i see people on booktwt praising the radiant emperor duology very often and every time, instead of remembering that i actually had fun reading those books, i think about how flawed they are, and i wish i could understand the endless praise they get. but i sadly do not.

and then i remembered a tweet by shelley parker-chan about dunnett and her novels that actually explains, in a way, why their writing doesn't work for me. the tweet was a reply to someone and it was:

but Dunnett in general never feeds me the (emotional) food and I get frustrated. like bitch these power plays are so good but why don’t you make it JUICY. don’t make me have to use my imagination

it's actually very funny how this explains exactly the problems i have with their duology. clearly, dunnett is a big fan of subtlety. also very clear, SPC is not, and doesn't utilize it much (at all) in their novels.

and the complete lack of subtlety is something that really bothered me in the radiant emperor duology. that, hand in hand with the endless repetition, makes sure you don't have to use your imagination when it comes to the characters. ever. you will be told how they feel about each other and about what's happening and about what they've done and will do. constantly

but that, for me at least, doesn't make you connect with those characters more, and it doesn't make them more complex (in fact, sometimes they feel like two emotions in a trenchcoat lol). of course too little emotional food can leave you hungry, but too much can cause indigestion

the thing is, i don't need dunnett to tell me that, for example, nicholas was battling with the pain of gelis's betrayal and the profound grief of the loss of his closest friend post-SoG. i know he's dealing with those feelings, i'm seeing it, because he fucked off to be a menace in scotland and he's wearing all black and he's kidnapping people to torment them for a while (lol). and that's so much more interesting than writing paragraph after paragraph of his emotional breakdown. because, yes, i can use my imagination. i like doing that!

would the lymond chronicles be better if we got descriptions of how lymond is drowning in pain and self-hatred during basically every chapter in RC or CM? it's obvious that that's what's happening to him. i think it would actually make the books and the character worse, because doing that doesn't fit who lymond is, just like it wouldn't fit nicholas.

the constant repetition of how zhu, ouyang, and baoxiang feel are not "juicy" to me. they're fine characters and i like them. i would even say they're pretty interesting! but you could pretty much define each of them with a couple of words and you would get like. 90% of who they are. no subtlety. no imagination.

you can't define lymond with two or three or ten words. same with nicholas. even dunnett's characters who seem more simple and straightforward, like richard or julius, are more complex than that

another thing is that focusing so much on the emotional journey of the characters means that other parts of the book are completely neglected. the radiant emperor duology is a low fantasy historical fiction. but the historical part of it is given almost no attention at all. if i pick a histfic book, i want to feel immersed in the time period it's portraying. that didn't happen at all while reading these two books. you may like dunnett's minute historical details more or less (hell, i'm a huge fan and even i want to skip most of the historical mumbo jumbo in some of her novels (the ringed castle)), but goddamn she makes you feel immersed in the 15th and 16th centuries

anyway, the conclusion here is that SPC doesn't love dunnett's style, and i don't love their style. i will probably still read their following books when they get published, but i really, really hope they learn just one thing: sometimes (most of the time) books that are subtle, are better

Crocodile/Robin is so fucking funny in a Crocodad Context though because Robin would eventually find out and then have to come to terms with the fact that she fucked her captain's dad AND spent like two years just Hanging Out with her ex's ex

does anyone else feel like this. or is it just me

This might sound mean but idk when I see posts about communication on this site I'm super skeptical. Like half of this site is autistic/has adhd and so I feel like half the time what's actually happening is "people in my life are straight up telling me what they need or want but I either can't understand it, can't meet that need or just don't want to so it's probably a communication issue on THEIR end. Time to make 50 posts on how I can't mind read" meanwhile their partner or friend is crying and just wants a hug and they can't just like. Do that without being told and so it feels like a cosmic guessing game and people expecting telekinesis when it's just basic relationship shit. Just an observation

