infinitepastlives

Latest Posts by infinitepastlives

You can only reblog this on Nov 16 2023💥

who was your childhood crush, and why was it bill from eloise at christmastime?

Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day!

Source: This

Watching Heartstopper has made me realize that we’re trained to expect that the other shoe will somehow drop in queer media. That something terrible is just going to happen. (Someone gets outed or worse)

And Heartstopper presented us with an opportunity to create queer media without NEEDING for something terrible to happen. Honestly, it was refreshing. I’d like to see more content like this.

did alice really think it was okay to do this to me?

can’t believe there’s going to be a new generation of pjo fans who automatically picture walker scobell when they think of percy jackson and not a hodgepodge of viria and burdge’s fanart. does that make me old

The Prophecy is fulfilled

so yeah

i'm not gonna lie i've always leaned into my headcanon that sally, and therefore percy, was of latin american descent. but after seeing walker scobell in the Adam Project i can really see him doing a great job in this role! his comedic timing is fantastic and he has an air of maturity for his age, plus i've seen that he's been a pjo fan for a while, which is always great!

bottom line is he's a kid who just got cast in probably one of the next iconic roles of the decade, it's a big opportunity with a lot of pressure. i hope that everyone supports him accordingly, and that his experience with the project is positive. so exciting!!

new comfort genre? insanely long and detailed video analyses of the 2010s shows I watched as a tween:

rb if you love julie molina, are lgbtq, are neurodivergent, or are angry at netflix for not renewing your comfort show

no one will know which one :)

okay but can i just say another thing with nick ... he literally shows no interest julie, like pretty much doesn’t know she exists, until she becomes “interesting”. like it isn’t until she performs bright with the band and stuff that he suddenly likes her. like it took her having to have a band and be cool and semi popular for him to have interest in her ... like - doesn’t paint a great narrative there ...

anon you are so right!!!! and okay, i fell asleep thinking about this actually ghfjd because from what we know about nick, he's been dating carrie for a while and has never once shown interest in julie. but the second someone else obviously likes her (ie. you'd have to be blind to not see the way luke looks at her) and she suddenly becomes interesting, with the chance of being popular that he 'finally' realises carrie is not a good person?? hm seems a little sus to me. (not to mention this is all happening after her mum died and we can assume carrie has been making catty comments about that to julie for a year, but he just. didnt have a problem with that before the band??)

plus, at the end of the season when he shows up at julie's house with flowers, after she's told him she's not interested? thats always given me odd vibes. because we know they're not like, friends-friends, and if he just wanted to congratulate her he coulda just sent a text, or waited for school. but instead he shows up at her house uninvited? idk man i just find it a little weird.

AND to add on to this luke has like, lowkey fuckboy vibes from the way he dresses but he's actually very sweet? but i fully believe that nick will actually be a fuckboy, and not really care about who's heart he's breaking

can't wait to have the cast of a kids' show about ghosts, sad bizaardvark girl and italian rockers with eyeliner as my top spotify artists this year

relates to 1 step forward, 3 steps back and enough for you except for not with an ex but with mommy issues

But imagine if Luke’s last name wasn’t actually Patterson, and the Fantom really just looked at that one scene/missing poster a little too hard.

Kudos to that stagehand that seemed really invested while Julie was performing by herself in Stand Tall

Maybe finally playing a set of more than one song is their unfinished business? (The sign-up sheet in Finally Free literally says that they have to play 5 songs or for 15 minutes)

What if “Crooked Teeth” is about having a difficult home life/ family problems and that’s why it’s about Reggie or why Reggie and Alex think the song is about the other?

I’m honestly so glad that I still watch children’s television/ tv shows that have very general audiences, even as a university student. If not, I wouldn’t have decided to spontaneously watch Julie and the Phantoms after watching the beginning of the trailer. I thought that it would simply be a goofy show with one-sided characters and juvenile jokes. But I was hooked by the end of the second episode because of how it improved on so many tired and overdone tropes.

