#i genuinely don't care how important this book series was to you when you were younger
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My hot take is that the show is closer to the books than people think they're just moving the order of events around and using different scenes and concepts in different ways to fit the new medium but since it's not a beat for beat recreation of the books people are mad
can something be a hot take if it is simply the truth? you're right and you should say it!
i'm also not particularly invested in "how close to the books is the show?" concerns in the first place because, to be honest, to me, The Books Aren't That Good. i read them all, and i don't regret it, but i have no desire to ever read them again because i didn't enjoy them that much. i'd say of the total time i spent reading the books, i was enjoying myself for about 30% of it, but was irritated for 30% and bored for 40% (granted, if we only looked at EOTW-LOC, it would probably be more like 70% enjoying it, 20% bored, 10% irritated - when i look back on ACOS-AMOL i honestly just remember being bored or pissed off almost the whole time except in elayne, egwene, and gawyn chapters since they're the only ones that didn't contain any characters that infuriated me or any plotlines i found insufferable. if you look at my liveblogging posts, you'd probably notice they took a turn in the second half of the series towards me just complaining about everything and suggesting ways the show could fix it!)
the show, meanwhile, i have watched again and again and again. i love the bones and heart of the story of WOT, and what the show's done is taken that story and retold it in a way that is, frankly, SO much more enjoyable to me than the books. characters i hated in the books, i like in the show. arcs that bored me in the books, i find compelling in the show. the show is better than the books to me and i don't care at all how much it deviates. there i said it! and so whenever i get into discussions of "how faithful is the show to the books?" i default to "pretty faithful in all the *important* ways" because i know that's what most readers want to hear, but in my heart my true answer is "it's way more fun to watch than the books were to read, so i genuinely don't care how faithful it is"
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I know it’s unpopular and ig would be seen as chronically online but. a little annoyed at the “UGH 🙄 and here come THOSE people” @ comments those being horrified abt Frostpaw being spayed and connecting it to real life events like bipoc being sterilized against their will. I personally am not one of those people, nor do I think it’s anywhere near that serious or on that level bc I thought it was an interesting turn in the books, but as a black afab myself who would most definitely face forced sterilization if I were not a more privileged individual, (because you know the health system itself loves to play around with our bodies like science experiments as though we cannot physically feel pain) I’m gonna need the yt warrior cats fans to cut it out w the snide superiority complex on “lesser takes” and understand there’s people who are gonna reasonably draw comparisons to these events and see how incredibly horrifying it is what the anthropomorphic cat just went through. not to hit a fucking beehive but why is it acceptable to understand the harmful impacts of misogyny in the series affect people in the real world but misoginoir is taking a step too far?
discourse on bumble being a domestic abuse victim has people understanding and drawing comparisons between that and real life events but we draw the line when woc are brought up. okay. why?
this isn’t at you btw because you generally have nuanced takes and take the time to consider what people are actually saying but like. what’s going on here I’m genuinely blindsided by people rolling their eyes. it is an issue. it’s a huge issue and it’s still happening in places! can’t speak for other countries but it’s still legal on a federal level in the U.S where I live and in my state. my problem isn’t the people drawing comparisons with Frostpaw. my problem is the reaction to that. I don’t understand why one systematic issue can be discussed and the other not without scrutiny and handled as though it’s not as serious topic.
also to note: I am aware that Frostpaw being spayed was not based on any perceived race or ethnicity. I am aware that this was simply for shock value (as of the moment, anyway ((which is what makes it worse imo but that’s another convo))) and I am aware that I cannot speak on behalf of anyone facing this issue but myself and cannot reasonably say that anyone drawing these conclusions will always 100% take the matter as seriously as needed. however I can say that it is a bit difficult for me to accept that in a world where each character has human intelligence, thoughts wishes and feelings, that the concept of forced sterilization, abhorrent and frightening outside of normal cat understanding, frankly should be handled with the utmost care able to be expended. I know it will not be. I am aware. the authors have a history of using their personal bias to push racist narratives before. I understand that people are saying handle the subject with tact and maturity. I just do not believe it is the right or position of a mostly white fanbase to police the discussion of what happens to women of color because we are often spoken over as is. I hope that I have made my point clear? I’m not the best at explaining myself over subjects I’m passionate about, so I may have tripped over my words a bit. I do apologize if it came off as talking in circles
I'll admit, when I first read the spoilers and learned what happened, I drew some connections but I also agree that it's not nearly on that level. But I think it would be wildly inappropriate if I tried to talk on that as a white person.
I don't have much to add, but I think you've raised some pretty understandable concerns and you're very clear in your points, I didn't have any trouble following you! I genuinely have a lot of concerns about the plotline and I think you're right that it's important to be open about these discussions.
#ask to tag#i do apologize i don't have anything really substantial to add#but i don't know enough or am in a position to really be spearheading these conversations#i have my own concerns about the misogyny that i expect to follow#but i think it's very fair for people to see a plot like this and draw connections to other experiences
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📖 but with songs :3
📖: If you had to remove one book from the series, which would you choose?
i am so so sorry for this possibly controversial insanely long rant but. dywh. it is so unfair to both chloe and jeremy it drives me insane i wish the scene never existed and maybe the fandom would be a much more peaceful place. rant under the cut
i genuinely hate dywh so much you have no idea. it literally serves no purpose to the story. if it was intended to be a metaphor for how men can be sexually assaulted because they often are not allowed to deny sexual advances, then it should've actually addressed how it affected jeremy instead of just brushing everything off and 'redeeming' chloe in vimh. don't get me wrong, it is very important to raise awareness about that, but it doesn't work in be more chill because the entire message of the musical is that people- especially teenagers- aren't who they seem because external and internal factors influence how they act. that they can make bad choices but they can also learn from their mistakes and change for the better. if chloe didn't end up being redeemed and the musical wanted people to dislike her then fine, whatever. it's still highly debatable considering how jeremy's trauma was never properly addressed but at least it makes sense for the scene to be included in order to really drive it home that she's an awful person. but she did end up being redeemed and they're trying to tell the audience even she's forgivable. and guess what! a lot of people don't agree with this because of course the audience is going to have a hard time buying that when the severity of chloe's 'mistakes' stick out like a sore thumb.
because if you think about it, all that the plot required was that the couples (aka upstage and puppy love) break up. and god there were better ways to do that. even if they had to include a scene like dywh they could've played it off in a tame way like chloe drunkenly attempting to 'seduce' jeremy (aka just a weird vaguely suggestive dance, nothing else involved). just asking him and backing off when he says no, because there is no reason for chloe to actually try to force jeremy to do anything. jeremy was not her concern, she doesn't even like him, it was brooke and jake. she couldn't give less shits about jeremy, all that mattered was that brooke thought he cheated on her and jake thought chloe had sex with someone else in his parents' room. like hell if they'd know what was going on behind closed doors?? all she had to do was just stay in the room with him for like half an hour then later subtly drop something about fucking him. is that not more in character for her? she's manipulative. she lies.
or they could've just stayed true to the book and made it 'consensual' (as 'consensual' as it can be while under the influence, that is) and nothing about the plot would've changed. brooke would still have thought jeremy cheated on her and jake would still have gotten mad at them for invading the sanctity of his parents' room and chloe would absolutely have still twisted the situation to her advantage because that's who she is. it's not out of character for her at all to rub it in jake's face- why turn down such an opportunity to hurt him? or for her to claim jeremy kissed her first? because she always puts the blame on someone else and manipulates brooke.
i would like to make it clear that i do think she should be held accountable for those actions, because 1) whatever her intentions were doesn't matter, the fact that it made jeremy feel uncomfortable & threatened does and 2) her entire reason for doing that was so incredibly selfish and cruel. she wanted to crush her best friend's self-esteem knowing brooke had already been cheated on and she wanted to hurt her ex-boyfriend in the worst way possible by tainting his memory of his parents who abandoned him. all that and jeremy was nothing to her. she didn't care what he thought, he was just a pawn. that is incredibly fucked up.
