip “thanks not too bad yourself, lord knows how you’re awake right now” I chuckle to myself “I brought you a toasted sandwich ham, cheese and tomato Daniel said it was your favourite and a iced mocha” he had the purest of looks on his face “you’re an angel Leclerc” this wasn’t helping how I felt though the act of friendship getting twisted in my stupid little head. “Only for you mon chéri” boom there goes my sanity “I appreciate it a lot, I know we aren’t close but it’s sweet of you to do this for me” I smile looking him in the eyes as my heart beat picks up what was he doing to me “ayo kiddo you awake” I freeze for a second as Daniel’s voice booms “ayo old fart what’s up” I chuckle opening the door to him near hugging me “we gotta head soon you have 20 minutes let’s move it, move it” he swats me away with his hands to tell me to pack my sh*t. Forgetting about the Ferrari driver currently in my bathroom I start cleaning like crazy “oh hey Daniel” I hear Charles awkwardly cough “h-hi” he stuttered like we was afraid “Charles is too sweet danny he brought my brekkie and checked up on me” blushing clifhtly as you say it out loud “how friendly of him” Daniel says as a pang hits your heart but your phone interrupts it ringing loudly with the cursed “do NOT answer” appearing on screen “not this prick again” Daniel groans “just another day in my life danny it’s fine” I dry chuckle he couldn’t just f*ck off he was the one who cheated. “He’s getting out of hand” Daniel puts his hand on my shoulder to comfort me “you can only tell someone to stop so many times I can’t force him to do anything, just like he can’t force me to pick up. It’s been almost 3 months he’s seeing me thriving he wants money that’s all” I smile bitterly.

Charles felt out of place listening in on this, but he gained an amazing insight into who you were. You were clearly in a position of moving on you didn’t seem sad or hurt more angered and distressed, you confirmed to him you were single and that was a positive he took with great care.

You had forgot he was there again for a minute “Mon Ange, I’m gonna go I’ll see you later” he came closer to me and hugged me good “have a safe flight Charles I’ll see you later” the heat rising to my cheeks “okay what the f*ck was that” Daniel says a little too loudly I just continue packing up “dude don’t ignore me” he whines “you and charles?” He questions “did nothing, I don’t think he’d take advantage of a drunk girl, plus he just came to check on me” I smile blissfully unaware of the nicknames he’d called me but thinking they sounded so cute coming from him his accent gosh I could listen forever. “Be careful of him kiddo. He’s not all he seems” with that he grabbed your full suitcase and put it with his in the hallway you have your wallet, passport, phone, keys and AirPods with you in you’re jacket pockets and grabbed the duffle bag having everything packed drinking the last of the mocha you’d sipped throughout the ordeal and devouring the sandwich both of which were surprisingly tasty. “Let’s hit the road riccy” you stroll past him collecting your suitcase from the hallways and striding toward the elevator, “do you like him” Daniel gave you once chance to be honest he knew the answer but wanted to confirm it “more than I should” I sigh hoping it’d go unnoticed.

Fast forward to Saudi Arabia pre race

“What’s your home Grand Prix?” The interviewer asked me as I sat in the hot seat for some video they were doing I had been here for a good 10 minutes answering weird questions “ah I don’t have one” I smiled the boys were all watching they’d assumed I was something I wasn’t I guess sure I was born Australian not that I knew until I was 20 but I raced under the South Korean flag cause when you’re adopted you have to become a citizen I had nothing that tied me to my actual life. “I was raised in South Korea, with my adoptive father, adoptive mother and older brother, I don’t race under my birth countries flag cause I’m not a citizen anymore I haven’t been since I was like 2.” I chuckle I look behind the camera to see the reactions of my fellow drivers most just look shocked as for the most part I did not appear Korean but that’s what happens when you’re adopted into a family of a different culture than your birth one, it didn’t hurt anyone and I loved my family. “Okay then moving on, what’s your birthday” what were these questions man “ah it’s y/bd” I was grow more uncomfortable by the second “wait you’re only 21?” The interviewer himself seemed shocked “ah yeah for you all I’m 20 however korean age I am 21, Daniel calls me kiddo for a reason” I laugh “a literal child” he calls from the back of the camera causing everyone to laugh “final question?” Before he can ask “hit me with it interviewer man” I say ready to get this over with “if you could date any driver on the grid who and why?” I looked dumbfounded “excuse me?” I had to clarify I heard what I did he goes to repeat it “I heard your question, I’m not answering it.” I look him dead in the eyes “bipolar much, you’re lucky you have tit* or else everyone would be sick of your attitude” he mutters thinking I couldn’t hear and with that I stand up “you wouldn’t ask a male driver who they’d f*ck on the grid so why should it be okay to ask me?” I raise my voice to get my point across taking my mic pack off and leaving the studio my press officer hot on my toes “y/n you can’t do that” he said I turned around seeing red “no. No you don’t get to stand there and say it I don’t care how it looked ask them to edit it, make them take it out but I will not be treated different in interviews just because I have tit*” I set my ground down “I understand trust me I get it I have a daughter and if this was her I’d be just as upset, but we have to uphold and image of you, I’ll do my best to get it out. But please know I am not going to scold you I just want to protect you okay” he smiles and I feel bad for going off at him “I’m sorry and thank you Tony” I felt awful so I just disappeared for a while crying in my drivers room and listening to sad songs I had in my playlist probably way too loudly, it was bound to come eventually the sexist question just didn’t expect it this soon.

I had to stay at the track for free practice and so exhausted from sobbing for an hour I must’ve passed out, *knock knock* I wake up sometime later to a banging on my door “mon Ange, can you let me in we’re worried about you” I stood shell shocked “please y/n, let us in” I heard a aussie accent call it wasn’t just Charles I open the door to a decent chunk of the drivers on the grid I looked like sh*t. Tears stained my cheeks, my eyes were red and I looked pale, I could hear Gunther in the hallways yelling “they asked her what?” He was furious but it didn’t sound like he was gonna rip me a new one “come on y/n, let’s go to catering…” Charles lightly grabs my hand and I freeze the boys stare at what’s occurring as they all realise quite quickly this was more mutual than they thought but your phone buzzing interrupting everyone as massive letters “do NOT answer” appear on screen I decline the call quickly and grab my ID pass, secretly placing my hand back into Charles’ and let them lead the way “we are all gonna have lunch with you” George pats my back knowing if I was alone I wouldn’t eat the part at least 12 drivers strong and me pile in I notice Lewis is sitting down already a long empty table accompany him “hello Lewis” I bow out of instinct he was my senior after all everyone was actually he just laughs and pulls me in for a hug. I didn’t realise everyone could be this close without it being competitive, they quite literally were all here to stand by me, with me as a driver and a human being. We all actually had a good time laughing, chatting and just being friends it was a rare and beautiful moment, Yuki and I were talking Japanese for a bit since we hadn’t really ever spoken how ever I only knew a bit of Japanese English was hard enough.

Charles’ perspective

“You’re gonna make everyone suspicious you know” Mick taunts “what?” I snap my head around to face the boy “quit heart eyeing my team mate Ferrari boy” he laughs was it really that obvious “she’s intriguing to you” Lewis adds noting the man’s fascination towards the new driver from just a few seats beside him “I know Lewis I don’t need a lecture on grid etiquette, dating a rival driver isn’t good I know I know” Lewis stops for a second “mate, as long as you’re happy” he shrugs “as long as it doesn’t effect your driving I don’t think anyone can say anything” Mick adds I guess they were right but it’s embarrassing they all could tell. “For what it’s worth I’m sure it’s mutual” Lewis whispers while passing by to get water, “I wish” I mumble in French before I know it we had to go back to our teams.