I can’t explain how much I love Julie and the Phantoms. Like it filled the Trollhunters/Wizards hole in my heart from last month, which is only worth mentioning because I was crying for days.

I need it to be renewed ASAP!!!

Please watch this incredible show, it’s got literally everything I would want in a show targeted towards kids (spoilers):

No douche-y or toxic masculine traits in the main male characters. I half expected the guys to be the typical bros when I started watching (since I decided to watch after 5 seconds into the trailer), but they weren’t and instead so adorable and supportive of each other.

A rival character that wasn’t villainized with her femininity. I really appreciated how Carrie was more than your typical rival/ex-best friend/ popular girl because that character is usually untalented/has bad songs (which doesn’t make sense given why she’s popular), only hates the main character out of jealousy and insecurity, and is very feminine to juxtapose the main. Instead, Carrie is seen as talented and no one mocks her more bubblegum pop music that a rock band could easily make fun of (but the band doesn’t and even dances along to it), and mentions how she’s worked hard on her music and choreography. 

The lgbt+ rep. I will admit, as much as I was excited that Alex has 1) gay and 2) out and 3) not one, present, had a problem with it, I was a little sad because he’s a ghost and I thought we would never see a gay love story for him as a ghost. Boy, was I wrong! I knew instantly that Alex was going too be awed by Willie with that slo-mo shot of him taking off his helmet. And then there were so many moments where I was thinking “Now, kiss” because of how close and intense they were.

Latinx rep. Having poc in lead roles is so important to me and I was excited and surprised that both female lead and her best friend were poc, instead of one of them being white. I loved that because it also means that their families will be poc. I will admit, I think it would also be great of the guys were less white, but I think the cast is great.

Incredible music. I told myself to finish watching before looking up the soundtrack and listening to it, but I couldn’t help myself.

Amazing outfits. Well, most of Julie and Flynn’s outfits and most of the bands’. I think my favorite of Julie’s in the camo jumpsuit from the 2/3 episode with her hair up, it was a nice transition from the more comfortable, passive outfit from the first episode to her fighting for her spot in the music program. (also, is anybody else confused by her school’s music program? my hs was a creative/performing arts hs and you literally had to apply as one of the majors, so being removed from yours would probably mean being kicked out)

Thank you if you read this unnecessary long rant about my new favorite show.

As the media begins to dial back on their coverage of a particular view of the BlackLivesMatter protests, we need to stay vigilant to working towards social and institutional change for Blacks lives in America. We need to continue to educate ourselves on the history of the problem, how it has ultimately affects today, and what we must do to ensure that our mistakes aren’t repeated.

As a first generation Asian American, I’ve always felt a little out of place, because I was taught in school that racism was a black and white issue and didn’t consider the model minority myth a part of that problem until a couple of years ago. But now is a better time than any for anybody who never educated themselves to learn.

My process began years ago, and sadly it wasn’t because I came to the revelation myself, but out of necessity from being surrounded in mainly Black and Brown classmates. After years of learning the anti-black rhetoric in my family (subtle comments and attitudes), stereotypes in media, and in elementary school text books that teach me that racism is over and that it ended hundred of years ago, I moved to a middle school where even less of my classmates looked like me and came from low-income neighborhoods. There, I slowly became aware of the boundaries that race created, both as one of the only two Asian students and while being surrounded by Black and Brown students who grew up knowing about those boundaries.

At first, I gave in to the racism I was taught; I was weary around my Black and Brown peers and mainly only befriended my lighter-skinned peers. Becoming aware of how racism is still prevalent was a slow process, I was slow to learn about how racism is instilled in and helped build many of our current institutions. More embarrassingly, I played into the model minority myth by considering myself a victim because I felt like my classmates disliked me because of Asian stereotypes and the model minority myth (ironically, what I was doing to them). I honestly left middle school believing that I was more tolerant, when I was just beginning to chip that my racist behaviors and beliefs.