BUT. i am also saying that this scene was so not necessary. above all it's offensive that jeremy's trauma is never seriously taken and he's just expected to get over it in literal seconds after the scene takes place. but also- bitchy mean girl characters are already hated enough. a lot of people wouldn't have sympathized with chloe even without dywh in the picture. by literally making up that scene- it wasn't part of the source material, remember- the musical chose to put her on full blast. now we can't discuss her character without feeing like stepping on a landmine because dywh is a serious subject that some people are righteously triggered by. and the slight differences in how the actors of each production deliver that performance and how people interpret that scene is the root of all controversy.
#orca answers#bmc#be more chill#chloe valentine#very tempted to make this one unrebloggable. we'll see
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Thoughts On: The Last Binding Series
by Freya Marske [goodreads]
Basic Summary of Book 1: Un-magical Robin Blyth takes on a civil servant job that suddenly throws him into the middle of a magical conspiracy. With the help of his coworker Edwin Courcey, they begin to unravel and hopefully attempt to prevent a plot that will change magic as the world knows it.
Books in the Series:
A Marvellous Light
A Restless Truth
A Power Unbound
Book Recommendation For Those Who Like:
Historical Fantasy
Found Family
Mysteries
Rating: M for the nsfw scenes.
Unorganized thoughts and many spoilers below
This might just turn into a ramble on how much I like Jack Alston.
Anyway. I love the way Marske writes romance and interpersonal relationships in general. The characters feel real. Like, things get emotional and they hurt each other, but they come back together. Apologize when needed. Talk. It's an emotional maturity between lovers, between friends, between family, that I enjoy reading. Those hard conversations are on the page and not glossed over and magically fixed. (thinking about Maud and Violet where Maud didn't accept Violet running away. Thinking about Jack apologizing to Edwin. Thinking about Jack and his mom.)
I particularly like the complexity of the relationship between Edwin and Jack. Like. From the first book, you just have the sense that Jack was a bully, which he was from that side of things, but it's more complicated than that. But you don't know that then. The second book you get that Jack just doesn't care. He's mean to everyone so it's not like Edwin was particularly special. And in the third, you can see the growth from Jack, seeing that not everyone he has in good regards speak the same language of insults as he does. And from Edwin, you can see the strength he's gained from learning to love and to be loved. Seeing them interact kept reminding me that they were, in a loose sense, lovers once but they were childhood friends before that.
Seeing the the characters from different POVs was fun! I wish there was more Edwin and Robin from Maud and Violet's POV in the second book, but seeing them from Jack and Alan was nice. I didn't notice in the first book just how much of a nerd Edwin is. Makes my jock instincts want to shove him into a locker (affectionate). It's so cute how much Robin loves him and to see the ways different people notice.
So that's enough about all the other things. Time to gush about Jack lol
First book, didn't even register him as important. Second book, loved him instantly. HE'S SO MEAN!! But he helps out anyway out of some sense of responsibility!! And because Maud reminds him of his dead sister!! And they just won't leave him alone.
Watching Jack slowly finding a reason to live again was so cathartic. My chest hurts just thinking about it. To be hurt and to heal. To push on the wound and realize that at some point it has scarred over.
I genuinely really like characters who have gone through something awful, are a little unpleasant, and at some point learn to heal. I LOVE angst so much!!
Also the romance between Jack and Alan was interesting. I did like it a lot, but I also kept thinking "Give me something tender!!". Which was there between the lines of their play and the respect they showed each other. And then the last bit of the book, but at the same time, I wanted to see more of it.
Another thing that was pretty meh was that I wish Alan and Alan's nullification did more. Yes he did a lot to move the plot along as needed, but at the same time, a lot of sections in his POV, he was just a spectator watching everyone else do things. This kind of happened with Jack a little too.
Other little bits of thought
Love that it was brought up how Jack has slept with half the friend group. I was thinking it but was shocked when he was thinking it too lol
Wish we could see more with Addy and her dynamics with Robin and Edwin
It's so funny how the roman tracks became more important to the plot with each book
Took me waaay too long to realize the great threat is WW1
Wish there was more with Lady Dufey and the fae. I think it would be fun to explore and to hear more about her long life and also what happened after the contract was broken
The first chapter of the third book was so hard to read. Kept having to put it down in case I burst into tears. Haven't had such a strong reaction to a first chapter since The Song of Achilles.
I like Marske's prose. Like her word choices and sentence structure. It's both playful and devastating and I look forward to reading everything she writes.
Okay that's it. Those are my thoughts!
#the last binding#a marvellous light#a restless truth#a power unbound#freya marske#thoughts on#m#book recs#I ruined my sleep schedule for the last book#thats the strongest recommendation i can give to anything
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Yay!
Okay, I'll start off by saying that Jason Grace is my absolute favourite character in the whole of the camp half-blood chronicles. When I was around 12 or so I genuinely had a crush on him and now that I'm 19 I just absolutely adore him and just want to protect him lol.
Anyways.
He's been done so dirty, okay? Killing a former protagonist after his series is over is so cheap idc, especially if you kill him out of the blue after revealing that a huge part of what he fought for during hoo (his relationship with Piper) was over.
I can understand Leo and Calypso breaking up, because they met for two weeks or something and then 'fell in love'. They have a lot to unpack and a lot to work through before they're able to form a relationship. But Piper and Jason? They were together for five books, there was a genuine connection between them, they worked well together, etc. Idk, whether you ship Jasper or not, them breaking up outside of their main story for factors that weren't even mentioned when they were protagonists is a huge wtf moment.
I don't want to think this, but it feels like Rick wanted Piper to be queer, which, you know, is great, the more representation the better, but there are other, more sensible ways he could've used to approach her queerness. He could've had Piper mention she'd realised she was queer after the war but she still loved Jason because, you know, four books of relationship development weren't for nothing. Or, if he wanted to break them up, he could've given Jason and Piper more protagonism and explain their reasoning for parting ways better.
But I digress.
Jason's death was so fucking gratuitous, it makes no sense. Why would you kill a protagonist after his series is over? Why? Just to be cruel? So that his death can be serve as some stupid character development for Apollo/yet another trauma for Nico?
Also, are we going to talk about how fucking stupid it is to kill Jason specifically? My man had a very important task to fulfil after hoo: he was going to create temples for the minor gods to stop them from rebelling. You know, he was doing virtually all of Olympus a huge service and I honestly don't know how the minor gods didn't all collectively murder Apollo for letting the one demigod that cared about them die. Idk, if I were a minor god I'll go steal his soul or something to resurrect him, because everyone else is too focused on themselves to care about the minor gods. This is so annoying wtf.
And don't even get me started on how sad it is that Jason's peace was robbed of him when he's been in a shitty place most of his life: his mother was an abusive alcoholic (because neglect is abuse), he was raised by a literal wolf and trained to be a warrior ever since, he was the Percy Jackson of Camp Jupiter during pjo, he had to fight in the war against Gaia, he had to see Leo die (and obviously Rick couldn't wait until they'd meet again to kill him), and the love of his life broke up with him when he did absolutely nothing (nothing!) wrong. People may not realise it, but he's one of the characters who's had the most fucked-up lives wtf.
In conclusion, Jason is now part of Hotel Valhalla because Hera did one (1) good thing and glitched his going to the Underworld so that he could live forever. That's what I'm telling myself from crying about him 24/7.
Ok I just want to say that in some time from now unto eternity I may steal borrow that 'if I were a minor god I'll go steal his (Jason's) soul or something to resurrect him' because that's an absolutely fantastic prompt for the next book.
(Or maybe idk the minor gods wrecking havoc bc their only representative was killed off for the sake of an Olympian sounds quite nice too).
For the rest yeah you have a (many) point(s).