The car with me in it is dragged into the garage I finish practice “Charles what’s going on out there” my engineer asks there was nothing wrong with the car I think I was just preoccupied in my thoughts, this girl was messing with my driving and I can’t allow it I had to focus “just a bad day won’t happen again” I smile leaving before I can cop an earful. I’ll go have a shower and get changed maybe that’ll clear my head… but all I could think about was her, if this didn’t change it was gonna be awful.

Y/n’s perspective

Daniel hadn’t left my side since he returned from practice “kiddo let’s go eat, you need food” he smiles gently putting his arm around me as we walk to catering “stop calling me kiddo I’ll take your knees” I snap back playfully as he ruffles my hair. We sit down for dinner and I notice two red Ferrari shorts walk to the counter “kiddo I’ve been thinking about what you said at the hotel room” I hush him quickly and the two drivers sit behind us “what about?” I whisper “number 16” I could tell he was scheming “that, was nothing okay” he chuckles I was panicking and he knew it “y/n you can’t hide from me, you like a guy it’s natural” he rubs my shoulder. “He’s my competition if I give into my feelings everything that interviewer and any hater could say comes true. I will have dated someone on the grid purely because I’m a female” I shake my head I simply couldn’t allow to be a cliché “if that’s what you’re worried about kid, you’ve got a lot of growing up to do. You’re feeling typically don’t pass. You’re not gaining anything by being with him, respectfully you compete for survival he competes for glory” he was sincere I could tell and right yeah, he was right. “I’m just scared” but I knew he knew that “if you’re serious about this, who gives a f*ck what anyone says… y/n you’re allowed to like a guy” he ruffles my hair ruining the moment in true DR3 style “way to ruin it” and with that we burst into fits of laughter eating our food finally after a heart to heart.

Charles’ perspective

“Can I just say Charles, what’s stopping you?” Carlos breaks me out of a daydream state “reality” yet he just scoffs “if you were any of us 18 other drivers looking over you, you would realise there’s more to this than unrequited love.” But his face brightens up with an idea “what do you like about her?” He asks me typing on his phone to someone.

Charles was didn’t need a minute to make a list but took his time, unaware that his friend and teammate was texting Riccardo just in front of them who Charles hadn’t seen when they walked in.

Y/n’s perspective

“Carlos wants us to be quiet and listen to what they’re saying” Daniel whispers too me so we do Charles was speaking probably louder than he intended to “y/n, mate where do I begin. She’s beautiful but in a real way, she’s not fake, an amazing driver obviously it’s amazing how she’s not scared to push boundaries, she makes me feel like the only man in the world and I barely know her… that’s sounds creepy oh gosh. She has a style like no woman I’ve met before, she doesn’t try make herself like a princess and I find it so attractive, I don’t know Carlos I really just wanna hold her after a win or a loss, I wanna be in her life” I was shocked “you’re sh*tting me” I whisper to Danny “I told you kid, but if he hurts you I’ll kill him” with a worryingly happy smile “he actually likes me?” Still shell shocked before I can have time to think I’m lifted off my seat and stood in front of both the Ferrari boys “y/n” Carlos grins wider than the Cheshire Cat himself I look at Charles whose yer to break eye contact with the chair in front of him. “I uh, I have to go” and with that Charles pushes past me and out the door “well that didn’t go to plan” Daniel huffs I turn around running after him I see him run to his driver room at the last second follow knocking gently on the now closed door “go away” I hear snapped at the closed wood and a crash I wiggle the handle and it comes loose I pear in to see a huffing Charles Leclerc and a smashed plate laying on the ground. My feet move before I can think and I go to see if he’s alright “are you okay, are you hurt, cut?” I look at his hands no blood or cuts thankfully “this is so embarrassing” he mumbles and I take his hand “there’s nothing to be embarrassed about Charles” I smile trying to bring him out of this space “yes there is you heard all of that, all of it” he sulks preparing himself for rejection “yeah and, what about it?” I shrug “if you came here with reject me just get it over with, I’ve had a sh*t day already” he groans I laugh a bit to myself grabbing his face with my hands “just kiss me dummy” and he does just that fireworks go off I swear “I like it when you smile you’ve got cute little dimples” I huff placing my forehead on his “in case you didn’t get it from the blushing I like you too stupid” I can’t tell when it happened but it felt right “I’m sorry I’m all over the place” he frowns “hey it’s alright, everyone is a bit. We won’t do anything until you’re ready. Racing comes first okay charles, you’re gonna be a champion” I give him a peck on his cheek turning to clean the smashed plate with just some paper and a broom no dustpan in sight “hey hey careful you’ll hurt yourself” he tried to stop me “it’s okay I’ve done this a lot” I smile “just sit down and chill for a bit you’ve had a big day” and you didn’t know it but in that moment he knew you were it for him, no one had ever tried to take the load off his shoulders. “Mon Ange, what are we?” He asks quietly almost too quietly “whatever you want us to be Charles, you’re the one with the most at stake here. I’m not coming between you a glory” I smile and he doesn’t say anything “can I take you out to dinner after the race?” How could I say no “of course charles, oh and this is all cleaned up I’ll be on my way I’m expecting a call from my brother soon!” I go to leave but he gets up grabs my arms lightly and spins me into his chest for a hug “thank you for not leaving my love” he whispers I look at the closed door “I’ll always support you even from the shadows” I look up at him and he kisses me again it felt too good to be reality. “I’ll make you mine just wait” I nod leaving him alone and me slightly confused what the actual f*ck just happened?

TBC…..

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Why do you think hobi called JK September husband? Isn't it rude to portray someone as available for Y/N fantasies when he's already in a relationship?

Uh no? It's because Koobi are husband's? That's his September husband 😍 they would be an iconic couple honestly lmfao

Every year for the members birthdays, Hobi posts a collection of photo/video memories from his archive. He always tries to post things no one has ever seen before and he always shares cute heartfelt messages, his own hashtag and then he joins ARMY in using the trending hashtags for that members birthday. He used the hashtag #/September_husband_picked_faster_than_anyoneelse as he probably saw it trended and assumed it was ARMYs bday hashtag. When he realized it WASN'T he laughed and apologized for using the wrong trend and picked new ones that WERE part of the birthday tag projects. It's really cute that Hobi does this every year with us! He really sees everything happening on ARMY twt. Lol

^the other hashtag included here is "#/jungkookah thank you for being born"

There were lots of polls happening about ______ idol of the month happening and fans would vote for an idol in various categories. Aka, husband material, cutest, hottest, etc on various popular Hallyu websites. A lot of these sites tally votes through hashtags, JK won for September being the most husband-like idol. These are fan voted popularity contests essentially lol its really cute and it's why the hashtag in S. Korea was also in the ARMY trends and therefore probably led to Hobi's confusion. OR he was just complimenting JK on being the fastest idol to win husband material in September along with armys lmfao. But considering the first tweet above was followed up with Bangtans inside joke of an apology with "I'm sorry for my fault" and new hashtags too, makes me think he just got mixed up lol

Hashtag translations....

The last hashtag was in reference to what JK tells ARMY all the time "ARMY must be happy no matter what, okay?"

And to be fully inclusive for my Koobi loves, his other JKday bday tweet, which was the first he shared with us

The last hashtag trans to "#/Because we can’t live without Jungkook so we been together for 9years" on that post.