It wasn’t until high school that I actually did some hardcore unlearning and dismantling to my teachings. Before sophomore year, I learned about Brock Turner’s 6-month sentence, aka the Stanford Rapist. Even though I grew up with anti-blackness surrounding me, I managed to stay away from misogyny and was open to understanding feminism in the way I had yet to with fighting racism. I was disgusted by this news and educated myself on the problems with rape cases in America, white privilege, and toxic masculinity. As I researched and read more, and more racist attitudes became more public due to Trump’s presidential campaign, I became more politically aware and sympathetic to my Black and Brown peers. I looked for media that was made by minorities and judged where the media I was seeing came from. I saw the subtle microaggressions coming from my family. I began to have open conversations with my friends about feminism, LGBT+ issues, immigration, and racism, learning first hand from people who were directly affected, instead of mainly reading about it, like I was doing for a while. (Besides actually having conversations with people, I was also beginning dismantling the internal racism I had towards myself and acknowledging how some of my experiences in middle school contributed to that.)

As great as learning and reeducating myself seems, I’ve been having some trouble with the next step: taking action and confronting the system that taught me how to be racist. It was much more difficult talking to parents about their views on BlackLivesMatter because for a long time I lied to myself that it was okay because they grew up in more traditional settings and thus became rigid in those beliefs, and acted patriotic to America because they believed the rhetoric that it’s the land of opportunity and felt in debted after fleeing from their home countries. But I’m wrong, since they don’t/didn’t have the same exposure as me to culture differences, it’s my responsibility to teach them why they have to change, no matter how much time it takes. For my mom, she’s still processing institutional racism, I don’t think she ever properly reflected on the history with was more feeding into the idea of America since she came. For my dad, who consumes much more American media, he’s much more stubborn to recognize the racism he learns about and constantly reinforced with the news. But that’s just from a few talks, I have to the duty to do more.

We all have to do more, because if confronting yourself and your family is difficult or uncomfortable, think about how Black people feel everyday, knowing that being cautious of how they act or behave won’t save them from being murdered. That anything they did or didn’t do would justify their murder in the eyes of people in positions of power. I could never understand how that feels, but I can do what I can to making sure that no one feels that terror.

Is it just me or is Bobby shining more this season? I’ve only watched the first four episodes of the new season but so far, I’m really glad I’m seeing more of Bobby and how he personally connects with the heroes.

It’s been a while since I watched the previous seasons, but the most I remember of seeibg Bobby clearly shine was with renovating Tammye’s church while managing his past with religion and with renovating and designing Wesley’s house -this one clearly demonstrated what it really means to make a home accommodate a hero.

But this season, I’m glad that the audience gets to see more of Bobby’s involvement, which I think was always unseen because there’s so much footage to use, little time to cut it into, and the amount of entertainment and nuance a scene with selecting furniture pieces and designing a home could bring.

I’m glad that Bobby was given more closure with his past by getting an apology by someone who represents a church and how he was able to personally connect and help Tyreek with managing money after being homeless and making a home for him that he could call his own and he comfortable in. I’m hoping that the producers asked Bobby how comfortable he would be working with a church again before making Pastor Noah a hero (Which is something they should have considered before that insensitive “prank” they pulled on Karamo).

Overall, I’m hopping to see way more of Bobby and his contributions shine more for the rest of this season and the next.

To All the Boys, some personal casting complaints

I read the books before the movie came out because I read that they were adapting the first book into a movie and the main character, even though she was half-white and half-Korean, was going to be played by a Vietnamese actress. I was a bit annoyed since Hollywood has a big problem of casting different ethnicities this way, pushing the assumption that all East and Southeast Asians are interchangeable (when they actually do choose to cast Asians at all).

