International Dramas: ‘My Secret Romance’

Promotional image of Sung Hoon and Song Ji Eun. Copyright goes to ‘OCN’ and ‘DramaFever’.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I am admittedly starting to really run out of dramas to watch on Netflix. I hope more are added soon! There are a number on the streaming service I still haven’t watched, but I’m really into lighthearted romances so I’m a lot more hesitant with any of the ones with darker themes right now. Though I did love ‘Vincenzo’, so I may eventually give some of those a chance. This drama won me over with the pastel themed holiday-type photos Netflix has been recently advertising it with. (Yes, the photo that I used is from these!) So, I finally gave this one a chance after seeing it in my recommended shows for what feels like forever. It’s not a super recent K-Drama, but it isn’t an older K-Drama either which kind of surprised me. While the drama does deal with a lot more recent progressive types of thinking, it also has a lot of the cheesiness that I expected from dramas more around the era of ‘Boys Over Flowers’. This drama did end up having some of that cute charm; but there were several things that soured it for me a little bit. And yay to more second lead syndrome! I’m just going to get into it, but bear in mind that this will have MAJOR SPOILERS in it. This is your only warning!

Summary: Yumi stays at a fancy hotel after attending one of her Mother’s weddings and while there meets a “busboy” named Jinwook. Both are unhappy with their current lives and find solace in each other after a series of odd events, leading to them sleeping together. Years later, Yumi finally lands the job of her dreams at a company that she soon finds out is run by Jinwook, who was never a busboy at all.

The Delicious:

The Places- I always absolutely love it when a drama gives the audience places that feel cozy and familiar. The best example of that in this is the bookshop and brewery that the second lead, Hyuntae, runs. He says earlier on that he opens it when he wants and closes it when he wants, so it’s mostly open at night because, like me, he’s a night owl. With the cozy atmosphere covered with plants and books, it’s the perfect place for the main character to spend some time decompressing. The night aesthetic and the bright lights of the shop just add to the comforting feeling of the hole-in-the-wall type place, and it absolutely helps that it’s run by a sweet second lead who wears all of those cozy looking sweaters that second leads wear. The show also spends a lot of time at a very pretty resort right on the beach, which is another escapism place that made this show worth watching. The beach, though being by what looks to be a very tourist-y area, is usually pretty private and has plenty of rocks to climb on. This show succeeded in making me want to go to so many of the places that they showcased.

The Female Lead- Yay! Another drama where I actually liked the female lead! There were times where she felt a little weak within the plot, but I also think the drama did a good job in keeping her strong and letting her make decisions for herself. She holds a lot of, understandable, past trauma with her Mother. The drama doesn’t seek to completely undo the trauma that was done, but instead justifies the main character for the decisions that she makes. Yumi is very sweet to the team she works with as well and tries to make everyone feel included. She wasn’t an original character by any means or one of my favorite female leads, but I think she pretty well remains strong throughout the show. The show doesn’t dumb her down or make her the damsel in distress for the main male lead. And I liked that it showed her interest in her job despite not knowing everything about it yet. She wasn’t perfect and it was relatable to show the learning curve of a career.

The Second Lead- Once again, second lead syndrome hit me hard here. And this is also one of the few times that I thought the main female character would have been better off with the second lead. He was really supportive, helped her take care of her family, and even stepped up to the plate to push the main lead towards her in the end. He also was a published novelist who wrote about travel who was on the lookout for someone to travel with. Sign me up! He had a very bright and sweet personality, almost every character in the show would go to him for advice, and he wore all those cozy sweaters. I seriously don’t know how you don’t choose this man. I know that I usually go for the sweet ones, which is probably why I suffer from second lead syndrome so often, but this was ridiculous. Not only because this guy was so irresistible, but also because the main lead was not my favorite for a variety of reasons that I’ll go into later. But how can you not go with the big brother type, sweater-wearing, cozy, travel writer? How??? Yumi is always more comfortable and even playful when she’s with Hyuntae and is more flustered and annoyed with Jinwook. There wasn’t a decision here.

The Side Characters- Though we didn’t get much of them, I really loved the other food workers working with Yumi. They were super supportive and very cute and they were never ill used or annoying. I liked Jinwook’s assistant in his absolutely garish suits and his crush on one of the women on Yumi’s team too. When Yumi eventually decided to leave her job, I was honestly more distressed at her parting with her team at work. The karaoke night they all had to say goodbye to her was so sweet! Again, there really wasn’t much of them at all, but I didn’t feel that there was a need for them to show up more than they did in this drama with the way the plot was set up.

The Over-Done:

The Main Male Lead- I know that the whole “falling in love with the boss” thing is super popular, but I personally think it can get really complicated very quickly. For one, this creates a boss-employee dynamic, which is an unbalanced power dynamic. I’ve seen some shows subvert this by adding instances where they aren’t quite boss-subordinate. The employee might actually be on a similar level to the CEO, or is working in a company or department that is more adjacent to the CEO’s company. Or even that the employee is only working at the company for a limited amount of time because their career is actually in something else. This drama didn’t take any of those routes. This was straight up boss-subordinate and, even worse, the boss character decides to take advantage of his situation at every moment possible. Jinwook realizes that Yumi is working for his company by chance, and makes her work overtime to hand-make individual meals for him and then deliver them so that he can see her and punish her for leaving him before he woke up after they slept together. If that isn’t taking advantage of your position of power, I don’t know what is. Especially because of how much he sends his food back to be remade and consistently makes her work after everyone else has gone. This is straight up harassment. Could you imagine if a CEO of an actual company slept with an employee and then punished them at work for what happened that night? I’m sure it’s happened before, but I don’t see how you can paint this in any sort of positive light. On top of this, Jinwook also demands that Yumi eat with him (essentially go on dates with him) and threatens her job if she refuses. How is this romantic?? Jinwook needs to be in jail! He’s also a pompous brat for most of the series and doesn’t actually seem to learn. It almost feels like they purposely created a toxic male lead to show off how adorable their second lead is.

The Other Love Interest- The male lead, being rich, has a female love interest that his family expects him to marry. Of course, she’s rich and pretty and really mean to the main character. They tried to do a redemption story with her, but I just didn’t feel that it worked out at all. I usually love redemption stories! She was constantly putting down women that were poorer or “less pretty” than she was and she never really seemed to learn from it. At the end of the show she ends up with the second lead, and this is a storyline that I usually like. I like when the second lead actually gets to find love too. But the issue was that she wasn’t nearly good enough for him. She was still really bratty and insulting. I understood that she felt crushed that the only guy she ever liked didn’t like her back, but that doesn’t excuse her hateful actions towards other characters (mostly other women) in the show. I’d love to see more shows without female characters tearing each other down for not being “feminine” enough. I’m really sick of seeing female characters fight over a guy, too.

The Last Couple Episodes- This seems to happen a lot where I don’t really like the ending of a K-Drama. I’ve said before that romance shows in general seem to not know what to do with themselves once a couple actually gets together. They like the idea of the chase, but writers don’t seem to think that showing the audience the couple just being a couple is interesting enough. This drama was another example of that. After Yumi’s Mom makes a fool of herself on television in which she reveals the secret relationship between Yumi and Jinwook; Yumi decides to run away from home. Eventually Jinwook finds her on the beach they met at, but she, once again, leaves the next morning before he can wake up. She decides to go back home, has a really bad fever for a while, and then finally gets back together with Jinwook because her Mom tells her to do it on TV. What? Also, can we talk about the fact that even Hyuntae knew where Yumi would be and he literally has to spell it out to Jinwook in order for him to find her? And they really put her with Jinwook at the end?

Progressiveness- I never thought I would be putting this in a review. Essentially, Yumi is ashamed of her Mother for a variety of reasons, but the main reason is that she was made fun of because her Mother starred in an adult film. The Mother is shown to be so proud of this adult film that she decides to show large screenshots of it at her wedding. There’s a lot wrong with all of this. Sex workers have to deal with enough as it is. What we’re not going to do, is use a large platform to shame sex workers. Most of them would not want screenshots of their work shown to all their friends and family, but many of them also would not be ashamed of their work and we should not shame them for it. If they were going to cover this topic, they needed to do it with care. Because of how much this show addressed rich people and how much they spent on this show, it really did feel like they were punching down. The show spent a lot of time really trying to progressively address sex, but they seemed to catastrophically fail every time. Whether it was the shaming of sex workers or the fact that they claimed to be progressive but frequently danced around the topic of sex. The characters in the show talk about how having one night stands should not be frowned upon, but the main character is extremely self deprecating for having had one at all and the show refuses to really talk about the incident. If you say that you’re going to be progressive, actually be progressive.

As you can tell, I’m pretty split about this drama. Is it one I would watch again? No. But it had a certain charm to it! There were things about it that I liked, and things about it that I definitely did not. I didn’t find it to be all that romantic, for one because of a lot of the dancing around important topics, and the whole boss thing for another. But it’s a cute world to live in for a while as you’re watching the drama. It’s not something I would really recommend, but if you want to watch it, go ahead! It’s not (all that) offensive! But it’s also not very original and not the romantic escape I was hoping for.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

ATEEZ: Happy Birthday, Wooyoung!

Promotional image of Jung Wooyoung. Copyright goes to KQ Entertainment and ATEEZ.

Hey! Hallie here!

This blog recently went from a BTS ult blog (We are still huge BTS fans and will still be posting about them a lot!) to an ATEEZ ult blog, and that means we’re going to be doing more ATEEZ birthday posts! Today is Wooyoung’s birthday and there are so many things I want to say about this sweetheart. Between his chaotic energy and the genuine enthusiasm he approaches every challenge with, it’s really hard not to be effected by his positivity. And today I really want to shine a light on that positivity because I know that he’s very likely not feeling much of it right now. For those who don’t know, his grandfather passed away directly on his birthday. It’s awful that he has to struggle with this on a day he should be celebrating, and even worse that he won’t be able to go home and spend this time with his family. I genuinely hope that he’s doing alright and will be able to take some time to heal soon. In the meantime, I’m so grateful for the loyalty and love he’s showing Atiny, even now, and how much light he brings into all of our lives. Let’s get into all of the wonderful things about Wooyoung to celebrate on his birthday!