If you are going to try and read too far into Hobi mixing up ARMY hashtags by accident and being adorable for JK on his birthday, then the only conclusion you should be reaching for is Koobi married. You know, if we are reaching and jumping to conclusions anyway, might as well go all the way! Thanks for coming to my Ted talk 😂🤣 (and yes, ending with saying this is something Hobi does every year for every member. He really recognizes ARMYs celebration efforts and joins us in them. Tae, Jin and RM examples of him using ARMYs bday hashtags below too)

This has nothing to do with any of the members relationship statuses or any y/n fantasies. Sorry. Anyway. KOOBI MARRIED 😍😍🥰🥰😂😂

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Been awhile since I did a tiermaker thingie and since we're nearing the end of the year of canon HB content, here's my current 2023 thoughts on the HB cast we got so far (with the most major/memorable characters imo).

(For anyone curious of my in-depth rank opinion thoughts below):

Top Faves/Red-Tier:

-OctaviaStill my main fave from this show overall, and one that I'm just... SO sorry for what she had to endure in her young life ;-;. Stuck between two parents (who were basically forced to conceive her in their loveless, arranged marriage) pretty much at war now, continuously ignored by the one she looked up to the most as a child (aka Stolas), and even while still within her "moody goth" phase rn... she's still got that sense of an hopeful sweetheart who just wants to watch the stars, potentially learn magic, and even her lil fascination with the "gloomy" things in life (like taxidermy) just... idk, it really endeared her to me overtime ngl 🥺💜Wherever the story decides to take Via next, I just hope she'll get at least some form of a happy ending... for real q-q 🙏

-FizzarolliAhhh Fizzy-pop, the goofiest lil jester who won us all over with each new appearance of his~ 🥰 Having gone all that he has to keep pushing strong as a famous Hell icon, struggling to find his place in the world from the circus to the stage, amending things with his old buddy Blitz and now having the chance to forge his own path away from Mammon really made me wanna hug him by the end of it all~ 🥺. Honestly, at this point I'd be SO down for just a full-on Fizz spinoff if he's given us so much amazing content on his own 💕

-BlitzThe main face of the series overall with his "chaotic ass-with-a-heart-of-gold" vibe; I honestly can't NOT love Blitz when it all comes down to it lol. He's a jerk, a businessman, a father, a (messy) lover, and never seems to give up when he's got a goal in-mind (even with the odds against him). Definitely has alot to answer for if Blitz is gonna truly change for the better long-term... but with how far he's come to make us laugh, cry, and celebrate the few milestones he's able to keep, I'd be happy to keep on wishing the best for Blitz as the true "Hell-of-a-Boss" 👏🔥

-AsmodeusThe smooth-talking Embodiment of Lust with a blissful love life with Fizz, a powerful empire to run, and a fiery heart one wouldn't wanna mess with if pushed too far. What more could one ask in a power bf like him?~ ❤️‍🔥🥰

-StrikerThe OG cowboy baddie of the bunch, I'll never get enough of Striker and his sheer determination to kick everyone's ass lol. From his interactions with M&M and Blitz, it really feels like this guy got done dirty by life and Hell's inherent mistreatment towards Imps... going by his increasing bitter rage at "bluebloods"(+"lower" Imps associating with said rich-folk) whenever he pops up. And honestly... can't really blame him with what we know about certain "rich" folk as-is, soooo yee, keep it comin' Striker lol👌.

-BeezlebubAs... awkwardly complicated as her design aesthetic was to get past at first (tho it has grown on me more btw), in terms of Bee's actual character I... honestly have no real complaints, she's a gem lol 💛. Only ever wanting to vibe, eat up and making sure everyone else has fun too, Bee really gives that "huggable bestie" vibe once you get to know her (and I'm sure Loona lowkey thought that too, even with her initial huffiness lol). Even if we'll probably never see Bee again 'cause of her celebrity VA status, I'll still vibe with her presence from the fandom to even more ep rewatches~ lol ✨

Love/Orange-Tier:

-VerosikaA pretty-in-pink bad bitch who's proud to stake her claim in the idol world... yeah, she basically won me over already by her first appearance lol. Not to mention how she's among the rare few characters not afraid to call out Blitz for his crap (esp cause of their rocky dating past), and I'm just SO curious and hype to see more of Verosika in the future. If Fizz, Striker and esp Stolas could get their times to shine in Blitz's messy love life... then surely his first-ever(?) girlfriend deserves an ep of her own as well to get that closure too 👏👏

-MoxxieUsed to be my first ever fave when I watched the HB pilot, and... I say I still enjoy him fairly well nowadays (even if he's dropped a bit in my list ^^; ). A sensitive, down-to-earth but still quirky fella who's doing his best to be a good assassin, loving husband and coworker to Blitz (no matter how much they irritate eachother lol). Kiiiiinda wish they'd lessen up on the buttmonkey jokes with him tbh, cause like... as much as I'm all for slapstick sometimes, it almost feels excessively mean whenever it involves Moxxie (see the "haha Moxxie's fat~" gag :/). Like... okay I get it, can yall leave him alone already, jeez >>.

-VortexThe chillest Hellhound dude to liven up the place, can't say I blame Loona for being fond of him right away ('cause ngl, I'd be too~ lol 🤭). While we didn't get a whole lot of screentime for him in the "Queen Bee" ep, it was still fun seeing him show up and try his best to help Loona have fun (even while his gf Bee came to de-escalate things later on). I'm curious to learn more about him and his growing friendship with Loona, there's def alot to work off of there imo.

-Mrs. MayberrySuch an underrated gal on her own accord... and yet I very much adore Mayberry's presence whenever I rewatch Ep. 1 🥺 A humble sweetheart teacher who got the short-end of the stick with a cheating husband and unexpected death, tossed down in Hell wanting vengeance against Martha (aka the woman her husband slept with), and even showed up again to thank the IMP crew with a cake and celebration for a job well done (-albeit at the expense of poor Moxxie's guilt, but I digress lol). Even if her role was ultimately pretty minor in the long run, I can't help lowkey wanting more out of her (fandom/canon-wise) either way~ 😊

-MammonDid NOT expect this guy to rank up high when I first saw him... but welp, thanks to fandom tag-browsing and various rewatches, this greedy prick ended up entertaining me more than I thought lol. Bombastic, kind of a doofus in his element, and yet more than capable of being intimidating when prompted ("-get your sh*t together, Fizzy... you're a bloody legend~"). Def feels like we haven't seen the last of Mammon yet, so I'd be down to see what else this Sin embodiment could be up to if it means more money down his pockets lol.

-PaimonAs harsh as he was in terms of being a father to Stolas (esp with the arranged marriage thing), Paimon... idk, I found his presence more amusing than irritating to watch, ngl lol. Idk if its his Jafar-like execution, his really solid design (honestly still remains one of my faves tbh), or the way he's just so... gleefully ignorant of how awful he is ("I'm SO good at daddy-ing~") just tickled me alot more than I expected lmao. Not sure where he's at nowadays, but kinda curious to see him again going by that one portrait with Stolas as a grownup .3.

-Glitz & GlamThe baddest pair of clown twins who just wanted to vibe, strut their stuff and make money while doing so... honestly, kudos to them for their hustle lol 👏👏. While not exactly the "nicest" characters around, hopefully someday they'll come to put their talent to genuine use out on their own accord (or maybe even with Fizz's side, since he was able to break out of Mammon's hold?).