#rick pls read this#pjo#hoo#toa#yone rambling#percy jackson and the olympians#heroes of olympus#trials of apollo#jason grace#piper mclean#jasper#lester papadopoulos
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the good omens meta post
this is not going to be very nice, and it will contain all the spoilers
I am a Good Omens book fan. Moreover, I am a Good Omens fandom fan, a fanfiction reader and writer since before the show ever came out. Also, I love Michael Sheen and David Tennant so much that I watched all three series of "Staged."
So when I say I found the show disappointing, I don't just mean as an adaptation, but as a piece of media that has to stand on its own feet. I know, for any viewer who wasn't invested in the Aziraphale/Crowley beats of the first season, it was basically unwatchable. I know because I tried to get a lot of non-shippers to watch, and the only people who could enjoy it at all cared about the love story at its heart. That's okay. It's nice when things are made for us.
The thing I love about shipping culture, and fan culture, is that it's a corner of the internet where soft-hearted people with big feelings and the desire to indulge in those feelings can be together in community. It's a place where we can intellectualize those feelings, or simply scream together. I've been in fandoms for more than two decades, oh my god. It's one of the only places I feel wholly seen, and totally accepted. (I mean, I've been a victim of online bullying, but who hasn't?) I deeply love my fellow fans. We are so creative, so sensitive, so observant. I really love us: what we make. What we do. How we speak. How we interact with media and transform it into something greater than the sum of its parts.
That's how I feel about Good Omens fandom. I think the works this fandom makes-- the art, the fic, the everything-- are overall of a higher quality than the book and the show. And that's okay. Some fandoms are like that. Not everything is eternal art, perfected to the highest aspiration of the medium. It's still valid. It still counts. It still carries a lot of meaning, for me personally and I know for you, if you're reading this.
I say all of this to contextualize why I felt season two was so genuinely mean-spirited. It felt cruel. I am a major fan of fan service, and I love being a fan who gets serviced. But this fan service reminded me of the book "How To Date Men When You Hate Men," in that it might well have been subtitled "How To Service Fans When You Hate Your Fans." It pointedly retconned moments from season one where people had written the most fill-in fics, e.g. having?????? them go???????? to a nightclub?????? AFTER A BLITZ BOMBING?! You know what people in London did after a Blitz bombing?! They hid in their homes or shelters with the blackout curtains on the windows until daybreak! I couldn't help but feel the zombie Nazis plot (what was that?!) was being used to make sure there was no room for the formerly ambiguous night after Aziraphale fell in love. After season one, fic writers had imagined hundreds of little sexy rendezvous after the Blitz bombing scene, but no more. Now, they can't be canon. In fact, nothing set in the past 6,000 years can be canon, now. So much of this season felt engineered to poison the sweet little ambiguities of season one, and you will never convince me it wasn't intentional.
I think it's important to say what we all know: fan activities like fanfiction and fanart are extremely femme-coded behaviors. Regardless of your personal gender identity, fanfic writers are majority female, and the other activities fans perform (making fanart, cosplaying) tend to be gendered (in the media and by outsiders) as somehow female. It's important that we acknowledge this even if it isn't true-- it's similar to the ways that careers like teaching and nursing are feminized, regardless of who actually teaches and nurses. This is also extremely important to acknowledge because women are PAINFULLY underrepresented behind the scenes of television.
Fewer women than men actually get to make the art that eventually inspires fandom. There were no female writers on Good Omens. There were no female directors. The cishet male creators, by which I mean to include both writers and the director (of Sherlock infamy, by the way), have no cinematic or narrative vocabulary for the androphilic gaze. [That's the gaze that sexualizes and objectifies men, a term on loan to me from a non-binary academic friend. It's the gaze we use when we write m/m slash. This is a larger discussion, but the reason you have predominantly femme writers and consumers of m/m erotica is in part because it is a break from the male gaze-- there is no man objectifying a woman in these stories. You might have a queer identity, too, and that might be part of it, but the fact is that one of the appealing functions of m/m erotica is the absence of a woman being objectified. We, the readers, get to do the objectifying-- in complete and utter contrast to most media. It also bears reiterating that regardless of your gender identity and sexual orientation, you exist in a world where Western media is constantly feeding you film and television from the POV of the male gaze. That is why m/m erotica especially, and to some degree f/f erotica, is transgressive, by the way. It's also transgressive to just find more than one man hot, because we're not supposed to.] Anyway, creators like the men who made Good Omens might really think they speak our language, but it will always be a second language to them, and a lot of nuance gets lost. In my opinion, that's why the kiss scene was so devastating. It was joyless.
I know people will say (and have said) that it was joyless and passionless in service of the angst, but fanfic readers know: having even a second of passion followed by the angst makes the pain that much sweeter. It would have made the conflict, and the cliffhanger, even harsher. The writers and director behind that scene do not understand what every fanfiction writer with a vibrator knows. They fundamentally do not understand us. It breaks my heart to say it, because I don't think it has to be true across the board, but I felt it so strongly with Good Omens, season two. I felt so strongly that they were trying to speak our language without having the humility to speak with us, to understand us. They understand us only as viewers and as consumers. They don't understand us as collaborators, because they don't think they have to collaborate with us. But fans are, in a very real sense, collaborators-- collaborators in making meaning, and collaborators in making other people money. Understanding that symbiosis is what transformative works are about. This season felt like it was intended to remind us that these characters are not ours. We are welcome to play in our own sandbox, but we are not a part of theirs. And if the show had bothered to hire any femme creatives, there may have been someone above the line to bridge the gap between what they thought they were doing and what we took from it.
I also can't help feeling that we're being held emotionally hostage to get the ransom money of a third season. IMO, the second season was genuinely bad television. Like, sincerely appalling storytelling. I'm talking about everything before the kiss, too. (I can't even discuss the kiss right now.) The so-called "mystery" of Gabriel's memory was nonsensical. We had no reason to care and the "clues" we followed were incoherent until the finale. It wasn't a fun mystery we could follow, and let's be honest, we were all just there for the Aziraphale/Crowley moments. Even those moments were wasted, imo.
What was the purpose of the magic show and the miracle blocker? Was it just for all the sexual double-entendres of giving and receiving and shooting guns? Because, I mean, I love a good dirty joke, but what was its utility in the structure of the season? What did we learn? Did anyone change? Did anyone go on a journey? It failed at every screenwriting 101 lesson I've ever been taught.
Why even have Crowley and Aziraphale setting up the lesbians if the lesbians aren't going to be set up? Why have a monologue about how you can't force two people together just because you want them to be together? That whole storyline felt like subtext (and not particularly subtle subtext) of the author stubbornly wresting narrative control from fans.
And it was FILLED with squandered opportunities. One of my favorite moments was Crowley referencing humans in the rain confessing their love a la Richard Curtis movies. Wow! What a beautiful set-up for his confession later in the-- wait, you're not even going to use that perfect set-up? OK, but you're going to do a set-up, right? Oh, you're not? You're just going to have the lesbians tell Crowley that he and Aziraphale have "never REALLY talked" and think that's a set-up? Girl, I guess!
I don't think on the basis of writing, Good Omens season two earned a third season. I would be very surprised if it got one. And if it doesn't get one, that's frankly justified! No one is going to watch this show who isn't there for Aziraphale/Crowley, which-- again-- are my people. But we are simply not enough, and a good show knows that it has to engage both shippers and casual viewers. My guess is that they don't get a third season, because no one but us hardcore fans will watch that trainwreck again and again, and then Ne*l Ga*man and the actors will do some kind of staged reading of a third season-ish script for charity or something to tie up the loose ends. I'm old-fashioned in that I think you should use the money and time and resources you've been given to tell a story, not just set up a story. I feel like fans are being held emotionally hostage to push Amazon to pay the proverbial ransom of a third season (and it is a ransom, it does line pockets that are not yours or mine). I feel like Ga*man made that explicit in some of his Tumblr posts!