His Sense of Humor:

Wooyoung is one of the most mischievous, hilarious members of ATEEZ. He especially likes to enrage Hongjoong, who is always a mix of annoyed and endeared by Wooyoung’s particular brand of crazy. He’s been known to unexpectedly hug Hongjoong, who likes his personal space, use informal language to irritate him, and recently, on Hongjoong’s birthday, he smashed his face in a cake in front of an entire arena of Atiny. Not only did Hongjoong threaten to send him back to South Korea, but Hongjoong also had to perform the rest of the concert with cake on his face. Wooyoung is also the member to make the most jokes about Hongjoong cracking down on discipline whenever he’s angry, but as always, it’s all in good fun. These two spend as much time as possible complimenting each other; Wooyoung specifically to get Hongjoong flustered. Aside from pranking his captain, Wooyoung is the type to exaggerate his actions just to make the other members laugh. When a member irritates him he’ll give them a long glare until they start to laugh. When he’s scared he’ll yell at the source long after it’s gone to lighten the mood. When he’s frustrated he’ll pout until the members comment on his expression. As much as Wooyoung likes to play pranks, he also loves to ensure the members stay entertained and happy. He’s always hilarious to watch, but also heartwarming in the ways he uses his humor to care for the other members of ATEEZ. And I will never get over his adorable, high-pitched laugh.

His Love for His Members:

Wooyoung is known amongst the members for his strong displays of affection. Hongjoong has said that Wooyoung can bring the members together when they’re apart, and the easy nature with which he demonstrates his friendship has made everyone in ATEEZ feel seen and appreciated. Wooyoung is especially close with San and Yeosang, who he shows fondness for as much as possible. San and Wooyoung do everything together, and just as much as San supports Wooyoung, Wooyoung supports San. Wooyoung offers to cuddle San when he needs help sleeping, talks about how handsome he is to anyone who will listen, and will hug San whenever he thinks San needs it. As for Yeosang, Wooyoung’s known him since they were trainees at Big Hit Entertainment. The two promised to stay together, and when Yeosang left for KQ Entertainment, Wooyoung kept that promise by following him. Their friendship is a bit different, with Wooyoung enjoying pushing Yeosang around while Yeosang responds with scalding sarcasm, but their closeness is undeniable. Wooyoung spends a lot of time praising how much Yeosang has grown since he’s met him and talking about how grateful he is that he debuted with Yeosang. While these members are the two he’s closest with, he shows appreciation and love for all of the members. He supports them, jokes with them, and offers comfort whenever he feels he can provide it. Every member of ATEEZ is deeply important to him and he never misses an opportunity to show it.

His Love For Atiny:

His love for Atiny could never be in doubt. He even left Hongjoong with a message for the Atiny who attended the recent New York fansign, apologizing for not being able to make it and promising them that he would show them his best work at the next concert. He was absent because of his grandfather passing away. He really didn’t have to say anything, and all true Atiny would be understanding if he stayed completely silent at this time. But all Wooyoung was worried about was the Atiny who would feel disappointed that they wouldn’t get to meet him. At the same time I feel horrible that Wooyoung felt he had to do this, the love he has for Atiny blows me away sometimes. Every video I’ve seen of him at a fansign involves him paying back each compliment with a genuine question about the life and preferences of the Atiny who payed him the compliment. He listens intently to everyone who speaks to him and laughs good-naturedly at every joke that comes his way with a genuine smile on his face. He’s even been spending most of his free time learning English so he can communicate better with some foreign Atinys during fan events. He’s open and sweet to Atiny as a whole, and while he is one of the members that will not apologize for setting firm and healthy boundaries, he always makes it clear that he loves spending time with us.

His Amazing Performances:

I can’t finish this post without talking about what this man does as a performer. First off, his dancing is incredible. ATEEZ is essentially a dance crew who started out their careers doing dance covers. As such, every single member is insanely good at dancing and Wooyoung is no different. He approaches each dance with energy and precision. His facial expressions are also on point and perfectly intense for each song he performs. All of this can be seen in his solo work as well, particularly the dance cover he did when he was labelled “Artist of the Month” in June of last year. His dancing there is effortless, his expressions casual but enticing, and his presence is intimidating. I’m not even sure how I survived seeing all of these elements come together live on stage during their concert. Along with his dancing he’s also an amazing singer. Amongst ATEEZ he’s one of the members with a higher range, which suits slower and calmer songs with its sweetness, as well as more exciting songs with the effortless belting he shifts into. The cover of “12:45” that was released on his birthday was such a lovely gift that showed off the beautiful softness and powerful range of his voice perfectly. I love his voice and I hope we can hear more of it as we keep getting more albums.

And that’s it! It was really nice to go through all of the things I love about Wooyoung, but I’m still extremely sad writing this. His birthday came with so much pain this year and Wooyoung doesn’t deserve to have to carry such a heavy burden while he’s so far from home. I hope that the love from Atiny can cheer him up and he’s able to get the rest he needs. I also hope that, if you’re worrying about Wooyoung and feeling upset yourself, that you were able to find some happiness in this post. I know it’s hard, but I want Wooyoung to know how much he’s loved and how much we appreciate him. He deserves all of our love, and if Atiny has anything to say about it, he’ll get it right now when he needs it most.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

International Dramas: ‘Soundtrack #1’

Screenshot of Park Hyungsik and Han Sohee in ‘Soundtrack #1’. Copyright goes to Disney+.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I’ve been trying to get around to watching some of the K-Dramas that Disney+ recently added and just haven’t had the time at all. Or the motivation. I’ve been slowly trying to get myself back into watching full K-Dramas (I currently lack the attention span), so when I saw that this was four episodes I thought it would be the perfect short watch to get me back into it! It helps that this drama stars Park Hyungsik. I’ve been wanting to watch him in something since seeing him in ‘In the SOOP: Friendcation’, so I was also thrilled that he was the lead of this drama. And this drama definitely did succeed in getting me back into watching K-Dramas! I’m watching another one now that’s actually a decent amount of episodes that I will also be reviewing soon. But, I can’t say that this is a recommended watch. I was sold immediately on the synopsis and how simple but adorable it seemed, but for some reason this drama just couldn’t pull it together enough for me to come out of it with that wholesome feeling I was hoping for. As always, I’m going to get into reviewing this and there will be MAJOR SPOILERS ahead. Though there’s honestly nothing much to spoil.

Summary: Eunsu and Seonwoo have been friends for almost twenty years and, despite Seonwoo’s feelings for Eunsu, have never dated. When Eunsu needs help with writing lyrics for her job and Seonwoo is kicked out of his own apartment, they decide to live together for two weeks.

The Soft:

The Acting- I love both of these actors. They succeeded in making their characters likable, as much as they can be, and their acting decisions were very believable and nuanced. Both of these actors took what they were given and ran with it. Every emotion the characters felt was sure to make the audience emotional as well. And they worked great together! It’s not too often you can put two actors together, say that they’ve known each other since they were nine, and have the audience actually feel like that was a true occurrence. The chemistry between these two completely sold it!

The Aesthetic- This drama was made to feel cozy and you can absolutely tell by watching it. Between the snow, the cozy jackets, the fairy-light lit streets, and the soft blankets, it really does feel like a cozy winter drama. Each shot had warm colors and even desserts galore. I absolutely had a sweet tooth by the end of watching this. And, as a California native where we don’t get much snow, I adored every shot with snow in it.

The Soundtrack- Part of the charm of this drama is the soundtrack that goes perfectly along with the story. Including songs that have the lyrics Eunsu is writing within the show. It really made the drama feel even more personal to the characters and the music itself was lovely.

The Scratchy:

The Plot- Yep, I’m coming out with the hard hitting ones first. Like I said before, I loved this synopsis. I loved the idea of two people who’ve known each other their whole lives, slowly realizing they are in love with each other while living together in a cozy apartment. It sounds adorable, right? Well, this synopsis doesn’t quite pan out like they advertise it will. Firstly, you have the fact that Seonwoo has always had feelings for Eunsu. We’re told at the very beginning that he’s had unrequited feelings for her and she knows he’s had unrequited feelings for someone; but he’s told her that it’s some girl she’s never met named “Jennifer”. The reason why she invited him to stay with her is because she needs help on lyrics about unrequited love because she’s told that she doesn’t know enough about it. For one, this doesn’t make sense because they later establish that she actually did have “unrequited” feelings for him. So wouldn’t she understand it enough to write about it? Why does she need his help? But for another, it takes the magic away of them falling for each other while living together if one (or more) of them is already in love. It’s like the story should have started far before this story actually started. This aside, they don’t actually fall in love or confess to each other while living together. One of the characters moves away not long into the show and then has to come back in order for that to happen. When they get together they are no longer living together and haven’t been for over a year. They don’t actually get to know each other much living together. In fact, them living together is pretty uneventful. Speaking of which…

Boring- I know this is rather blunt, but I really did find this drama to be boring. Nothing much happens in it at all. We don’t really see them fall in love because they were apparently already in love. We constantly see them apart and pining for each other while doing pretty menial tasks. Their jobs, photography and song-writing, seem really interesting but they find a way to barely show the jobs and make almost nothing of it whenever they do actually show them working. It was like watching absolutely nothing happen. I almost quit two episodes in before realizing that there were only two episodes left and I might as well finish those. The two leads don’t get together until ten minutes before the entire series ends, and it’s also a pretty nothing scene. They confess to each other pretty awkwardly, agree to date, and then it just ends. We get one more after-credits type scene (I’ll get back to this scene), but it’s very short and doesn’t focus so much on the leads. I sat there for a second afterwards wondering what the point of the series was.