Like/Light Yellow-Tier:

-Millie*sighs*... oh Millie :(. A looooong time ago I would've placed her up higher in my faves for her sweet bond to Moxxie, fighting skills & general "perky" demeanor balancing well against the other IMP crew's crass/cranky attitudes. But then... after awhile that basically became all there was to know about Millie, as she pretty much stayed the same as she always was even after a whole 1 and a half season(s) worth of episodes 🤷‍♀️Which like... had Millie been more of a smaller side character who only pops up now and then (like say, Princess Cadence from MLP) that'd be a different story, but as a character who IS considered part of the main established cast... why leave her out in the cold in terms of development and story importance, yknow? (And yes, I am aware that Viv actually posted a Twitter thread awhile ago explaining more of Millie's character/future stories to behold; which while it is relieving to see her intent to flesh out Millie as she is... idk, after eps like "Unhappy Campers", I just don't know how to feel about that thread in-hindsight :P)Sooo yeah... don't really wanna drag on further but TL;DR: Millie by herself isn't necessarily a bad character... but without that much-needed main lead depth given as it was for Blitz, Moxxie, and even Stolas in-comparison... idk, I just can't bring it in me to truly "love" Millie as I should, sad to say :(.

-CrimsonWhile his debut episode was rather... "hit-or-miss" in hindsight, I still found Crimson himself a fairly solid character as this determined, no-nonsense mafia boss who's not afraid to put others in their place (no matter the high status/familial relation to him). I couldn't quiiiite put him in my faves list though 'cause like... hoooow was this dude dumb enough to buy Chaz was "rich" solely cause of his fancy clothes? :/ You'd think someone like Crimson would've done a bit more research to verify Chaz's story (as even Blitz was able to catch onto the truth by just opening his car lol). Idk, I guess it was cool to still see him again regardless in the "Oops" episode... wonder if he survived that one building explosion by the end? :o

-Robo FizzWhile not super relevant nowadays given we've got the real Fizzarolli on-screen now... idk, I just always enjoyed the robo version's creepily glitchy vibe, and how he played off against Blitz during their "Loo-Loo Land" encounter .3. ("Oohoohoo! Someone's salty! Real or not, though, people lo-o-ove me! Does anybody love youuuu… Blitz-o??")

-Sallie MayWhile she only had about like, half a minute of screentime total... I kinda dig Sallie's energy as the gal who's sit back on the sides, watch the drama but not afraid to dish some of her own sass if prompted ("-it doesn't count if they don't find the bodyyyy~"). Hopefully they'll give this gal more content in the future given her fan-popularity too, I bet there'd be some fun potential between her & her sis Millie interacting more (for better or worse lol).

-DeerieThat one bitchy deer lady who kicked out the Cherubs from Heaven... part of me feels like I should hate her, but ngl... I lowkey couldn't get enough of that subtly smug energy of hers xD ("Hmmmmm no sorrrry, yeaaaaah...no~ ✨" lol).

-ColinProbably the most memorable of the main Cherub trio, Colin seemed like a sweetie pie with just trying to do his job, constantly getting the short-end of the stick but not enough that he can't stand up for himself by the end (see the whole Cherub VS Imp crew battle). Lowkey wanna give him a hug ngl.

-Moxxie's MomStill salty we never got a name or much on-screen mentions of her outside of the one flashback (not even Moxx or Crimson themselves bringing her up much present day-wise, if at all)... but still, gotta commend a mama willing to stand up for her son's wellbeing (even against a whole mafia). Wonder how she even got involved with all that to begin with, esp since she's apparently from the Wrath ring too...?

-Blitz's Mom/Tilla(?)Basically in the same vein as Moxxie's mom in terms of being a (seemingly) sweet, loving mom who got the short end of the stick with a bad husband, tragic death, and only a few photos left in memory of her. Dunno if we'll see much of her on-screen in the future... but still, poor gal :(.

Ok/Yellow-Tier:

-LoonaI... keep going back and forth with this girl alot in terms of how I feel... but rn I guess you can say I'm mostly just "in-the-middle" with Loona? Like, she does have potential as this edgy, laidback goth who's tired of everything but has a soft spot for those who give her a chance (such as Blitz, Tex, and a lil bit with Octavia in the "Seeing Stars" episode)... but then, most of Loona's remaining screentime doesn't really let her keep any significant development with how she'll go right back to being a moody jerk, in her following appearances afterward :/.Granted, I am aware that this might just be a part of her past trauma as a rejected Hellhound orphan, so I ain't expecting Loona to be magically nice forever... buuuut still, a lil consistency would be refreshing to see y'know? If she's willing to take care of Blitz when drunk, have no qualms calling him "dad" and even commend Via to "give dads a chance if they're really trying"... why thwart all that by kicking Blitz in the nuts in just a few scenes later? As someone who loves complex goth characters, I guess I just generally want the best out of Loona's character, when it all comes down to it... :(

-AndrealphusAn interesting concept of a character being a cunning, ice-wielding peaco*ck who wants Stolas' glory and power for his own gain (as well as trying to get back at him for hurting his "dear" sister, Stella). Admittedly can't help but feel bummed though that Andre's existence essentially means we won't be getting much depth out of Stella anytime soon (-which honestly makes me question why they didn't just make Andre Stolas' ex-spouse if he's clearly the more capable villain for story-potential, here :/). But eh, thats just me... >>

-MarthaThe first ever IMP-related antagonist for the series, Martha... was generally "fine", for her time? Kiiinda silly with the execution of her getting all the praise for surviving Mayberry's wrath (-as if she wasn't the same bitch who slept with Mayberry's husband lol >>), only to be suddenly revealed as a secret cannibal along with her family once IMP came to kill her... but I mean, for what it is I'd say Martha played her part as well as she could.

-Agent TwoThe female government agent who seemed to be the bigger "brains" of the duo, and had a pretty cool transformation scene once Stolas arrived to save IMP. Wasn't too interesting of a character otherwise... but hopefully will get some better moments to shine if the DHORK agency ever comes back in the future.

-Agent OneThe male government agent who I guess is slightly more on the "childish" scale compared to Agent Two... don't really have much to say about him otherwise though.

-KeenieSeems to have the "Millie" role in the Cherub trio as the more motherly, down-to-earth member wrangling in the others to their mission... yet aside from that, I can't say she was particularly all that memorable in the long run? Cute design though .3.

-Millie's Mom & DadWhile a lil unnecessarily rude/condescending to Millie & her husband (esp with the ending like... yall she JUST got her leg caught in a bear-trap, leave her be -_-), they at least seem to still care about her enough to want only the "best" for their lil girl. Which compared to some of these other canon parents, is def saying alot lol.

Neutral/Light Green-Tier:

-Barbie WireNgl, as someone who's watched HB since the pilot, I've always been curious to learn more about Blitz's family past going by those circus posters, that one mention from Verosika ("Your sister says hi~"), and even that one childhood photo in Blitz's phone bringing him to tears was chock full of story potential. But then... most of the S2 childhood flashbacks barely ever contained Barbie Wire (with even Fizzarolli having more significance there in comparison), up until the summer camp episode, where her actual on-screen character was... well, basically just Blitz but in female-font 🤷‍♀️? Crass, rude, self-absorbed and horny... not a whole lot else to go off of by the time she left, so... can't say Barb really made much of an impression on me in the long-run, sad to say :/. Bless the AU fanfics out there giving her more time & depth to flesh her out better outside of her brother's shadow, at least 🙏.