Which is not to say the show might not have been more successful if indeed it had been the pure fan service everyone is saying it is. But also, it wasn't pure fan service. This was not an exercise in giving the people what they want. It was an exercise in asserting narrative control, which to me is the opposite of what fans want, need, and deserve.
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IMO im sending this so early NOT because I'm trying to beat you (though it does feel nice 🤭) but I'll be offline during our usual end-of-month wrap-up + i SHANT make you wait long!!! HOW DID AUGUST GO! I read ur goodreads review on The Picture of Dorian Gray but I'm dying to hear more 👁️ + do u think you're gonna try and shift into ~fall vibes~ for reading now (whatever that means to you) or continue to go with the flow?
hi cas this was such a jumpscare getting this over a week ago but i'm glad you were able to beat me! of course there's a new autumnal vibe in the books i'll be reading i've even updated my discord profile (goodbye summer kendall you were great)
but i can go into more detail in the
august book wrap up
(2 days early but i'm not finishing a book in 2 days)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (The Original 1980 Uncensored Edition) by Oscar Wilde
well i read a book. there were some really interesting threads in this, i thought Dorian being a narcissistic weirdo was cool to read about, but other than the end of the book taking a much darker turn, i did't find much about this impressive. i don't like reading books expecting them to work harder for me to enjoy them, but i struggled to want to read this.
Must I Go by Yiyun Li
wasn't what i expected it to be, not really a fan of what it was. you give me an 88 year old woman who's survived her eldest daughter's suicide and raised her granddaughter and is looking after her greatgrandaughter and what do we do? we spend almost 200 pages of her dissecting the journal of some random man who ended up marrying his cousin and lived his whole life not knowing he had said daughter? why. i don't care! i don't care!!!!!!! and then when Lila (the character in question) did talk about herself, her mother having her dreams crushed in her marriage, her three marriages and further 4 children, it's just brushed over and kind of shrugged at. none of the "important" men in her life are alive and yet they took up so much of the book. whatever you keep dead people alive in your memory but other than being reminded how selfish and uncaring Lila was there wasn't much about this i felt positive about. wouldn't recommend, went straight in my donation pile.
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
i finally did it. what a rollercoaster! i absolutely hate reading first person books when i find the character annoying. not to say a bad person, or morally defunct or anything. just plain old annoying. Elena Greco is annoying. fine in the first 2 as she's 10-22 years old and it's expected, but the third book sees her in her mid 20s early 30s and i genuinely wanted to throw this book at a wall. i struggle to see this as a tale of friendship at this point just because like. they aren't friends??? they're two women who at this point are bound by history and maybe that's the point but i want better for Lila and she remains the star of the show
The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante
i finished the quartet and feel emotionally wrung out. this was going fine but i think it's around 350 pages in there's a full blown "relationship" between Lila's 24 year old son and Elena's 15 year old daughter???? reading from the perspective of an awful mother was so jarring, too. really enjoyed the series, i just feel like i felt very untethered towards the end and i just wanted it to end
september / autumnal reads
i'm annoyed that i've ended up in such a white reading space so will be fixing that for sure. also need a romance, i haven't read one i've liked this year! something fun is overdue. i have some horror books picked out but that's not for a little while yet. i don't see myself picking up anything new (maybe?) so i'll just be picking from what i already bought, trying some contemporary reads that have been rotting on my shelf for the past year
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what I would change about the Nikolai duology:
⚠️ major spoilers, obviously
I mean like genuinely we're mentioning character deaths, major plot points, basically summarizing, and a lot of it you won't understand until you've read the books—you have been warned
disclaimer: there were a lot of aspects I liked about the series (the writing was phenomenal, I felt many emotions, I had fun), but overall I was left pretty disappointed, especially since it's been quite a while and I've been able to think about it and develop my opinions. also I rant about this regularly so I thought I'd make a post. however, I adore Leigh and everything she does, and the grishaverse is extremely important to me (perhaps why I held such high standards for Nikolai's series). these are just my opinions, and it is totally fine to hold different ones, I'd actually love to hear them.
make it more about Nikolai. it felt like I had to speed through other povs to get to his, and especially by ROW, he almost felt like a side character (again). we got two books, and yet I feel like I barely know anything more about him than after the trilogy. he had povs, but it was so hard to get into his head about everything. there was SO MUCH potential for his story but it just ended up feeling like a side plot for the greater scheme of things
Zoya!!! I loved every single chapter from her pov!! why weren't those two the whole series? it would have been so nice to have something simpler where their relationship and story could also be established more
and like biracial Zoya who was almost a victim of child marriage?? her relationship with the Suli?? GIVE ME MORE
honestly didn't care much for the bee lady villain? whole thing was kinda on crack for me
why did David have to die? he didn't. it literally was an excuse for the Crows cameo and I will never forgive that. I loved seeing the Crows of course and it was hilarious (Kaz dressed as an old man lmaodjwiej), but that was not a price I was willing to pay (especially because I was still grieving). JUST GIVE US AN INEJ NOVEL OR SOMETHING THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN INFINITELY BETTER
to add onto that, Genya has gone through so much already. I feel like there's a limit for how much a character should suffer. it was just way too cruel, especially on her wedding day
I could have enjoyed our little found family loving each other and supporting each other for the rest of the series but instead David dies and we leave Genya to mourn all alone and forget about the og squad for the rest of the book pretty much
leave Nina out of it. I'm not sure how unpopular this opinion is, but her story did not need to be continued in canon. it ended so tragically but so beautifully and in a way that we could imagine how she healed in our own ways
also she really didn't need to be there for the plot of the series. it felt forced a little bit
also she just went straight to Ravkan military service after the heist and Matthias dying? uhh
how did she get over Matthias so quickly? it would be fine that she moved on if she hadn't been literally carrying his body around for months?? in a writing sense, I liked the whole grief arc but 1. I really didn't need it because again, it drags on Nina's story more than I would have preferred (and it was just traumatic ngl) and 2. SHE SWITCHED UP SO FAST AFTERWARDS
which brings me to Hanne. what even. who. I didn't care at all for Hanne. why are we introducing new characters that don't even contribute to the plot? I hate to say this but it felt like forced representation. I didn't feel for her/them/him (I'm sorry I don't know what pronouns they would use), and I didn't ship Nina with them either
Nina felt quite different when with Hanne and I just didn't really like this new Nina???? which is scary for me because I absolutely loved her in SOC but idk something felt off, and not even in just a post-tragedy way
the whole Fjerda plot. idk, it honestly felt like a forced way to fit Nina's plot in, I felt it didn't really contribute much at the end of the day even if what it was leading up to hinted it could have—this includes all the new characters too like Rasmus or whatever his name was
in general, all the different povs (Ravka, Shu Han, Fjerda) made it feel all over the place, and by the end, the connection wasn't enough for it to feel fulfilled. this series (especially ROW) had way too many things going on
I MISS ADRIK AND LEONI WHY PUT THEM IN IF THEY PRACTICALLY DISAPPEAR
that random love story with fake Nikolai and fake Ehri??? wha- why give these two random side characters a tragic love story?? like breaking my heart for literally no reason
yeah Mayu too like why is she getting povs? I appreciate the Shu Han world-building with that but there were just too many things happening for me to actually feel much for her and Reyem (but their bond was wholesome)
look I reallyyyy liked the Shu Han stuff since I was genuinely interested in the politics. I honestly wouldn't have minded more of that?? just if only the Fjerda stuff didn't happen and it wasn't so jam packed with plotlines
I also think the Shu Han politics could have been integrated with the plot a little better, it felt pretty distant from Nikolai and the overall plot (like maybe instead of going to Ketterdam, Nikolai could have been more involved in all that?)
