micalwaysromantic

informal rants and raves about the low stakes shit that keeps me up at night read my blog for my actual intelligent writing: missromanticknows.blogspot.com

[micalwaysromantic]

Buffy s4 thoughts as a first time watcher

Riley is boring. Adam is boring. the initiative is boring. I don’t care. Like these military big wigs are coming in to the story and acting as if they are bigger than buffy. Like Buffy’s the literal chosen one, and they’re acting as if she doesn’t know what she’s doing and she’s skirting some sort of protocol? BRO SHE IS YOUR BOSS. She’s not new to demon hunting/slaying at all and they were so condescending towards her. Like I know that they are government/military stuff and she was trying to find out their secrets but it was definitely a mistake to alienate her. She’s a powerful asset to have when she has more status in the supernatural world. 

Also the antagonist, Adam, for this season doesn’t feel like a huge threat. I don’t care at ALL what he’s up to and I know buffy will defeat him. 

I stand by the fact that angelus in season 2 was the best antagonist. The master was chopped and didn’t do anything, the mayor was alright but his master plan was to turn into a giant snake and Adam is just some unserious ass looking humanoid green robot. Angelus’ arc had the most emotional and personal stakes (no pun intended) for everyone involved, and him being the antagonist actually added to Buffy’s character. We’ll never get a season finale like becoming again ughhhh. 

I have liked the monster of the weeks for this season tho. Faith coming back did add something extra but I feel as if they wrapped her up a little too quickly considering how her character is so ripe with thematic potential. The halloween episode was pretty good, honestly the first couple episodes were really well done and did a great job of ushering us into this new era of college. I do think that buffy going to college could’ve been a good opportunity to introduce some new characters which I guess we’re doing with Riley and tara and inserting Anya into the narrative more but I guess I just wanted her to have another new friend. Nevertheless, it’s fine and I’m having a good time. 

Also Riley is so vanilla it makes me annoyed. his story with buffy is so boring and I feel like there is something amiss with his character. Im sorry but I miss angel and buffy’s melodrama. At least I could say something about them other than “oh yeah he’s ok and they’re alright” like brooooo

But also the plot with willow and tara is eating like please give willow a new love interest. She has been quite insufferable since oz left like I understand she’s heartbroken but that girl was being so self-absorbed for a couple episodes it annoyed me. Don’t care about Xander and Anya because I prefer to pretend that Xander doesn’t exist. 

also on the subject of buffy, i am in the minority who isn't very troubled about the reboot. it didn't look that good to me but i am sad for sarah and the director who seemed excited about it.

[tfemrengoku]

My queen and also shadow

[amberstruck]

max and lucas (circa 1990) taken by mike 📸

[mybodywakesup]

The knight and the zoomer, they retire from battle, and they settle down in a small village. With each passing day, their love grows stronger.

[buffyanneswift]

Happy Valentine's Day. Hopefully Buffy & Angel are somewhere enjoying his shanshu and finally getting to be happy together <3

[velvet4510]

If it had been Dustin instead of Mike in Rink-o-Mania when El hit Angela with the roller skate, he would’ve just said “Hit her again!” and El wouldn’t have felt like a monster for a single moment.

[tfemrengoku]

they make me unwell

[micalwaysromantic]

dead man's party

i can’t stand how all of Buffy’s so-called “friends” ganged up on her in the second episode in season 3. like the way that they just yelled at her in front of so many people when she was standing there near tears. they were just making everything that she went through all about themselves when she has saved their asses so many times. like give her a little bit of understanding, PLEASE. she was going through so much and still was. they were the worst, xander specifically. xander is just the worst character in that whole show and it’s just ragebait whenever he’s on screen. they were just being so un-empathetic and cold towards her when she lost her friend, was framed for her murder, had to kill her boyfriend and was also kicked out of her home?? they are the most unaware people and it’s PAINFUL to watch. giles was really the only one that actually showed her a bit of understanding and genuine excitement that she was back. 

also joyce is simply a backstabbing bitch. how did she keep the secret, for a whole three or four months, that she was the one who told buffy to leave? SHE WAS THE ONE WHO TOLD HER DAUGHTER NOT TO COME BACK IN SEASON 2. HELLO??? i can never get behind that woman, just can’t stand her at all. 

willow can also just be super annoying sometimes. i try to sympathize with her but sometimes I can’t. sometimes she is self absorbed and makes everything about herself. 

btw im on season 4 and i can’t trust riley. there’s something wrong with him. 

