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a-couple-of-notes · 6 days

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Part two of my Rat Grinders/Kipperlilly Copperkettle defense, after tonight's episode!

I'm leaning into it, guys. You're not getting me back out of this apologism. Yeah, Kipperlilly's reasons for hating Riz are really childish! But she's a kid! And, like, prior to the Mountains of Chaos, she was going to counseling for her anger issues. The sheer fact that she hasn't popped up as a NPC or even background flavor is, on a character level, showing us that she hasn't let her anger spill out onto the Bad Kids until now (although from a Doylist perspective is because she wasn't necessary for the story yet). Pre-Mountains of Chaos, Kipperlilly clearly knows this is an issue and wants to resolve it...like, without murder.

Actually, given the amount of killing intent she has toward Kristen, I'm surprised the cafeteria confrontation ended so peacefully. Like Riz, Kipperlilly is able to hold onto the last shreds of her sanity with her teeth, and I fucking love it.

Also, hey! A win for the Rat Grinders as a semi-functional adventuring party who care about each other! This pleases me so so much. (Partially because I was growing a little tired of the takes that were like "Unlike the Bad Kids, the Rat Grinders all hate each other!" First of all, friendship is obviously the weakest form of magic. Second of all, I think that's just a fundamentally less interesting story. It flattens the Rat Grinders, and it would teach the Bad Kids so much less about themselves when they inevitably confront each other.)

Incidentally, this is why I really believe that the Rat Grinders didn't kill Lucy Frostblade. I think they went to the Mountains of Chaos and got in over their heads because they lack the Bad Kids' real-world experience (and/or because they got led into an ambush by Jace Stardiamond, their chaperone). Everyone but Lucy made deals with the corrupted form of Arkana to come back to life, and the Rat Grinders' desperate attempt to move the Plan forward is because they're running out of time to bring Lucy back.

Whether or not the Plan is actually viable is up in the air (and probably unlikely), but I firmly believe Kipperlilly and the Rat Grinders are doing all of this to bring their friend back. Brennan has twice brought up that the one-year limit for resurrecting Lucy is fast approaching, and it seems that everyone in the party (especially Kipperlilly) genuinely loved Lucy. What a twisted mirror of the Bad Kids it would be if the Rat Grinders' core motivation, at the end of it all, is that they would do anything to save someone they loved.

(Also, hey, for real, I'm still about 80% on Kipperlilly's side about Kristen running for president. It was absolutely a bit that Kristen wasn't planning on following through with when it first started, and god, that would annoy me too.)

but what if I'm into murderous thieves who game the system and grind for hours every day to make it through the soul-crushing pressure cooker of stress that is high school? what if slitting the throat of your replacement cleric in an evil gambit that's constantly getting fucked up by a party who just happens to always be in the way makes me love her more, actually? just say you don't support women's wrongs.

(In all seriousness, I've legitimately loved the Rat Grinders and Kipperlilly Copperkettle this season, and this episode has only made me more excited. Toxic dynamics and ruthless groups who can only rely on each other are my jam, guys. And the fact that these characters are a party full of the Bad Kids' shadow selves is so, so narratively juicy. I think full on Big Bads or reconciliation in the face of their similarities/the common enemy of the system are both on the table, and a hearty "hell yeah" to either one.

Either way, I'll stick with my Rat Grinder apologism a little longer. What can I say? I love characters who aren't protagonist-y enough to break the system and have to worm their way through it. And frankly, the response to the Rat Grinders has at times felt so genuinely vitriolic that it's activated my Ornery Defense Mechanisms. Like, c'mon, if people like a fictional character--or even don't hate them with the same burning passion of a thousand suns that you do--that doesn't mean they're condoning murder or anything. Sometimes we like the bad guys. Sometimes we give them tragic backstories because they're just kids.