The Characters- I wanted to like these characters. I really did. The actors were so likable and both of the characters seemed likable because of that. But none of the characters had any depth. We didn’t get much backstory for either character, probably because they didn’t have much time to do it, and what we got was very bare bones. We didn’t really delve into who these characters were, what their personality traits even are, or what caused them to finally get together in the end. They both had rejected each other at separate times because they didn’t want to ruin their friendship and were afraid of what would happen if they eventually broke up. We don’t really see why the moment they do get together was the right time for them. It feels like everything in this drama just sort of…happens. Like it’s going through the motions of every K-Drama ever with none of the heart.

The Message- Now we get back to that final scene. In this scene we see a cut to the future where the friends of the two leads are watching them cuddle cutely while making comments on the fact that they are finally together. Instead of saying really cute things about how they’re perfect together or how the young couple reminds them of their own relationship; they instead take this time to make it a lesson about how men and women can’t be friends. As a woman who has had male friends before who I never thought romantically of, I still don’t understand thinking that no men and women can ever be friends. I know this is a more controversial opinion in South Korea than in the US, but I still didn’t enjoy the oddly preachy nature of this scene. And it kind of soured this scene that was supposed to be cute.

I’m not saying at all that I thought this was the worst thing that I’ve seen. I honestly thought it was pretty boring and I wouldn’t watch it again. But this feels like something that you could put on in the background and not pay attention to. It has a nice aesthetic that makes you feel warm and cozy when you look at it; just don’t look for a compelling plot. If you want to watch this, go ahead and give it a watch! It certainly won’t take up much of your time. I was expecting more from this, which is saying something considering all I wanted was a simple, cute romance. I wish it would have followed more closely with the synopsis it advertised. But at least it was a cozy watch!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Book Adaptations: What Peter Jackson Made Better in ‘The Lord of the Rings’

Screenshot of Liv Tyler as Arwen in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’. Copyright goes to New Line Cinema, WingNut Films, The Saul Zaentz Company, and the Tolkien Estate.

Hey! Hallie here!

We’ve mentioned LOTR on this blog a few times, but we never fully dedicated a post to it. Recently I’ve been feeling particularly passionate about this series, so I figured it was time to rectify that. Mainly, I’m really tired of the discourse over ‘Rings of Power’ that’s been going on non-stop for the last few years now. When the series was announced, suddenly everyone became an expert on ‘The Lord of the Rings’ books and what Tolkien intended for the world he wrote. Any changes to canon were condemned, racism and sexism became rampant, and “book purists” started picking apart everything about the series to convince others that anything not aligned with the books was immediately invalid. And yet, somehow, Peter Jackson’s original trilogy is still beloved amongst these fans. I hate to tell these toxic fans this, but Peter Jackson changed some major things within his movies. Some of these things have received their own criticisms, but many of them I’ve seen book purists wrongfully attribute to Tolkien because of how seamlessly his changes fit into the story of Middle Earth. In my opinion, I think Jackson’s changes in these adaptations have elevated his movies even beyond the books. So let’s get into what Peter Jackson did better in his LOTR films.

Women in Middle Earth:

I’m starting off with something I see toxic fans and non-toxic fans alike complain about. Peter Jackson has made a habit of writing in female characters to break up the meat fest that Tolkien originally wrote. Some of these characters are present in the books but have their stories elongated or modified, such as Galadriel and Eowyn. Some of these characters are briefly mentioned but never given personality, such as Arwen. And others were created entirely from scratch, such as Tauriel. Obviously, there are male fans who complain about Peter Jackson’s attempts at giving us more female representation simply because they’re sexist. But some complain about these women from a narrative perspective. Arwen gets complaints because she replaced a fan-favorite elf from the books, Glorfindel. But what Arwen gives to the plot is so much more than what Glorfindel ever provided. Glorfindel was an elf who appeared only the once in the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy. His past is mentioned in ‘The Silmarillion’, which is why people like him so much, but he holds no relevance to Frodo’s story at all. Meanwhile, Arwen, while also providing a badass woman for little girls to look up to, also has a meaningful relationship with Aragorn that deeply effects him throughout his entire character arc. For that reason, narratively, expanding her character is far more satisfying and makes a lot more sense.

Tauriel gets complaints for her side-story with Kili being unnecessary. But her story with Kili actually gives him personality where, in the book, he had none. Not to mention that the Mirkwood elves in the book play a tiny role in the story but were one of the most interesting elements of ‘The Hobbit’ to readers. It makes sense to give us a Mirkwood elf for us to attach ourselves to, and let’s be honest, it wasn’t going to be Thranduil (As much as I do love him). Eowyn and Galadriel are the only two female characters whose narrative purpose stays mostly the same between books and movies because they were two of three rare female characters that Tolkien wrote well (The third being Luthien from ‘The Silmarillion’). But Tolkien still wrote them both with a hefty dose of sexism that Peter Jackson fixed. Galadriel, in Jackson’s films, is given a larger amount of power and takes a more personal role in taking down Sauron. Meanwhile, Eowyn doesn’t get a stupid ending where Faramir “tames” her and she never fights again. No matter how you look at it, Jackson does far more justice with the female characters in ‘Lord of the Rings’ than Tolkien ever did.

Fleshing Out Characters:

I already talked a little bit about this above, but this whole topic deserves its own section. Tolkien was an excellent writer who will forever be known for his world building. But many of the characters outside of the Hobbit characters feel a bit underdeveloped. Legolas gets absolutely nothing in the books, especially when comparing him to the rest of the Fellowship. Aragorn is the stern, honorable, and confident sort of man you’d expect from a character who will end up as king, and not much more. Gandalf is mysterious and disappears for a good chunk of every single book. Many of the beloved character traits we love from these characters came from Jackson’s movies. Legolas’s sass and witty back-and-forth with Gimli is far more explored in the movies, and his presence overall is stronger. Aragorn gets an entire character arc about trying to balance his responsibilities with not wanting to leave Arwen, fearing he will succumb to the ring and turn out like his ancestor, and finding within himself the self confidence to be king. All of which makes his character far more interesting of a protagonist to follow and makes his success all the more emotional. And Gandalf gets the time to be just as big of a main character as everyone else. When he leaves we actually get to see where he goes off to, making his sacrifices and struggles while there much more impactful to the audience. And his sternness and confidence is sometimes replaced with a humble, silly, gentle man who I’d personally like to know even more than the Gandalf from the books.

Then there’s the characters that Peter Jackson created lore for that is sometimes mistaken for Tolkien’s own writings. The biggest example is Thranduil, who I keep seeing book purists criticize for not being as tragic of a character in the movies as he is in the book. But Thranduil isn’t a tragic character in the book. Sure, Tolkien did write of the battle where Thranduil lost his father, but it’s not a major story that goes into the impact this loss had on Thranduil. It’s a small battle written in passing that isn’t even mentioned in ‘The Hobbit’. You want to know what else isn’t mentioned in ‘The Hobbit’ book? Thranduil’s wife or child. Yes, we know Legolas is his son, but that information doesn’t come from ‘The Hobbit’ book. Thranduil’s name isn’t even given in the book. He’s only referred to as “Elvenking”. The tragic backstory of Thranduil, where he loses his wife, distances himself from his son, and remains in perpetual mourning, is all Peter Jackson’s films. The fact that the treasure he’s searching for in the Lonely Mountain is actually a necklace once belonging to his late wife is also a plot line only introduced in Peter Jackson’s films, though the scene that blatantly states this never made it into the final cut. In the book, Thranduil is described as greedy and legitimately just wants to see if he can get something valuable from the dragon hoard. Tolkien’s strong point isn’t his character development, and while it isn’t bad, it’s definitely made better in Jackson’s movies.

Cutting Out the Excess:

It’s funny to see how many people will criticize Peter Jackson’s adaptations for throwing in “too many extra plot lines” when Tolkien did this so many times in his own books. Tom Bombadil is an entirely unnecessary character that breaks up the entire plot. Not only do Frodo and his friends spend too much time in his household, but the fact that they meet a man who is not even the slightest bit tempted by the ring so early in the story removes the stakes. We have all this setup describing how dangerous the ring is because of how irresistible it is to everyone, including Gandalf, and yet suddenly we get some random guy who undoes this build up while the story is still getting going. There’s also the amount of time Tolkien dedicates to world building. I’m not sure there’s any side plot as unnecessary as the entire chapter that’s dedicated to Pippin being shown around Gondor. And I’m not sure there really needed to be so many parts of Frodo’s journey where he’s stuck in a forest for several weeks on end with nothing but pretty descriptions of trees to pass the time. This is not to say that what Tolkien wrote is bad. I love these books and the amount of description within them. But there’s no way I’d want to see any of these things on screen and I’m grateful Peter Jackson avoided it.

Once again, this post isn’t a dunk on Tolkien. I’m a huge fan of the books and movies. But toxic fans need to remember what adaptations of Tolkien’s writings have added to the fandom. I don’t think anyone would appreciate these characters and these stories as much as we do if not for some of Peter Jackson’s tweaking. We would still have a deep love for the characters and world Tolkien made, but the closeness we feel to it all is very much aided by what Peter Jackson’s films did. And the same might be true of ‘Rings of Power’ in the future. While I may not have loved season one, I do already think it deserves praise for actually showing racial diversity within its cast. Just like Jackson’s development of female characters, it’s a necessary step forward that is long overdue. (Tolkien also wrote that the Harfoots were “browner of skin” so get out of here racist fans.) And I think the show has the opportunity to keep breaking boundaries and making strides forward if the creators listen to some of the criticisms surrounding the first season’s structure. There’s no reason to hate on it for being different from the books or diverging a little from canon. ‘Lord of the Rings’ has benefited majorly from it before and it certainly will again.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

ATEEZ: Ult Group

Promotional photo of (from left) Jeong Yunho, Choi Jongho, Jung Wooyoung, Kim Hongjoong, Choi San, Kang Yeosang, Park Seonghwa, and Song Mingi. Copyright goes to KQ Entertainment and ATEEZ.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I mentioned this briefly in my last post, but I feel like this is quite possibly an important change that the blog will reflect in the future. While we write posts based off of all of our favorite fandoms, I don’t think we write about anything quite as much as K-Pop. Both Hallie and I have changed our ult group to ATEEZ. And obviously we still love all of the other groups we’ve mentioned as well, but I think this has been coming on for a little while. Literally every time ATEEZ releases anything, it’s my new favorite thing that I’ve ever seen or heard. I am absolutely in love with how they delve into storytelling. I’m a huge geek and their storylines really appeal to my fandom heart. And also, as I have mentioned before, Yunho has been my ult bias for months. Sometimes I think that ATEEZ isn’t underrated anymore and then I am reminded that people still don’t give them the credit that they deserve. I’ve been voting for them every day for the MAMAs and I hope everyone else is too! But I do want to take this announcement post to give them more of the credit that they deserve. Because nobody, anywhere, does anything like ATEEZ does.