genuinely just busting into tears about doctor who these days, something about the excitement of future ncuti gatwa + the way david tennant is currently occupying brainspace + the way ive avoided thinking about being a kid for awhile but my current move is making me face all kinds of objects and images that have been locked away in boxes for about 10 years (including my special s1 nu!who boxset which I got in 2006) + the kind of adulting I'm currently faced with, am just reminded of how much I wished to leave it all behind and go travelling with a madman (genderneutral) in a box, because the looming adulthood terrified me so much

sometimes the unhappy marriage of the rulers of ferelden.... is something that can be so personal

i don't want to put my uninformed foot in my mouth or get involved with the Discourse but i've been seeing the two extremes of reactions to the korean low birth rates issue (on tumblr and twitter both) and i'm just kind of like. look. i feel like "low birth rates (in many countries but especially japan and korea as part of this conversation) are more broadly the result of capitalism/a culture of overwhelming overwork that makes social relationships and having families incredibly inaccessible to young people" and "low birth rates are very much a part of the current conversation about misogyny and social expectations for women in korea especially in the context of reproduction as 'unpaid labor' for women" are statements that can both be true

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okay i know youngblood (song) is super popular and we love the shuffle beat and the bass line and all the other funky sounds they put in there but. can we talk about it lyrically for a second. 'i'm just a dead man walking tonight'/'i'm just a dead man crawling tonight' like. how exhausted (by this relationship, and everything i guess) you'd have to be to feel like this. the way it captures the process leading to that feeling in the verses. of this relationship, was it really ever that because it's sounding more like a concept you long for and idealise and keep coming back to to your own detriment like an addiction, dying and just being unable to accept its death. in fact the whole album is like that. and it feels like your life is ending or has ended that's how much you've attached yourself to it, when it's gone, walking around in a daze you might as well be dead yeah your body is going through the motions but you're not there. dissociated to who knows where. and then. there's another chance. crawling in desperation, dignity all gone, and you'd think you feel alive but no, you're still dead, too dead to realise this is bad for you your body is just crawling back to this person on its own accord. so much pushing and pulling away has left you so shaken there's nothing left that can see the bigger picture and decide more than one thing into the future. holding onto the hope of this failed relationship which isn't even a hope it's just an illusion, the connection you think you want but it's never going to be that. it's not capable of ever being what you need. this relationship is dead. and when you attach your whole self to it, so are you.

oh my god wait do you like inscryption..,,,, 👁️ 👁️

I do!!! I have,, some opinions about the ending, but

this should answer your question

using the spy x family anime vs manga translations of examples of translation vs localisation

being aroace is weird bc i’m queer but other queer ppl for the most part don’t understand the way i’m queer unless theyre also aro and/or ace

started making a power point presentation about my ocs, made 2 slides, and then just stopped. i <3 creativity

Also, yes, I did spend some time grinding in Dangan Academy again, but like. It's frustrating that I keep having to redo the character affection trips each reboot because I don't have the stuff necessary to build the final Monokuma back-up. So I put a bunch of time and effort into one person and then have to redo all of that because I can't finish the thing to save it.

That's FRUSTRATING.

unfathomable emotions after showering

also.. i hit tag limit on this, so watch out for a very long post if you hit read more on the tags! 😨

not looking for anyone, but. do any other hetalia fictives struggle w/ the fear of existing anywhere that isn't explicitly for you, b/c of how hostile people can get? i'd ask for help coping, but ngl, it's not at all unfounded, so. ig i just wanna hear that i'm not alone in this, b/c it's so scary to see discourse start when it feels like could go in that direction. another confession blog that used to feel safe just stopped feeling like it is b/c the mod just kept letting stuff through. i hate admitting to feeling scared but i hate worrying we're alone in this even more

- alsa kallweit, primary Preußen (aka "1p non nyo" of germanic prussia) n quaternary Prūsai (aka "2p nyo" of old prussia/baltic prussia)

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