And then I found out that Kitty was being played by a white actress (I have not found anything that Anna Cathcart is Asian at all, so I was further upset that in Disney’s Descendants, her character’s grandmother was played by an East Asian actress, further driving the idea that she’s part Asian). I was pissed, because that’s the other issue with Hollywood casting Asians, when they choose not to at all and cast white actresses instead.

But I tried to be excited nonetheless because I was/am deprived of Asian leads and Asians as romantic leads in US films, and I’m Viet, so that felt like a bonus.

In the first movie, I didn’t really care as much because of that representation hype and because they never discussed race at all. (Literally the only elements of Korean culture they includes was food) Which I guess I understand, if you’re trying to normalize the idea of an Asian-American lead, just don’t point it out. And the advertising did that work for them. Also, it’s supposed to be solely a love story, so I guess it’s unromantic to talk about race.

But in the sequel, it stuck out a lot more to me that Lana Condor and Anna Cathcart are not Korean to me when they dressed up in hanboks, traditional Korean dresses. And, less so, the scene with Lara Jean and Gen, where she mentions jung, a Korean word that describes the connection between two people that can’t be severed. As nice as that scene was, the whole jung bit felt too thrown in there for my taste because we never meet Lara Jean’s grandma, who introduced the term to her and, more importantly, we never see Lara Jean try to connect to her Korean culture.

It just felt weird to me to see a distinctly Vietnamese face and then a white face use elements from Korean culture, that was more than food, in a movie with zero Korean leads. Personally, I didn’t like that Korean culture was portrayed by non-Koreans as plot point.

That is to say, you can always argue the for the subtle integration of Korean culture in the plot and development of Lara Jean.

If it were up to me, I would have tried to cast Korean actresses, and everyone knows by now that there is no short supply of them. Or adapt to the culture of the lead actor/actress, since they could more accurately portray that culture, in my opinion. (I wouldn’t have done so in this situation because South Korea and Vietnam’s history with the US are very different and not at all interchangeable) (This is coming from the fact that I usually see actors and actresses of one ethnicity play side characters who are of another ethnicity and their culture is never all that important to their character development or plot. It’s more of whoever’s in charge seeing East Asian actors as interchangeable)

That will always be a part of why live-action adaptions are so hard to get right, in my opinion.

Personally, I will always believe the books were better, especially since they had the room to address and highlight Lara Jean’s race and ethnicity in a consistent way. (warning: book spoilers from when I read it around 2 years ago):

Halloween in the first book, Lara Jean said that she usually dressed up as Asian characters (ie. Cho Chang [a ridiculous name btw] instead of Hermione Granger) in order for people to recognize her costume. I think Peter and her decide on a couple’s costume, so that year people actually recognized her even though she didn’t dress-up as an Asian character.

New Years in the second book, Lara Jean and Kitty (and maybe Margot, I don’t really remember) dress-up in Hanboks

ending of the third book, Lara Jean spends the summer before college away from Peter and in South Korea (we don’t get to “read” it and it’s kind of brushed over)

I know it’s not a lot, but I remember feeling so seen and understood when Lara Jean addressed how she was always categorized and reduced to as an Asian. I think it really exemplified the other-ness she felt in small town in Virginia.

But the first movie didn’t address that at all, which I guess I’m okay with because of how irrelevant it is to the main storyline, the love story between Peter and Lara Jean. Especially since they never addressed race at all, it could have felt forced if it wasn’t consistent.

As I mentioned before, it felt so out of place for me to see the two non-Korean actresses dress-up in hanboks.

For the last point, I don’t know how the third movie will portray the ending, my guess is that they either won’t or really push that Lara Jean really hates the idea of the trip because it’ll push her away from Peter. I personally hated that she even disliked the idea of the trip when her dad first told her because I believe in the whole “don’t go to college with a boyfriend” idea.

Feel free to disagree with me, I pretty sure I have a pretty narrow (and selfish) view of how different ethnicities and their cultures should be portrayed in media.