Also, the real reason I wrote this was because I wanted to complain about the "fucking up Kipperlilly's name" bit. Yes, I understand that it started in-game and people are running with it. [I didn't really like it there, for the record.] Yes, I understand that it's funny, and I'm being sensitive. But especially in fandom, it's started to feel...really gross? Like there's actual malice behind the misnaming; it feels dehumanizing to a disproportionate degree.)

anyway, go rat grinders! kill some more people, actually. for me.

#fhjy spoilers #kipperlilly copperkettle #fantasy high junior year #rat grinders #dimension 20

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a-couple-of-notes · 8 days

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Okay, so we all agree that when Hades 2 comes out, we’re going to really honestly engage with Melinöe’s story and relationships instead of constantly talking about Zagreus, right? We’re not going to ignore the female protagonist at the center of her story in favor of hot boys, right? Right??

#hades ii #hades 2 #melinoe #zagreus #I really love what I’ve seen of Melinöe so far #and I have no problem with Zagreus or anything #but I don’t want her to get lost in all the excitement

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a-couple-of-notes · 12 days

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anyway, go rat grinders! kill some more people, actually. for me.

#dimension 20 #fantasy high junior year #fhjy spoilers #rat grinders #kipperlilly copperkettle

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a-couple-of-notes · 27 days

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Happy Wednesday and happy April, my friends! This week, we have six fics featuring Enemies to Lovers relationships! As always, you can find them below the cut and if you check any of them out, I encourage you to leave kudoes and comments to spread the rarepair love 💕

The Savior of the Damned by Criticalpancake (28,312 words, Mature) Pairing: Verin Thelyss/Original Male Character Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, non-graphic sexual assault that’s not between the main pairing

Verin takes Mairon, a demonic iccubus mage, prisoner during a raid on Bazzoxan. Information gathering turns to flirting turns to fucking, and then Mairon mentions that Verin's father might still be alive. In the Abyss. Cue a journey into Betrayer's Rise and beyond for our resident lovebirds, accompanied by Essek and Caleb.

Reccer Says: It is so fun. It is so heartfelt. It has fundamentally altered the way I think about and write Verin. I want to give him a hug and a forehead kiss SO BAD. And Mairon is an absolute delight, I'm obsessed with him. His banter and bickering with Verin is so good, I love these two so much. They really do make such a good couple. And plot... the dreams Verin's been having... rattling the bars of my cage, I have so many questions in the best of ways. Add on the wizards as supporting cast, it's just a brilliant story and I adore it.

Flirting with Death by Thatonesadending (9,606 words, Explicit) Pairing: Eadwulf Grieve/Verin Thelyss (Verinwulf) Warnings: None

Whilst the Nein and Co. deal with troubles, Verin and Eadwulf find some time to themselves.

Reccer Says: It's hot, it's fun, these two are so severely underrated and it's always great to see fic of them. Side fic to a MUCH larger fic but tbh it can easily be read without having read the main fic. One of my favorite bits, the things Verin mutters to himself in the second chapter while he and Wulf are together are so fun.

to lie in the dark by Demenior (4,534 words, Explicit) Pairing: Eadwulf Grieve/Essek Thelyss (Esswulf) Warnings: Dubious Consent

In a timeline where Astrid, Eadwulf, and Ikithon join the Nein in Aeor, Essek and Eadwulf get separated from the group after a fight. It’s not the first time they’ve met, and definitely not the first time they’ve been alone together.

Reccer Says: Where to even start? The dynamic between Essek and Wulf is sooooo deliciously messy and fucked, I’m obsessed. The history there, the contempt, Essek worrying if Wulf is going to kill him. Wondering if Wulf genuinely missed him. And Wulf giving Essek hell for the Nein making him soft!! Don’t get me wrong, I love a good malewife Wulf (cannot believe I really just typed that out) but seeing him with his teeth bared here is SO good. He’s a very dangerous man who’s spent half his life as a heavily indoctrinated assassin! Of course he wouldn’t like Essek going soft and seeking redemption. But the way it ties up at the end, what Essek says… god it’s delicious. Also, it must be said. The sex is very very hot. Esswulf size difference my beloved.

and all the things after the war by spillentireuniverses (7,012 words, Teen) Pairings: Ashton Greymoore/Imogen Temult, Ashton Greymoore/Laudna Warnings: War, Memory Alteration, Mentions of Mind Control, Unethical Science Practices

Sci-fi AU, in the aftermath of war between Exandria and Ruidus, Ashton and Imogen reconnect after a horrible loss.

