Yeah Gortash sucks, yeah he's an absolute dick (to put it mildly), yeah he's had a shit life, yada yada, we all know.
The thing that still gets me is that it was absolutely pointless. His ruin was kickstarted by his parents selling him to a devil who presumably tried to use him for his own plans. He was exploited so others could reach their grand, lofty dreams.
And yet nobody won—neither the Flymms, Raphael, nor Gortash. Nobody's life got better. Nobody became happy. If anything, everyone got worse. It's the pointlessness of all that violence for me. Yes, they had some great moments; the Flymms had the money for a while, Gortash had his beloved puppets for a time and Raphael got so close to the crown. But in the nothing lasted longer than a fleeting moment.
All that suffering and pain, what for? What purpose did it serve in the end?
While there was no winner for this drawing, there is still plenty of time to support the featured blogs found HERE.
Go forth and spread love and positive vibes! Make new friends! Have fun!
Ends: May 16, 2021, 11:00 pm Central US
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Oh, and there are still opportunities to win fandom swag. Simply reblog original content from the featured blogs and mention me in the reblog to earn entries.
Learn more: May 2021 Blog Appreciation Bounce
The answers to the questions were...
@carryonmywaywardcaptain wrote an angsty Steve Rogers x Reader fic based on an Ed Sheeran song. What is the title of the fic? Hearts Don’t Break Around Here
Bucky and the reader share a silly moment involving a citrus fruit that leads to so much more. What is the title of @justagirlinafandomworld’s fic? Sunglasses & Orange Peels
A simple routine on a specific day of the week becomes an eye-opener for Clint Barton in this fic by @girl-next-door-writes. What is the title of the fic? Thursdays
We'll be taking a break from the Flash Prize drawings today. Look for the next one on Saturday, May 15.
Y’all . . . I thought I would be good and have the wifi I needed for this to be easy. Instead, I’m in a place with wifi, where I am the only one on the network, WITHOUT THE PASSWORD!!!!!!
So I’m a bit annoyed, and am using a desktop that I don’t like that doesn’t have xKit, and I’m sad. But new music, yay!
Honorable Mentions:
I haven’t really liked Nam Taehyun’s solo work all that much, but Star does a decent job of trying to change my mind. It feels a lot like a Troye Sivan track, which I mean in the nicest possible way. I may even listen to it again.
If you are the mood to feel sad (for good reason), there has been another death in the community that I hadn’t seen any mention of before today. And that is Kim Dong Yoon of SPECTRUM. Regardless of the music, the groups still deserves support, as do their fans. I’m honestly surprised they have a song out this quickly. Must be rough for them. (Also, solid ballad)
I assume that Yoon Jong Shin’s Lean On You is lyrically spectacular, because he has been around approximately forever and is still successful. That being said, I couldn’t listen for much longer than a minute before I was bored (even if he had better vocals than the last time I heard him).
I forgot that not all of the members of SNSD had resigned with SM, so I was very confused as to why I didn’t see Tiffany, Seohyun and Sooyoung. The new song, Lil Touch, is still pretty great with only the 5 remaining members. I especially appreciated seeing Sunny getting way more lines.
I can be a sucker for R&B as a style, and this week, Jimin Park is the one getting me. April Fools is vocally interesting, and melodically on point. And most importantly, it is very much what is currently in, so this will hopefully get her the attention she has deserved for years since her debut. Also the murder plot in the video is pretty damn inspired.
I am surprised to find myself enjoying Falling by Nana Mellie. It is simple enough to focus in on the vocal line. That vocal line doesn’t always stand up to the driving synth, but most of the time it is on point. It is a perfectly good song. Maybe nothing special, and definitely not enough to stand up against some of the other tracks this week.
If you are feeling a nostalgia for 80s rom coms (don’t quote me on the decade, this is one of my weaknesses), Jeong Jinwoon has you covered with All I Need Is You, both visually and musically. And if this is your thing, you will definitely like it. I think it will grow on me personally.
Can we talk about how Sunmi always manages to have amazing videos? Because Siren does not disappoint visually. I especially like the whole deadpan thing she does all the time. It is amazing and I love it with all of my heart, even If I’m not that invested in Siren as a song.
I love the beat on GWSN’s Puzzle Moon. I’m not sure I love the rest, but I got through the whole song and still liked it at the end, which is pretty impressive, considering this is a debut track. Also, holy cow did this company spend money on the video and production, because neither sound like they are coming from a debut group (in the best possible way). They are some rookies to look out for.
No winners :( Nothing stood out after I did all this work just to be able to listen!
EDIT (Literally 2 minutes after posting) I HAVE INTERNET AGAIN!!!!! I had the password sent to me, so now everything is great again. Also, I’ve changed my mind about a winner, since I snubbed SHINhwa last week (admittedly unintentionally) and Kiss Me Like That is a masterpiece that I cannot get out of my head.
An old thing that I responded to already came across my screen today (I swear I didn’t go looking for trouble), but I saw this bit and wanted to expound at some length on it specifically: “If you can’t see the difference between Arcann and Vaylin then you need to open your eyes.”
TL;DR: Whatever supposed differences you see, BWA had better options. They did not choose to use them. Let’s stop making excuses for them and hold them to a higher standard.
I suppose I should put in a cut.
The real difference is that there wasn’t one of consequence. They both kill large numbers of people out of hate and spite. She just does more of it herself rather than leaving it to minions, which leaves me unimpressed. They are both entirely as broken, entirely as murderous, entirely as unreasonable (especially when Dad pops out and provokes them), and entirely as deserving or undeserving of attempts to help them as one another. That’s what they gave us, right up until he just suddenly wasn’t that anymore. They needed to differentiate them BEFORE he was beaten to cut any ice with me, and they did not. That’s on them.
Even if there WERE real differences, it’s because in the pathetic old trope of “victim goes insane and becomes a monster that just has to die” that the “best writers in the industry” chose to go with, JUST FOR HER, she can’t be saved because they wrote her to that part. I suppose that they did it well if “cliched over the top villain rather than nuanced character that we know was abused and brainwashed” is your thing. Part of my complaint, though, is that they could have chosen a different, better, less damaging story to tell, and a less damaging portrayal of one or both victims. Any. Damn. Time.
But even within that story, they didn’t have to actually JUSTIFY her hatred of us by having us taunt, manipulate, and abuse her ourselves. Just let her be the madwoman that wants to see it all burn, don’t force me to make it worse without objecting. Better, if you’re going for tragic, let her have a moment of clarity here and there but not be able to stop herself. Anything. Anything at all. This isn’t hard. Those stories will probably still be crap, but less than the one we were given.
Yes, she would have hated us because that’s how the writers wanted her to be so that we could play impale the abuse victim. That’s just the way this travesty goes. But my character should still be able to choose to do the right thing even if it fails because then at least they did the right thing. Again, this isn’t hard, BWA and BWA excuse givers.
They gave us two abuse victims turned monster. They allow us to choose to save the one that had done the greater harm. The force us to kill the other, and state that it’s because “she’s broken” when all they had to do is let us try to get her to back down until she tries to level the base (at which point, half of the characters would have no plausible way to stop her, other than the Emperor’s help) and forces us to kill her. Instead, they force us to abuse her ourselves and then punish her for hating us. The basic story was bad, the execution and imagery are bad, the uneven treatment was bad, and the ending was bad. And if you can’t see that, you need to open your eyes.
So, I was wrong, the real difference is that, beginning to end, the writers decided to write her off rather than write her well. At least they gave him a chance.
I have a queue built, and two posts in a day?!?!?! I haven’t been this on top of my blogging life in 6 months.
Anyways, here’s some music
Honorable Mentions:
There is a lot to be said about a good bass line in any song. And while I did my time as a high school musician, I am by no means qualified to talk about it. But in terms of an example, this week has a great one, that takes the forgettable ballad Forgotten by Ji Woo Jin, and elevates it to something way better. I love the sample/live instrumentation they used, and the bass line is stunning throughout.
If you are in the mood for rock, AboutU probably has you covered with one of 3 different songs whose MVs finally became accessible this week. First is Sse Han De, which has some fun retro vibes mixed with clean vocals, and a fairly strong electric guitar sound. Yesterlove is their addition to the massive genre of acoustic ballad. And Wonderful is what happens when punk meets a classic rock bass, and ballad vocals. I like it but don’t love it.
I could have been really behind I.C.E’s Shameless, but it is just a little bit too much of a dance track, so I couldn’t get into it the way I want, even with the really cool riff at the end of the chorus.
If you miss San E and can’t quite wait for him to comeback, J.yung may be able to help tide you over, with a cute video and some really nice production on Can I. He sounds good for the most part, and shows a decent range, even if the vocal has some auto tune in it.
Or maybe you are looking for the San E that tends towards pastel colors, fun beats, and songs that are almost annoyingly addicting. Then Gray has produced another song for you this week with Sleepy. iD is a song that is not deep at all, but it is fun, and sometimes that is what you want for your music.
Do I understand what is happening in the MV of djfriz’ Dive? No. Do I need to understand it to see how nicely animated it is? Also no. It is easily the most interesting MV I’ve seen so far this year. Also, the song has pop flute, so like, that’s cool.
It can’t just be me that hears the beat from Fancy in the start of Baby Don’t Stop from NCT U. I love all of the parts with singing, and most of the musical choices throughout, even the Stranger Things -esque electronic sample. It is the combination of all of it together that I’m not super sure. I think it will take a few more listens for me to decide if this is a Boss moment, or a Cherry Bomb moment for me.
I’m sure you probably saw all over tumblr about J Hope’s Daydream. It is good. I don’t love it, but that doesn’t surprise me, with how much BTS as a whole can be hit or miss for me.
All the fun harmonies are not enough for me to forgive JB for his almost mullet. I am over that style having a comeback. I am not over Hyolyn working with GOT7 on One and Only You.
I really like the distorted vocal in the back of Roydo’s CRZY. It was enough to make me pay attention, but not quite enough to get over the much more cookie cutter verse. It’s still worth a mention for a relative unknown.
There are some 90s vibes or something in Cheetah’s I’ll Be There, because I am getting hit by lots of nostalgia throughout listening. And her rapping is on point, so it is a win win.
When you finally get to the chorus of True Love, you finally get the kind of solo sound you are used to hearing from Kim Sung Gyu. And it is a solo sound that I have always loved, so I’m happy as can be waiting through verses that are simple just for the stunning chorus. It hits all the notes of the expected, and in this case, that doesn’t bother me.
Despite a lot of songs that I liked this week, not one has stuck with me at all. So no winner.
Instead, someone needs to explain to me what Planetarium Records is. Or who. Or how it is that everybody is sleeping on great vocals and great raps and on point production. Genie Music has a bunch of live performances from them that are AMAZING. I’m making a list of them to listen to when I want to remember what they were like when they first started, because there is no way they are not going places.
