TRULY!!! and this is just my opinion but i don't think he's even done enough to warrant the level of defensiveness people have over him. like he's spoken a lot about the remorse he feels, and he's done some internal unpacking i'm sure, but apart from telling his children that he wants to make things better there hasn't been much substantive action to make that happen, at least imo. i really think it's only post-war that he's going to be able to make up on his promises to atone, which idk how much of we'll be able to see considering the manga's ending in like a month and some change.

and fr thank god shoto has his peers and other adults in his life that show him what healthy dynamics look like (i'm hoping honestly that post-war yagi and aizawa can be quasi-parental figures he can turn to.)

and omg yeah i get what u mean. it's unfortunate, but i know a few people here who've been in living situations similar to the todoroki's. it's another reason why i don't fuck with enji tbh.

no? i still like them a lot? i don't tweet about the ggs i like Period bc i'd rather not invite their fans onto my doorstep (i answered a similar question about rv almost the exact same way btw lmao tl;dr: boygroup stans are bad enough. i am Nawt dealing with gg stans on top of that) and sure, i'm tweeting abt red velvet a bit these days if only bc it's their 10th debut anniv and i ult them. i don't ult nwjns.

i also avoided tweeting abt them even more bc the drama was at a fever-pitch and i didn't want to add to the noise/discourse when business matters like the hybe/mhj debacle is stuff i'm Not well-versed in enough to comment. i barely followed that issue as it is. what i want and am hoping for at the end of it all is that they have some actually reliable adults in their circle who is actually looking out for their best interest and protecting them.

if you want my two cents on their cb so bad since it apparently mattered enough to you that you went and sent me this unprovoked: bubble gum and supernatural are my favorites so far altho right now is a suuper close second!! how sweet is fun and i love the chorus but i think it has to grow on me more.

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so firstly, my answer abt that has been up for a Month and you're the only one to take issue with it to the point of leaving this in my inbox. do you feel comfortable knowing that?

secondly, just to settle something here: believe it or not, competitive skaters are Not, in fact, professionals! when a skater is competitive they're referred to as "amateur skaters." it's only when a skater retires from competing that they can choose to move forward with a professional career. this primarily means skating in ice shows (some people call them show skaters).

like i'm fine with u disagreeing with my Very Subjective Opinion on an athlete involved in a Very Subjective Sport, but i do think that engaging with any kind of discussion requires prior knowledge of the subject matter we're tackling here.

omg yeah anonnie i did read it you got that right!! but pls idk if my method at the time is all that correct, looking back, because i binge-read it for like 3-4 weeks when i was 14, going in completely blind.

and i DO get the big book fear bc my god depending on the translation i can get up to 2k pages and that's just so much. but i do think, and this is how i would get into it now if i was to read it for the first time at my current age, the easiest way to think about the earlier parts is to see it as one big party you've been invited to.

like u said, war and peace has a LOT of characters and russian names are already quite long, so i think it would help to think of them as people you're meeting as your guide (the narrator) leads you through this big party. the guide is a nosy one, and they know a lot about everyone, so they're feeding you all this gossip as you pass. war and peace begins with a get-together too so it just places you in that headspace i think.

it's a very sprawling novel that takes its time tho, so there Will be enough pages for you to remember the key players at the very least HAHAHSDADH.

but i do think that in regards to the length, if it helps you to think of it in manageable chunks as opposed to this one big thing then maybe that!! but in truth, in my experience the only way i ever got over the page count is to start and just keep going. once you're in it, you'll find that it flows tbh!!

as for the historical context, i do think it's better to just go in blind, not just because tolstoy takes the time to explain the things happening anyway (wap is as much a historical as it is a novel) but also u might find urself frustrated at some of the inaccuracies HAHSDHASDF i would recommend more that u look into the culture, etiquette, and customs of the time tbh!! to me that speaks more of tolstoy's intent and it also informs how you'll interpret the relationships the characters have with eo.

i'm wishing u all the luck, anonnie, and if u ever get around to reading it pls do talk to me abt it if u wanna!!! i love war and peace Dearly and it's one of the most memorable reading experiences i've had in my life so i hope u get to start it and enjoy it hehehe.

hm!!! u know what, i was thinking abt it the other day how the one thing that actually pushed me to improve was mania. like i'm not even kidding.

to be clear i don't mean medical mania i mean that to be good at creating you gotta be a little insane about it. like u really have to find something to be obsessed abt and then write abt it As Much As You Can. the thing abt improving is that you have to Care abt other things Besides improving. focusing too hard on just getting better makes u short-sighted and miserable imo. and besides, "better" is so subjective and the goal-posts are so movable.

when you Like something so much that it brings u to the point of creation, ur focus shifts to making the piece Good as opposed to making yourself Better. does that make sense? improvement not as an end-goal but as a by-product. like in my experience this has been the one way i've been able to hone my skills in a meaningful way without losing my mind and burning out so bad i stop writing entirely.