Hongjoong:

Our Captain, a rapper, and one of the brilliant brains behind ATEEZ. This man has written so many songs for this group and his love of classic music and tampering with different kinds of music has partly given ATEEZ their unique sound. It would not have surprised me if the decision to combine “Answer” with “Ode to Joy” was something Hongjoong suggested. This man has lost a computer’s worth of songs just to re-do all of the work, and was at one point the leader of around twenty trainees. He’s known for being responsible and sometimes selfish over Atiny and the absolute best Captain that we could have asked for.

Seonghwa:

The absolute Mom of the group and the ultimate shoulder to cry on. Seonghwa can both sing and rap and has one of the lower registers of the group, and he’s also known for his visuals. Seonghwa is the support that we all need in our lives and the one that surprises a lot of Atiny the most. He’s very adorable behind the scenes and extremely intimidating on stage. His onstage presence has been known to bias wreck those who see him live. Seonghwa is known for making so many people comforted with much of what he does and I think we’ve all turned to Seonghwa for comfort at some point.

Yunho:

Obviously I’m biased (pun intended), but Yunho is one of the most underrated members of ATEEZ. Fortunately, people are beginning to notice this and give him more credit. Yunho is one of the main vocalists and the main dancer; if one of the members need help with a piece of choreography they go to Yunho. Yunho has also successfully tried his hand at being an actor and has an underrated stage presence. I can never tear my eyes off of his aggressive but very clean dance style whenever I see them perform. He’s known for being a sweet golden retriever with a competitive streak and I don’t know how more people don’t bias him.

Yeosang:

Yeosang used to not get many lines as a vocalist, but now he’s been getting more and more and I’m very glad. Yeosang has a unique darker tone to his voice, but he’s mainly known within the group for his statue-esqe visuals. And now that the tour has happened, his way with the choreography has wrecked so many people. Seriously, I don’t know how any of us survived watching him perform “Cyberpunk”. Yeosang is the most introverted of the group and he’s also so incredibly sweet. He may be quiet but he also has a sarcastic wit that makes me laugh every time. He has the best burns of any idol.

San:

San, a vocalist, is the most biased of the group and we all know why. He has one of the most eye-catching performance styles in the entire industry. His facial expressions and interpretations of the choreography has attracted many a fan. And also, if you saw an idol go viral for wearing a crop top not that long ago, it was most likely San that you saw. His intense performance style, like Seonghwa, is also a difference from his more adorable persona. This man takes care of his members and also has a collection of amazing plushies that we all love to see. San also made me question me entire life during “Cyberpunk”.

Mingi:

This man just wrecked everyone, and I mean everyone, for this tour. When he performs, he goes all out. He’s known for his deep voice when rapping and he’s also known for taking off his shirt. If you’ve seen one of these members go viral because he was shirtless during a performance, I guarantee you that was Mingi. He also got all of the fans to bark at him at pretty much every location of this most recent tour. Mingi is another sweet goofball and I’m so glad that we recently got the Mingi and Yunho head spin back. We missed him for the short time he was away and we’re all glad he’s back!

Wooyoung:

A bit of a troublemaker with definite vocal and choreography skills. Wooyoung and San can be a double kill on any day of the week, but Wooyoung has proved time and time again that he can be a kill completely on his own as well. He loves to mess with other members of the group, specifically Seonghwa and Hongjoong, and they all make fun of his laugh all the time. But Woo has laser focus on stage. His dedication to the performances always comes across and makes it hard to not notice him when he’s on stage. And Wooyoung’s attachment to the other members is always so endearing to watch.

Jongho:

The amazing maknae that is also the other most underrated of the group. Have you heard this man’s voice? Why don’t more people bias him? Jongho is not characteristic for a typical maknae because of his slightly intimidating presence and the fact that he often acts older than other members of the group. He can also rip apples apart with his bare hands. But mostly, he’s known for quite possibly having the strongest voice in all of fourth gen. Jongho hits notes that many other people wouldn’t be able to even think of hitting. And when you see him live, he’ll hit them all over again like it’s nothing.

Storytelling:

This is the major thing that sets ATEEZ apart from everyone else. ATEEZ is always game for a story. Through their various albums and performances we’ve been introduced to HALATEEZ, an alternate dimension version of ATEEZ from a semi-apocalyptic world. As well as ATEEZ themselves, a pirate crew with a flying ship that stand up for the young people who don’t feel that they can really speak for themselves. As the story has gone on we’ve seen the struggles of both ATEEZ and HALATEEZ, but in particular we have seen them help each other out. Often their realities will collide and ATEEZ will rescue HALATEEZ from prisons or even help them fight in wars. HALATEEZ lives in a reality where the government has prohibited human emotion and banned creativity. After the threat from HALATEEZ’s own universe popped up in ATEEZ’s world (over the course of their ‘Kingdom’ performances), HALATEEZ crossed over to help ATEEZ fight that threat. And unfortunately lost their lives in the process, leaving their own world without a revolutionary force. The most recent storyline for ATEEZ has seen the pirate crew cross over into the universe of HALATEEZ to pick up where they left off in being the revolutionary force. And recent interviews have Captain Hongjoong saying that this will not be the end of the story. In fact, he said that this universe crossing is the beginning of a new storyline. No other K-Pop group has ever been this story driven. It’s like waiting for the next season of your favorite streaming show. This added to their unique and hard-hitting music makes it difficult to see why ATEEZ is so overlooked. This combination of music and storytelling makes them almost unbelievable to me in how much so many of my likes could exist in one thing.

Music and Choreo:

All of that story was partially because they liked the look of HALATEEZ, something that they came up with to prove to the industry that they weren’t just getting by on visuals. They did an entire MV, the “Hala Hala” MV, as an enormous dance focused video where they all wore masks to cover their faces. The masks make it virtually impossible to decipher who is who (unless, of course, you are very familiar with the members), and the MV takes place entirely in a warehouse type of area. This makes it so that the audience can focus on nothing but the dancing. And the dancing is more than enough. If you’ve seen someone make a video about the best dancers in K-Pop and they put “all of ATEEZ” somewhere in the video; that’s really common. ATEEZ is a dance group. On top of that, their genre mashing and fast paced tempos make their music addicting and dance-worthy. But more than that, they try to make things different than anything the industry has ever heard before. ATEEZ has never made a move where they played it safe. So each time they release anything, I’m blown away with how unique it sounds and also how I’ve lived my life so long without whatever they just released.

Message:

I need to talk about this too. My sister and I are the exact same age as most of the members of ATEEZ. This honestly could be a reason why we connected so much with them so quickly. ATEEZ has made it a point to talk about things that make their generation feel less than or unworthy. I got out of college in the middle of a pandemic, had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and spiraled. When ATEEZ released “Turbulence”, a song about not knowing who to be or where to go, I was shocked for at least a week that a song describing so much of what I had gone through had come at such a perfect time for me. ATEEZ has made songs encouraging fans to lean on them during hard times and describing them going through the same things. I don’t think I’ve ever connected this much with something, not just because it meets so many of my likes, but also because it feels so incredibly personal.

Why the Change?:

I think this question always comes up when someone changes a group or a bias. Especially when it comes around the same time the last group you were an ult stan of starts slowing down for a while. And, no, my sister and I did not change our ult bias group because BTS is going into the military. While I can’t speak entirely for my sister, this is where I’m at in this situation. My sister and I started stanning ATEEZ only about two years after they debuted. This was before ‘Kingdom’ and even before the release of ‘ZERO: FEVER, Pt. 2’. ATEEZ recently just had their fourth anniversary, meaning we’ve been with them for two years now. And we started stanning BTS about seven years after their debut. For me, this has meant that I got to see ATEEZ grow and change and the fandom grow and change. And somehow it all got so personal to me because of that. Not to mention that even before we made this decision I had been saying that my favorite K-Pop songs were ATEEZ songs. Just because, like I said, the minute I heard their sound I wondered where it had been all my life. Yunho has been a giant comfort to me, both in the ways he’s talked about his own hard times and how amazingly kind he is. And all of the members of ATEEZ have helped me out in so many ways I can’t even describe. They gave me incentive to keep going and, more than that, made me feel heard by covering things that I feel are important to me in my life right now. Right now I’m deciding on a career that not everyone in my family is supportive of. And ATEEZ has a song for that! If you’re wondering why this is changing, it’s because this is very personal to us. It’s not going to be a situation where once ATEEZ goes into the military the bias group changes again. This is a decision that was a long time coming for probably over a year for me personally. They had slipped into being my ults before I even realized it!

I love these men so much. Probably too much. I seriously can’t wait to see where they keep going from here. It’s felt, weirdly, so right after changing my ult group. It’ll be really cool to see how this will be going forward. But I miss them already. Their Anaheim concert was my favorite concert I’ve ever been to and yes, I still have post concert depression!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Video Games: ‘Eastward’ Review

Screen capture of the characters John and Sam in ‘Eastward’. Copyright goes to Pixpil.

Hey! Hallie here!

