Canon AroAces (it/its) 268/?: Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells (2017-)+tropes

get to know me ask game

thanks to my lovely @airenyah for the tag <3

RULES: bold the ones that are true and tag some people to do it.

APPEARANCE

Blonde hair // I prefer loose clothing to tight clothing // I have one or more piercings // I have at least one tattoo // I have dyed or highlighted my hair // I have gotten plastic surgery // I have or had braces // I sunburn easily // I have freckles // I paint my nails // I typically wear makeup // I don’t often smile // I am pleased with how I look // I prefer Nike to Adidas // I wear baseball hats backwards

(I highlighted my hair more than once: my hair is brown and my highlights are blonde. Love the sun, but it's not mutual, so I always get hurt. I'm obsessed with painting my nails and I have more than one hundred nail polishes. I didn't smile that much and then last month everything changed, I guess?)

HOBBIES & TALENTS

I play a sport // I can play an instrument // I am artistic // I know more than one language // I have won a trophy in some sort of competition // I can cook or bake without a recipe // I know how to swim // I enjoy writing // I can do origami // I prefer movies to tv shows // I can execute a perfect somersault // I enjoy singing // I could survive in the wild on my own // I have read a new book series this year // I enjoy spending time with friends // I travel during work or school breaks // I can do a handstand

(I used to dance, but I stopped ages ago and now I just do fitness classes when I can. Italian is my native language and I know english, spanish, norwegian, french, studied latin and ancient greek and I want to study finnish, korean and I wanted russian as well on my list, but then things happened and it'll be a no for a while. I enjoy cooking, watching tv shows, singing songs when I know I just can't do that without bothering anyone and hanging out with my friends.)

RELATIONSHIP

I am in a relationship // I have been single for over a year // I have a crush // I have a best friend who I’ve known for ten years // my parents are together // I have dated my best friend // I am adopted // my crush has confessed to me // I have a long distance relationship // I am an only child // I give advice to my friends // I have made an online friend // I met up with someone I have met online

(I'm definitely in a relationship and I had a crush for a whiiiiiiiiiile even if I realized ages later? I do have a best friend I've known forever, my parents love each other and I'm currently dating my other best friend, yes. Technically... I confessed to her, but she did two seconds after, so. We have a long distance relationship, but it's like she's with me 24/7 and I can't wait to see her as soon as possible. I love giving advice to my friends, making online friends too and I did meet up with someone I met online... hi, lara! @airenyah)

AESTHETICS

I have heard the ocean in a conch shell // I have watched the sun rise // I enjoy rainy days // I have slept under the stars // I meditate outside // the sound of chirping calms me // I enjoy the smell of the beach // I know what snow tastes like // I listen to music to fall asleep // I enjoy thunderstorms // I enjoy cloud watching // I have attended a bonfire // I pay close attention to colors // I find mystery in the ocean // I enjoy hiking on nature paths // autumn is my favorite season

(I find rain peaceful when it's not that much and I'm really into colors, oceans, the sun, birds and clouds.)

MISCELLANEOUS

I can fall asleep in a moving vehicle // I am the mom friend // I live by a certain quote // I like the smell of sharpies // I am involved in extracurricular activities // I enjoy Mexican food // I can drive a stick shift // I believe in true love // I make up scenarios to fall asleep // I sing in the shower // I wish I lived in a video game // I have a canopy above my bed // I am multiracial // I am a redhead // I own at least 3 dogs

(I basically never sleep, but I could fall asleep in a moving vehicle, because it's kinda soothing. I'm definitely the mom friend and I love keeping quotes close to my heart, so I can follow them. I love sharpies, fake scenarios to fall asleep, but I'll admit I hate cars. Oh and, of course, I 100% believe in true love. My girlfriend taught me that!)

tagging @corcordiums @trueplainhearts @youareintroublenow @thehollowprince @peoniesandsmiles @moonjisung (if you want to, of course)

Spoilery things

So I guess I'll make another post after reading another one of the Twisted Tales books, this time "Conceal, Don't Feel" by Jen Calonita (a Finnish translated version again). I'll try my best to remember my impressions of the book, but it's been about a month now since I read it so don't know how well that's gonna go...