I just started watching Hospital Playlist after finishing Reply 1988 last week and I literally started crying when they started playing the Sangmundong theme. Actually, I think whenever I hear it, I start tearing up a little.

Did I make an American Vandal vine compilation? Maybe. Is it the greatest thing I’ve ever done? Probably

The good bits of 2017

There’s Probably more things that aren’t here, I loved making the list last year to prove it’s not all bad, and this year is just the same, not everything this year has been bad, there’s tonnes of good things

Feel free to add your own stuff as well

Good things from 2017:

- Pokemon ultra sun and ultra moon

- jacksepticeye’s #overnightwatch stream

- the eclipse

- The switch’s amazing intro to gaming

- The moonlight v la la land slip up

- The Wonder Woman movie

- Harry Potter and the portrait of what looked like a large pile of ash

- Lord Buckethead running against Theresa may

- Covefefe

- A talk on North Korea being interrupted by the guy’s kids

- Dear Evan Hansen

- The disaster artist brought the room to thousands of new people

- Pixar’s Coco

- And the subsequent removal of the frozen short from before coco

- Spider-Man homecoming

- NBC’s the good place

- Baby drivers amazing choreographic fight scenes

- Ted Cruz liking porn on his official twitter

- Dream daddy dating sim

- Donald trump’s twitter being deleted for 11 minutes

- Fortnite gave pubg something to fight with

- Mario odyssey and Zelda breath of the wild put Nintendo on all gaming top 10 lists

- Stranger things 2

- The new IT movie was amazing

- Star Wars the last Jedi

- Thor Ragnarok

- The emoji movie was so shit it was stupidly hilarious

- The snowman, cause ya know what is deffo scary and not at all a hilarious idea, scary snowmen

- Jodie Whitaker as the doctor

- Blue planet 1 & 2

- A series of unfortunate things gave us a better evil Neil Patrick Harris than doctor horrible

- Castlevania got a cool gruesome anime

- Doki doki literature club defied expectations and creeped out many

- American vandal helped Netflix poke fun at itself and the education system

- Sonic forces let us all create our own fursonas

- Mario and rabbids: kingdom battle surprised everyone with its goodness

- Dodie Clark’s You EP

- dodie Clark’s “in the middle”

- Critical role had an amazing ending filed with heart ache and epic magic

- The adventure zone’s first big story came to an end with plot twist after plot twist we all loved it

- Disney added it’s first gay character in le fou (not a good start but a start)

- Pokemon for the switch was announced

- Brooklyn nine-nine just got better and better #BiRosa

- Guardians of the galaxy vol 2 has an amazing soundtrack yet again

- The Lego Batman movie gave us the best batman film since the dark night trilogy

- bendy and the ink machine

- life is strange: before the storm

- the final fanf game? Maybe??? Probably not

The more serious good stuff:

- The royal engagement

- Hundreds of nfl players took the knee

- A treatment for ALS has been found

- A device has been created to help heal burn victims

- Stefán Karl stefánsson becoming free of cancer

- A new record was set by Peggy whitson for the most days spent in space

- Malala yousafzai started college

- All the women’s marches

- Everyone from the #meToo movement

what she says: i'm fine

what she means: i still can't believe simon's fucking "friends" abandoned him after he was traumatically outed to the entire school, over something as petty as high school relationships. they didn't even take an "i love you but i'm mad at you" approach, they forced him to face returning to school alone, even sit alone at lunch in total isolation. The hate incident happens in the cafeteria and they don't do ANYTHING. they don't stand up and say anything, they don't support simon, they don't even try to stop it. they just sit silently and watch as simon, and simon ALONE, confronts his attackers in front of everybody. yet somehow the narrative portrays them as The Good Guys, the heroes of the story who have nothing to apologize for.

i loved the movie to bits but i really missed this scene, so at the very least here’s my version of it.