Reccer Says: Firstly, the author says in their opening notes that the fic probably isn’t comprehensible without having read the work it’s inspired by but I disagree. Everything is laid out very well, aided by the first chapter being a run-down of the war. The format is very fun. Ashton and Imogen’s relationship is so complicated and messy. The weight of the history and grief there is just heartaching and I’m obsessed with it.

the enemy of your enemy might be your girlfriend by impossibletruths (4,228 words, Teen) Pairing: Kima/Allura Vysoren (Kimallura) Warnings: None

Kima and Allura are college roommates and Do Not get along. That is, until they start a crusade against their shitty bio professor.

Reccer Says: It’s very cute and the fact that they bond over, as they put it “making a terrible man’s life miserable” is so very Them.

And we have two reccs for; Mistakes Were Made by se1ze (51,586 words, Explicit) Pairing: Lucien/Caleb Widogast (Lucigast) Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Explicit Consent, Consensual Non-Con, Light Dom/Sub

Caleb and Lucien get trapped with only each other for company. Post-campaign. Lucien and Caleb are both caught in a demiplane trap in Aeor.

Reccer 1 Says: I enjoyed it! Reccer 2 Says: Messy, messy dynamics with lots of attention to canon characterization and hangups.

Thank you for joining us this week’s recc list! All the love to everyone who submitted a fic 💕 All enclosed recommendations were submitted by the community via our submissions form, which you can find here. All fic information is as it was provided by the reccer, so it may not be accurate to the author’s intent or the precise contents of the fic itself. Please assume good intent from all parties 💕

Submissions for next week’s list are already open! We’ll be featuring Miscommunication. If you have any you’d like to highlight, you can send them in here. The week after that, the theme is Works in Progress and the weeks after that we’re taking recommendations for Angst and Spring! Submissions for all of these themes are currently open.

If you want more rarepair fic, check out @cr-summer-wildflowers and their event collections on ao3! If you want some friendship after all this romance, take a look at @critter-genfic-events and their recc lists! And if you’re interested in everyone’s favorite wizards, you can’t go wrong with the lists at @aeor-is-for-reccing !

Thanks all and have a lovely day/night/timezone! 💕

#oh wow #thank you so much for reccing and all the things after the war #I’m glad it is comprehensible to those who haven’t listened to the podcast 😂#it’s one of my favorites #and I’m so pleased that a few people are finding it #critter rarepair recc lists #fic rec

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a-couple-of-notes · 29 days

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So I've seen a bunch of people talking about why it's so narratively perfect that Cerrit was the only survivor, and while I don't disagree, I did want to chime in about why.

(Under the cut, it got long.)

I think there's a case for "Cerrit was the least selfish and therefore the dice gods/Brennan reward him," though some of that discussion slides a little too close to "more moral = more deserving of life" for my taste. (Death as comeuppance for being bad and survival as a treat for being good is, like, the least cool way you could view this story.)

I think there's also a (stronger) case for "It's poetic that Cerrit, the one with no magic, was the one to survive the fall of the age of magic." It's definitely a dark kind of poetry - life survives after the loss of a great and terrible thing.

But my favorite read on why Cerrit's survival is so narratively perfect is this:

The great fault of the rest of the Ring of Brass - Laerryn, Nydas, and Zerxus especially - is that they reach too far. They dare too much. Brimming with hubris, Laerryn and Nydas want to wrench a part of the world up and claim the stars for their own; Zerxus tries to redeem the Lord of Hells with a gentle touch. Patia believes she can ignore what's going on and acquire knowledge from the Tree of Names; Loquatius, that he can protect Laerryn if he just stays by her side.