-StellaOkay, now before anyone freaks out... yes I DO acknowledge that Stella's an awful person, and def got what was coming to her once Stolas stood his ground/kicked her out for how she hurt him. So I don't honestly blame anyone who just genuinely dislikes/hates Stella overall (as that's clearly the show's intent with how they're writing her rn lol)... but for me, I just don't really feel one way or another about her tbh, esp with how... "hollow" her character feels atm :/.Like, her original premise as this haughty & bitter wife who wants to scorn Stolas for his cheating (albeit for shallow reasons) was perfectly fine on its own... with loads of villain-writing potential once they revealed her assassin-planned revenge against him. But then... after awhile she just started feeling more & more like a joke than an actual "threat" (throwing literal-tantrums about "wanting him dead so baaaaadly :c" as of her latest appearance... bruh -.-), which imo is just... weird for someone who's meant to be such a big, looming antagonist in Stolas' life? And its not like she's written to be entertainingly evil (ex. any of the classic-era Disney villains), or analytically interesting to watch (ex. Bloberta Puppington), as there's just... zero effort put into Stella's characterization compared to other (mostly male) villains we've seen onscreen :/Not helped that we don't even get much of a glimmer of what Stella and Via are like as mother & daughter (with any slightly relating comment to one another inevitably leading back to Stolas... again >>), and at this point I just... wonder why Stella's even here anymore if her own brother's gonna be the one behind all the "plotting" now🤷‍♀️. Kudos to some of the AU fanworks I've seen fleshing Stella's character out alot better in-comparison (at least in terms of giving her more story purpose/depth than just a screechy nuisance lol)... so, there's that at least :P.

-Wally WackfordOh hey, there's that one goofy-voiced salesman character who pops up now and then in episode cameos... and uh, yeah that's basically about the gist of what I think regarding Wally lol. Not quite sure how exactly he got so popular though, but... I mean, its neat I guess?

-Loopty GooptyUm... I guess this guy had a couple funny lines when he popped up, and kinda cool he & Lyle are apparently friends-again after reuniting in Hell together... but yeah, don't really have much else to say about Loopty lol🤷‍♀️

-Lyle LiptonThe other-half to his (former) duo dynamic with Loopty, and... not a whole lot else to him either save for being an old greedy dude :P. Kinda pointless to have spent so much on trying to "redeem" someone so set in his ways, so... can't say I was too surprised to see him pop back up in Hell lol.

Dislike/Green-Tier:

-Stolas*Immediately dodges the fan-tomatoes*... okay yeaaaah at this point I can't lie... I'm just not really vibing with Stolas' character anymore :/ 🤷‍♀️Not to the point that I "hate" the guy by no means, 'cause I know he does still have some interesting potential/depth to him as this pompous, dark yet deep-down lonely owl unsure of how to handle love/closeknit-relationships (esp while surrounded by all his wealth & mystical powers)... ...but good LORD did they crank up the sappiness in his character as of late, basically erasing any and all faults from Stolas as now he's just... there to be some "uwu sad boi who just wants loooove T-T" 😒. Not that I'm against adding sympathetic layers to a character, ofc... but if its to the point where his own daughter isn't allowed to share her grievances for him ignoring her without being immediately-guilted to forgive him ("dads may mess up, but he's trying~ :c")... then it just leaves me further disinterested in Stolas content as of rn -_-(Fingers crossed the "Asmodean crystal" plotline will give us some hope for genuine growth on Stolas' end, going by the recent music vid's context 🤞🤞)

-CletusOf all the main three C.H.E.R.U.B. characters, Cletus just feels the most... "off-putting" to me? ^^; Idk if its his weird voice, how oddly "human" he looks compared to the more cutesy/baby animal-lookin' Cherubs... idk the more I look at him he just reminds me more of a rejected FOP character than anything lol

-Cash BuckzoBottom of the barrel in terms of the "parent" characters we have so far; VERY one-note, not too compelling on his own, and with probably the worst-sounding voice in terms of line delivery, I'm sorry x-x; Idk if they were going for some "Iago"-like impression to fit with Paimon's "Jafar" vibe... buuuut it didn't really work for me xP. Kinda curious as to what his current whereabouts are since idk if he got out of the fire unscathed (-minus him chugging some beer on the way out, I mean >x>)

Hate/Blue-Tier:

-ChazPointless, creepy & obnoxious character who dragged down his debut as quickly as he got killed off... yeah I just never liked this dude tbh, even as someone who does like aquatic/shark-themed characters >> also plssss tell me they didn't actually model his full name after Chadwick Boseman (RIP) 'cause if thats the case then... OOF-

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Just adding to the larries liking taylor swift, i think one of th reason is that most of the larries are part of of the lgbtq community. And in our community, Taylor is very loved. She's a gay icon. It's easy to just brush away the sh*ts that happened with haylor since it's in the past. Also these larries thinks it's a double sided bearding. There is this theory about how TS was dating Diana at the time of haylor. I believe Diana also sometimes thirdwheel to haylor's dates. That Out Of The Woods is about when their stunt is ending or smthng. OR this larries could be just newbies that already like Taylor Swift and couldn't careless about Haylor since the y didn't get to experience how horrible that time was.

For me, I think I just tolerate her. Some of her songs are good. But I am still annoyed at the annoying songs she wrote about haylor. 🤢 Can't escape it tho, since two of my sisters are swifties.

Hey anon I do know about those rumors I personally don't feel the same on the matter of her being 🏳️‍🌈 tho I don't know much about her music past the "h**lor songs" to truly say. But for argument sake let's say she is isn't that worse when it comes to this topic? She would know what it is like to be a closeted celeb and yet she still used a fellow closeted celeb to make herself look like a victim and them the "toxic ex womanizer who treats women like trash." She did something that further put H in the closet and madw people think he's straight.

People may say oh it was all her team like sure her team may have initially decided for her to get involved in a fake relationship with H but all the slandering of H from her at one point that's on her. If her team did tell her to say all those things and it wasn't her personal choice to drag H then give her a f*ckin oscar bc she did a damn good job playing the role of I'm a victim of a sh*tty ex and here is why.

So I [along with anonymous mutuals] believe whether she is or isn't 🏳️‍🌈 she still dragged H through the mud with almost all of 2013 promo/award season being her dragging "her ex" aka H and we just can't get ourselves to be ok with that. And during the time period of h**lor's relationship L&H were f*ckin miserable every day.

Of course here we are 10 years later and he is STILL being asked about her and whether his songs are for her and to no suprise he f*ckin hates it. She unintentional or not caused them a lot of trauma and was the reason H womanizer image sky rocketed in 2013. So it will never make sense to me how someone can claim to love L&H proudly "being a larrie" while idolizing her.

I do think like you said most of those who love her are newbies who just weren't around in 2012/13 time period to know what happened bc if they had been they would know how much it f*cked them up. And don't even get me started on how most of these stans think their ✨️ besties ✨️ with her.

This interview from 2012 will always be a huge deal to me in understanding how they felt about the situation and her. When Lou was asked what his thoughts are of H&T relationship Lou makes it clear not only are they not dating but their not even friends. This was literally Lou reaction/body language throughout the whole 3 month ordeal.

Lastly L&H celebrated when it ended. They clearly don't care for her, want her to stop being brought up and to move on from her but some of their own fans sit here and try to paint them as friends.

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TxT and Fluffy Hair: a wonderful relationship~ Part 2: A Snuggly Bear 🧸

Author's note: this post is very biased. Don't except an objective opinion. If you see other idols beside TxT, I only used them as examples, not as a comparison. The analysis are inspired by Michaela Diana's works on Instagram. I didn't use any fantaken photos, only pics taken from official accounts.

This series is dedicated to @onlyoneofyouu ❤️

Hi everyone, welcome back on this amazing series where I'm trying to push my curly hair/perm hair (aka The Floof) agenda.

This time, we've returned to TxT and their relationship with The Floof. We already saw Kai, now we move to another member who has a, uhm, very interesting bond with this hairstyle.

My dear readers, I present to you...

* drums roll *

BEOMGYU!

Oh Beomgyu, our mood maker and natural born comedian, our kind member... Did you know he and The Floof have one of the best relationships ever? No? Let me explain then.

Before seeing his face shape tho, I need to point out a thing that I noticed while I was searching for pictures of him.