Recently I’ve been really interested in cozier games I can casually play on my Nintendo Switch. During my search I came across ‘Eastward’ in a list that was specifically for cozy games that aren’t farming sims, and because I get very easily tired of farming sims, I really wanted to give this a shot. Especially because of the art style, which is absolutely gorgeous. After finishing the game I have a lot of thoughts, which I’ll get into below, but I want to clarify something. This game is pretty high stakes and also has an in-depth and confusing storyline. It even gets quite dark at parts. So while I might call this game’s color palette or wholesome characters “cozy”, I wouldn’t necessarily call this entire game cozy, nor would I recommend it for someone looking for a calming game to unwind with. But that misconception isn’t the fault of the game, just some of the people who’ve recommended it. So with that warning out of the way, let’s get to what I liked and didn’t like in this game!

The Good:

The Protagonists: John and Sam are both really interesting characters that are equally fun to follow. John is a completely silent protagonist which isn’t unusual for an old-fashioned RPG like this one. He’s known for being reliable and kind, though with him actions clearly speak louder than words. The game also spends a good amount of time driving home that he’s an excellent cook just to make him even more likable. But what adds most to his character is his relationship with our other protagonist, Sam. While the player takes the role of John through most of the game, Sam is still a character players will spend a lot of time playing as. Sam is a little girl who’s backstory is mysterious due to the fact that John found her in a tube in some sort of laboratory. She does speak, often on behalf of both herself and John, and constantly demonstrates a huge heart and an earnest desire to befriend everyone she meets. On top of her easily likable traits, Sam is also a badass with crazy powers that prevent her from being any sort of damsel in distress. These two act as a father/daughter duo that’s both heartwarming and heartbreaking as the events of the game unfold. While Sam is clear that John isn’t her real father, John sees himself as Sam’s parent and acts according to that role more and more as the plot goes on. The lengths these two go to to protect each other is the entire driving force of the game and it’s a very effective emotional hook for the audience.

The Side Characters: There’s a whole host of side characters in this game, and while not all of them are winners, most of them are, in my opinion, even better than the main characters. First there’s Alva, a princess and a technician who protects her city from danger with her inventions. She’s bubbly, adorable, and hilarious. And she’s also openly LGBTQ+ as she’s actively dating Isabel, a woman who was built(?) to protect her. Isabel is another great character. She’s the most skilled and feared fighter in the world of ‘Eastward’, as well as the most capable person (Aside from Sam and John) at defending her world from the darkness that’s sweeping across it. There’s also William, an inventor who left his family behind to prove that a world existed outside of the underground village he called a home. William is interesting in that he’s very obviously flawed. He travels around with a robot of his own creation named Daniel, whom he treats like a son, but his real life son named Daniel was left behind when William made to escape his hometown. William is haughty and a bit difficult to understand at first, but the ways he displays his devastation over leaving his family behind are quickly understandable. These are my favorite NPCs, but there are plenty more. There’s Jasper, the outlandish performer who shows a surprising amount of care for the protagonists at the beginning of the game. There’s also Lee, the menacing casino boss who has a soft spot for Alva that makes him endearing. The characters in this game are full of so many quirks and fun backstories that it’s hard to walk away without having at least one character you love.

The Art: I already mentioned the art above, but I’m going to take a bit more time to gush about it. This game is full of vibrant colors and gorgeous backgrounds. From lush forests to bustling cities, to strange labs, this game is breathtaking to look at. There wasn’t one frame where I wasn’t amazed by the color palette. The mix between bright colors and duller tones is eye-catching. And the character designs are all unique and satisfying to look at. They inform the character’s personalities so well that I wanted merchandise for each character even before I actually started the game. There are even pieces of art in the game that pop up towards the ending that are a completely different art style from everything else. As if the rest of the game didn’t already look like a storybook, the occasional fluid, abstract style we get towards the end elevates that storybook feeling. To be honest, I partially bought this game because of the art and I do not regret spending around 25 hours staring at it.

The Gameplay: The gameplay is very satisfying and not too complicated. While I, once again, would not call this game cozy, it’s not stressful to play gameplay-wise. You spend most of the gameplay fighting, but fighting mechanics are simple and, once you get the hang of dodging, most fights are a breeze. As long as you can button mash and you fully utilize Sam’s abilities to freeze enemies, you shouldn’t have any problems. There were very few fights that I had to restart during my time playing this game and even fewer that I had to restart multiple times. You get a few weapons you can choose from during fights, but each are straight-forward, can only be occasionally leveled up, and some are more for puzzles than fights. Speaking of puzzles, there are plenty of fun puzzles you can solve using both John and Sam. These puzzles aren’t too difficult, but they also aren’t so easy that you don’t feel you’ve accomplished anything once you figure them out. There’s also a cooking mechanic in this game that will provide you with the best healing items you can get your hands on. Cooking is as simple as mixing various kinds of ingredients together and seeing what dish you make on accident, but I did find myself enjoying putting together different ingredient combinations to see what recipe I randomly unlocked.

The Bad:

The Story: Well oof. Although I’m very character oriented when it comes to what I find enjoyment in with video games, a bad story always sours my experience regardless of how good the characters are. And this is a particularly messy story. For this section I’m going into SPOILERS! You’ve been warned! The amount of half-baked ideas it felt like were thrown at the wall and never resolved was frankly astounding. First there’s the identity of Sam, who, as far as I gathered, is one of many clones of a mysterious woman. The purpose of her creation was to help usher in a mass extinction of humans so they could be replaced with artificial “better” humans. But who’s she a clone of? Is it someone specific? Is it the person who decided that replacing humans was a good idea for no reason? Why did there need to be more than one clone? There’s also the fact that all of the characters refer to Sam as “mother” when they either praise her or blame her for ushering in the darkness that’s supposed to be the catalyst for replacing the human race. But who’s mother? What motherly role would Sam or the other clones serve? And though I do like that Sam rejects the idea of destroying the human race and puts a stop to it all herself, who’s the alternate version of Sam that keeps trying to convince her to go dark? Is she another clone? The dark side of Sam? The original creator of the clones?

Then there’s Solomon, a character who claims to work for “mother” and appears at various stages of his life throughout the game. He’s a kid when you meet him, but soon afterwards you meet him as a teen and then as an old man. Who is this guy? Why does he work for “mother”? Is he time traveling, or are the three versions of him clones like Sam? And why does it matter that he changes from a teenager to an old man if he’s just going to play the same “evil dude” role either way? And THEN there’s Isabel, who we’re told was built for Alva but then that piece of information never gets elaborated on. Is she even real? Also, why does she try to clone Alva and plug her into Sam’s human-destroying program at the end of the game? And how is Alva’s spirit able to suddenly appear and talk her out of it? I’m fine with a story leaving questions unanswered, but this many questions pertaining to this many main characters feels more like unfinished storylines rather than open-ended conclusions. I also have to complain about the tone here. It quickly switches from light shenanigans to dark themes frequently, but sometimes it’s so jarring that it’s a detriment to the story. For example, Alva dies pretty suddenly in this game. And I didn’t even realize she was dead until I left her city and came to the conclusion that Alva wouldn’t be coming back. Sure we see Isabel carrying her dead body, but she could easily be unconscious for all we know. And after the mostly humorous shenanigans right before her death, it’s hard to just immediately assume the worst there. This happens so often. One minute we’re messing around on a movie set run by monkeys, and the next Daniel the robot dies a gruesome death. Huh?

Sexism and Insensitivity: It’s undeniable. There are some unacceptable characteristics in the character design for some of the NPCs here. The ones I noticed most had to do with a few of the women in this game. While the main characters, such as Alva and Isabel, didn’t have this problem, a large amount of NPCs who happened to be women were given abnormally large breasts. To emphasize this, their breasts moved independently from their bodies during their idle animations. This is a specific trait I haven’t seen for a long time in games and it was kind of insulting to see it come back as an added trait for so many characters. Not to mention that one of these characters isn’t over-sexualized until her circus troupe, made up of men, forces her to wear a dominatrix outfit that not only gives her an abnormally sized chest, but also completely changes her personality. Then there’s the interpretation of a group of homeless people within a large city. All the designs for this population are made to be purposefully ugly and each character deliberately sounds unintelligent in their dialogue. Because that’s a great way to depict an underprivileged population. These details aren’t included in the most important parts of the story, but the fact that they’re there at all irritated me quite a bit.

I wish I liked this game more. After seeing the art and hearing the plot, I thought this would be right up my alley. And in some ways it was. I did enjoy many of the characters and I loved the art style. But the story was a mess and some of the old-fashioned ideologies made me cringe. This game needed more time and more people to look over it before its release. It’s definitely not a bad game. If you love games like ‘EarthBound’ and ‘Undertale’, you’ll absolutely enjoy this one. But don’t expect the same richness in story you get from either of those titles.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Comfort Entertainment: Jester and Fjord in ‘Critical Role’

Valentine’s Day promotional photo of Travis Willingham and Laura Bailey. Copyright goes to ‘Critical Role’ and Travis and Laura.

Hi! It’s Annie!

So I’ve talked about D&D romances, ‘Critical Role’ characters, and ‘Critical Role’ campaign comparisons. I guess it’s about time to kind of combine all of that so that I can talk about what is one of my favorite couples in all of ‘Critical Role’. And one of my favorite fictional couples I’ve ever seen in anything ever. This is also one of my favorite examples of letting things happen in D&D and it ended up so cutely! As well as the fact that, unlike some couples in ‘Critical Role’, this couple actually got their happy ending in the end. Though overall this campaign had a more wholesome feel to it than the first one (even despite the major character death), so it made sense that the ending of this campaign felt more wholesome and less tragic than the last one. Every campaign end has been pretty thematic in my opinion. There are so many things that make this couple so wonderful and give people a better understanding of romance RP that can be used in their own personal games. So I’m going to go over all of the things that make this couple absolutely amazing! MAJOR SPOILERS FOR CAMPAIGN TWO OF ‘CRITICAL ROLE’ AHEAD!!!!!