Cerrit doesn't have that foolish hope. He keeps his head down. Does his duty. Doesn't look up. When Laerryn shows no sign of caving, he caves and goes to protect what he can. Cerrit is mundane in a city full of wizards; Cerrit is also humble in a city full of hubris.

So there's the story, right? The Ring's hubris backfires in an explosion of magic and blight, and the one with humility gets to fly away.

Not quite.

See, there's this reversal that happens in episode four. Everything is destroyed in fire. The Ring of Brass has caused the Calamity in all their pride. But instead of humbly bowing their heads and lamenting their foolishness (literally - Laerryn says, "There's no time for self-flagellation"), everyone immediately turns around, gets right back on their pride bullshit, and tries to save the world.

And that's a foolish, impossible dream. To defy the Lord of Hells? To look at the inevitable ruin and say no? To reach out a doomed hand and try to redeem Vespin Chloras? To redo the Astral Leywright in half an hour, and then use it?

If the Ring of Brass had been cowed, had left like Cerrit in episode 3 (and to be clear, I'm not blaming Cerrit for that choice), Exandria would have been doomed.

So now we come to Cerrit's last-ditch survival. Here's a character who doesn't have the foolish hope that doomed his friends. He doesn't have Laerryn's ambitions or Nydas' big dreams or Zerxus' overriding convictions. Maybe that's what saved him.

Except now, at the end of it all, in the face of inevitable fire and ruin, Cerrit decides to do the impossible. Literally. He wants to fly up out of the crumbling labyrinth, past shrieking devils and waking gods, and get back to his family on another continent. To believe he could do that is a foolish hope.

But he does it. With aid from his friends, he beats a DC 30 - a setting for truly impossible things.

And that's why I think Cerrit's survival is so narratively perfect: because it perfectly caps off the duality of EXU: Calamity. Laerryn's Leywright led to the coming of the Calamity; it also saved Exandria. Zerxus pulled the Lord of Hells through with his unwavering belief in redemption, but he also saved Vespin Chloras with the same act. And though trying to achieve the impossible may have doomed his friends, it is what saves Cerrit.

#hey remember when i had a take on exu calamity?#it was correct #exu calamity #cerrit agrupnin #the ring of brass

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a-couple-of-notes · 1 month

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follow please!

#i mean it's probably “always an angel never a god”#but my soft spot will always be for stay down #"would you teach me? i'm the villain aren't i #“aren't i the one constantly repenting for a difficult mind?”#boygenius #julien baker

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a-couple-of-notes · 1 month

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Too Many Words on Mean Girls the Musical

The discovery of Mean Girls (2024) has sent me into a genuine tailspin, y'all. The adaptation nerd in me is intrigued and screaming. The younger version of myself for whom Mean Girls on Broadway acted as a gateway to musical theater is just screaming. The film school graduate is confused???

I think I'd much rather gush over why the original stage show, despite its flaws, does work--it's generally more fun for me to dissect a thing that I love rather than something I dislike--but the fact is, I am STILL trying to figure out what the hell I actually think about the 2024 movie. I guess this is my flailing, word-vomit style attempt to do so.

Okay, some context: I have watched all three versions in their entirety. I think the 2004 movie is very well-done and absolutely deserves its status as a cultural icon, but I've always connected more with the original Mean Girls musical, which ran on Broadway from 2018-2020. It was one of the first musicals I ever got into, one of the first cast albums I ever bought with my own money, and though over time I came to recognize many of its flaws (the lyrics can be hokey, I wish they'd threaded in Cady's stars motifs better, there's an argument a bajillion people have already made about the girls not being mean enough, etc.), Broadway!MG was always going to hold the peak Mean Girls place in my heart.