and even then, i think what's instrumental to any writer is to love the Process of the craft. you have to be enamored with the craft. you have to Care about the craft. like one thing i will push back against until the end of time is this idea that to take creation seriously is pretentious. or even if it is, fuck it and be unafraid to be pretentious anyway. creating is painful. it's so many ego deaths and cycles upon cycles of self-doubt and self-assurance. you have to love it So Much to keep doing it enough to get better.

but that aside, on the more practical side: read, Widely, Voraciously, And With Intention. if you find something abt an author's style that you like, try and figure out Why you like it. what about it works? how can you apply that to your own writing?

expand your vocabulary as much as possible. as is oft-said, words are the tools of your trade. the more tools you have, the more you can do.

and lastly, it's really truly all boils down to practice. writing is a skill, and like every other skill it's built up with time. there's no instant way to be better at it so you just have to keep going until you've found that you've made progress.

hopefully there was Something helpful for u in all this, anonnie!! i wish you all the luck in your writing journey 🫶🏻

hey nonnie!

so i'll immediately preface this by saying that i understand there's been a lot of noise made by fstwt regarding sunghoon and it's rarely ever been kind, so there's this instinctual defensiveness that fans would have regarding any commentary on his abilities coming from an outsider out of fear that it's been made in bad faith. i'm just saying that that's really not what i want to do here; i have no personal investment in this guy, positive or otherwise. this isn't coming from a place of malice or ridicule!! i'm speaking from the perspective of someone who's followed/researched the sport for a long time. it's also just that i've been asked this a LOT (more times than i can count lol).

so i'll start with what i like! there's a definite elegance to him when he's on the ice, and he's got a decent bend in his knees that makes his skating look softer. he's graceful, too. he had all his triples and they were quite stable when he was in juniors, but i think puberty really messed with his ability to land them, especially his 3a (which is incredibly common!! the period after/during juniors as a skater grows into their adult body is famously tumultuous--your limbs are getting longer, your center of gravity changes, and you have to accommodate for it). and while i do think he could have worked to get that stability back with time, he was already pretty firmly in the idol lane before he could make those adjustments.

and honestly "quite stable when he was in juniors" spells out his skillset to me pretty succinctly. like all in all he was a perfectly okay skater! decent enough skating skills although they could have been cleaner and his edges could have been deeper. i'm not particularly in love with his pcs and interpretation (i took particular note of his posture---especially in his later programs---because he tended to hunch his shoulders) and it bothered me that he never really gave full extensions bc it made his lines boxy and okay that can work!! if the program calls for it!! but his choreography leaned more into the flowy, classically balletic style we expect from fs and his execution really hindered his programs from landing as strongly imo.

now, as to how his career would have turned out if he'd kept going, i honestly doubt he would have gotten any better results than the ones he'd achieved at that point. the discipline that sunghoon was competitive in (men's singles) is THE most competitive from a technical standpoint, and he just didn't have the tech to keep up. the jump he had with the highest base value is the triple axel, but even still that jump is just the standard axel jump in men's (in contrast to women's where (prior to the quad revolution, anyway) the 3a is considered The ultra-c element that was achievable).

sunghoon needed quads to even have a shot at making the podium and he didn't have them. and ngl, his federation also puts him at a disadvantage. sokor is already a country that really struggles with the international skating circuit, barring a few standout stars (most famously yuna kim) that come out a few years at a time. the ksu doesn't have the funding, resources, or clout to devote to their athletes in the same way that, say, japan or america or russia does, so their fields just aren't as deep. so even if sunghoon had podiumed nationally, it would still be an uphill battle to medal at international comps, especially considering the crop of skaters in his same age bracket that he'd be going up against for the majority if not entirety of his senior career (kagiyama yuma of japan and ilia malinin of usa and cha junhwan who he'd be competing with at int'l AND nat'l comps)

it's also just that he never got to a single junior grand prix final or junior worlds, and i hear you, "es, someone's junior career doesn't always spell out how their senior career will go!!" and i agree with you, normally!!!! but taking all of the factors that i mentioned previously into account, his lack of success at any major competition doesn't paint the most promising picture.

so tl;dr: i think he was a perfectly okay skater, but i think he also made the right choice retiring at the time that he did. i think he and his fans are also much happier where he is now so all-around good for him!!

hopefully this was in any way insightful/informative!!!

anonnie hello!!! and thank you, it did hehe i hope ur doing okay too. and i personally love this question actually bc it's Me so ofc i have Thoughts.

i'm doing this by fanchant order to be organized SO

with soobin i feel like it can go two ways and it depends entirely on when he's first seen; he either gives university sunbae who you meet by chance at the freshman mixer he was cajoled into helping organize by either yeonjun or beomgyu and he's not even in the main throng of activity. he's decidedly Away from it, actually. so stuck in his own corner it looks almost comical, sarcastically separate. but he's striking. he's hunched over in a hoodie and loose jeans and he's speaking quietly with someone, nursing a red cup and looking like the perfect picture of a charming wallflower. and somehow, every time you see him in passing on campus from then on is exactly like that; like he's steeped in something so achingly nostalgic---a dying party, a school function, a backyard bonfire. warm and purple-sheened and covered in gaussian blur. you never really get to meet him in a way that matters, but you tuck him away in your chest to bring out on days where the workload is too much, the looming deadlines so heavy. he's a sweet, dreamboat-shaped dream.