[micalwaysromantic]

disney movies hit so much more when you're older fr

my holy trinity of disney movies (if anybody asked) is lilo and stitch, hercules and the princess and the frog.

[micalwaysromantic]

disorganized rant on avatar: fire and ash

my main note on avatar 3 is that spider was focused on too much. i was kind of annoyed with how much screen time he got and how HE was the one that was being treated as this heaven-sent exception. i think that jake sees himself in spider bc spider’s a human, so that’s why he’s more gentle with him than lo’ak but im not sure. the ending with spider was nice and all, but i just don’t see how he could be so welcomed into the na’vi culture and community when his species is actively trying to colonize their planet. you would think that eywa would care more about protecting HER OWN than this random little sky boy, but i guess kiri is just gonna get whatever she wants because she’s the “na’vi Jesus”. but i still wish we got to see more of the na’vi characters in this movie instead of having spider “become one of them” in a sense. but his development with neytiri and that scene in the forest was really well done. 

we should’ve gotten more development with lo’ak’s grief and his relationship with his dad evolving - just speaking more about the complexities of the family dynamic after a big loss like that. that final scene with them wasn’t nearly enough to progress their relationship further, especially since it still hinged on the conditional and not the unconditional love that lo’ak needs. he still runs their family like a military squad, treating lo’ak like a soldier, and i find it heartbreaking that this teenager has been thrust into warfare.  

we saw jake’s belief in eywa faltering while neytiri clung onto her beliefs as a way of “explaining” what happened to neteyam and all of the destruction she’s seen. jake was angry while neytiri was resigned. i loved how the movie tackled the nuances of religion and belief. but i guess na’vi religion isn’t about “faith” or “belief” because eywa is real, it’s more based on allegiance. 

but my point still stands that lo’ak should’ve gotten more character development and screen time. he was literally the narrator, and t’ed up to have a bigger role in this movie. I understand why jake was constantly frustrated with him because even in this movie, after the drastic consequences of his decisions last movie, he was still being reckless and not following orders. but the events of this movie follow directly after the events of last movie and people cannot change that fast, even when something that traumatic happens. he’s still learning what being the eldest son means and what his role is in the family while going through his grief. maybe he was being reckless with payakan’s status because he was desperate to preserve another brotherly relationship, he probably wanted to make his actions the day that neteyam died worth something, but i wish we saw more of what was going on in his head and the guilt he was struggling with. like he literally tried to kill himself, and it was never spoken about or discussed by anyone that wasn’t kiri or tsireya. jake should’ve seen that his son has been blaming himself much more than he has blamed him. 

also that spider and kiri kiss? i had to cover my eyes in the theater i was cringing so bad. i shipped them in the last movie but it wasn’t hitting for me this time. idk what it was but it was probably due to the contempt i felt because loreya was getting less screen time because of them. also the knowledge of the actor’s real life age difference really stuck with me, and i felt uncomfy.  

it should have been lo’ak and tsireya that got more scenes in this movie, especially considering that she suffered two losses of great magnitude along with the birth of her sister at the end of the movie. how is tsireya coping? how did she find out? i would’ve loved to see more of them this movie, because i was being starved. but i can do a slow burn. im still very happy that we got scenes of their cute little relationship and seeing them being ride or die for each other. tsireya doesn’t play about her man.  they very much mirror jeytiri, which is why i expected more scenes of them. 

also every time jake calls neytiri baby, it fills me with happiness. their relationship is a different kind of love, and i adore them. i also just want neytiri to be happy, like she’s been going through so much loss and tragedy like GIVE HER A VICTORY. 

loved the movie overall. rip roxto and ronal though, their deaths made me cry. ronal pushing out that baby in her final moments just broke my heart, and the metkayina (and tonowari RIP MY SHIP) will not be the same. 

also i hate you varang, but you’re a baddie. i kinda hated them just having her run off in the end after kiri fucked with her braid when she seemed like she was going to be a bigger force in this movie. the ash people were just pawns in the human war because they wanted to make thunder and hated eywa. i just disliked how violent they were towards the other na’vi, like why? i know that y’all don’t like eywa anymore but why are you making it everyone else’s problem when they’re just chilling? also, it was naive of them to think that they had any power in the RDA at all. y’all are not the exception just because quaritch is fucking your tshaik, and they will take you down as soon as you have something they want. they were just fighting the human’s battle and would be discarded after the humans got what they wanted. the humans look down on the na’vi and there was no way that varang or any of the ash people would be calling the shots. they were just really trigger happy, and wanted to destroy everything eywa related. 