But I'm also an adaptation nerd, and I was fully aware of my bias going into the 2024 musical movie. I tried to keep an open a mind as possible, even looking forward to changes and what they might do with new character interpretations or space from cut songs. Maybe I didn't do a good enough job keeping that open mind, because I'm seeing a lot of people who liked the musical saying that this was an okay adaptation. I just. I don't know what they watched. I don't know what I watched.

In roughly chronological (read: increasingly ????) order, a list of bullet points:

I understand the motive behind replacing "It Roars"--not because I think "It Roars" is a weak song, though. I think "It Roars" is actually quite good, despite some debatably rough lyrics; it neatly sets up Cady's excitable energy ("I've got new things to try / like high school, and skateboards, and rapping / and Starbucks venti chai"), her roots in Africa (the drumbeat musical sound, which will recur through Cady's songs), and her naiveté ("Hi teens!"). The transition from African drumbeats/Disney princess to pop/rock as the percussion and guitar kick in really effectively communicates the transition from Cady's world to the world of Western high school. Most importantly, though, "It Roars" introduces us to Cady's fundamental want and a big theme of the show: friendship and belonging. ("They all want to be included like me / so eventually, I'll win!")

But 2024!Cady is a different character, and the movie seems to want to explore different themes (maybe??). So it makes sense that they would need a different opening number, because they're establishing different things. 2024!Cady is quieter, but much more unhappy in Africa; her main want is to live life freely and without regret. Fair enough! That works well with how she'll be challenged in the story, wanting to try living like the Plastics but being forced to hold back in the process. I can get behind that.

HOWEVER. Cady's signature sound is gone, as are pretty much all the signature styles, leaving the musical language of the film much weaker. By replacing "It Roars" but leaving other songs the same ("Apex Predator" and "I See Stars," mostly), they muddy the themes and metaphors threaded throughout. And crucially, they frame "What Ifs" and "Stupid with Love" as dream sequences that get cut off by the Real World of high school.

This is...certainly a decision. It sets up expectations about how the music works in this world that they can't follow through on--there are scenes Cady doesn't see, and therefore cannot dream-musicalize. So when normal people start singing outside Cady's perspective, it's so jarring, because this high school has not been established as a Musical World. (Compounded by the ensemble and the instrumentation sounding thin, and Cady's performance being like it is.)

The establishing of the music as Cady's dream sequences also does a disservice to the real feeling of high school. High school is big and dramatic and the emotions you feel are larger than life. To delineate it so firmly, to have it only be so big and campy in Cady's head, like a sort of "oh, look at that weirdo, thinking that high school is like a musical" feels, to me, so much less genuine.

It sort of felt like if they could have gotten away with playing all the musical numbers as insert songs over the actual action, they would have. They tried so hard.

I think the orchestrations in general are bad and afraid to be a musical. And I don't get people who say that "they had to tone it down for the screen, because you don't have to go as big on screen." I mean, I do, but there is precedent for doing big, loud, ensemble-heavy numbers on screen and it working. Look at The Prom movie, or Hairspray. Look at freaking High School Musical. They could have done it, and it wouldn't have broken the cinema screen or anything.

I love Renee Rapp, I do. But Cady is the protagonist of the story for a reason (just like Emma was the protagonist of The Prom for a reason, and look, the same thing happened there.) Broadway!MG worked because, under all of Regina and Damian's show-stopping numbers, Cady was there as the emotional backbone of the show. You can have your "Stop"s and your "World Burn"s because you have "More is Better" or the reprise of "Fearless" that is tragically missing from the OBC. I always had the sense in the show that everything would eventually feed into Cady's arc; she would learn something from the number (or refuse to), and/or whatever happened through the song would affect her behavior going forward. The sense I get from 2024!Cady is that she exists to be swallowed up by Renee Rapp, which, good for her, but it can't support the narrative.

