Some genuinely good kdramas this year. I have so many left to watch but amongst the ones I did finish here's a review no one asked for.
MARRY MY HUSBAND.....great acting good pacing the thriller aspect done right and a cute ending
DOCTOR SLUMP.......love love lived it. It was funny and heartwarming and the thriller part didn't annoy me. Cutest grownups. A warm cozy drama for your lonely days.
LOVELY RUNNER.....10/10. They really ate with the storyline and the actors and everything. Had me waiting for the episodes and in a hangover for a month.
THE JUDGE FROM HELL.....10/10. Loved everything. Psh as the demon judge perfect. Kjy as Han Da On perfect. Them serving enemies to lovers perfect. Her killing those ruthless criminals perfect. Would love a sequel and spinoffs whenever they decide to do it.
BREWING LOVE.....cute cute cute. Shipped the mls so hard actually. The cutest one of this year for me.
KNIGHT FLOWER.....discovered ljw here actually. And a genuinely underrated drama. It's funny actually is deep and has a satisfying narrative. Would love a sequel here too.
MR. PLANKTON.......you will laugh so hard and then you'll cry so hard. A lovely drama but I ain't watching it again.
Romance in the house.....have a couple episodes left but this is a good one too. Middle aged romance plus young love. Fun stuff overall.
Atypical Family....super interesting and dope actors. Leaves you sorta hanging but hopeful.
Miss Night and Day......Really really loved the three main leads. And it had a fascinating premise. Fun one.
Here's the notes on the Medieval Fantasy Star Wars au! I'll add to this as I do more. If you're new here, this is the saga of me drawing Star Wars but like what if it was Fantasy?
the one experience that unites all 90s and early 2000s kids is experiencing at least one work of fiction with a deceptively adorable illustration of cute animals on the cover who live in societies with an established political system, hierarchy of leadership and culture and are driven from their homes by human activity and/or engage in violent conflicts with other animals in similar communities that lead to many of the characters’ brutal deaths, which are described in graphic detail and which left you briefly emotionally traumatized by being confronted with the concept of your own fragile mortality before you were 10
Expectation: “Yay, cute talking animals going on fun adventures and learning about friendship!”
Reality: “These cute talking animals are going through a lot of traumatic shit. The world they live in is dangerous, the stakes are super high and these small critters deal with war, death, betrayal, and oppression. Have fun reading, kids!”
found footage is a cinematic technique/sub-genre in which all or a substantial part of the work is presented as if it were discovered film or video recordings. the events on screen are typically seen through the camera of one or more of the characters involved, often accompanied by their real-time, off-camera commentary.
Thoughts on Jax after Amazing Digital Circus Episode 2 Dropped.
Massive spoilers below the cut. Just watch the ep before you read.
Amazing Digital Circus had an amazing second episode as we're introduced more to what the adventures are like, and what NPCs are like and ofc the existential horror of being a living AI only created for a source of entertainment.
Also, I love the dream sequence at the beginning, because we actually get some deeper insight into Pomni's thoughts on Ragatha. Feeling like her helpfulness is the guise of like "man, you're not cut out for this like the rest of us" which is typically something a lot of people who have been bullied in highschool perceive genuine acts of kindness and engagement. (which I kind of suspect Pomni might have been, or at least, been a shut-in and didn't have a lot of friends in her human life. )
Jax wasn't really the main focus of the episode, but it wasn't really until the end of the episode I understood his behavior and what this episode is foreshadowing overall.
Since while Jax isn't the focus emotionally, he is definitely the plot device to push things forward. And I mean, a plot device in a very active and quite literal way. He's the one that causes Pomni to clip out of the map, takes advantage of everyone and is just... genuinely an unpleasant person.
I actually really like this.
As, I know the first episode in the digital circus, many people (me included) could perceive or analyze Jax's actions as someone who is "helping" in a roundabout asshole way. Episode Two has none of that here. He just wants Bloodshed, And I love that we're getting additional context on his character.
It's hard to tell how much fan reception Gooseworx saw of episode one before episode two hit production, so I don't know how much of the fandom perception of Jax had an influence on the writing process, but I can't deny that might have been a factor in assuring us "no he's not secretly helpful, he's just an asshole" But I'm just going to assume that this has been part of his characterization from the start and it becomes way more clear as the episode goes on.
But there was something in his behavior throughout this whole episode that seemed off to me. Like Jax was taking up a majority of the B-plot, while Pomni had the A-plot. So I was wondering why Jax seemed to be the protagonist with the B-plot when Pomni was the A-plot when they seemed to be so disconnected with eachother in motivations and telling us things about the characters.
But then it hit me when the episode ended and the two plots merged together.
"who... knows... what could happen..."
And then it hit me.
Pomni finds comfort in an NPC who is going through a similar experience to her and can emphasize, despite their being other humans who have gone through the same thing, due to her self-admitting to being a loner in her human life. Well, she didn't admit it outright, but from how she perceives Ragatha's kindness as an act, or patronizing, it seems like she doesn't have a lot of friends...
Meanwhile... Jax... He treats the adventure like a videogame. Why shouldn't he? He's trapped in a videogame, right? But it really goes beyond that.
The fellow humans that Jax is trapped with, he treats THEM like they're NPCs, while Pomni treats the NPC like they're human.
Jax says to Gangle "Aren't you supposed to be the suggestible one?" Which you wouldn't typically wouldn't say to a person, right? That's something you would say more about a character that you maxed out the dialogue trees in.
He calls Pomni "His Bridge" even.
They're his objects. His tools, his own npcs he's exhausted the dialogue options on.
Jax dehumanizes the players in a way that Pomni humanizes the NPCS.
These are two opposite ends of the spectrum but what really sold it for me was Jax's reaction to the funeral.
And Jax is the one member out of the cast who doesn't even show up to the funeral. (aside from Caine and Bubble but they are AI.)
He does NOT want to think about the Players as real people. And showing that opposite perspective compared to Pomni I think is much as important going forward.
Jax was the plot catalyst of this entire episode, and served the thematic theme of the episode quite well, even if it didn't look like it on first glance.
I absolutely loved this episode and I can't wait for more.
Have you ever started writing a story and realized your world has a bunch of unexplained shit and you have to fill in the gaps as you go? Me too, buddy. Me too. Here’s a checklist so that you can fully flesh out your world to the max. (I’m dying)
How does Time work? (Minutes, hours, days, the daylight cycle, years, ect.)
Species (if Fantasy. Will probably make another post on this.)
Countries, Nations, Tribes, ect. (nationalities/ races. Will probably make another post on this.)
The geography of the world (draw a map. Doesnt have to be good. Just for a general idea.)
Rivalries between races (includes prejudice, racism, ect.)
Religions
Technology
The Magic system. (Will probably make a whole other post on this.)
animals, plants, ect.
The sky: Sun, Moon(s), Stars, Constellation, Are there rings? (If the planet has rings)
Educations system
Government system
Politics
Methods of transport (Vehicles)
Can’t really think of anything else. If you have more to add then reblog and add to the list! :) bye bee