WHY IS THE DARKLING BACK?? MAKE NEW CONFLICTS. NEW VILLAINS IF YOU MUST. STOP REUSING VILLAINS. ALINA DID NOT SUFFER THAT MUCH, WORK THAT HARD, GIVE UP HER POWERS JUST FOR THIS MF TO RETURN!!! it also devalued his initial death scene like that shit was BEAUTIFUL and to cry for someone you hate?? like wow
and now we're dragging poor Alina back into this like let her live in peace oml
THAT CULT THING WAS HILARIOUS BUT WTF the darkling is no longer scary nor can I take him seriously anymore. what even was that plotline like?? I'm honestly so confused I could not tell you what we achieved in this duology
that little multiverse?? tease at the end and him like holding together the world or whatever it was was cool tho
NIKOLAI HAS A BIRTH DAD AND A SISTER. AND IS A BASTARD CHILD. AND WE JUST. ARE PRETENDING THAT DIDNT HAPPEN??? like I'm sure Nikolai would feel some level of anger or confusion or sadness or SOMETHING but the short interaction was so casual and silly and we just never visited that again?? why are we portraying Nikolai like a comic relief character in his own series Leigh whyyyy T_T like I love his personality but he also has dimensions and we have sEEN glimpses of that
and yeah to go back to my first point, Nikolai is literally leading a war (loved the steampunk vibes). his brother (whom he had a complicated relationship with) died. he had to banish his parents. he found out about blood relatives. one of his closest friends and talented engineers died ON HIS WEDDING DAY. he has a demon inside of him and woke up every day in chains. so where is the depth??? why was he the least angsty out of all the povs we got?? (like we obviously got some moments but with everything else it was just pushed aside)
anyway, if you read this far, *mwah* thank you, I appreciate you for listening to my rambling. please lmk what you think!! do you agree? disagree? what did u think about this series? I hope you have a wonderful day/night ❤️
#grishaverse#nikolai#zoya nazyalensky#king of scars#rule of wolves#shadow and bone#zoyalai#leigh bardugo#nikolai lantsov#the grisha trilogy#six of crows#ya fiction#book blog#book review#reader#book thoughts#book tumblr#crows#kaz brekker#inej ghafa#genya kostyk#genya safin#david kostyk#alina starkov#darkling#general kirigan#fjerda#matthias helvar#nina zenik
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why is legacy your least favourite of the series now? (btw I haven’t reread kotlc in forever all I remember is that Tam is gone and Keefe is having a Bad Time)
I think what happened is that upon rereading the other 2 I disliked, I realized their faults weren't as bad as I'd remembered, and Legacy just has very little to draw me in, and everything else is not to my taste. I'd been denying it for a while I think, trying to stay positive, but in being honest with myself this last reread it just really bothers and upsets me at times. I can try to articulate it, but there's a lot of layers that even I don't understand to my reaction, so heads up
(nothing against anyone who enjoys legacy!! i'm simply not one of you. this is your warning that this is a more critical/less positive post and perspective on legacy. if you don't want to see that, don't look)
Sophie's relationships are an inevitable part of the story the way it's written; it becomes very prevalent here, and none of it's positive, it's just more conflict--and not even satisfying conflict, to me. I'm queer in a way that doesn't involve romance and attraction, and I could not care less about Sophie's drama. And I know people talk about the importance of connecting to stories about people with experiences you don't have, but I don't think this is one of them. I've read fantasy stories with conflicted romance before, and even though I'm very attached to these characters...I just don't care for how Shannon's doing it.
I won't deny that part of it is frustration and anger knowing how some people take what happened in Legacy to further unfairly demonize Fitz (who is one of my top 2 characters)--and that part of that will be done in a "see how toxic Fitz is? Keefe is so perfect for her instead" kinda way. Which bothers me because it ignores so much about so many characters, not just Fitz. And I know they are entitled to their thoughts and interactions as much as I am, and I try not to let it get to me too much (curating my own experience and all that), but I can't deny that I'm at least aware of it. And that that knowledge negatively impacts my reading experience when I become more conscious of it. at least at the moment
And I suppose it also just makes it obvious the disconnect between me and the story. I can brush past Sophie's crush musings and brief flustered moments. But an entire book where a significant conflict is her failing relationship and searching for her parents to try and fix said relationship? It's like a whole book of "hey! here's something really important to most people!! that isn't to you! remember how different you are?" To be clear, I don't mind being different, I quite like the kind of queer I am. I don't want to change it.
It's more like a...well now I have to put up with and trudge through this tiresome stereotypical shit in a series I really like, too? I poke a lot of fun, but Keeper is genuinely a really important and prevalent series in my life, even though its not my favorite. And it's like...here, too?
I'm not opposed to relationships in fiction, there are several I quite enjoy and they can have very important places and purposes! Keeper just isn't one of them that really speaks to me--at least in canon. I don't like how sophitz was written, I don't like how Sophie's been characterizing Fitz and Keefe, I don't like her reaction to and focus on her match status even though I understand it from a character perspective. Their relationships just haven't been the compelling kind to me
I could try and link all this to like, poor writing or inconsistent characterization or catering to fans and things like that. I could probably come up with a polished argument if I tried, make it technical and about a bunch of mistakes made but at the end of the day? it's really just not to my taste. I just don't like it, even though I can logically understand why most things happened, how they were in character and contribute to their development. I just don't like what happened. I don't like how romance focused it was and how relationships panned out. I'm disappointed sophitz ended how it did, how the characters behaved in their relationships, how Sophie reacted to her match status, her inability to pull herself together for a while, how sidelined Tam's kidnapping felt, how some people will demonize Fitz, etc.
I read keeper for entertainment, and there just was nothing for me. I do what I can to appreciate its place in the series, and to acknowledge when it is true to the characters, including in ways I can't connect to. But this isn't a series I read for self betterment or learning or anything, it's for fun and none of what happened was fun for me (meaning fun in like a satisfying entertainment way including heartbreak and tragedies and horrors, not that it has to be silly and light hearted)
That was probably more than you were expecting; it was more than i was expecting! But it's such a visceral reaction that it's hard to identify and translate, and I'm sure there's more to it I haven't uncovered. in fact as I was writing this the process helped me think through more of my reaction, so thanks for the opportunity :)
#kotlc#kotlc discourse#<- just in case because I am saying more critical things#quil's queries#nonsie#i feel like there's more to it as well but like I said. it's like this deep seated visceral upset in my chest#I don't know what triggers it exactly or how to put it into words#it just upsets me. legacy upsets and frustrates me#trying to be very honest with myself about that to see if it helps me figure it out#its not just technical things#just the events and opinions and actions the characters take upset me sometimes#and legacy is like. a really concentrated instance of that#i don't know if any of this makes sense#it doesn't even fully make sense to me#and I keep trying to logic it out#alas. feelings don't like listening to logic#i'll probably keep thinking about it and figure something else out
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I genuinely forgot that Birds of Prey was a current title until the mention of Barbara again. Could you give us your thoughts on it? If we are going by editorial do you think titles are given out based on preferences? It’s been shown that artist are being commissioned to draw covers based on preferences of editors. What if a certain editors likes Barbara as Batgirl so certain titles are more important to show her as Batgirl to them whereas a Batman title where nothing really big happens to her and she plays a small part is the exception?
I wrote some thoughts I had on the series here.
But a quick version is really, it's...okay? Like a big reason I was so hard on Batgirls for like the first year of it's run is how insulting I felt as a reader and fan of Cass/the Batgirl brand. It felt like Cloonrad/Chen/Bat office were purposefully putting out a book that was made to insult fans of every Batgirl book that wasn't Burnside. Is that true? (Honestly kinda) Probably not, but it's how it felt when I read it so I continued to have strong negative feelings when reading it literally until the Annual issue.