Probably these are not the greatest examples but it seems Beomgyu has voluminous hair. Probably it's his haircut which gives this impression but it looks like Beomgyu has many hairs. Keep this in mind while we discuss the haircut.

And now let's see if Beomgyu has the perfect face shape for The Floof

Now, Beomgyu seems to have a heart shape face, which is one of the best shapes if we talk about The Floof. His jawline seems to be a little sharp, in fact, I notice it has what seems a V shape. But don't worry, having a v-shaped jawline is not a big deal, especially when you have a heart-shaped face.

His eyes are monolid, which is one of the best shapes for The Floof.

And the full cheeks? Well, for me, Beomgyu doesn't have those visible cheeks, except when he eats of course.

But still, he has two good features that work perfectly with The Floof so...congratulations Beomgyu, you can have The Floof! Let's celebrate with him!

And now, let's go to the next part of this post and let's find out which haircut fits him the most.

Remember when I told you about the voluminous hair? Good, because I'm bringing them now. Having voluminous hair gives you the possibility to play with haircuts a lot: you can grow them, cut them, have a layered cut, have The Floof, everything.

And Beomgyu's hairstylers knew this perfectly since they gave us this.

You thought I would have never talked about this? Fools.

Beomgyu with long hair is one of the best things that ever happened to TxT haircut-wise. He became a true icon after this. No one will forget it. And when his hair became floofy...oh boy don't let me think about it. He was a cute little wolf.

Now, even if I love this haircut with my entire, there's a little problem which makes it a little...imperfect. The problem is the limited colour palette.

"Seriously? But it's not a big deal." You might say. And you might be right. But the problem for is that a limited colour palette doesn't fit Beomgyu for me. Versatility is his second name, trying new colours seems something that he would do and long, floofy hair seems to limit him a lot.

For me, the good compromise between The Floof and the hair's lenght might be the mullet he had in the Blue Hour MV.

Maybe making it a little longer might even work better for me but, yeah, this haircut is the best compromise and the best example right now.

And the colours? Well, for me, Beomgyu should try different colours. He doesn't need to stick out on just a simple one, experimenting is in his DNA. Of course, warm colours seem to fit him better, even tho I must admit that I can't see him with a bright grade (scarlet red wouldn't fit him for me). But if there's a colour that I really want him to try is surely purple. I don't know, I have this strange feeling he might be beautiful with purple.

Also, I want to add that another way to play with colours with him would be using more coloured strands. And when he has The Floof, the result seems very, very good.

I really want him with these kinds of strands once again. Imagine him with a floofy mullet AND these strands...Ah, I'm speechless.

And that's it. This is how I see Beomgyu with The Floof. And if you noticed, playing with it is the best choice for him. Always changing, never be the same.

Can we say the same for the other members?

Who knows...👀

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RaRa’s Records #1: adios

a/n: inspired by the wonderful @skzfairies

lyrics

about

the song/vid was posted april 7th 2020 aka her birthday

this song holds a special place in amanda’s heart for many different reasons

it's the first song she every compose/produce fully on her own

it’s the first time she really spoke out to the public about her inner struggles with her mental health

it was also the first time she ever rap & ofc she KILLED IT

upon listening to the song, the melody is upbeat, fun and catchy but if you listen to the lyrics you notice it has a much deeper hidden meaning to it

similar to how she used masked her sadness with a smile

the lyrics express the feeling of putting so much effort into something but inevitably nothing ends up being achieved, making frustration buildup inside us and becoming overall exhausted. so you just want to run away and escape from it all

she wrote these lyrics thinking about all the time she had put into what others thought of her, tirelessly trying to be perfect for others even though it was always useless and how she just wanted to disappear from the criticizing world

promo

she gave a little hint about the song during her birthday vlive where she revealed to the public about her previous hiatus to take care of her mental health (a/n: i’m thinking about making a scenario of this, let me know if you want it)

she said “thank you guys for all the birthday wishes and presents. i have a little present for our atinys too. you will know about it soon. i hope you like it.”

at that point atinys were freaking out

like MA'AM YOU CAN"T JUST DROP A BOMB LIKE THAT OUT OF THE BLUE AND GO SILENT

this girl loves watching the chaos she causes

anyways the song was also teased later that day when kq released her 1day vlog where she was secretly recording the song and mention how none of the members knew of it yet

kq released the song and mv a few hours before the end of her birthday, much to her surprise, as she was told it wouldn't be released for another week

the reason kq released it was to remind her that they were grateful for her being born

gotta love kq’s love for their idols

and the promo team really be killing it

she trended on twitter for like 3 days in a row

MV

the video is an animation of a baby elephant (which many atinys often use as amanda's representative icon), who is feeling left out of it's herd, gets distracted by a butterfly and follows it away from its herd on this adventure

as the baby elephants goes on this adventure, it's see different places and meets different unique creatures (8 specifically ;))

she actually made the art design of all the characters

like is there anything this girl can't do

by the end of the video the elephant begins to feel a sense of belonging and confidence

amanda also included a note for atinys in the description:

“Hi ATINYS! It's Amanda! Here is my surprise present I promise you guys! This song is very special to me as I wrote it when I was going through a difficult time in my life where I was probably at my most vulnerable point. Which is why I had been hesitant to release it for a long time. But I wanted give this to ATINYS because I believe that everyone can relate to experiencing hard times and you just want a break. My members and of course our lovely ATINYS have always been able to comfort me and help alleviate my hardship. So I hope that when you listen to this song you get a sense of relief and escape from your own adversities. I love you guys so much!"

boys reactions

so once the song was finalize for lovely perfectionist amanda, she went to hongjoong first to get his reaction

she wanted to see hist reaction first bc he has been the one teaching her how to produce and wanted to hear his thoughts

the girl was so nervous that she couldn't be in the same room as him so she stood behind the close door of the studio room

when she came back in, the boy was balling his eyes out

the two ended up crying together, eating fried chicken and had some deep conversation that night

now when she played it for the others members together, it took some of them yeosang/wooyoung/san/mingi a minute to actually hear the lyrics

they were so caught up in the cheerful melody that the lyrics went over their head

but once they focused on the lyrics, all of them cried

all of them

period

but then they heard her rap and freaked out again

while still teared up

by the end of it they were all engulfing her in hugs and they just wouldn't let her go

once the mv came out these boys got into a heat discussion in the dorm about which creature in the vid represented them

amanda kept deny it wasn't any of them even though we all know that ain't true

but she never revealed and left it up to their imaginations much to the boys dismay

bonus: amanda later got a small tattoo above her right ankle of the baby elephant and butterfly in the thumbnail pic

© atee*z-amanda—all rights reserved. do not copy, translate, or repost my work.

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📢Psychonauts NSR AU, Chapter 5: VS. Raz📢

Sasha and Milla made it to Akusuka. It filled with green and orange lights, with watery accents all over. As if they were in the bottom of the sea. They saw the concert Raz was hosting. The Kura Kura Stream Hub, they entered in… ready to face against the digital idol.

~

When they headed inside, they saw a blue digital sky (or in this case a digital sea. The ground was orange surrounded by green oceanic and digital plants.

“Wooow. What a beautiful place.” Milla commented.

“Indeed, even though it’s from NSR, it’s kinda beautiful.” Sasha replied. That is when they saw Raz, the Sailor-like Idol arriving gliding through the ocean.

“Oh wow! Welcome, friends! Are you here to receive the sweet honey bubbles of my angelic voice?” Raz asked with glee.

“What? Sweet honey bubbles? We prefer a different kind of bubbles of someone’s angelic voice.” Milla said confidently. “Particularly of rock, and we’re going to bring it back to Vinyl City and… what’s coming out of my mouth just sounds ridiculous.” Milla said as her confidence drained. “I’m sorry, but I can’t believe I’m talking to this thing. He’s not even real!” She whispered to Sasha.