[micalwaysromantic]

lumax and percabeth 4L

all i want for christmas is a lumax endgame. if one of them dies, i will be suing the duffer brothers for racial discrimination. let them be happy. they are tooooo adorable and awesome and have this amazing connection. he hasn't given up on her after all that time, and it's so clear and amazing how much they love each other.

also i saw an edit of percabeth and lumax to "david" by lorde. felt like i was being raptured fr, whole ass shot of serotonin straight to my soul YESSSS LAWD.

while i believe percabeth is in a different league, a greater league, than lumax, they're tethered in my opinion. there is something so satisfying about those two ships being paired together. LOVE THEM BOTH DOWN.

season 2 is so delivering on percabeth for me honestly. it's only been two episodes and my soul is exiting my body seeing them on screen. like the EYE CONTACT, the way he talks to her with that soft voice, the LETTERS and the way that they work together, how she's protecting him and he just wants to be close to her and even when they argue. the slow burn is slow burning i fear. IM SAT.

[micalwaysromantic]

*mentions of self harm*

just because a female character is complex doesn't mean i have to like her. i can recognize her complexity while thinking that she is annoying af.

complexity doesn't mean likeability. a character can be complex but totally unlikeable. and im not going to sit here and excuse a person's actions because they have complexities and nuances to their personality and behavior. an integral part of a good character are their flaws. i can hate on a character if their flaws and complexities are messing with the plot in a way that i don't like. what's important is understanding those complexities. i champion women being represented in a variety of ways in the media but it doesn't mean that i have to like every single female character with trauma and a cute laugh. bffr.

however, i do like ginny miller and i have been defending her. so perhaps i am a hypocrite but STILL georgia is not the saint y'all think she is. ginny's trauma is overlooked and people need to stop hating on her so excessively when she has gotten better in the past two seasons. in season one she was quite insufferable and self-absorbed so that made it harder for me to sympathize with her, but come on! that girl has had an unstable home life being moved place to place, paying witnessing georgia's patterns and lies. yes, georgia was trying to protect her and give her and austin the best chance but that doesn't mean that ginny cannot feel the way that she feels. the girl was shing because of the stress she was under.

[micalwaysromantic]

marissa cooper never had a chance

im nearing the end of the oc season 3 (i've been spoiled as to the big bad at the end of it since i started interacting with the show's fanbase on tiktok) and i'm starting to understand why mischa wanted to leave the show, and the fundamental problem with marissa's character.

she never was allowed to really evolve. her character is consistently tarnished and pulled back by the writers all for the sake of drama. she went through so much and i don't agree that everything she went through was self-inflicted. a lot of what she went through was caused by other people ie. trey, her father, luke, julie. her biggest mistake throughout the show was consistently offering the wrong people compassion and empathy. i wished that she realized that sooner and actually stepped away from volchock, who she knew wasn't good for her but she continued with him to "prove a point" or "feel less lonely." is she allergic to asking for help or communicating? but then again, she had just lost ryan, johnny and seth and summer were both caught up in their own thing. of course she would latch onto someone who "wanted" to be around her for no apparent reason.

i found it lazy for the writers to break them up in season 3 when it seemed as if their relationship could've worked out if they just talked more. if they had actually communicated and listened to each other and offered emotional support, than they could've actually had a better relationship. alas, the oc writers seemingly hated marissa and changed the narrative on them a lot. they did make it seem like marissa was the one pulling ryan back while he was actually good for her and the only guy she ever loved. as if ryan didn't drag marissa into drama too or she never supported him?? the whole shooting was a result of ryan's reaction to trey's action (not blaming ryan but. . .).

alas, the point is that marissa kept on making the same decisions and mistakes throughout the show and it seemed like the writers just wanted to regress her character more and more. you would think that after everything she had been through (not to victim blame at all), she would learn that sometimes you cannot fix other people's problems and that running away from your problems by trying to fix someone else's isn't right. she went through all this trauma and all this beatdown not even to get a happy ending. her story was really sad, and i hated seeing her self-sabotage but also get taken advantage of and abandoned by so many people.

[micalwaysromantic]

New post up since last week on my blog!! Been working on this for a while and so excited to share. Very passionate about this subject so go read if u would like!!