In general, they've just gutted a lot of Cady's internality by cutting her songs (and her musical asides! Justice for the musical asides!), leading to this lack of agency/accountability/character. Which I find dishearteningly funny, given that the Broadway cast have talked about how this was an issue the creative team was aware of in the original stage show, and how hard they worked to fix it.

I disagree with the notion that the dialogue scenes could replace the impact of these songs. I just don't see it. Once you add musical numbers, you're adding emphasis--here's the big emotional moments I want you to pay attention to. And the emotion dips back down, so we talk--and here's another big emotion, so music, pay attention. The 2024 movie has told us what it considers important: the fun numbers and the Plastics, mostly Regina. And that completely kneecaps the core narrative arc (as well as the pacing, because we're speeding through in weird places before stopping down for a full Regina song).

I just. I really don't know why (narratively--I understand the meta-reasons and they're bad) they cut "More is Better." I'm not joking when I say the movie would have been significantly better with it in. It would have improved the pacing, at least in a musical sense, because going straight from "Revenge Party" to "Someone Gets Hurt (Reprise)" left a surprisingly noticeable gap that made me wonder if they'd forgotten what they were adapting. It would have given Cady a little more voice, and it would have fit really well thematically with what should have been the arc of 2024!Cady--living without holding back, living sincerely. (Also, since Aaron is literally the only person this Cady cares about, that reality check would have packed an even greater wallop.)

I will give credit to the scene with Cady crying as her mom comforts her. That was a good scene.

I was glad they reprised "What Ifs" briefly in the Mathletes competition, although I do miss "Do This Thing," especially because I think it would have worked with 2024!Cady's character arc.

Also, I do sort of get putting "Stupid with Love" over the Mathletes/getting ready for prom, but why the "calcu-lust" portion of the song? And why is it the only song to depart from the musical style this movie is determined to stick to (I'm not counting Damian's iCarly rendition, great as it is--that's meant to be a joke.)

"I See Stars." Okay. Unironically, I love this song as the ending of the Broadway show. I do. You can fight me on it. In Broadway!MG, Cady's driving want is the need to belong, the need for friends; "I See Stars" is her reaching out to the other students (and the audience) and "including" everyone, finally achieving that sense of belonging and friendship by being kind to everyone. The ensemble all coming in and saying "We're all stars," when at the beginning they are so opposed to her ("Just ignore her!") or focused on Regina warms my heart every time. It so earnestly resolves the thematic through line (and also I love Erika's voice).

HOWEVER, it does not work in the 2024 movie. 2024!Cady's desire has never been about friends or belonging. Again, she wants to be herself and live without regrets. I could buy that she would sing an inspirational finale a la "I'd Rather Be Me" or a rousing reprise of "What Ifs" to say something like "we can all do what we want AND be kind to each other." But the thematic throughline to "I See Stars" is much thinner--and the ensemble doesn't even sing together! It defeats the original power of the songs and makes it one more insert song.

I guess what confuses me about this movie the most is that the two takes I've seen are "they changed everything about the arrangements, now it sucks" and "must a movie be good? I enjoy the 2024 movie for what is is." I generally dislike the arrangements, yes, but I think changes to a source material can be interesting and worthwhile, and honestly, the musical arrangements/production is only one of many problems I had with the movie.

And on the other hand, I think I'm frustrated because I wish I could enjoy the 2024 movie for what it is. After all, I enjoy Broadway!MG for what it is, calcu-lust and all.

But maybe that's why--Broadway!MG knows what it is, and genuinely, goofily revels in it. Mean Girls (2024) is a wild mishmash of pop music and TikToks playing over Renee Rapp and the amalgamation of three different scripts of Mean Girls, filmed by a camera that won't stop spinning. That is to say, I don't think Mean Girls (2024) has any more of an idea what it is than I do.

#mean girls #mean girls broadway #mean girls musical #mean girls 2024 critical #sexy was okay

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