“Camilla! Don’t say that R word. You know that it’s very offensive to this district.” Sasha quietly scolded.

“The ‘R’ word? Come on Sasha! Just look at that thing!” Milla responded as she pointed to Raz with slight anger. “He’s. Not. Real!” She said pointing to the digital idol.

“But… but I am real! Like your love for each other!” Raz responded.

“Wait what?” Milla asked.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on!” Sasha responded with slight shock.

“Don’t try to fool me! I know it’s in your eyes!” Raz playfully pointed his finger. “Your hearts are pounding like the beating drums of the ocean!” Raz chuckled.

“Wh… what does that even mean?” Sasha asked with confusion.

“It means to follow your heart, Sasha!” Raz replied.

“I… but there are many factors to consider so—” Sasha tried to respond.

“Hey, hey, we’re here to fight, alright?! Sasha, don’t question it now! And you! You’re still not real! Less talk, more rock!” Milla interrupted.

“You’re mean! How can’t you just take me seriously? After all look at me!” Raz spoke. “And I guess I have to defeat with the power of… Love Razoom!” He said forming a heart with his hands. The fight was on.

Milla and Sasha ran towards Raz dodging gridded areas that shot white bullets until they reached the end.

“How about you come down and face us you falso!” Milla spoke.

“Why hate when we can love? After all, love is the most powerful power in the world!” Raz giggled.

~

Meanwhile Raz’s voice AKA D’Artagnan and Raz’s artist AKA Norma we’re talking.

“We got some trouble Norma, what should we do?” D'Art asked.

“I got just the thing.” Norma responded as she drew in her plan. This caused Raz’s hair to be a bit longer. And his outfit having a green cape.

~

“Oh. He looks… adorable.” Milla commented.

“Try and catch me!” Raz giggled as he swam away.

“W… wait! Come back here!” Milla said as she activated a transporter to an island.

“We have to get him Sasha! I want to pinch his cheeks!” Milla told Sasha.

Sasha shrugged it off and followed Milla. Now there were green eel like creatures. Both Sasha and Milla dodged them by jumping over them or letting them pass. They then come across another transporter and was activated, leading them to another island. To which they reached the end.

~

Meanwhile, Raz’s motion capturer AKA Adam got involved.

“Adam!” Norma spoke.

“Yeah?” Adam asked.

“Keep them busy.” Norma ordered.

“Got it!” Adam replied as he did a cute dance.

“Sing and dance with me ok?” Raz asked. “1… 2… 3… peaaaaace!” Raz said as he summoned a blue trident and anchor.

“1… 2… 3… peaaaaace!” Milla sang.

“Camilla!” Sasha responded.

“Wh…what just happened!” Milla asked with slight panic while dodging Raz’s anchor. The two rockers came to an other island which was much lower than the others, across of them was a yellow file with a pencil icon on it. That was clearly Raz’s weak spot. But it was protected by the other two files of his voice and motion. They started off with the voice file. It was green and had a note symbol on it. Milla broke it into pieces, then headed to the motion file, which was blue with a human icon. And after breaking it, Milla attacked the design file, completely breaking it.

Causing Raz to glitch, until Norma handled the situation, which resulted in Raz’s cape being longer, wearing gloves, his shoes turning into boots, and his trident being much larger.

~

Meanwhile, Norma was trying to get the attention of Raz’s special effects designer AKA Sam.

“You need me?” Sam asked.

“Yeah! We need you, prepare the stage.” Norma ordered.

“Got it.” Sam replied as she dimmed the lights.

~

Milla and Sasha headed to the final island, where they saw Raz glowing in the dark.

“Stop. Running. Away. Raz!” Milla spoke.

“Aren’t these ones and zeroes amazing?” Raz asked. “Through them, I can link my feelings with all my fans around the world!” He explained. “Everyone? Are you ready?” Raz asked the ‘audience’.

Milla and Sasha headed to one of the islands which had Raz’s special effects. The file was red with a film symbol on it. Milla immediately broke the special effects. While dodging Raz’s anchor. Then she and Sasha moved on to Raz’s motion file. This time Sasha attacked the file, causing it to break. After that, the voice file was next. Sasha again broke the file. Leaving the design file vulnerable. They arrived back to the island with the motion file and broke it into pieces. Which caused Raz to glitch.

“Listen to the soundwaves I want to give you!” Raz spoke. But then… “No! Enough of you! Please leave this place!” Raz shouted with anger.

“What… what?” Milla asked with confusion.

“We should link our intangible feelings!” Raz explained. “Shoo! Go away!” Raz glitched. Milla and Sasha looked at each other and thought of the same idea.

They had to leave.

They went back to the top. Taking every transporter they could. Running from the Sailor Idol and his Anchor.

~

When Milla and Sasha got to the top. They saw Raz waiting for them. And the four icons of Raz’s creators. They all combined their power of the trident… but had to make sure that his trident was in the right position which it was. Revealing Raz’s final form. His eyes were pure white, his hands were like claws. And he had a tail.

“I’ve made up our mind! Get out! You gys are no longer welcomed here!” Raz ordered. And after that, he did a demonic-like screech.

“Wh…what is that thing! Where’s my cute sailor idol!” Milla said as she dodged the bullets. She saw purple bullets glowing and decided to parry them breaking each of the four files of Raz, leaving him weak.

“There’s only one thing left to Milla.” Sasha told th guitarist.

“Great idea, let’s get rid of that thing!” Milla responded. She set her guitar on attack mode, while Zuke prepared his drum sticks.

“BUNKA”

“JUNKA”

“SHAKALAKA-BAM!” they shouted. Causing a blue light to attack at the idol. Causing an eye to open up.

“Well that door looks inviting.” Milla smirked.

“Shall we?” Zuke replied.

When the two entered, they jumped out of the computer, to where Ra’s creators were. And they were scared. What were they going to do? Were they going to get attacked? Well no… but Milla did pull the plug on their plans… literally.

“You guys are quite talented. But there are bigger things at play here and you kods shouldn’t get involved.” Milla spoke. “Stay in school, do your homework, and most importantly… never turn Raz into that thing again. Ever.” Milla ended.

“Come on Milla, we got to go.” Sasha spoke.

“Well… ok then. Bye!” Milla said as she and Sasha left the building. On their way back to the sewers.

~

Later, the news was on. Reporting on what had happened.

“Once again, the group known as Bunk Bed Junction has hijacked yet another concert.” The newscaster stated. “Even the cute and bubbly Raz was not spared from their plan for total dominance.” We managed to get hold of these two elusive rockers while they were cowardly fleeing from the scene at Akusuka last night.” The newscaster explained. The tv then cuts to a reporter on a street asking Sasha and Milla questions.

“Milla! Sasha! Why are you hijacking NSR’s concerts?” The reporter asked.

“Huh? Are you from the news? Does that mean I’m on TV?” Milla asked with curiosity.

“Yes. A lot of people are distressed by your reckless behaviors. Do you have any remorse for your actions?” The reporter asked.

“Wow… I’m on TV!” Milla smiled. She pushed the reporter and waved her hand on screen. Until Ford punched the tv.

“Great. You owe me a TV, Ford.” A woman spoke in annoyance.

“That doesn’t matter… and why did you place it in my office?” Ford asked. “But it doesn’t matter, we need to fix this. Bring me the horn of mending!” He ordered.