Travis and Laura:

You can’t talk about Jester and Fjord without also talking about Travis and Laura. For those of you who are unfamiliar with voice actors and ‘Critical Role’; Travis and Laura are a married couple! They are actually the only couple that are both players at the table of the ‘Critical Role’ team. There are other couples that are involved in ‘Critical Role’, but in no other instance are both player characters (unless you rightfully also count Sam and Liam). In the previous campaign Laura played a character that romanced someone else’s character at the table. Laura has said that she absolutely loves romance and really loves making it a part of her character’s storylines if she can. Travis was completely ok with this. Travis is the exact opposite of his wife in that, up until this campaign, he swore that he would never RP romance. He felt that it was really awkward and often cringed when a romantic scene would happen during the first campaign. After expressing to his wife that he entirely meant to keep with that for the second campaign; Laura decided to take this as a challenge. She swore to him that his character would end up falling for her character, which he kind of laughed at and really didn’t believe. Oh, how wrong he was. Laura Bailey, the resident badass, made the type of character that became irresistible to most everyone at the table. By the time the campaign ended, three of the six other player characters had professed that they had a crush on Jester at some point. Obviously one of those was Fjord.

The Character History:

For the people unfamiliar with these characters, I’m going to go into a brief explanation. Jester is a blue Tiefling (a devil-type humanoid with horns and a tail but is not always evil by any means) who wears adorable dresses and has a very naive and cute personality. Fjord is a green Orc (fanged humanoid that look much better than the Orcs you are probably thinking of), who has a very pirate-y backstory, loves the sea, and is the strategist of the group. When the party eventually comes together at the beginning of the campaign, Fjord and Jester have known each other for a while. They’ve already been traveling together longer than many others in the group and Jester already knows a lot more about Fjord. She already knows about Fjord’s tragic past and how he assumed the personality of his old Captain, making his southern accent not a complete truth. In fact, when Fjord eventually shows the rest of the group that his accent is actually British, Jester attempts to warn Fjord that he dropped the accent in what she perceives to be an accident. And with Jester’s more naive and lighthearted nature, and also the fact that her Mother expects her safe return, Fjord vows to protect Jester. Something that actually comes up reliably in combat during the campaign. With all this history written for Jester and Fjord, it really does make you wonder how Travis ever thought he would be immune to the charms of his wife. But you can see him making an attempt to turn the dynamic into something more older brother-younger sister towards the beginning of the campaign. Laura did not allow this to happen for long though.

Bad Timing:

One of the things I really love about this couple is that they actually took some time to develop. Both as individuals and as a couple. Though I’m sure some of it seems a bit like a hilarious troll to some, I felt that the timing that was taken was perfect. At the beginning of the campaign Jester had a huge crush on Fjord that was obvious to everyone except for maybe Fjord. Though I’m sure he was aware of it at some point. As the campaign went on, Fjord started reciprocating these feelings after seeing Jester interact with her Mother and show her deep sense of kindness and empathy towards others on multiple occasions. However, when Fjord finally realized that he also liked Jester, Jester realized that she wasn’t in a place to have a relationship. Jester realized that one of the reasons she liked Fjord was because he was the first person to show her genuine care and kindness once she had escaped her rather sheltered life. Fjord was patient as Jester actually used her own experiences and a more well-rounded world view to discover what she wanted and to set standards for herself and her life. And then when Jester had become more mature, Fjord finally made a move on Jester that was immediately reciprocated. The two remained together for the rest of the campaign and we even got to see the two tell each other that they loved each other for the first time. And what was even more shocking about this? Watching Travis essentially fall in love with his wife over again and actually instigate romance scenes. The first part isn’t shocking, but the second part…we never thought we’d see the day. Watching Travis turn bright red and bury his head in his hands after the first actual kiss scene between the two was devastatingly adorable. And watching Travis’s silly surprised grin when Laura created an incredibly deep moment between Jester and Fjord (the jellyfish scene), was almost too much to handle.

Inevitability:

Though Travis and Laura often don’t sit next to each other during games anymore, we have seen adorable interactions between Laura and Travis at the table before. Though most of them have been out of character. Laura Bailey has twice now left an award show for video games and voice actors early in order to play ‘Critical Role’. I love this because my priorities would be the same. This actually included a time when she was up for an award and left before the award was even announced. (Hell yes!!) Seeing Travis look up from the table stunned, and tell her how beautiful she looked in the middle of the game after she showed up, was heart wrenching. But watching Travis watch his wife in awe as she made it somehow impossible for Fjord to not romance Jester was just as cute. He even laughed in disbelief in the behind the scenes ‘Talks Machina’, lamenting that Laura had made it impossible for him. Poor Travis never had a chance. And Jester and Fjord really did seem to be endgame from the beginning. From the promise of protecting her, to the jellyfish scene, to Jester eventually actually healing Fjord which was easily one of the most shocking moments of the campaign. These two were inevitable. And also so incredibly cute from both the standpoint of Jester and Fjord being cute together and the standpoint of Laura making it impossible for her own husband to have any other choice with charm alone.

There’s always something about fictional couples that are also played by real life couples. One of the reasons why the K-Drama ‘Crash Landing On You’ had such good chemistry from the off was because of the actual off screen chemistry between the actors. And the chemistry always comes through with a married couple. Travis and Laura are both amazing at RP already, but I don’t think any other fictional couple will have quite the same adorable magic as this one does. It is absolute perfection and I melt into a puddle any time I look up any scenes of these two. There are so many things that came together to make this couple so great, and this is why I think they are one of my favorite fictional couples of all time. D&D made this even more personal in every way than any other form of media could have. And Laura and Travis are amazing!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Netflix Shows: ‘Enola Holmes 2’ Review

Screenshot of Millie Bobby Brown and Helena Bonham Carter from ‘Enola Holmes 2’. Copyright goes to Netflix.

Hey! Hallie here!

The first ‘Enola Holmes’ wasn’t something we covered on this blog, but it was extremely good. I was honestly expecting something a bit cheesy when the first trailers were released, but it came across as fun and witty instead. Millie Bobby Brown really shines in the role of Enola, especially if you’re only used to watching her play Eleven in ‘Stranger Things’. She’s sharp, confident, and extremely charismatic as the lead in these films. And on top of that, Henry Cavill is Sherlock Holmes. Henry Cavill obviously makes most things better. Because the first movie was so good, I was a little worried about the second one. Good sequels are hard to come by, especially where Netflix is concerned. But ‘Enola Holmes 2’ received a lot of love the day it came out which very quickly shot my expectations from low to high. After watching it I’ll say that ‘Enola Holmes 2’ isn’t perfect, but it did ultimately live up to my expectations. Let’s get into what I liked and disliked about this sequel! SPOILERS AHEAD!

What I Liked:

Enola and Sherlock: One of the main pieces of this film that was heavily advertised was the brother/sister team up of Enola and Sherlock. They didn’t get as much time in the first one to interact as some would have liked, mainly because Enola was actively trying to avoid her brothers in her attempt to figure out where her mother was, so this was an element many people were looking forward to. Fortunately, this relationship was utilized perfectly. Sherlock has plenty of screen time, coming in pretty early in the movie and helping Enola through a good portion of her investigation. But he never overshadows her. He’s working on his own case for much of the movie, putting him on a different path than Enola. His case does wind up connecting to Enola’s, but there’s a fair amount of time beforehand for Enola to figure some things out on her own. I liked this both because Henry Cavill’s Sherlock tends to be a scene stealer which doesn’t always benefit Enola, and because it was necessary to show Enola’s capabilities both with and without her brother. Though Sherlock is definitely more skilled at deduction than Enola, Enola utilizes deception and undercover work, which works to make her come across as his equal. I also really loved the sibling relationship between these two. Sherlock’s clear anger after he isn’t able to arrange Enola’s release from prison was sweet, as was his care for her in the final battle. Similarly, Enola’s trust in him to protect her when Lestrade comes looking for her was heartwarming, as was her arrangement for Sherlock to meet Watson. They make looking out for one another a priority in ways that feel natural to their characters. I can’t wait to see these two interact more in the future!

Feminism: A huge point of the ‘Enola Holmes’ films is the emphasis on the strength of women, whether that be shown through Enola herself or the other women in Enola’s life. This movie continues on with that theming. We get more of Enola demonstrating her fighting capabilities as well as her abilities to outsmart her adversaries. We even get to see her teach Tewkesbury how to fight. Eudoria Holmes, Enola’s mother, is still shown fighting as a suffragette which is displayed as a major part of her character. Edith, an amazing character introduced in the first movie, is directly contacted by Sherlock to save Enola because of her physical capabilities. She then recruits Eudoria to help her break Enola out of prison in a venture that is not only successful, but involves the three women fending off the main villains first in a dramatic chase scene, and then in hand-to-hand combat. And the entire story of this film is focused on a real life work of feminism. In the movie, Enola’s investigation surrounds the disappearance of a red-headed girl named Sarah Chapman. Sarah Chapman was a real historical figure who staged the first walk out for better wages and conditions in a factory that hired girls to package unsafe matches. And though the real life Sarah Chapman was a little less daring than this Sarah, I think it suits the story to have Enola chasing another woman who is just as insanely intelligent and capable as she is. All of the female characters in this are badass and I adore it.

Moriarty: Speaking of badass women, let’s talk about the huge reveal at the end of the film. Throughout ‘Enola Holmes 2’ Sherlock is investigating a case that he knows he’s being led along by a new adversary, Moriarty. It’s really exciting to see Moriarty finally being brought up in the ‘Enola Holmes’ universe, but I at first worried that this would mean our main perpetrator would be an outside party, effectively eliminating the stakes. But that’s not what happened. Instead Mira Troy, a Black woman who was unappreciated by her devious employers, wound up revealing herself to be Moriarty. Not only does this play perfectly into the focus on strong women, but this reveal gives Moriarty more layers. As a Black woman, she knows better than anyone what it’s like to be ignored and underestimated. She goes as far as to express particular anger over this point to the main cast because of the way her extreme intelligence is overlooked. But that makes it easy for her to work in the shadows and much harder for her to be caught by Sherlock. It also gives her a very valid reason to shun society and seek out something more nefarious. Especially after the conversation Sherlock had with Edith in the first ‘Enola Holmes’, it’s smart to see him placed against a woman like Moriarty who experiences absolutely none of the privilege that he does. It’ll be exciting to see how they clash.