With Birds I don't feel insulted reading it, but I also don't think it's that good. I don't think Thompson is the "Savior" of Cass or Dinah or Babs or any of these characters like I keep seeing some ppl want to believe. At this point she's barely writing a Birds of Prey book anyway. She's writing a Dinah book and everyone else is just playing second (except Harley) and for some reason ppl seem okay with that. I think the story is paced incredibly bad and the entire plot is dumb and is making a lot of the characters look dumb. But again ppl seem okay with that. A lot of things I think other writers would get crucified for Thompson is doing and ppl are praising her. I'll admit I'm surprised ppl are upset that Babsgirl is gonna show up cause I figured Thompson was bulletproof at this point.
My understanding is that editorial decides what books they want to make, sometimes even the story/plot/characters used in the books and then find the creatives they want to make the book a reality. I believe they also hear pitches and then either work together to make the pitch something worthwhile, or take the pitch bastardize it into something else entirely and then the writer now has to make that book.
I have heard she doesn't work at DC anymore, but Jessica Chen was loud and proud Babsgirl fan and most of her editorial work when it came to Babs had her as Babsgirl a lot of the time. I think editors definitely can and do influence decisions on whether or not Babsgirl or Oracle gets used when it comes to a title based on their preference as oppose to what the story needs or what is best for the character. It definitely often feels like if she doesn't have a major role then she's allowed to be Oracle, but if she's supposed to be important to the story then the writers suddenly don't know how to write her only as Oracle and must use her as Batgirl again cause now it's important.
Better people than me are way more knowledgeable about stuff like this so these are just my random thoughts, but frankly Thompson writing Babsgirl was inevitable. I mean this is a writer that didn't think ppl cared about Huntress being part of the Birds of Prey, I didn't have high hopes she was gonna put too much thought into thinking ppl would prefer Oracle vs Babsgirl in a Birds book. Whether she was forced to do it or not, idk. I don't believe she was, but I'm not in the room.
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"if we don't like it, we make it gay" that isn't the point, though. so many other people have said this more eloquently than i can, but you can't claim "death to the author" when the author is alive and actively lobbying for the genocide of trans people in the uk and influencing (and funding, iirc) republican politicians in the states to do the same thing. if you say "fuck terfs" but then continue to engage with the franchise and ignore the multitudes of jewish and lgbt+ people telling you the reasons why you shouldn't, the reasons why this franchise is literally killing us, your trans and jewish friends/followers are going to be cautious of you. *i'm* cautious of you, now. you're not only supporting a terf by giving her engagement, but jkr is a fascist. i can't assume your response to this, and this isn't sent out of malice, but i hope you can ask yourself if a book series and nostalgia are more important than the real people being affected by the political career of its creator.
I'm going to answer this as best as possible, but please be mindful that English isn't my first language, so I might not be as eloquent or exhaustive as I could've been in my native language.
Leaving this premise aside, I say this with no malice nor desire to sound bitter/defensive: please take a step back and stop assuming stuff about me.
I don't even know where half of the things you said come from, I genuinely thought you sent this ask to the wrong person until I read the "fuck terfs" part.
"continue to engage with the franchise" how am I doing this? I have 1 word associated with it, that's it. Do you see me promoting the books or the movies? do I reblog stuff about the franchise? Do I go around showing anything related to this? I've stopped giving money to that author the moment I found out what she stands for.
I have one post related to the franchise before I knew how big of a deal it was to make fan-related content (I thought it was okay to still go on with stuff she doesn't get money from), which I decided to not continue writing it the moment I understood it might've been hurtful to someone.
You also assume I don't listen to fellow friends/followers. The thing is, you don't know me, this is Tumblr, I do not show everything about me in my blog. I have lgbtq sources I go to inform myself on how to approach topics that interest the community but not me personally because I wanna be supportive. You also have to understand that I get my information mainly from Italian resources and the approach on the topic might be different. This is not me speaking for the Italian trans community, obviously, but they seem to not really care if you engage with fanmade content, while I see in the "internet world" trans creators who don't accept fanmade as well and some do. I simply don't know where I stand but in the meantime, I'm not engaging even with fanmade stuff just to be safe.
All of this to say, I have no problem admitting that I don't know what I should do about fan-made related content because I tried to understand but with the mixed up opinions I simply don't know. Me not knowing translates to me engaging with any content until I understand better.
I'm trying really hard to not see malice in your words to be honest, since you've been assuming so much stuff about me. Everything else you touched upon it doesn't apply to me (like having nostalgia about the books, I never once said anything like that).
All of this being said, I am sorry to know that people are cautious about me. I hope you can understand that this blog is supposed to be a happy place to talk about Stranger Things and have a nice break from chaotic everyday life and I'm really saddened to know that it isn't as lighthearted as I thought.
To the people who were disappointed/had hard feelings after reading my bio, I am sorry. I mean it, I would never write something anywhere with the intention of hurting everyone.
To anyone who reads this, I hope you don't see me in a bad light after what this anon wrote and my response, I'm trying to handle this situation the best I can and be mindful of everyone's feelings. I am far from perfect but I am trying.
(I'm leaving the bio as it is if people wanna check it out after reading this but I'm going to change it after a little while.)
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You asked for my opinion, here we gooooo
Charles x Alastair: burn it burn it burn it, canonically an adult creeping on an underage kid, Charles is trash, the Carstairs siblings fucking showed him, I hope that Thomas beats him up in CoT
Thomas x Alastair: death from cute 🥹, I’m currently on a reread and their talk in the sanctuary almost killed me… again. I just hope that they can figure things out in CoT, they’re my wholesome/unproblematic OTP
Cordelia x James: honestly kinda torn, I want to love them wholeheartedly and every time Jaime calls her Daisy I feel like I do, but it’s just so angsty and I think with Matthew being my absolute favourite I just can’t handle the situation, I am praying that Cassie finds a satisfying ending for them🙏
Cordelia x Matthew: actually I am surprisingly fond of the ship, they’re amazing friends at the very least, just with how well she can read him and how much he trusts her, but on my reread I’ve noticed Cordelia gushing over Matthew quite a bit, and idk how they could ever work out but I wouldn’t be mad
James x Matthew: look, I really really really loved Will and Jem, but something about these two gets me, they’re my favourite Parabatai, and I even ship them, though obviously they could never be canon. But they have so many tender moments that break my heart every time🥹😫❤️ no matter how, I just want them both and their relationship to be okay after CoT but something is telling me I won’t get that
Ariadne x Anna: I have a crush on Anna, so personally I very much feel for Ariadne. Their scenes are always a delight to come across, despite the angst. Anna just needs to jump over her own shadow, but apart from that they’re giving power couple energy ⚔️
Lucie x Jesse: our unproblematic straight relationship😇 as far as raising your boyfriend from the dead can be unproblematic🤫 I‘m rooting for them but I’m not as invested as some other ships.
Cordelia x Lucie: I am freakin‘ mad that we won’t get their ceremony within the TLH series😤 they’re so sweet and exude Giel power when fighting together, but are underwritten at times in my opinion. I just need them to trust each other fully again😩 As for romantic shipping, any AU with them would slap, but I don’t feel it in the books.
Kit x Grace: they had like 2 scenes together but I am so invested in this ship! They both deserve someone who genuinely understands them. Kit could give Grace something to have purpose and confidence, and she could be the Marie to his Pierre🥹❤️ obviously she needs to be forgiven first, and she might not be ready for a relationship right now, but I feel like they would build trust slowly, and Kit would take forever to court her 😆
Matthew x Claude: okay so, unpopular opinion but I have a weird fascination with Kellington and he’d have me wrapped around his finger if I ever were to enter the Hell Ruelle. Pretty sure he’s an ass, but since we don’t know his age I wouldn’t straight up say he’s as terrible as Charles. though obviously to Matthew he’s dead and fucking should be. (still curious what happened between them exactly) And I hope to GOD that he won’t bite Math. Couldn’t forgive that 🙅🏻♀️😡
Grace x James: omg, not just terrible but actually magical sexual assault. he might’ve genuinely cared for Grace before he wore the bracelet but what happened after was just🤢 I like Grace as a character with a redemption arc but whatever is Grace/James needs to be burnt with heavenly fire. (in another timeline they’re really cute childhood friends.)