Anyway, this time around I'm gonna focus more on the story elements since the writing style itself was actually pretty smooth and easy to read (there were the weird empty pages at the end of the book again though...). I don't know if this is due to having a different author or that the translator (which was the same person who did the translation for the earlier book in the series I read "A Whole New World") made more of an effort but it was a significant improvement. There were a few things still I'd have done differently, but I'm gonna give a

SPOILER WARNING

first as from this point forward I'm gonna be talking about story points. So, the first thing I noticed wrong with this translation was that at one point in the story Elsa overheard/eavesdropped as her parents were talking about Anna (in this continuation, Elsa and Anna were raised separately from each other since they were small children and pretty much the only ones in the kingdom who could remember that Anna was a princess were their parents and Anna's adoptive family), but they don't use her name, only refering to her in third person pronouns. Later Elsa wonders about who the person they were talking about could of been and thinks that "they were talking about someone female" or something along those lines... expect she wouldn't be able to know that! Finnish language doesn't have gendered pronouns and I checked to make sure that, yes, there were no indicators in their conversation in anyway that would of given that away otherwise (often when faced with this dilemma, the Finnish translation will use some terms like "the woman/girl" if it's a plot point, but this time there was nothing). Another thing I thought would of worked better was if the translation of the direct quotes from the movie would of been taken directly from the Finnish dub of the movie, instead of the more direct translations we got in the book. Pretty much the only thing lifted from the dub was "Weaseltown".

Springing from the earlier point to the next one is that there were a lot of scenes and dialogue that were straight from the movie, but they were often being reframed as being in slightly different situations with different characters, and it made me roll my eyes a lot, especially when it didn't fit the characters to do so. Like, sure, I can buy that Anna and Elsa could have grown up to be different to their movie counterparts due to having grown apart from each other, but other than that why would for example Hans act in a similar manner to Anna by whispering "Elsa?" (my absolute number one Eye-roll Moment of the book) when her powers were revealed? Ughh... It felt very forced and like they were written in as just fan service to the fans of the film and so that the readers could go like that Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme of recognizing something being from the movie.

There's also the fact that while the movie (excluding the beginning) takes place around one or two days, the books happenings go on for weeks/months (can't really remember the exact time but it was a lot more than in the movie) after Elsa ran away. This really drives home that one joke about how Elsa might have a nice ice palace now, but what is she gonna eat? Like you could overlook/explain it away in the movie that she was really away only for a day or so but in the book? when it was specifically mentioned that the winter "curse" has been going for quite a while now?

The ending of the book also felt really rushed/crammed, like the pacing suddenly took a sudden upturn in the last chapters. I don't know, maybe the author was having to meet a deadline but it really felt like towards the end the narration just wanted everything to be over and done with already and was hurrying to get to the finish line. Anna's resurrection was written in the most anticlimatic way possible, like...

There were still some other minor things I felt were off, but weren't really such a big deals overall, like how I felt that Hans was being too transparent and/or Anna and Elsa being able to read his true intentions a bit too easily when the narrative demanded or the fact that when Anna first met Kristoff as a 15 year old, she referred to him as a "boy around her age" when Kristoff was 18 at the time and I don't know, while three years isn't that big of a gap with adults I didn't think of 18 year olds as being about the same age as me when I was 15 (though it's not like Anna knew how old he was at time, maybe Kristoff was a lot smaller and looked younger than he was back then (in the book at least) or maybe there wasn't that many young people in Anna's home village overall (I remember that she said she went to school but can't remember what she said about her classmates/peers))

Anyway, I still think it was a decent book, it just unfortunately started deteriorating somewhere a bit before the middle point, which is too bad, I was considering buying this book for my cousin's daughter who likes Frozen, but now I guess I'll just encourage her to read a library copy like I did (though maybe this is for the better, libraries are there for reading after all and there's no reason to succumb to unneccessary consumerism...). Maybe it's just that I haven't really been reading literature targeted to 5th graders in a long while, maybe I'm being too harsh... (Though at the same time I also think it should be okay to ask for actual quality content for things, even (or especially) if they are meant "for children") Still, gonna read more Twisted Tales books, the next one is already on my list