either that or he's someone you know Too Much, Too Well. you grew up with him, really. his house was next to yours and your dads were best friends so you basically had a built-in playmate before you even understood what it meant to be a friend. he's summers spent huddling together in front of the one working electric fan in your house, sweat-sticky and a little gross but too heat-struck to care. he's shared lemonade on the walk home from cram school, his tie always done wrong no matter how many times you teach him how to do it right. he's near-incomprehensible inside jokes and drooling on each other's shoulders during sleepovers and knowing Everything about each other. he's your first kiss. you watched him break his left buttcheek in sixth grade. he's how you found out about romantic love at all. he once ran into your bedroom door when he was eight and slammed his face hard enough that he lost his last baby tooth, blood running down his mouth in an open geyser. you worry sometimes, who you'd be if you didn't love him. you know Everything about each other, but this is the one secret you let yourself keep.

yeonjun to me is very firmly The Hottest Guy In Your Highschool. his social network is vast and many-branched and he seems to be Everywhere. he's the class representative for the annual art competition. he's in the dance troupe performing for the school anniversary festival. he's taken on as a singer during the battle of the bands. there's something simultaneously so sharp and so soft about him because if his face is neutral he looks like he could kill you but you've seen him smile and it curls so sweetly over his face and it's almost like staring right into the sun. the dynamism is so magnetic, and you just can't help but look at him each time you see him. it's like he casts everything into shadow. you're lucky enough to be in his orbit, if tangentially. you've hung out a few times, but you're closer to his other friends an it's difficult to be brave in highschool. but you know him enough to know that he's Kind, in the way that matters most. he's not just Nice. nice can be so deceiving. niceties could conceal something dirtier and meaner. he isn't like that. he's all golden, all gilded, all shot through with sunlight.

beomgyu to me is just. So Soft. falling in love with beomgyu is just soft landing after soft landing, no matter how far the jump and no matter how deep it keeps going. he's tentative conversations held over coffee (he was the other regular who always took the table next to yours) and song recommendations and playlist upon playlist shared between a single pair of earphones. he's a poem that you read once and think about for three weeks. he's the scarf you leave over the lip of the couch armrest that you use as an excuse to linger in the doorway, to come back, to step through the threshold once more, /call me back in, please call me back in./ he's every tender almost that sits in your chest like a warm burn. he's pinkies that brush over passed cups. he's the sun lying low in the sky, that final hurrah of daylight and the ensuing pink-blue-violet of dusk. he's every lovely thought, every saved post-it note of sweet nothings. he's also midnight, and black velvet, and thoughts that drip like syrup through fingers.

taehyun has always screamed summer love to me. he's wet hair and sun in eyes and undying belief in the boundless potential of summer. there's something so optimistic about taehyun in love. so altogether sweet and salty and sour. tangy, tart. it's this simmer in your gut, like you're about to cough up glitter. like the drink you just downed is warming you up from the inside and you've caught his eye across the way and he's staring at you over the rim of his own glass. but it's also the sweat in your palms as he smiles so wide it damn near splits his face. his face is so open when he smiles, so sweet, so innocent. and it's such a headrush, knowing that you made him do that. he's long nights spent with sand up to your ankles just /talking/ bc he's so interesting and you could listen to him talk forever. i always think of that one siken line whenever i see taehyun for some reason "so it's summer, so it's suicide," and isn't that so fitting for the boy with the sun in his eyes. summer and its endlessness and it has you swept up in supreme belief---that all will be well, that this won't end as soon as the season changes and you all have to go home, that these hands are not just hands, not just bodies, not just mouths.

kai to me is so boy next door that it Aches So Sweetly. he was always the polite, quiet boy in a brood of comparatively outgoing sisters. his mother is lovely, always offered you and your family jam preserves during the summer when strawberries were in season. he played a lot of instruments but you would most often hear piano coming from his house whenever you walked past on your way home. he'd be on the porch sometimes, and you would muster up the courage to wave whenever you saw him. he's shy smiles and standing in tall grass as the sun set. he's sitting next to you in the backyard, and you have never felt so aware of distance before, of the space between your air and his. every move significant, every minute motion accounted for. begging that you don't breathe wrong lest it ruin things. the weight of him sits in your chest so sweetly, an ache you feel pulsing in the root of your jaw, and you had never known love to be this heady, the bite of it so intoxicating. to be so twitterpated and so torn asunder at the same time.

okay this got so long i'm SO sorry but........HERE ARE MY THOUGHTS.......HOPE THEY'RE FUN TO READ........