Pretty sure I covered the most important relationships, and I hope you don’t regret asking😇😂
Ohhhhh I LOVE IT YES YES SHARING THOUGHTS TIME💅🏻🌟💞✨
1) I don't think anyone ships them at all. The only thing I'm curious about is that chot snippet where Christopher believes Alastair came to the Fairchild house to meet Charles 😒like.... THEY'RE NOT TOGETHER AGAIN RIGHT?!
2) YesYES Alastair just needs some time. It's one of those rare times when I'm 100% they're an endgame.
3) I can't take healthy criticism at this point. I ship them since 2014 so🥺
3) as not a fan of Matthew I'm trying to be an neutral as possible BE PROUD OF ME! so they definitely have a chemistry, but they just like "cool to hang out, but not good for each other in the long term". For now they're just unhealthy distractions for each other. For Cordelia - Matthew is a possibility to run away of herself and her problems. And for Matthew - Cordelia is an illusion of a healthy happy life.
4)Ohhh James and Matthew. I remember that before COI someone (quit famous on here, but I forgot who😭) was 100% SURE Matthew's in love with James. And they made like 134551 essays why it's true. So you're not weird. They definitely have a strong bond and I REALLY HOPE that CC won't make Cordelia an obstacle to their friendship. The only thing I love about Matthew in COI is how much he genuinely cares about James. It's obvious even when they're mad at each other 😭✋
5)Yes, and since I ship these two for 4 years GAY hehehehehe I can tolerate all this shit Anna keeps doing to Ariadne, CAUSE I BELIEVE Cassie will make them....you know...TALK and deal with all their bullshit
6)my baby ghostwriter, the only thing that keeps me going 🥺😭✋just let them hold hands and attack each other with nose kisses CC please
7)Like....they don't actually develop any bond or sth. Like okay they were writing each other for years but it was all about "now I'm gonna tell you about my summer", then they interacted a few times and it was all about "oh hi glad u came, now let's hang out with boys", aaaaaand.... that's it🙃🙃🙃 even if Cassie will let them perform a parabatai ceremony in Chot, it's gonna feel empty. It's not me not wanting them to become parabatai, it's about me ASKING FOR AT LEAST 2 OR 3 PROPER DIALOGUES BETWEEN THEM😤😤😤
8)Oh oh YesYES you're absolutely right. Even if they get together, they're gonna do it very slowly and in the end of chot. I also shiped them since 2014, but now we have almost no hope and I just have a feeling CC added those scenes just for people like me who were kinda waiting, and they're gonna be just friends.
9) Ohhhhhh I see I see👀👀👀NO no biting pls☝🏻
10)NOOOOO no NOW it's not a ship at all. But I'll tell you sth: as an old fan I remember some hints from CC that Grace and James were supposed to be a real thing without any magic involved. If you find some old posts or YouTube videos (from 2014 to 2019) you'll see that actually lots of people were invested in this pairing. And somewhere in 2015, even though I shipped Jordelia, I was really curious about their dynamic. And then CC decided to change the majority of the plot, which is okay cause so much time has passed, but I'm still upset about it. I believe the original Grace/James was far more interesting.
Thank you for your thoughts, it was so entertaining ✨💞💓🌟
#tlh#the last hours#jordelia#fairstairs#ghostwriter#gracetopher#arianna#thomastair#charles x alastair#grace x james#Matthew x claude#chain of thorns
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re: yesterday's bullshit (editing the next book in a Series Of Survivalist Fiction) i genuinely think im done accepting proofreading gigs from her because they've been getting more and more intensely right wing. i could grin and bear it when it was just obnoxious rich people memoirs and self help guides that assumed you could already afford rental properties but i just edited a Single Chapter where the hero referred to a character he wanted dead by a racist slur, the narrative went off on a bunch of insane tangents that pretty much just regurgitated fox news' most racist and queerphobic talking points, and took an unsurprising but still miserable turn to talk about how cool drone stikes on foreign countries were. i wouldn't have accepted the job had i known, but she didn't seem to think it was important information and was incredibly cagey with any details until after i'd already agreed to it. i know it's not my fault and i did my best under the circumstances, and frankly, the job paid for my groceries this wk, but i still feel really gross and awful for helping this author live out his literally genocidal fantasies. i feel even worse knowing that it's apparently a really popular series that a lot of people presumably agree with. it scares the shit out of me that people genuinely think like this but it scares me even more that ordinary people like the woman who contracts me look at blatant fascist propaganda art and don't care as long as they're getting paid. and frankly i'm pretty disgusted with myself that i'm apparently one of those people since i didn't say anything after realizing how disturbing the job was
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anti-sjm sentiments increase after every book she releases, which is great, but something deeply uncomfortable I'm realizing, especially in the anti-acotar community, is that ... a lot of new antis do not actually care about the deeply problematic elements and patterns of sjm's works, but only care about them in the context of their favourite character. It's the same mindset as the stan community with the "anti" name.
some Feyre stans, for example (or rather Feysand stans, idk if she has stans of her own because sjm hasn't given her a fucking personality to stand on) are very disillusioned and pissed off with the crap Rhys pulls on her in acofas and acosf, but fail to understand that it is not a random 180 degree character change, it's a perfectly predictable pattern of behaviour from the time he abused her in acotar, something they still continue to dismiss or deny.
Tamlin is another character - while there has been renewed attention given to the way he's treated very unfairly in the narrative (which is good!), some new fans of his veer very close to outright woobificafion. I read a post that criticized Feyre for getting together with rhysand so fast after Tamlin, because it was - I kid you not - disrespectful to Tamlin and her relationship with him. yeah. the dude who emotionally and physically abused her - that's who she should be respecting. I've seen his relationship with Lucien get romantisized as well.
Nesta fans (and I'm one of them so it's doubly irritating) are rightfully furious at how badly sjm treats her, and how the narrative harps on that while blissfully ignoring the crap that other characters have done. But there's...no need to deny & dismiss the fact that she genuinely was very shitty to Feyre in the beginning of acotar (and feyre is very shitty to her now). Like, it's fine to acknowledge it lol, it doesn't mean to have to like Nesta less as a character. And so many stans also ship her with Cassian, which I genuinely do not understand because if they really cared about her, why the fuck are they shipping her with her abuser? Some of those people were rightfully outraged after Silver Flames, but it's the same as feysand fans - they ignore the pattern of abuse that's been existent since Wings and Embers. and some Nesta fans ship her with ERIS of all characters, good god.
Mor's treatment is a fucking mess. She's dismissed by a lot of people, and from what i've seen, there are quite a few Nesta stans vehemently hate her. Which I get to an extent, because she was terrible to Nesta in acosf, but maybe acknowledge that this is the same person who helped Feyre contrary to Rhys's wishes in acomaf, and the fact that she's queer was a complete retcon by sjm followed by a downgrade in her narrative importance, her powers, and her likeability. And that Azriel pursuing her for 500+ years is is fucking CREEPY, she is terribly unnerved and uncomfortable by it, meaning she in *also* in a deeply toxic situation. and I think sometimes she's blamed for sleeping with Cassian, too, idk. People who write pages describing how unfairly other female characters are treated but make no room for her are automatically disregarded by me lol.
... anyway, yeah. I'm not sure this makes sense, I don't remember exact details of the series so maybe I've missed my mark at places, but this is what I've observed.
No I think you're right - it's frustrating when there are problems with a series (especially serious ones) that people either don't see or ignore until it impacts a character or facet of the story they care about.
And yes, while the treatment of women in the series is pretty crappy, the treatment of women IN the series by fandom is even crappier. Whatever you (general you) feel Mor's sexuality is, it shouldn't matter: someone who has shown no interest in another person for 500 YEARS is not at fault for the other person continuing to lust after them, and it rubbed me the wrong way that the only way Feyre could excuse Mor not being into Azriel was that Mor is into women.