“The horn of mending? Don’t tell me you’re bringing 'him’ into this.” The woman spoke.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures. If we don’t do anything, we’ll more than just a district.” Ford spoke. The woman sighed and gave the horn of mending to Ford who played to call someone. And when he did…

“Ah, ich schätze, dass ich gerufen wurde.” A man spoke. “LARS IS ON THE WAY!” he shouted as he head towards NSR Tower.

When he arrived there, he was dressed in a white dresser shirt, and black overalls and black shoes, and had green skin and black hair.

“Well, well, well, es war an der Zeit, dass Sie sich entschieden, dieses Horn zu blasen!” The man spoke to Ford.

“Nice to see you too, Lars.” Ford replied.

“Ebenfalls! And hellooo, Miss.” Lars responded as he looked at the woman. “Ich habe dich nicht vergessen.” He spoke.

“I’m going to… check if the editors downstairs need my input.” The woman spoke as she left.

“Bis demnächst!” Lars replied.

“Ugh… I hope not.” She replied back with disgust.

“Alright, Ich bin hier! Sie können jederzeit beginnen.” Lars spoke to Ford.

“I take it you are unaware of the events that had transpired within Vinyl City the past few days.” Ford explained.

“Keine Ahnung, egal!” Lars responded.

“I thought so.” Ford replied. “A band called Bunk Bed Junction has been slowly claiming our districts. They’re now moving up to—”

“Woah, Mr. Cruller, ich bin nicht hier, um über die Politik von Vinyl City zu sprechen, okay? Ich bin nur hier, um Ihre Entschuldigung entgegenzunehmen.” Lars interrupted. “Come on, I don’t have all day.” He spoke.

“Mmmhmm. Did I mention that one of the members of this band is a drummer named Sasha? Would that interest you?” Ford asked.

“Oh… hast du Sasha gesagt? Ich könnte tun, was du willst.” Lars responded with a grin of interest. And after that, Lars headed out to Vinyl City to pay Sasha a visit.

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The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Wednesday, October 5 – Thursday, October 6

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Wednesday, October 5 – Thursday, October 6 BUFFY If I show you something, you promise you won't tell? Dawn crosses her heart and Buffy lifts her shirt to reveal the bandaged stab wound. Dawn is awed. DAWN Oh, cool! (off Buffy's look) I mean, gross!

~~Fool for Love~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Words Of Wisdom by badly_knitted (Buffy, Angel, Joyce, Ted. Willow, Xander, Giles. PG)

Twenty One by InMyOwnHeadItGoesLikeThis (Giles, T)

Hoosier by watcherless (Buffy/Faith, E)

Three years by ywhiterain (Willow/Tara, G)

Buffyverse Drabbles by ywhiterain (Angel & Cordelia, Giles/Buffy, Buffy & Wesley, Connor & Buffy, Illyria & Buffy, Angel/Buffy, G)

Tangle by ywhiterain (Angel/Buffy, T)

The Very Definition by Girlytek (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

[Chaptered Fiction]

Orvieto, Ch. 9 by TuesdayGirl (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Ties to the World, Ch. 7 by The Danish Bird (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Vacation with a vampire, Ch. 6 by Coraline (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Her Birthday, Ch. 2-3 by BewitchedXx (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Learning to Be Love's Bitch, Ch. 4 by Desicat (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Bound, Ch. 9-10 by RavenLove12 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

The Worst Day Since Yesterday, Ch. 1-2 by Dynamite (NC-17)

You Can't Fight Fate - But You Can Piss Him Off, Ch. 47 by Hermionetobe (Batman crossover, Faith, FR13)

You Can't Fight Fate - But You Can Decipher Him, Ch. 87 by Hermionetobe (Batman crossover, Dawn, FR13)

We don't need another Hero... or do we? Ch. 8 by CrazyDan (Black Panther crossover, Xander, FR18)

No Remedy for Memory, Ch. 5 by scratchmeout (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Colonial Bride, Ch. 6 by Feanix88 (Buffy/Spike, Adult Only)

Until it Kills You Both, Ch. 5 by myrabeth (Buffy/Spike, T)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Cordy/Angel icons by cangelgifs (worksafe)

Willow icons by serieslu*ticons (worksafe)

Drawings of William by captain-peroxid3 (worksafe)

Manip: School Hard (Spike was killing it long before Idol) by goofwarrior (Spike, worksafe)

Scooby Gang Costumes (A Series): Princess Buffy by goofwarrior (worksafe)

Some Assembly Required by goofwarrior (The Judge, worksafe)

Buffy Summers icons by gt-icons (worksafe)

Tara Maclay Halloween icons by hcuspocus (worksafe)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer in Loud House Style by mccraecook99 (Buffy, worksafe)

Halloween Spuffy icons by mcgnagallsarmy (Buffy/Spike, slightly NSFW)

Prophecy Girl icons by monstargraphics (Buffy, worksafe)

Drawing: day 4: slay by sasukdyke (Spike, worksafe)

Manip: They say that the world was built for two… by scratchmeout (buffyorbust) (Buffy/Spike, worksafe)

Halloween icons by summrsbuffy (Buffy, Spike/Dru, worksafe)

Eliza Dushku graphics by Nix (worksafe)

Out. For. A. Walk...Bitch. (Animated Spike) by tmcarlee (worksafe)

Gif/manip: another Werble edited image for the lovely Alyson Hannigan aka Willow Rosenberg by Cursed1978 (worksafe)

Artwork: It Burns and Consumes / Feel (Sailor Spuffy’s Tattoo Parlor) by cawthraven (Buffy/Spike, G)

Comic: Carpe Diem, baby, Ch. 4 by Axell (Adult Only)

Comic: D-straction Day: All Night Long Issue #2, Ch. 5-7 by HappyWhenItRains (Adult Only)

Manip: I promise to never forget that this is a once in a lifetime love. by loveisntbrains (Buffy/Spike, worksafe)

[Vid] No Rest For The Wicked by IncognitoDuck11 (Buffy x Angel, Buffy x Spike, Buffy x Faith)

#charactober2022 Day 6: The Rebel: Spike by jon osmatt (worksafe)

[Reviews & Recaps]

5.1 Buffy vs. Dracula by handsofabitterman

5.2 Real Me by handsofabitterman

5.3 The Replacement by handsofabitterman

5.4 Out of My Mind by handsofabitterman

Within the first 3 minutes, you know EXACTLY what this show is about by initiumseries

First time watcher: and wow (thoughts up to early s2) by EllidaIsabella

Which episode(s) do you hate? by Agoraphob0y

Pop Culture Role Call: Whittle Baby - Angel S02E08 - Quickening

[Recs & In Search Of]

Reacting to Reactions! AtS Season 3 by Stoney

Had no idea there were actual books about buffy until yesterday 👀 by Mrfantastic2 (recs in the comments)

[Community Announcements]

Signup is open for Seasonal Spuffy Round 33 - Fall 2022 at seasonal_spuffy

Signup is open for Seasonal Spuffy Round 33 - Fall 2022 at seasonal_spuffy

[Fandom Discussions]

Tara enduring Glory‘s torture to protect Dawn by babygirlgiles

I think the problem people have with [Willow's addiction arc] may be because... by girl4music

The person that really screwed up Faith in season 3 by isagrimorie

we get to see a dream of buffy and angel's wedding, but a vision of a buffy and spike marriage by mollyspeak, julietsays999

The “I know I’m supposed to teach you self-reliance” line from Giles by kyliafanfiction

Cordelia Chase chose to die alone by someonefantastic

[What’s your favorite character’s worst moment and vice versa in "Angel"?] by TigerJean

Buffy and Spike in DMP by AstridDante

Never the biggest fan of Spike post-chip by echopsocky

Thoughts on Harmony? hosted by ceoazula

Scoobies of the Month Interviews: Getitdone and Dusty

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

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