[micalwaysromantic]

jinu and angel are very alike to me

jinu from kpop demon hunters reminds me a lot of angel from btvs/angel as a huge fan of both franchises.

the centuries old demon who has done a lot of bad but is plagued with guilt/self-loathing for what they’ve done who falls for the demon hunter/slayer? one of the differences is that angel actually works to redeem himself because of the intense guilt and pain he feels knowing what he has done while jinu is an antagonist the whole movie and is actively working against the girls’ goals for his own self-interests. also angel’s whole “soul/no soul” thing has a bit more nuance/complications than jinu, who has a soul but his soul doesn't define his morality. he is more or less weighed down by centuries of belittling from gwi-ma and his own mistakes and is evil BECAUSE he has feelings and a soul.

another note about jinu: despite me shipping jinu and rumi a lot (i mean, “free” is a banger), he made a lot of bad decisions and lowkey led to his own death or vanquishment. he truly was selfish and wasn’t shit during his lifetime, and that’s okay. sometimes people are toxic and we don’t have to excuse his actions, but seek to understand them. he definitely felt a lot of regret for his actions and genuinely had feelings for rumi and died to help her in the end, but that doesn’t redeem him from all of the bad that he did throughout the movie. people literally died because of him and the saja boys. the only reason rumi was put in that position of fighting gwi-ma at the end was literally because OF HIM humiliating her on stage at the idol awards to serve his own self-interests. 

[micalwaysromantic]

modern romance movies just suck

one of the problems with modern romance movies is that they look so manufactured and produced. there is no thought being put into the color palette or the visuals. i remember the certain grainy, gritty camera quality that gave older movies this storybook texture, and it felt inherently more romantic than the soulless digital, shiny quality we're getting now.

BRING BACK FAIRYTALES AND ACTUAL WHIMSY. i remember seeing laney boggs walk down those stairs in that red dress with "kiss me" playing in the background and being entranced just like zach. i remember the scene where andy and ben sing "you're so vain" at the gala and laughing my ass off. i remember kat reading her iconic poem near the very end of 10 Things I Hate About You and crying my eyes out. i even remember disney movies that taught me to believe in love like cinderella, hercules and the princess and the frog. it's not just about love and life, but it's also about ROMANCE. dancing in the moonlight, angry love confessions in the rain, the love letters back and forth?? actual fairytale, unbelievable, emotional, whimsical shit.

ALSO, i just have to say that we need to bring back happy romcoms. i've watched way too many that classify as tragic romance rather than a romcom. stop it with the terminal illnesses, hollywood. i'm so tired of the trope of the carefree, "live in the moment" love interest dying at the end and leaving the straight-laced, organized type A main character with some sort of pseudo-philosophical life lesson. can we please have them live to the end and end up together?

they need to bring yearning back to the big screen. after conrad fisher's antics this summer, the people are begging for some meaningful eye contact and big romantic gestures. i didn't watch materialists and the map that leads to you but i can assume that people were very disappointed in those areas when it comes to the actual romance.

we are being so starved that i watched the wrong paris on netflix with my sister and we enjoyed it. i thought that it was so bad but so camp and fun, and the ship was actually fun to watch on screen despite the plot being so comical and bad.

[micalwaysromantic]

elphaba thropp’s story has so much deeper meaning as a Black woman

elphaba thropp was always meant to be a Black woman. she is a woman who was consistently ridiculed and derided for most of her life, treated by her parents as the “strong eldest daughter” who must take care of her (light skinned) younger sister but she still maintains a strong moral compass. so much of her story represents common experiences Black women face. she’s a fierce advocate and cares deeply for her family, values that many Black woman hold. her mistreatment, rather than making her bitter, makes her kinder to others. the way that the wizard and morrible demonize her once she doesn’t use her powers for their cause is a direct reflection of how Black women are scapegoated and villainized when we do not conform to the establishment. the relation of her green skin to her being outcasted and made to be the antagonist is a direct metaphor for racism. “i’m not that girl” has such a deeper meaning when elphaba is portrayed as a Black woman who is wrestling with her feelings for a conventionally attractive white man of high status who is being pushed towards her popular white friend who she sees as the “perfect girl” for him - she even wonders if he could ever see her the same way as glinda because she’s been raised to find herself repulsive the same way that many Black girls wonder if they could be desired by their romantic interests.

overall, she will always be so special to me 💚