In short, the books tie into and encourage protagonist-centered morality, and while the books themselves hold Rhys up as the ultimate protagonist, fans are going to have different favorites.
(I’m sorry this took so long to answer, apparently I typed it up and put it in drafts?!)
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I am genuinely curious, since Elsewhere Elsewhen is your least favourite episode. Which is your favourite Owl House episode or the one you think is the best?
Lost in Language is my favorite episode. Which yes, of course the Lumity writer picks a Lumity episode. In the version of this that was going to cover three possible favorites, they were all Lumity episodes. And, well, all Season 1 episodes admittedly as well. S2 enters my list if we go top five probably but I don't know.
We're talking about number one though and let's get the weakest portion out of the way first: It has a TOH B plot. A B plot mostly existing to add jokes and fill time but it's by far not the worst B plot the series has had. The stuff with the Bat Queen's kids is fun, enjoyable and actually feels like it could lead to something important eventually with the whistle at the end. It's nothing special and it suffers from the second season… making it make no sense (you raised King, Eda, how is this that new to you?) but again, there's worse out there when it comes to TOH B plots.
It's also short. Those interludes genuinely know what they are and get out of the way for the A plot quickly which starts on a STRONG foot with Amity reading to kids. Now the obvious thing to say here is what Luz says: This sour lemon drop has a sweet center and it works well for that. But…
I actually like that it could be interpreted a second way. Preparation for being the EC head… At least at the time. After all, Lilith's job as we've seen so far includes being an inspiring figure for the future generation of witches. Not only that but supposedly as a teacher too to that generation, including to Amity. All of this means that Amity could have started reading to kids for selfish reasons… But at this point this has changed. She cares too much about the books she's reading, the kids and has grown a connection there that still shows her sweet center even if the sourness is what first led to her taking the position.
The twins are also a delight this episode and I REALLY wish they'd kept the energy they have here for longer than only this episode. The cockiness and confidence really fits well with the Blight family while giving a different sort of edge to it. Effectively they show what happens when instead of fearing perfection, you buy into the hype and believe you are perfect. Untouchable. Etc.
And this attitude leads to cruelty to anything that tries to disprove it and BOY are they cruel in wanting their sister's journal. There's a weird aspect to it though that feels very S1 Isles though. Tattling on them means all of your deepest secrets getting revealed. The sort of overreaction that normally would get a character written off as pure evil but kind of works in the setting, at least at the time, while also being grounded in the real world enough that anyone hears that and recoils.
The use of the diary to further the understanding of Amity is brief but cute and useful but that kind of brings me to a larger point: This episode is probably the most fun that the series literally EVER has with magic. The shooting star's effects are incredible, the fun they have doodling in the books is delightful and how they change the innocent and sweet into the awful and hurt is chilling. If the show had this much fun with its magic more often, instead of it mostly being functional at best, I would complain about it WAY LESS.
Speaking of the sweet and harmless being made monstrous though, I really wish we as a fandom spoke about the conflict with the book maker more. It doesn't have any real impressive animation or the like but it mixes comedy, drama and action well and has a lot of fun with what being sewn into a book means, including not being afraid to make it seem horrifying.
Which helps the moment when Amity gets to talk to the book maker afterwards hit all the harder. This is a character she cared about and her shock during the fight and her sweetness at the end just reaffirms all of that. It also just helps reaffirm the point of the episode that Amity truly does have a good nature. That she knows the right thing but has led herself astray in the pursuit of perfection. Or, you know, only because of her mom… sigh
And that sigh is kind of why this became only about one episode instead of more. Originally I also talked about Adventure in the Elements and Grom because I wasn't sure which three was my favorite. I actually expected Lost in Language to have the least chance amongst the three to be it. But…
To keep it brief and keep this blog positive: I can't enjoy the show too much because too much of the journey has been tainted and contradicted and my guide, the main character, is one I see to many flaws in. See as just not a good person. The breaking point was Luz's greatest fear in Grom because… Boy it feels a lot less like the fact that she was lying to her mom had anything to do with that, doesn't it? Not when she lies as easily as most people breathe nowadays. Kind of… Kind of implies that her greatest fear was really just getting caught and having to face the consequences…
sigh
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Stephanie can you tell me if it’s normal to have finished both the unt4med and md zs (censoring bc I don’t remember how tagging works on tumblr and I don’t want anything seemingly negative I might say to make people come and bother you) and have found the romance aspect of the story to be the least interesting thing ?
I think WW is an extraordinary character and his story was so epic. Granted I didn’t like the writing at all in the book. And I was so captured by his motivations and his actions, but seeing how people talked about the love story online I was expecting to be blown away and instead… it kind of fell flat imo? Like I found LW to be kind of boring in how his character was executed, mostly because I couldn’t really see his thoughts, and I found WW’s relationship with him to change too abruptly from one kind of relationship to another. Like, compared to WW’s relationship to his siblings, that made me cry on several occasions, for how tragic and epic LW’s actions are , they didn’t evoke that much of an emotion in me. Like, fuck JC honestly but at the same time there’s something so brutal and tragic and captivating about what happens between him and WW.
Idk. The story is absolutely fantastic but I feel weird because I feel like I appreciated completely different things from what the majority of the fans liked instead.
Idk what "normal" in this context means or why you would feel weird about... having a different takeaway from a piece of media?
Like, I don't understand why anyone would have a concern about what is "right" or "wrong" to like about a piece of media. Like, if you were missing the messaging of the series or idk ignored important themes to focus on a weird background ship or whatever, sure, I guess that's "wrong" but... I don't understand the need to be validated for not caring about a certain character or character dynamic? Like the series however you choose. There's... no wrong way to do it. And even if there WAS a wrong way to do it, comparing yourself to this particular fandom... like... there's no need to compare yourself to most of these people. A lot of MDZS/CQL fans are utter freaks.
But getting to the brunt of your question. Idk man.
I liked WWX/LWJ and I liked LWJ as a character. I actually really, really enjoyed that they don't just get together JUST because they like each other's personalities and how they mesh or JUST because they are equals in a world where most people come up short when compared to them but VERY much because they understand and support each other ideologically and are willing to risk the same things to achieve their ideological goals.
The fact that they connect not just emotionally or physically but also mentally and philosophically is something that is missing in a LOT of romance plotlines. It's not "circumstance brought us together and now we're trauma bonded" (which is certainly great in a lot of cases, ngl) but just this larger calling.
We get to see them flirt and be shy and be silly, the way teenagers are. But we get to see them be torn apart and then back together not just ~because of circumstance awww~ but because of a genuine betrayal where no one is really at fault, it's just because of how society functions. Their relationship heavily reflects and feeds into the themes of the story and their own character arcs while letting them be their own people with their own arcs.
I think a few bits of how their relationship is executed is perhaps a bit sloppy, especially if the manhua is properly reflecting what happens in the novel, and I think "ACTUALLY I WANT TO SLEEP WITH YOU" being almost verbatim dialogue during the violent climax of the story is both lazy and cringe but... their overall arc was really well done.
I think in general, the strengths of weaknesses of MDZS (not necessarily CQL) is that MXTX has great ideas and a few great points of executions but REALLY struggles with the minutiae. I think this is true of the story at large but I'm a lot more forgiving of the minutiae sometimes lacking in LWJ/WWX because... well... the story isn't about them.
They are a reflection of the story but the story exists on a much, much larger scale than their romance. (Or implied romance, when it comes to CQL.)
I'm fine with that, though. In most of the moments that count, the execution is great and the total arc is believable, enjoyable, and developed at a fairly even pace, outside of some jumps.
#i also largely enjoy the lack of LWJ's perspective#BECAUSE the absence makes a lot of the jumps/gaps in tehir development make more sense#LWJ was living his own life and getting to a place where he could meet WWX where he was#and that's why their relationship progresses (or regresses)
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