Tewkesbury: He’s not as major of a role here as he was in the last movie by any means, but his appearances are nice. I liked the scene where he taught Enola how to dance about as much as I liked Enola teaching him how to fight. His appearance at the ball otherwise wasn’t the most plot relevant, but it was still cute to see how head over heels he still is for Enola. My favorite usage of Tewkesbury occurred at the end of the film, where he finally has the courage to get his hands dirty and participate in hand-to-hand combat. Him doing so specifically for Enola was especially lovely. He’s a very good love interest, serving as the Watson to Enola’s Sherlock with just the right amount of puppy dog devotion to be adorable without feeling obnoxious. And much like Sherlock, he doesn’t overstay his welcome. Which is nice because he isn’t all that relevant to this investigation. Overall, Tewkesbury is in just the right amount of the movie to feel charming and not unnecessary.

What I Disliked:

Enola’s Character Growth: This is my only gripe with the film but it’s a pretty big gripe. Don’t get me wrong, I liked that Enola’s lesson here was to be unafraid to make real connections and to ask for help from the people who she’s made connections with. But the execution was so sloppy. At the beginning of the film Enola feels so much less competent than she was in the first film. Her deductions, when she first is hired to investigate the disappearance of Sarah Chapman, are obvious and not at all impressive. She then remains completely oblivious to getting followed on two separate occasions, and falls into a trap Sherlock is knowledgable of because of his superior deductions. Then she walks into a ball undercover after having done no preparation whatsoever. It feels like Enola is uncharacteristically fumbling through even the simplest of tasks early in the film. Of course, this is all meant to lead up to her mother suggesting that she may need the help of other people who have skills she doesn’t. After Enola accepts that she needs help, she becomes regular Enola again. When she returns to the room she was first in, her deductions are inexplicably much better. When she goes to investigate various locations with Sherlock, they’re able to bounce off of one another rather than Sherlock coming up with all the right answers himself. I understood what they were going for with the development of Enola, but they needed to demonstrate that Enola’s skills weren’t enough in some situations rather than lessening her skills in all situations.

And those were my thoughts on ‘Enola Holmes 2’! Though I wasn’t a fan of the way Enola’s character arc played out, I don’t feel the character lost any of her likability. And clearly, the things I enjoyed about this movie far outweigh the things I disliked. With the amazing setup of Watson in the very last scene, I can’t wait for the third. And the third is already being planned as I write this! ‘Enola Holmes’ has been a surprisingly masterful venture amongst a sea of Netflix’s recent failures. I think it’s wise that they keep something this entertaining going.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

ATEEZ: Post Concert Depression

Screenshot/Promotional photo of (from left) Park Seonghwa, Kang Yeosang, Kim Hongjoong, Choi Jongho, Song Mingi, Choi San, Jung Wooyoung, and Jeong Yunho. Copyright goes to KQ Entertainment and ATEEZ.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I’m sad. I think that’s pretty clear by the title. I was just at what I believe was my favorite concert I’ve ever been to for my ult group. Because, yes, this has been coming on for a while, but ATEEZ is officially my ult group and the ult group of this blog. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you probably know that Yunho has been officially my ult bias for longer than that. And the concert from a couple days ago felt really personal to me for so many reasons. For one, this is the first time where I scored the tickets myself and it took a lot of determination because of the Ticketmaster glitch. For another, we were sitting so incredibly close. So close that we didn’t have to look at the screens if we didn’t want to because we could perfectly make out their facial features from where we were sitting. There was also the fact that I promised myself I’d go to this concert and have gotten better by the time it came around during a pretty rough time for me, and I have gotten better. But whatever way you want to slice it, the overall truth of the matter is that a couple nights ago I was in the same building as my ults, crying during “The Ring” of all songs because they were so close, and screaming “BREAK THE WALL!” and “ATEEZ PRESENT!” at the top of my lungs. I don’t know if it was the cold air, but I have never lost my voice that badly after a K-Pop concert. And it really feels like I was ripped out of a perfect day that I would love to relive over and over again. I was anticipating it for so long and it went by so fast! Even though ATEEZ performed for over two and half hours. (How do they perform for that long with that difficult choreography???) But I am feeling the familiar grip of post concert depression particularly badly this time. And I know that many people also know the hardships of post concert depression, including the idols themselves sometimes. So here are some of my tips to get through post concert depression and some of the things I’m doing this time in particular to make me feel a little better. Hopefully, some of these will help you out as well!

Concert Pictures and Videos:

This is absolutely going to hurt at first, but trust me and go through all of your pictures. I know everyone takes a ton. Even I do, though I don’t really like using my phone through most of any kind of concert. It’s honestly the most personal thing to you to recapture the magic from the night of the concert. Even better if you took live photos that show snippets of the concert. I’m pretty familiar with post concert depression at this point, so at one point I took a couple live photos of just Yunho walking across the stage. These pictures are now some of my absolute favorite pictures on my phone. I really love the badass performance shots, but I find the simple shots that just remind me that for a little while I occupied the same space as them to be more meaningful. And they are also automatically more heart-wrenching because they also feel more personal. A lot of people are going to have that shot of them striking that one cool pose, but only you are going to have the shot you took just because you’re a sentimental sap. After that the best thing to do is go to the videos either you or other people took of the concert. I was losing my mind so much during “The Ring” that I didn’t remember the choreography, so I had to look it up afterwards. This is the perfect time to refresh your memory. Because your brain going into shock during the concert will affect your memory of specifics a little bit. Again, going through concert footage will hurt, but it will at least remind you of the magic of the night. You can absolutely cry during this step; there is no judgement here. We all probably do it. Really, you can cry through any step of this process.

Variety Shows and Lives:

Inevitably, the photos and videos won’t feel as personal as you’ll want them to and you’ll miss sharing the space with your favorite idols. The best way to recapture the feeling of sharing the space with them, in my opinion, is to watch variety shows. Especially if they are the group’s personal variety shows. For this I use things like ‘FEVER Road’, ‘Salary Lupin’, and ‘WANTEEZ’. These are all shows that show the boys in action, interacting with each other, completing tasks, and just being themselves. This is why personal variety shows are better. Because the idols usually know the staff of their personal variety shows pretty well and the idols work as both hosts and contestants so you see them more in their natural environment. I find that watching them do things like this hurt less than watching their lives. Especially if one of the members went live after a concert. But their lives are also, admittedly, a great way to feel like you’re in the same space again. It usually takes me a few more days to be able to do this, but I love recapturing that feeling by watching the lives too. The binge-ability of any of these also makes it a good time to do other comforting things as well. Like hugging a plushie, drinking some tea, or burying yourself under blankets. Or all of the above.

MVs:

Want to recapture the choreography and the awe you felt watching their performances? This is where performance videos and MVs come in. Personally, I’ve been watching all of their MVs on repeat since the ending of the concert. It’s been days now and I’m still not tired of it. Though, we’re never going to recapture the chair choreography that was “Cyberpunk”; I can capture some of that feeling by re-watching the “Deja Vu” MV. And then with ATEEZ you get the added bonus of going through their storylines. Nobody does storylines like ATEEZ does. From “HALA HALA” where we were first officially introduced to HALATEEZ, to “Say My Name” where Halateez first appeared and ATEEZ attempts to release HALATEEZ from a prison like area, to “Don’t Stop” where we see Hongjoong get his eye patch and the pirate crew get their ship back, to “Guerilla” where ATEEZ takes the mantle of revolution leaders from the now deceased HALATEEZ in another universe since HALATEEZ gave their lives fighting with ATEEZ in their own universe. Their storylines are complex and masterfully done, which reminds me of the storylines that they continue into their own concerts. They had a full pirate ship setup this time and everything!

Have Hope and Write:

It’s really easy to feel like you’ve recently had one of the best nights of your life and you’ll never get it back. Sometimes you even accuse yourself of not fully appreciating it in the moment and wishing that somehow you knew how sad you would be and have appreciated it that much more for the knowledge. From experience, I can tell you that you probably appreciated it as much as you possibly could in that moment. And the best thing about touring groups is that, usually, touring is a yearly thing. Especially for K-Pop groups. So there’s a great chance that you’ll be able to see them again next year! What’s amazing about experiences like K-Pop concerts is that once you’ve gone, nobody can ever take that experience away from you. You’ll have it forever if you want it. If you can sometimes have a poor memory, like myself, write about it! I don’t care if you’re not much of a writer, I promise you’ll thank yourself later. Write how you were feeling and what happened before and the little things that you noticed. It doesn’t have to be long, but every time you read it you’ll be pulled back into the moment. Be grateful for the memory that you have and remember that this doesn’t have to be the last time you see them.

I have absolutely cried during this process. I usually do. I know some people might find reactions like this ridiculous; but I think it’s completely natural! You just had one of your favorite nights ever and it’s over now! But just because it’s over doesn’t mean it’s left you. You experienced it, so you’ll have those moments forever! It’s ok to feel sad right now, but it’s also ok to feel awesome; because yeah, that just happened to you. I miss all the members of ATEEZ already. And I miss the fact that Yunho was not that far from me. But I feel confident that I’ll experience it again sometime, and I can at least hold onto that hope! And for now, I have all of the amazing content that still gets me through every day anyways. But post concert depression will always hit so incredibly hard.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie!

ATEEZ: ‘The Fellowship: Break the Wall’ Tour

Promotional image of Park Seonghwa, Jeong Yunho, Jung Wooyoung, Choi San, Kim Hongjoong, Song Mingi, Choi Jongho, and Kang Yeosang for ‘The World Ep.1: Movement’. Copyright goes to KQ Entertainment.

Hey! Hallie here!

My sister and I have been talking about our excitement over getting tickets for this tour for a while now, and last night the concert date finally arrived! Going into this tour we were promised something a bit different. With the most recent album, ATEEZ created a level of immersion into the storyline they’ve been unfolding throughout their recent releases. With the release of ‘The World Ep.1: Movement’ we moved past the storyline they unfurled during their performances in the show ‘Kingdom: Legendary War’. During that show Halateez, the alternate universe versions of ATEEZ that were first introduced in the music video for “HALA HALA”, were killed in their fight to liberate their world. In the new album ATEEZ stepped into the role Halateez left behind and made moves to start a rebellion in the alternate universe, themselves. This concert plays out with this new storyline in mind, starting out with the audience themselves receiving the propaganda that’s enslaving the people of this alternate world. Sticking to a story in this way isn’t something we’ve seen a lot in K-Pop concerts, and this added element, along with the amount of seriously amazing songs on the new album, boosted my excitement to see the whole thing in person. And, as usual, ATEEZ delivered everything I wanted and more. Let’s get into the details!

Opener and Beginning:

Before I get to all the ATEEZ goodness I need to give a shout out to KQ Fellas 2! This is KQ Entertainment’s current rookie group made up of ten members. They only did two songs as the opening act for ATEEZ, but their vocals were incredible, as was their choreography. All of the members are extremely young, but I’m so excited to see what they do with their future careers! I will definitely be keeping my eye out for Minjae, Junmin, Sumin, Jinsik, Hyunwoo, Junghoon, Seeun, Hunter, Yujin, and Yechan in the future! I also want to talk about how immersive the concert was even before the concert started. Instead of music videos or adds being shown on the stage screens, We were treated to a metal wall with ATEEZ banners hanging from it. While we enjoyed mostly music from their newest album, searchlights could be seen moving across the wall. This effect was only aided by the start of the concert. As the lights went down, the audience received the chillingly soothing propaganda we’ve seen in the “Guerrilla” music video. Afterwards we were shown each member on the screen in their roles in the same music video as resistance fighters. Then ATEEZ came out in darkness to sing “New World”, a truly epic song to open with, only lit by bright lights held by the dancers. What made this even better was that the members came out in their “Guerrilla” cloaks with their hoods up, only taking them down as they each sang their first line and were finally illuminated by the lights. As soon as the chorus hit, the wall behind them, which we had seen all the way up until the concert started, opened into a cityscape. As the song ended with a mesmerizing vortex effect on the screens we went into “Answer”, which fit surprisingly well with the other new songs. Plus, it’s always amazing to see the choreography for this and Mingi absolutely killed his verse.

“Sector 1” finished the first set with some more energetic choreo before the first ments started. Their opening ments were short and cute, as always, and the amount of English they were all using was extremely impressive. I want to shout out Seonghwa in particular for dissing Disneyland’s new complicated reservation system by telling the story of how he went to Universal Studios instead during the last tour. By doing this he also, simultaneously caused Star Wars official twitter account (He had wanted to go to Disneyland for the Star Wars rides) to apologize and name him an official Jedi Master. Hell yeah. “The Ring” came afterwards, which I honestly almost blanked on entirely because this song was the first time ATEEZ came out onto the extended stage. I was sitting quite close to the extended stage and wound up too mesmerized by being able to actually see the members fully to completely comprehend what was happening. Still, “The Ring” is an extremely hard-hitting song and Seonghwa went full demon line for this one. “HALA HALA” was next and this was one of my favorite songs of the entire night. I love “HALA HALA” in general, especially the choreography, but the way this was performed was so clever. The colors on stage would flash between vibrant colors, to black and white as ATEEZ performed. When the colors went to black and white, the video on screen would change from ATEEZ performing the song on the stage, to an identical video of the choreography being performed with the ATEEZ members dressed as Halateez. There were even moments where dancers came out to dance the chorus dressed as Halateez for full effect. I don’t care if Halateez is technically dead in their storyline now, this was such an amazing idea and so well executed.

VCRs and Second Part:

After a large amount of energetic songs we were treated to our first videos. The VCRs throughout the night weren’t as nicely connected as I would have liked, but they were still enjoyable. The videos for the first break focused on ATEEZ talking about their love for one another, their protectiveness over the group, and their reason for doing what they do. As the night went on we also got the members dressed in their “Guerrilla” outfits, each showing off a role they play as resistance fighters. I especially liked hacker Yeosang and engineer Mingi. Last we got some really adorable VCRs of the members playing around together in a room full of flowers. All of these were excellent, but they didn’t aid the storyline much. Which brings us into the next set of songs. They came back from the brief break with “Dazzling Light”, a fun, heartfelt song that’s been a fan favorite for a long time. And just to keep on with the theme of grabbing Atiny by the heartstrings, they went straight into “Mist”, another very meaningful song to the fans.

I loved hearing both these songs, but I do have a small gripe with them coming next in the set list. The storyline basically ended at this point in the concert. The whole rebellion story halted pretty much entirely until the very end of the concert. I almost wish that they would have left these songs for last instead of pushing off “Cyberpunk” and “Guerrilla” until the end of the concert because of the immersive experience they had cultivated up until this point. It felt odd to suddenly drop the whole thing so early in the night. But that definitely didn’t diminish my experience. I loved seeing these songs performed live. We got a brief ment before the next two songs, where they made us guess what song was coming next and adorably praised Jongho for how cute he is, how talented he is, and how far he’s come. And after we heard some songs we haven’t seen them perform in a long time! We were treated to “Sunrise”, a very encouraging song from one of their first albums that was very fun to sing to, and “My Way”, a song from their very first album that feels like a self-fulfilling prophesy after all of their recent success. In the ment that happened afterwards they addressed “My Way” in particular to thank Atiny for being there for so many years and for allowing them to achieve their dreams. As they deserve.

Third and Fourth Part:

After a brief break ATEEZ came back onstage for “Illusion” and “Wave”, both of which were accompanied by a bright, cute background and were a nice mix between choreo and interacting with the crowd. We were then given another fun ment. This time they messed around with the color changing ability on the new lightinys, made the camera do an extreme close up of Wooyoung so he could flirt with the audience, and led us into a chant that’s become common on this tour, “sexy captain”. At which point Hongjoong stripped off his tie and did a full body roll onto the floor. I nearly died. I’m not even sure I’m still alive. That moment of chaos successfully distracted me from the giant set change that came afterwards. The background of the stage became a pirate ship, and the deck of the ship, complete with the wheel, was brought onstage. “WIN” brought up the energy in the room with the proper amount of hype for the pirate ship’s dramatic entry, and they even added some new choreo! And then they floored me with a song I never thought I’d be able to see live, “Horizon”. The choreo was just as crazy as I expected and led expertly by Yunho. I particularly loved the lift the dancers did with Yunho at the very end of the song. “Say My Name” marked the end of the pirate section, but this song is so iconic that I couldn’t bring myself to care. The screaming for the move that was recently stolen by another choreographer was extremely loud the night I went, as well. I hope they knew we were screaming our support for them and condemnation for the people who didn’t believe them.

We were given a brief video break for a costume change before the next part, and then we came back to “Cyberpunk”. Not only did we return to the cityscape and a bit of the story, but this song, guys. This song. You don’t have to wait long to get a feel for how “Cyberpunk” is going to go. At the very beginning San gets up on one of the many chairs that are brought on stage for this one and starts doing body roll after body roll. San really got me during this song, and Yeosang? He bias wrecked me extremely hard here. Between the chair choreography and the amazing body control, I just couldn’t look away from him. The choreo for this is something you can’t help but stare at. You should really find a video to see this for yourself if you can’t make it to a concert. After another brief ment, mostly used to catch their breath, they went into a remix of “Fireworks”. This remix has received mixed opinions from fans, especially because of the lack of choreo here, but I didn’t mind it. It wasn’t my favorite song of the night, but I loved the visual of the tree on fire that was shown on the main screen. After that was “ROCKY”, complete with its iconic choreo, and the regular version of “Wonderland”. You really can’t have an ATEEZ concert without “Wonderland”. Finally, Hongjoong declared that he was going to be the bad guy for announcing the end of the main part of the concert. They, of course, finished everything off with “Guerrilla”. The visuals on the screen brought back the motifs we saw at the beginning of the concert to round everything out and then Atiny was unwisely left to their own devices for another break.

Encore:

After Atiny chaotically started multiple waves and other random lightiny patterns, spent way too much time barking (Mingi’s fault), and screamed loudly simply because some of the lightinys started turning blue, the members appeared again. They started with “Turbulence” a song that came out at just the moment I needed to hear it and has since been very emotional to me. I fortunately succeed at not crying. Their next ment was another thank you to Atiny, as well as the crew for all the sets and effects during the concert. They also thanked choreographer Anze Skrube, who was apparently there that night! “Celebrate” was sung afterwards as another ode to Atiny. I really loved the cute feel that the flowery mic stands that were brought out gave this song. After this was the ending ment. A few members decided to say their final words to us in English, which was super impressive of them, but those that gave their final thoughts in Korean impressed me just as much. The members promised to return soon and as even better artists. Seonghwa reminded us that they’re always there to support us, because he always sets out to make me emotional. And Hongjoong left us with a very thoughtful and wonderful statement about how unstoppable people who unapologetically and bravely show their love for the things they enjoy are. He praised Atiny for their brave and unapologetic love for Ateez, and noted that Ateez has a similar love for us. After that I was understandably heartbroken that the last song had finally come. But “The Real” is a deceptively smart last song because it’s so much fun to dance along to that you easily forget how sad you are that the concert is almost over. Though I had a few gripes with the layout of the concert, it was an incredible experience I’d relive over and over again if I could. I can’t wait until I get to see ATEEZ again!

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie