The news about Tanchico does confirm that when Rafe said a closer adaptation of TSR, he really meant a close adaptation, because that was definitely the easiest storyline to shift to another city that would appear again later on if he wanted to combine storylines (Perrin's plotline could only happen in the Two Rivers, and Rand's plotline can only happen in the Aiel Waste).

So I think a reread of TSR is in my future, lol, so I can refresh myself on the story beats.

Tanchico means Egeanin, I would guess. Otherwise you'd move their story closer to everyone else's action. So the show likely plans to keep the pressure on re: the Seanchan.

It does make going to White Tower feel even less likely (and I already had the likelihood of it pretty low) because that would be a LOT of ping-ponging for Elayne and Nynaeve, to go from the west coast to the middle of the continent and then back over to the west coast in the space of something like two or three episodes purely dedicated to traveling around. At least for Egwene, the White Tower is kinda 'on the way' to the Waste. The White Tower is definitely NOT on the way to Tanchico from Falme, lol.

The biggest question that I have is how long we'll get before the characters split up into their various plotlines and if any of them come back together again at the end of the season. From what else Rafe said at NYCC, it sounds like they are not dipping very far into TFoH at all, because he talked about focusing on a single book this season. There will definitely be things from books 1-3 in there, because we know Elaida, etc. have been cast and need some kind of introduction, but the main focus will be book 4.

A pretty good chunk of TSR does take place before anyone goes to the Waste, so I wonder how much of that we'll get. I do expect us to get the official final breakup of Rand & Egwene, though I doubt it will be comedic like it is in the books. I feel like they shouldn't rush right into Rand & Elayne afterwards (which is a major reason that I do hope they're planning to reunite Elayne & Nynaeve with Rand's side of the storyline at the end of the season, because that gives some space in between the breakup and then Rand and Elayne having serious emotions about each other), and Rand & Aviendha are built for a slow-burn. Plus I would expect Lan and Nynaeve to get some time together (their only time together in s2 was Nynaeve's vision in the third archway) before they split up (for the rest of the season?).

If Doman is the one who carries Elayne & Nynaeve to Tanchico, then that's the set-up for him to meet Egeanin there. Then Elayne and Nynaeve could potentially take a Sea Folk raker at the end of the season to reunite with Rand's half of the cast? But that really depends on how quickly Rand's side of the story is moving.

I definitely don't remember all the plot beats of Nynaeve & Elayne's side of TSR, so that reread is in order, yeah. But their TFoH plotline of having Nynaeve and Elayne just wandering the continent for most of s4 because Nynaeve can't remember the word 'Salidar' would feel like such a random & pointless sidequest especially since Rand & Elayne and Nynaeve & Lan still need a lot more weight in their romances at this point (and I'm saying that as someone who likes a lot of their circus arc in TFoH).

Even with knowing that they'll be following TSR more closely, I am definitely expecting a lot of surprises in s3. They did a really good job in putting in some elements in this season that I was not expecting but that I really loved (having Mat be the one to give Rand the wound in his side was so galaxy-brained of them; and having Elayne be the one to heal it really tied together her original meeting with Rand into the different way that the show has introduced her).

Okoye x Attuma Arranged Marriage AU WIP

I guess since no one else is doing it, here goes my plotline to my WIP attempt at an Okoye x Attuma Arranged Marriage To Ally Their Kingdoms and Save Lives AU 😆

Instead of Okoye getting blasted off the bridge in Boston, she's also taken to Talokan with Shuri and Riri. Shuri sends Namor to the surface to meet with her mother, where Queen Ramonda plants a tracker on him. Nakia does still go to rescue them from Talokan via the tracker and her research in the Yucatan.

Except, since Okoye is down in Talokan too, she's able to knock out the handmaiden holding Shuri hostage rather than Nakia killing her to rescue them. Shuri presses one of her kimoyo beads to the handmaid's head, so she survives without injury. Okoye is still stripped by Queen Ramonda of being a general and a Dora Milaje for allowing Shuri to be taken. Shuri is pissed off because yeah, she volunteered to go to see Namor on her own. In fact, she ordered Okoye to stand down, ending her fight with Attuma and stopping Namora from tossing that water grenade at her.

So Shuri immediately announces in front of Ramonda and the visibly sympathetic tribal council that she's assigning Okoye as general of the Midnight Angels, who will be her personal bodyguard.

Ramonda says her daughter has no authority to do so. Surprisingly, M'Baku comes to Okoye's defense and points out there is nothing in their Tribal Council Constitution that states Shuri doesn't have that power. Besides, considering what happened to Shuri and that she's alive and whole, doesn't that mean there's no better person to protect their princess and only heir than Okoye?

Ramonda is pissed, Shuri is smug in her triumph and M'Baku lives to create drama. Ramonda still sends Okoye away out of her sight. Shuri loudly tells Okoye to meet her in the lab and then promptly bounces out of the meeting.

The two spend the next few days working together to speed up finishing the Midnight Angels suits since Namor and the Talokanil are a new threat. They bring in Aneka to help them review and test the suits' efficiency as well. Shuri also works on creating more sonic weapons since she witnessed how Nakia's sonic gun killed the Talokanil warrior at their rescue.

Namor loses a warrior bodyguard at Shuri's rescue but not a civilian handmaiden. So he's still pissed. But not quite "Fuck up your capital city and assassinate your queen" pissed. Instead and a few days later, he infiltrates Wakanda via one its main rivers. He takes some of the River Tribesmen hostage with Attuma, Namora and some other Talokanil warriors.

Nakia catches him (he has no idea it was her who rescued the three women). He demands an audience with Shuri or else he'll drown his hostages...and keep snatching River Tribe people every day to drown at sunrise and sunset. All while increasing the number killed by one per drowning.

After Nakia calls Shuri on her kimoyo beads, the Princess quickly arrives, accompanied by Aneka and Okoye in their new Midnight Angel suits. Attuma is startled to see Okoye again (her face is uncovered) but remains silent. Namora is on full alert and is definitely in "Fuck around and find out" mode. Aneka smirks at her but remains on guard.

Namor reiterates that he will drown River tribesmen if he is not escorted to the palace. Also, if his warriors don't hear from him by sunset (it's the early morning), he will direct them to drown and kill them. Out of options, Shuri escorts Namor, Attuma and Namora back to palace.

Ramonda is understandably livid. M'Baku is extremely wary but gleeful, pointing out Okoye was right about the "fish man." Especially that big, blue, balloon one. Attuma growls at him but M'Buka ain't concerned and hoots back.

Chaos nearly ensues until Okoye tells both of them to basically shut the fuck up. They're trying to avoid a fucking war here, by Bast!

Namor demands a more binding alliance between Wakanda and Talokan or else he will go to war. The tribal council and Ramonda are in uproar. It gets even worse when Namor recommends a marriage between himself and Shuri, which causes all hell to nearly break loose. Above them, the Dora Milaje go into battle defense mode with a pound of their spears.

Except Shuri actively looks like she's thinking about it. Ramonda bellows that an arranged marriage its absolutely off the table. It's archaic, mad disrespectful and for fuck's sake, Shuri is far too young. She doesn't even rule the kingdom yet.

Namor points out Shuri is heir. He also low-key threatens that he could conceivably make her queen right now. Shuri snaps that he's WAY outta line. Besides, how could she expect to grow to potentially marry him if he's actively threatening the last of her remaining family right now?!

Namor slyly responds that perhaps courting her would prove more constructive. Shuri points out he's still proposing this under duress.

"A binding marriage between one of my nobles and one of yours would prove less beneath your contempt then, princess?"

Okoye feels increasingly guilty since she blames her actions on the bridge forced Shuri to give herself up to Namor in the first place. She's also still reeling from being stripped her command and kicked out of the Dora Milaje. She thinks on the one time she chose a husband for herself, she picked that bitch-ass traitor in W'Kabi, so she has nothing else to lose.

She volunteers herself for a political marriage to one of the Talokanil.

Ramonda sneers that Okoye's been stripped of being a general for failing to protect her daughter in the first place. Okoye feels ashamed (but once she thinks about it later, she realizes this was Ramonda's attempt to save her from being forced into a marriage and leave Wakanda by trying to downplay her value).

Meanwhile, as soon as Ramonda tells Namor that Okoye is no longer a general, Shuri counters with the fact that Okoye is general of the Midnight Angels, her personal guard. Ramonda tries to deny it but Shuri presses forward. Namor responds that's excellent, as Okoye clearly has value. "And now, all we must do is decide who your great General will marry," he smugly says.

This is when Attuma declares that he will marry the Warrior. Namor is surprised while Namora hisses. Mostly to cover up her astonishment at Attuma's declaration. 'Cause holy shit, this whole thing is spinning out into some batshit crazy circumstances.

But Attuma points out that the Talokanil have a tradition of "What we cannot kill, we keep." And since he could not kill Okoye on the bridge?He has right of first refusal when it comes to marrying her.

Okoye is stunned, fuming and looks like she wants to rip out Attuma's gills. Hopefully finishing the job this time. Meanwhile, Namor immediately grants him the marriage. Namora is in stunned disbelief

After that, Namor sends word to his warriors holding some of the River Tribe hostage that he is safe. However, he won't have the river tribesmen released until the marriage contract is completed over the next three days.

Over the next three days, the marriage contract is ironed out by him, Shuri, Okoye and Attuma:

-Okoye and Attuma will get married in two different ceremonies. Namor demands the Talokanil ceremony take place first in precedence but Attuma asks Okoye what she wants. She icily insists the marriage first take place in Wakanda.

-The marriage must be consummated within a week of the second marriage ceremony in Talokan or it will be invalid and threaten the end to the treaty.

-They agree that Okoye will live with Attuma for three months at a time in Talokan and he will live with her three months at a time in Wakanda, alternating from there. Since Okoye will have the first wedding in Wakanda, she will be living her first three months with Attuma in Talokan.

Shuri pledges to design a new house for Okoye on the river that can accommodate Attuma. She will also work with the Talokanil scientists to create a home in one of the grottoes in Talokan that can accommodate Okoye since they cannot live separately. Otherwise, why marry?

-They do not have to have children, though it is heavily encouraged. Okoye reminds everyone she's in her early 40s, so yeah, not gonna happen and it's ultimately her choice. Not to mention, they have no fucking clue how human and Talokanil physiology work together.

Attuma points out that they may adopt younglings. Though if they do, it will have to be an equal number of Wakandan and Talokanil younglings to keep things fair.

-If they have a potential marriage ending disputes, they will have to bring it to a council of 2-3 Talokanil and Wakandan members. The nation who has the majority of council members changes every year. Once a dispute is voted on, it is law, unless extenuating circumstances require that the issue be revisited.

-Okoye and Attuma will train the other's forces. Tactics and weapons will be shared.

-This marriage will also open the way to cultural trade between Wakanda and Talokan.

-Any threat against either spouse will be taken as a threat against both nations and treated with equal importance and threat response.

-Attuma insists on properly courting Okoye during the first three months of her living with him in Talokan. Okoye hisses that it's pointless since they're already married. Attuma gets irritated and says that even though the marriage is political, he still needs to court her properly to fulfill Talokanil tradition. Okoye tries to get out of this, but Attuma won't budge.

It pisses off Okoye even more. She then points out that since he's so fond of courting, he can court her in both Talokanil and Wakandan traditions. Attuma shrugs and agrees. Okoye certainly wasn't expecting him to so quickly agree to her traditions, huh.

-The first marriage in Wakanda will take place at the next full moon, which is in just under three weeks.

All four of them sign the marriage contract. Ramonda won't sign it until the end of the first marriage ceremony in Wakanda.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and France most certainly HAVE NOT forgotten losing their ships and mercenaries to Wakanda in their efforts to gain vibranium. The African nation is absolutely still in their sights. And Valentina Fontaine sure in the hell never forgets a perceived insult...

And that's where we are with this crack-ass AU...Help, I HATE IT HERE 😂

You mentioned something before about a supernatural historical Gen V au and now I need to know more like?!?!?! Supernatural limoreau and team dynamics ooooohhh!!!!!

I'm going to be working on that story as soon as I finish my current one. Still working out plot details in my head but I'm going for Frankenstein Jekyll/Hyde vibes. It'll be partially from the POV of Jordan, a young detective, who travels to Red River (a city, not a group home in this universe) to investigate a string of murders. The more they dig, the more they realize that the murderer in question may be more innocent than she seems, and may have dark ties to the Academy for extraordinary persons that they themself attended years prior. This plotline is subject to change but it's the setup I'm most interested in at the moment.

Crescent City: House of Sky and Breath Review

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Dear Readers,

I have so many thoughts, questions, comments, and concerns in regards to this book that it made me stop procrastinating and just start my blog, already. I finished CC2 in the wee hours of last night, having flown through the last 400 pages in a single day. What I had heard going into this book was that it was a "whole lot of nothing" and "kind of hard to get through," but that really wasn't the case for me. I have owned the first CC book since it came out, but just now finished it last month. I found the first half of that difficult to read through, not because it was bad or boring or had anything wrong with it, but simply because I have the IQ of a paper towel and could not bring myself to comprehend anything that was going on. However, when I hit the last 200 or so pages of HOEAB, something clicked. Something shifted in the earth's atmosphere and I was addicted. I snatched book 2 from the library first thing the very next morning, and the rest was history. I found that I absolutely love everything about this series, from the setting to the characters to the way everything worked together. I just found all the different types of people and how they related to one another and how they operated in a modern city setting to be so interesting. In listening to other people's reviews of this book, some didn't like the large cast of characters and found it hard to keep them all straight, but as a Throne of Glass enthusiast, I felt right at home. I loved the changing perspectives and getting to see what was going on inside the heads of characters like Ruhn, Tharion, and Ithan. The character dynamics worked really well, in my opinion, and I always love the way a big group of characters interacts and banters, especially in an SJM novel. A couple of things I wanted to note specifically about HOSAB:

The Rebel Plotline

I actually didn't mind the plotline with Ophion and the Renasts. It felt like a good additional conflict to pull on the loose threads that were left open at the end of Book 1 and ended up tying into the overarching plot in an interesting way. I was disappointed that Sofie actually didn't make it, because we spend a very large portion of this book discussing her powers and attempting to find Emile, and I wanted to see how her relationship with Cormac played out, because he was a very interesting character to me as well. I was definitely sad about his sacrifice, but it was made more impactful given his final interaction with Ruhn. While he had not been around long, he was a complex character, and I found myself wanting better for him and wanting for him to be able to become the person he wanted to be. However, I still want to know more about Sofie's thunderbird powers and how they play into everything.

2. Tharion

I have loved Tharion since he first appeared in Book 1, but I was so disappointed in him in this book. Some of his choices had me yelling at the page, but his complexity makes him such a good character. We know he is overall a good person, but he can be treacherous as he struggles to juggle his loyalty to his friends with his obligation to the River Queen. The biggest question that I had finishing this book was due to the fact that when Captain Sendes saves the crew from...well...everyone, there is a line insinuating that she expects that they not reveal the truth about their camouflaging ship technology. She basically tells them, you screw us, we'll screw you. Tharion immediately returns to the River Queen and sells them out, telling her all about the ship tech and even mentioning Captain Sendes by name. Knowing the River Queen, I expected her to retaliate against the Ocean Queen's crew, or at least for Sendes & co. to discover Tharion's betrayal and refuse to help them, but this issue is never brought up again, so I was confused about that, not to mention frustrated with Tharion for blabbing everyone's business to the River Queen of his own free will. The second, probably most obvious choice of Tharion's that I was frustrated by in this book was his decision to pledge himself to the Viper Queen. I understand why he did it, and I realize that he was, in a way, punishing himself, but I can't help but feel like he could have had other options that didn't involve selling himself into literal slavery. Regardless, I love him as a character and I cannot wait to see his arc. I hope he is able to create a better life for himself and have the development that Cormac was not able to.

3. Hunt

This seems like it might be controversial because I see a lot of Hunt slander that I believe is unwarranted, but Hunt Athalar is firmly within my list of top 5 SJM men. I love him. Plain and simple, I love him so much. Having to read the ending of this book when everything he has worked for goes down the drain as his halo is reapplied was absolutely grueling. I know there is also a lot of speculation that Bryce will have another love interest simply because this is an SJM book, and I'm just not sure why or how that would happen. I think that, at this point, that is what everyone is expecting to happen, so I'd be very surprised if Sarah went that route. But whatever the case, I love Hunt and I really hope nothing happens to him. He's been through the ringer for literal centuries and I just want him to be happy!!! I also have questions following this book about his lineage. I feel like there is a lot yet to be revealed about his parentage and his powers, so I am excited to read more in CC3 and see what comes of that...if he ever gets out of that stupid dungeon. (Which, btw, sidebar: all my homies HATE Pollux and I cannot wait until he gets the Cairn treatment, preferably from Lidia).

4. Connor

This book raised SO MANY QUESTIONS about Connor. It gave me hope that maybe we will see Connor again in some way because the book spent so much time on Ithan's quest to find out where he is. And even if we don't get to see Connor or talk to him again, I WANNA KNOW WHERE HE IS! The Holstrom Bros are #1 in my heart and I want nothing but love and light for them <3.

5. The Big Twist aka Infinity War (Sarah's Version)

Now team. I think a lot of us readers knew how this book was going to end, or at least knew The Big Thing that was going to happen at some point within it. And that makes me SO UPSET! The appearance of Rhysand and that whole situation had the potential to be one of the most breathtaking plot twist mindblowing earth-shattering life-changing moments in literary history. However, the way it was handled by both the reader community AND literally Bloomsbury themselves made it so that basically everybody and their cousin's neighbor's dog's goldfish's nephew knew that the crossover was happening. It didn't matter how dedicated you were to avoiding spoilers, somehow they ALWAYS found their way onto the screen! No amount of typing "NO SPOILERS SPOILER FREE NO SPOILERS" in on BookTok stopped the spoilers from coming! Me personally, I refused to look at anything SJM related for the entire release year to avoid spoilers, because I hadn't read any Crescent City yet, I had only read up to ACOSF. So I thought I was safe. I was wrong. It was an unseasonably bright and happy day on January 10th as I pulled out my phone at the library and clicked on the Instagram app to see what exciting new things had been posted, and imagine my surprise when the FIRST THING ON MY SCREEN was a single graphic, (not a carousel), posted by SJM and Bloomsbury that read, in big bright letters, "Bryce began running again, hurtling through the cave. Back toward Nesta and Azriel. And prayed there was SOMETHING LEFT FOR HER TO SAVE." I reacted in a manner akin to that stan Twitter reaction video of iCarly opening her apartment door and immediately being blinded. I nearly threw the offending phone across the public library. I prayed to unsee. But the damage was done. I had seen. I then went to my local Walmart 20 days later to acquire House of Flame and Shadow, and I was deeply alarmed when each copy of the brand new book was stamped with a big blue sticker that read something along the lines of "INCLUDES BONUS CHAPTER WITH BRYCE, NESTA, AND AZRIEL!" Right on the front of the cover for all to see. Now you may say, "Kenna dearest, CC1 had been out for nearly 4 years at that point. CC2 had been out for nearly 2 years. They shouldn't have to post spoiler warnings anymore." And to that I say, if it were any other author or series. YES! So true! However, House of Earth and Blood is indeed 799 pages in length. House of Sky and Breath is indeed 801 pages in length. I am but a full time student, part-time worker, volunteer, sister, daughter, and friend. My reading time had been quite limited at that point. Not to mention that Sarah J. Maas is arguably the most popular author within BookTube, BookTok, BookTwt, and Bookstagram COMBINED right now, and so many people are just now starting to read her books. However, I suppose if readers DO know that the ACOTAR characters show up in Crescent City, it will motivate fans of ACOTAR to continue on with Maas's books and purchase more of them, so really it's 10/10 marketing and I must applaud the reckless major-multi-series-spoiling amid my frustration.

Overall, I absolutely love the Crescent City series, and I loved HOSAB as a sequel, and I am diving immediately into book 3. This series continues to cement SJM as a master of her craft and portrays the way that she is just an expert at putting a story together and creating characters that feel real. I am now off to devour House of Flame and Shadow, and then probably reread ACOTAR and TOG to try to pick up on some of that big-brain tricky foreshadowing she always does. Until next time, and thank you for reading my emphatic literary ramblings.

XO,

Kenna

Turn Week 2023:

If I Could Change One Thing

Turn Week 2023 is already over! This week has flown by, and I hope everyone who participated had a wonderful time. I appreciate all the love on my first Dragoons post- and yes, I'm back with another one. This time, I am not sorry.

Tallmadge vs Tarleton

As I mentioned in my last post, after the Philadelphia Campaign ended, Major Benjamin Tallmadge and his 2nd Dragoons stayed up north, while other cavalry regiments went to fight in the Southern Campaign- where they arguably had most of their combat experience. Why did Tallmadge stay up north? Two reasons are that the dragoons were still needed for scouting and raiding the British forces in strongholds like New York- keeping the Hudson River in Patriot hands- and that by now, he was General Washington's spymaster for the Culper Ring in Long Island and New York City.

But that doesn't mean that Tallmadge didn't have his saber drawn in battles or skirmishes.

On July 2, 1779, Tallmadge and the 2nd Dragoons were camped in Pound Ridge, New York. They were suddenly ambushed by "two hundred British and loyalist cavalry." Although the 2nd Dragoons had strengthened forces thanks to Washington sending Moylan's 4th Dragoons, the British received a letter saying so. Leading the charge was Lieutenant-Colonel Banastre Tarleton, a British dragoon who would eventually become one of the most famous cavalrymen of the Revolution. Before 1779 and the Southern campaigns, one of his known escapades included being present at the capture of General Charles Lee.

Tallmadge and Tarleton's forces fought each other in front of the Presbyterian Meeting House during the Battle of Poundridge, going from on horseback to fighting on foot. When Tarleton's men and the 17th Dragoons entered the fray, it was clear that Tallmadge and Colonel Sheldon's 2nd Dragoons would not win the day. They retreated with the British pursuing them.

Along with his victory, Tarleton now had the 2nd Dragoon's regimental flag. But, especially unfortunate for Tallmadge, there were a "dozen causalities," and a dozen horses taken. One of these horses belonged to Tallmadge himself. Like any cavalryman, he kept his essentials in his saddlebags. Now they were in the enemy's hands. In those bags were, according to author Alexander Rose (doesn't that name sound familiar?) "twenty guineas" from Washington to Abe Woodhull as payment for his spying, and intelligence papers related to the ring.

How does this relate to Turn?

Season three of Turn takes place between 1778-1780. During this season, they did include the Battle of Stony Point- important in its own right- but why would they not include something that involves not only losing a battle, but information about the ring being stolen from Benjamin?

I think that instead of filling up screentime with the, frankly, at this point, ridiculous Robert Rogers and Abe doing what the hell they did plotline, they could've included the Battle of Poundridge. Could you imagine Benjamin's reaction to losing his horse and intelligence? And if they wanted to show Washington losing faith in the ring, wouldn't this be a good example? Instead, we had Robert Rogers and Abe running around in his little rat hole.

Also, if they wanted to use historical figures like Hamilton and Martha Washington to boost ratings and be like "please give us a fourth season," Banastre Tarleton is a pretty popular guy. Just saying.

And, lastly, you're probably like, "Amanda, are you saying that you, Benjamin Tallmadge's PR manager, want to see him get his ass beat?!" Yes. Yes, I do.

Further Reading:

Cavalry of the American Revolution - Jim Piecuch - Westholme Publishing (Cavlary Action at Poundridge, New York by John M. Hutchins.)

Tarleton: Before He Became "Bloody Ban" - Journal of the American Revolution (allthingsliberty.com)

Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring by Alexander Rose, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)

Memoir of Col. Benjamin Tallmadge : Tallmadge, Benjamin, 1754-1835 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

2023 Dramas I Watched in 2023

Cdramas:

A League of Nobleman--Slashy historical mystery drama. I loved all the slashiness and all the intrigue and then in the last few episodes I fell even more in love with the villain. Worth a watch but not my favorite slashy historical mystery of the year.

Mysterious Lotus Casebook--My favorite slashy historical mystery drama of the year! Tho more wuxia than historical I suppose. Bromance and archnemeses and identity porn abound. The identity porn in particular was a special treat for me; a character wandering around all these ppl who care deeply about him or idolize him but all think he's dead is my catnip. (I technically have a few episodes left to go on this one but I'm still counting it bc I am very close.)

Parallel World--YE LIUXI. I did a review of this one here! The short version: urban fantasy and parallel worlds in a desert setting, with a badass amnesiac female protagonist.

The Lady and the Lies--Miniseries, one of those short-episode things that China's doing a lot of now. Involved a cheating husband and a wife out to get revenge. I'm sorry but I shipped the wife with almost every person doing her wrong. She should destroy their lives and also dom them. They're all kind of obsessed with her anyway, in their own way.

Under the Microscope--You ever sit down and say, "Okay, but what I REALLY want from all these historical dramas is to just dig into the tax fraud going on in the background"? Me too, my friend. This show and Long River, which I also watched this year, are all about logistics, bureaucracy, and corruption, and the small man's struggle against ppl in power. That makes them both kind of difficult watches in a way, but also fascinating. I have yet to finish Long River, but this one is an easy 14 episodes and not as emotionally draining, so it was much easier for me to binge through.

Ye Cheng--I must admit I watched this for the pretty people. It's set in a matriarchal fantasy wuxia setting, but the gender role reversal feels a little shallow when the strongest good guy and the strongest bad guy are both men, even tho in theory women are supposed to be the warriors in this setting. However, the role reversal can be quite interesting in some ways--watching the male MC run a brothel as the city's top entertainer, try to use his ~masculine wiles~ to charm the FMC in a way that would be more typically feminine, and deal with the power dynamics of joining the FMC's household. Also, the two leads are just a lot of fun and have a lot of chemistry. The plot is sometimes stupid, but it's still a lot of fun to watch. Also, this was one of just two dramas I managed to finish this year that were mostly romance focused. When you reach the "dropped" section you will see that this is an impressive feat.

Kdramas:

Bloodhounds--I love Woo Do-hwan and I love Park Sung-woong but you know I was here for the ACTION SCENES. PEOPLE PUNCHING EACH OTHER AND SLICING EACH OTHER WITH KNIVES. THATS WHAT ITS ABOUT. I've also written a lot of fanfic about the protagonist and villain at this point but honestly they should have interacted more, we were robbed.

Queen of Masks--The only rich woman thriller kdrama I completed this year. But honestly, when it comes to rich woman thriller kdramas, I've seen better and femslashier. Mine did a better job with the whole "your husband told you the mother of his child was dead, but guess what it's actually me and I'm still alive and here to cause problems" plotline, tho I still enjoyed it here. And the sexual assault aspect... eh. I don't love seeing that kind of plotline in a revenge story; it's such a serious issue (and so much more realistic than, say, "this businessman murdered my whole family to acquire our company" a la Eve) that it kind of makes it hard for me to enjoy the fun of the mystery. But I suppose the way they handled it at least had gravity. My favorite plotline was Hae-mi and her husband and the drama they got into, which is serious in its own way (addiction and lies) but extremely well acted and with so much romantic chemistry.

Revenant--Spooky spooky ghosts and Kim Tae-ri, what's not to like? The possession aspects were creepy without being gory or too terrifying for a wimp like me to handle. The acting was great. And I actually shipped the sort-of-romantic subplot, though apparently a lot of ppl shipped the two MCs instead, which is understandable.

Song of the Bandits--A whole ton of gunfighting and other action scenes. One very badass assassin woman, a dude who is equally capable of taking out a whole squad of soldiers or bandits on his own, a villain with a complicated relationship with the dude above, and a woman spying on the Japanese government who's in a sort of spy love triangle with the MC and the villain. the plot was okay but again I was mostly here for the action!!

Thai dramas:

My Dear Gangster Oppa--This year I tried to watch a bunch of different BL dramas bc I was in that kind of mood but the truth is, it's not the het that gets me in m/f romcoms, it's unfortunately the romcom. Despite that! I persisted and did manage to finish this one. The lead couple was cute, and there was gangster intrigue and action etc to keep the fluff and comedy from driving me insane. still mostly a romance.

To Sir With Love--Also has a BL romance in it but not really a romance drama but a Family Drama with lots of familial plotting, the classic first wife vs. second wife scheming-for-their-children plotline along with what could have been a love triangle between brothers... except Tian is gay, which means the love triangle is null (except he's still engaged to his brother's love interest. which is awkward for all involved.). Also Tian being gay is a Deep Dark Secret. There's a lot of homophobia which might turn some viewers off but I loved seeing Tian's struggle between wanting to come out and having been forced to stay in the closet for so long that he freezes even at the thought of telling people he trusts. Also his mother commits a bunch of murders with terrible poison mushrooms so if THAT'S what you want out of a Thai drama, there is also that. Also he and his brother are. so sweet. and I love them. but also the central m/m romance is very good and involves assassination attempts and identity porn and pining and everything good. Also also this is actually a 2022 drama BUT IM STILL COUNTING IT bc it came out in October 2022 and am I really supposed to get around to watching dramas that fast??

Started and dropped:

Kiseki: Dear to Me--Even gangsters and intrigue could not save me from dropping this romcom.

Our Blooming Youth--This is also a romcom. You may see a pattern here. But to give it credit it is quite a plotty historical drama too. I just didn't really care about the two leads and dropped it halfway through.

Pandora: Beneath the Paradise--A thriller that was going places a bit too wild and frustrating for me.

Killing Vote--Can you believe I dropped this with only four episodes to go? I'm sorry Park Sung-woong, I love you but the plot is just so boring. And it plays at moral complexity while being just. not very complex. Like I swear the morality in this thing is "catching bad guys and punishing them is good, not catching them and not punishing them is bad." We could be talking about police corruption, our MC's terrible ethics, innocence until proven guilty, and so on and so forth, but we were just not going there. Also the twists were doing very little for me and the cops are just not very interesting characters. Again, Park Sung-woong, I'm sorry, you were a decent character but you could not save this show. Let's be real I needed either more Devil Judge here or more Death Note.

Legend of Anle--The romcom element was not helping this show's case but I still tried for 1) wuxia with identity porn and 2) Dilraba Dilmurat costarring with Gong Jun. Unfortunately those two had no chemistry and the plot was just very unsatisfying for me in the political intrigue area. One example: Gong Jun can't find the supplies needed to pacify a near-rioting mob. But that's okay bc Anle's subordinates found it. How did they find the super secret hidden storehouse?? we don't know and will never find out bc it was offscreen and never explained. They just did. this would be fine if it weren't, like, the climax of the episode and presented as a victory of the two MC's brilliance. I can't deal with this.

Naughty Babe--It's. A romcom. I'm so sorry I probably should just stop trying.

Other romcoms I quit too fast to give a fair opinion: You Are Mine, Extremely Perilous Love, My Lethal Man, Taikan Yoho.

Well, there you have it, 2023 dramas I watched in 2023.

Fun as it was, I think in 2024 I'm going to try to catch up more with older dramas lols.

Did y'all watch any of these dramas this year?

River City Girls Zero (2022) / Shin Nekketsu Kōha: Kunio-tachi no Banka (1994)

I was really excited to try this game, since we're still sorely missing localizations for most SNES Kunio games, and this is the one that originally inspired the first River City Girls. After that game released, and thanks to the wonderful collection of all the NES Kunio entries translated to english for modern system, I kinda got very into the franchise, you see.

Turns out this was a massive disappointment. It's a very bland, very linear beat' em up that completely fails to live up to the expectations set during the previous console generation, only providing higher quality visuals and sound, and a slightly more intrincate story that takes itself too seriously for how unimpressive it is.

The new localization is fine, with a couple new opening and ending songs, a new animated opening sequence, and the option to choose between a 1994 faithful translation and one that tries to link this game more closely to the characterization of the River City Girls storyline. That's if you're playing in english of course, I noticed every other language only gets one translation. Tough luck.

I felt this localization job was completely unnecessary. As a game, you're essentially forking over 10-15 bucks for a SNES rom with little replayability and extras that add next to nothing to the experience. I would rather pay full price for a collection of all the SNES games with less bells and whistles, if they did it for the dozen NES titles they should have less of an issue doing it with the 5 or so SNES ones. Instead, they chose to give us one single very mediocre game, and I find it hard to have any hope that they'll release the others in the future.

River City Girls 2 (2022)

Even after the previous letdown, I was still very hopeful and excited for a full sequel, and I think it mostly lived up to those expectations. I want to play more of it, play through the story with different characters and do more of the side quests, which is a sign that I had a good time.

There's tons more dialogue for each of the playable characters, which is a treat. There's always some funny moments to laugh at, and I find the cast to be quite charming. Their movesets have also been improved and expanded, so there's more to do and experiment with during fights. You can get pretty creative and do some demanding combos if you're really willing to explore what everyone can do. The combat is a clear step up and probably the easiest thing to praise.

The story is also quite nice, pretty much what I'd expect from a sequel, fun the whole way through, but it's also where I began to have issues. I think some secondary characters that could easily be considered series staples, and who showed up in the first game, should have made an appearance here, but I guess that's my personal take and it can be forgiven. My biggest issue was how Ken was used, with his resemblance to Kunio having actually zero significance to the story, and him being apparently much older than the main cast? I believe he could have made for a more interesting and engaging baddie if he was also a teenager and a similar plotline to the one in Zero had been used.

And, oh man, don't get me started on how they fumbled the dragon twin(k)s. They're usually a top threat in any game they're in, and they got fantastic redesigns here, but they were barely used and I didn't even get to fight them. That should be some sort of crime. Genuinely the most underutilized members of the villain cast. What the hell happened here.

I guess I didn't notice this sort of stuff back when I wasn't a fan and these characters were all new to me, huh. Maybe this is all just fanboy rantings. Maybe it's not a big deal. But I seriously think the dragon twins are cool and they should be used more.

Other than that, my roomie (who I played through the entire game with) and I felt that the frequent fetch quests and backtracking required to advance the story got fairly annoying, but perhaps we wouldn't mind it if we were playing at our own pace and took our sweet time. I think playing with more patience would greatly improve the experience. All in all, I believe it was a very fun game, great fun with a friend, adorable characters, just not perfect you know. I'm only a bit passionate about some of that stuff.

supernatural s8e3 heartache (w. brad buckner, eugenie ross-leming)

another jackles directed episode. hold on to your butts.

oh boy they're in minneapolis, i lived there for 8 years? 7? *trying to calculate the year based on my oldest being 3.5 when we moved....* ok yes, 7. anyway. lake! no wait, river. wait, that's actually the minneapolis skyline. i worked downtown for a while. did you know the mississippi river goes through minneapolis? (i did not before i moved there)

cool thing about minneapolis?? skyways! enclosed walkways between buildings downtown so you don't have to go outside because it's fucking cold in the winter: The Minneapolis Skyway System is the largest contiguous system of enclosed, second-level bridges in the world—composed of 9.5 miles of pathways connecting 80 city blocks. all right. weird. getting nostalgic. MOVING ON

oh babes with the orange faces, again. i am so sorry.

SAM [slowly] Farmers' market. [He holds up the apple.] Organic. What? I had a year off. I took the time to enjoy the good things. DEAN While avoiding doing what we actually do. SAM Wow, Dean, does it make you feel that much better every time you say it? DEAN All right, man, look, I get it. You took a year off to do yoga and play the lute, whatever, but I'm back. Okay, we're back, which means that we walk and kill monsters at the same time. We'll find Kevin. But in the meantime, do we ignore stuff like this? Or are innocent people supposed to die so that you can shop for produce?

i so do not like this conflict. putting all this weird shit on sam, taking the year off from hunting and settling down because he thought dean was dead, that's fine! whatever! maybe that's in character maybe not, i dunno! but having him totally fail kevin.. maybe you could argue without dean he stops caring about anyone? but i don't think it's that deep :p (also the whole girlfriend dog situation)

so i think they wrote sam into a shitty situation. i think dean is being extra asshole-ish about it. i'm mad at everyone in this scenario

DEAN All right, case is coming together. Things are coming together, man. You and me. It is all good. [SAM doesn’t respond.] Hey. SAM What? DEAN What are you thinking about, organic tomatoes? SAM Uh, I'm not thinking about anything. DEAN I don't know about you, but this last year has given me a new perspective. SAM I hear you. Believe me. DEAN I know where I'm at my best, and that is right here, driving down crazy street next to you.

oh, dean. why'd they set you up like this. (lol also it sounds like he smacks sam's leg when he says right here *pat*)

SAM Makes sense. DEAN Yes, it does. SAM Or... maybe you don't need me. I mean, maybe you're at your best hacking and slicing your way through all the world's crap alone, not having to explain yourself to anybody. DEAN Yeah, that makes sense, seeing as I have so many other brothers I can talk to about this stuff. SAM Look, I'm not saying I'm bailing on you. I'm just saying make room for the possibility that we want different things. I mean, I want my time to count for something. DEAN So, what we do doesn't count?

what year is this, i feel like we've been down this road enough. i can come up with good justifications but i don't think again the show is doing the work to support that.

DEAN Well, this is gonna singe your axons.

what?

pretty!

SAM So, everybody knows about Brick's football career, obviously, but no one knows much about his personal life. Was he ever married? MRS HOLMES Just to the game. He gave it everything he had. It's a difficult life.

LOLLL she made him do the sad thinky thoughts how this parallels my life and i can never get married either if i stay married to the job ;( ;( i am so over this plotline lol

looks like we're back to the old desktop again (s8e1 for comparison)

DEAN Uh, oh, got another e-mail here, too. This one is for you. From a university. Answering questions about admissions. SAM Just something I'm looking into. An option. DEAN You're seriously talking about hanging it up? SAM I'm not talking about anything, Dean. I'm just looking at options.

my heart hurt with that one. having no privacy, including email, really sucks. i was in an abusive situation for years where my partner could read my email. that said, sam knows it's shared, he knows dean could very well see it. and well. hurts dean sam wants to leave again. so now i'm hurt by proxy while also being mad at the contrivances of the plot. bah.

DEAN Maybe she moved into Brick's room after he died. Or... DEAN looks at the bed. SAM Oh. Thanks, Dean. Now that image is permanently etched into my retinas.

did the supernatural fraternal incest subtext-bordering-on-text show just make a joke about incest

oh no. get someone better at photoshop, please, it's dick all over again 😭 (looks like we're back to the new desktop)

that's some kind of situation he got himself in

did dean need to almost get his heart ripped out for sammy to learn some lesson about his brother needing him? (nope) *insert imaginary future arguments of "well why don't you just go hunt with benny"*

SAM Dean, listen, when this is over – when we close up shop on Kevin and the tablet – I'm done. I mean that. DEAN No, you don't. SAM Dean, the year that I took off, I had something I've never had. A normal life. I mean, I got to see what that felt like. I want that. I had that. DEAN I think that's just how you feel right now.

continue to hate this lalala

um. okayyyyy

s3e10 dream a little dream of me (dean's dream of lisa)

and he's tearing up over the memory. all right. crisis of faith at the altar of dean.

HAH actually it's like that awful nonsense lisa braeden said, about how the past year was the best of her life - meanwhile dean said he was falling apart and miserable (she deserved better writing) -- except in this case, dean died (presumably) and sam moved on and it ~WAS (apparently) THE BEST YEAR OF HIS LIFE~ (he also deserves better writing)

good luck getting down here to my deep thoughts when you gotta wade past a glowing review of minneapolis minnesota first

Assassin's Creed Locations Ranked, Part 3

After a long delay, here's the third part of my ranking of every location in the Assassin's Creed series. I have linked the first two entries below, and you can see my criteria by clicking on part 1.

Part 1

Part 2 https://ryanmeft.tumblr.com/post/729093968203218944/assassins-creed-locations-ranked-part-2 Let's get to it.

19

Heb Sed (Origins: Curse of the Pharaohs)

Don’t remember this one? I don’t blame you, but hold on, because it might be more interesting than you recall. Egyptians didn’t have a real concept of eternal torment---you either got into paradise or were devoured by an immortal chimera, which admittedly isn’t much better. Ramesses II was a Pharaoh whose reign was marked by his never-ending desire for conquest, and his illusory afterlife reflects this, being a sand-blasted waste littered with the remains of well-known Egyptian icons. It’s more interesting than it sounds. The fact his eternity is a blighted and ruined form of his own country, not anyone else’s is pretty psychologically interesting, and wandering these ruins is less overtly oppressive than the cauldron that is Hades, and more a sad affair as you search for an enemy so obsessed with war he has no peace even in death. It’s not beautiful, but it’s an interesting concept more original than Aten, and thus ranking higher.

18

Constantinople/Istanbul (Revelations)

The legendary city that became the eastern Rome was mostly a barely-disguised reskin of Brotherhood’s setting, but the smoke of hookah, the Grand Bazaar full of colorful wares, the elaborate clothing and the heavy presence of books as a standout environmental and gameplay element helped give the city a mostly fresh feel. Whereas Brotherhood sacrificed story for gameplay, Revelations focused on the narrative and the environment a bit more heavily, resulting in the genuine feeling that you were in a place and time where the world was rapidly changing. It’s still a reskin, but it is a pretty good one.

17

North Atlantic (Rogue)

It’s pretty abundantly clear that Rogue was made to tap III and Black Flag’s immensely popular sailing gameplay one more time before moving on to the landlubbers of revolutionary France. Like Revelations, you can often practically see the Caribbean sea and the Colonial frontier underneath the forts and frozen oceans. Fortunately, though, this time the series did a little bit more than just reskin existing environments. The “River Valley”, so-named because the terrain is loosely based on the famous Hudson Valley, has more dips and swells in it than III’s frontier, while the frigid oceans and their neighboring cliffs successfully evoke history’s maritime chase for the fabled Northwest Passage. It’s still a reskin and therefore can’t rank higher than most original locations, but it’s a better reskin than that in Revelations.

16

Asgard (Valhalla)

A lot of this was mentioned in the entry on Dawn of Ragnarok’s vastly inferior Svartálfaheimr, so I’ll keep this brief. Asgard is a place where the towering halls of the fabled city give way to deep, Isu-ruin-studded caverns, and Ratatosk and Fenrir freely roam amid recreated Norse stories. You can leave whenever you want, but it’s such a beautiful place to visit that you probably won’t go back to England until you’ve licked the plate clean. The only downside is that the connection to the Isu plotline is murky at best, which is either a strength or a weakness depending on how much you like the frame story.

That's it for this short entry. Come back next time to see entries 15-11, and then one more time to see what the top ten are and in what order.

an incomplete list of reasons Fallout 3 should’ve been set in Philadelphia instead of DC

1) maintains the “big, old Eastern metropolis” vibe

2) does not establish that Washington survives an all-out nuclear war, when in reality it would be a smashed-flat sea of glass if anything at all was

3) “the water is bad” plotline combined with a river whose name contains the word “kill” allows many more opportunities for dark humour

4) still plenty of opportunities for Bethesda to be distressingly preoccupied with the pre-war world

5) thematically appropriate for the Brotherhood of Steel to dominate it in the end, as it is the city of brotherly love

 GOLDEN TRACKS AU [Shaw & Magnus]

AU:

with @sebastianshaw

In a world where medieval fantasy meets Art Deco 1920s, families and mobs have taken over various parts of the grand city of New Genosha, Max "Magnus" Eisenhardt rules the steel and mechanical industry and created the first, consistent cross-country train system. The Acolytes, who have the regional radio under their whim, follow his lead. It took a revolution for them to get power and more powerful groups intent to get a piece. Former alliances and enemies quickly go out the window for new eras.

(aka. the Shaw and Magnus Noir Edits finally have their Plotline!! Inspired by Streets of New Capenna)

[ First meetings and impressions. ]

This specific club, had a most unfortunate position among New Genosha’s streets.

Where usually various homes and factories were endangered by the iron-suspended bridge above, shadowing the labyrinth of streets, this golden-clad club did not budge. Each time a train dashed over the tracks of the great bridge above, the walls, glasses of champagne and a chandelier trembled.

The force did not throw over, or ripped something from the ceiling, but it interrupted the tunes of any singer and band. The gold, magic-induced neon lights, candles and pretentious get-ups of this society made up for the shadowed landscape. The purple-tinted grand mosaic windows lit up with the headlights of an oncoming train before all returned to the same. The club’s program had been sorted accordingly ever since. A train passing through meant a break or the end of a performance. Singers had to keep their schedule or fall on stage.

With the truly pointedly timely train system, there was nothing not appointed for. Just aside from the bar sat a horned, pale imp, studying the radio with an expression of focus as if his life depended on it. For its unfortunate position, it was one of the richest clubs in the main station district. Perhaps the richest one belonging to the Eisenhardt’s from this to the factory district.

It had to be because of its determination to keep the chandelier stapled to the ceiling.

Magnus sits at one of the red-velveted card booths, positioned on a higher part of the club, away from the well-lit stage. The metallic buttons on his vest and coat shine in the colors of the mosaic and chandelier. The pipe at the corner of his mouth sheds just the faintest light unto his handsome features.

While all others the like were occupied by dapper creatures and indulging in games, with cheating of all their kind, he sat back with a pipe, pen and paper. Sketches of machinery, motors and electrical constructions powered by forces of magic and magnetism had been brought unto the sketchbook within the past few performances and trains leaving per schedule.

Max recalls the feel of the wires and cogs, the way the machinery rattled not too differently from the club every once in a while. It whistled and carried the stench of oil and mad-flying fire in its core. Now it was but coal on paper. His fingertips look not much less black than the day he worked in the old factories to create the very machinery he sketched.

Those days passed. Not enough. The coal lingers in his fingertips, the heavy load of the work is a ghost in his bones and the smog one in his lungs. What a mess, he thought, he had cleaned up. Just before his pen once more finds the paper under the faint electrical lights, a note is slipped underneath it. The radio man leaves quicker than he dares eye the Lord.

Guests are arriving.

Not ones commonly found in a club beneath the main station. The great river split New Genosha into its districts, brutal enough to be a city defined by borders of wealth and family insignia.

Eisenhardt had his monopole of mechanical industry, trains transport and radio like a vein running just from the core of split canals to the outer industry districts. To have unfamiliar ‘guests’ cross the banks and canals on party boats to come pay a humble visit to a trembling club, meant business.

The bridges came down, they extended the shore. They sent the electricity and magic through the network. But the telegrapher used to be quicker, Magnus notes. The foyer is left in a ruckus of workers grabbing coats, guards giving each other signals and the bar getting ready for what might be an onslaught of people. Perhaps with an intention of an onslaught in their minds and loaded guns.

The performance has stopped for the minute, cheers fill the room and in the next moment the onlookers patiently eye their watches.

The doors swing open. One dashing man steps inside. A train rattles the walls. The performance continues. A waiter points towards the upper velvet booths and offers a few glasses of mixed drinks in various shining colours. Guards have their eyes fixed on the man whose face was one difficult to get out of the newspapers- especially the economics section. The Acolytes had their field day reporting about his newest endeavors.

Sebastian Shaw was nothing alike a dirty, mortal mediocrity. Magnus' heart lunged into his stomach and his face showed the bit of anger. What a strange new kind of business this would become. He could only anticipate it in his greatest preparations. But there was no need for them. For now. He extends his hand.

"Sebastian Shaw. You could have surprised me with your sudden visit if not for your heads-up."

There was none. He almost threatened to smile. But the visit of one of the greater economic lords would have come sooner or later.

With the revolution just passed, there was little that could surprise him.

@sebastianshaw

thoughts on s3 after 2x7

As always, I am here to bring you wild speculation that will probably end up being wrong!

I do feel like the way things ended between Siuan and Moiraine makes it a lot less likely we'll see the girls & Mat popping back to the White Tower in s3 for testing and healing, because... why would Siuan ever let them leave again? They would be her link to Moiraine & the Dragon Reborn.

I mean... I can see the show massaging ways for them to get there and then leave again, but... it just feels a lot less likely if they want to keep up the current tension from the White Tower storyline.

Obviously, whatever happens in 2x8 will affect my speculation, but just based on the White Tower plotline and how it shook out in this episode... I'm wondering if s3 might not pick up in Caemlyn.

a. It gives us a bit of a time-skip, as the characters move westward from Falme.

b. It introduces us to the new city and characters.

c. We could have somewhat similar canon meetings between our crew and Gawyn, Galad, and Elaida (especially if our people are mostly trying to stay hidden in the city to avoid attention but end up running into all the attention anyway).

d. a version of Elaida's Foretelling of Rand could happen and propel her into action, setting up the events of TSR for the White Tower.

e. Verin and Alanna could be in Caemlyn, giving Verin a chance to explain to Egwene about Dreaming, and her testing it out and running into the Wise Ones in TAR, thus leading her towards the Waste.

So what I envision would be us getting two main locations in episode one:

Caemlyn: open up as our group arrives in the city, lay the scene, introduce the new characters

Tar Valon: seeing the fall-out from what happened in Cairhien and how that affects how Siuan is viewed in the Tower, and how Moiraine and the Dragon are viewed

Caemlyn is also a good place for our characters to separate into their book 4 plotlines, with Perrin heading back to the Two Rivers, Rand & co continuing to the Waste (probably using a fast-travel option to avoid Tar Valon), and Elayne and Nynaeve heading in whatever direction they're going to go for the city that they'll be doing their bk4 plotline in. And we would then only need five major locations for the season: Caemlyn, the Two Rivers, Tar Valon (for the coup plotline), the Aiel Waste/Rhuidean, and wherever Elayne & Nynaeve go together.

Anyway, it might be that 2x8 will have them all heading in separate directions at the end and this speculation will already be incorrect, but these are some thoughts that I've had just based on what happened in 2x7 and with us knowing that Caemlyn is a new location for next season and how they could really get their money's worth out of it.

The Weepies: An Introduction

The Weepies are an indie folk duo who formed in 2001, made up of singer-songwriters Deb Talan and Steve Tannen. They were individually active as musicians before 2001, both of them being fans of each other's work - and then they met, got involved and began making music as the Weepies.

Over the course of their 20 year career, they released five albums and one live recording. They also wrote for Mandy Moore on one of her albums, and they released a handful of singles for compilations and soundtrack albums.

This is probably gonna sound really silly, but the way I want to describe their music is "lovecore". A lot of their music has a very blissful, very romantic sort of sound to it - songs like "Gotta Have You" and "Happiness" are really positive tunes about being in love and having each other. A lot of their music offers a very earnest perspective on love and relationships, and it's really pleasant to listen to.

Albums

(song links are in pink if you want to listen to any of them)

Happiness: their debut album, featuring the songs "Somebody Loved", "Happiness" and "Simple Life". The cover features a pair of salt and pepper shakers, which adds to this vibe of two complementary forces finding each other and working well in tandem.

Say I Am You: my favorite album of theirs. The production and writing on this project are a big step up from Happiness, with songs like "Gotta Have You" breaking some really interesting creative ground and being very endearing. This album also has one of their biggest singles in "World Spins Madly On" - if you're a Scrubs fan, you've heard that one on the deja vu episode where JD and the Janitor play out the same plotline as an earlier episode.

Live Sessions EP: notable for the renditions of Deb Talan and Steve Tannen's solo material, as well as a song that would appear on their next album Hideaway. The songs on this EP are my favorite versions of them on any project - "Old Coyote" and "Rocks and Water" are GOAT songs on this EP, but I would heavily recommend listening to them using headphones.

Hideaway: contains "All This Beauty" from the Sex and the City soundtrack, "All Good Things" which was co-written by Mandy Moore for her 2007 album "Wild Heart", and "Orbiting" which is a really pretty-sounding song about changing orbit in your life and realising that someone you care about isn't on your side.

Be My Thrill: I don't have much to say except that "Hummingbird" is one of my favorite songs of theirs. It's very busy and very warm, and it feels like when the sun is setting in late summer so everything is warm and lazy and tinged in a strong amber glow.

Sirens: their final album, and notable for the context surrounding it. Deb Talan was diagnosed with breast cancer, and this album was produced during the course of her recovery and released after she had received a clean bill of health. Contains a cover of Tom Petty's "Learning to Fly", as well as originals like "Sirens", "Brand New Pair of Wings" and "River from the Sky".

Content Warning: There is a song called "Ever Said Goodbye" that contains a slur for Romani people. My opinion is that it was used in ignorance, given the twee nature of the song, but my intention isn't to downplay the term or give it a pass. I'm making this post because I've connected with this band's music a lot, but I understand if this invalidates whatever goodwill you may have had towards the band and I understand why that would be the case. I don't condone the use of the word.

Music

A majority of the songs made by the Weepies feature Deb Talan on lead vocals and Steve Tannen on backing vocals. One notable exception is "World Spins Madly On", which may be their biggest hit - that's a prominent example of Steve taking the lead and Deb backing up his vocals.

I will say that I prefer Deb's voice, and I prefer the songs she sings lead on. No hate to Steve Tannen, but most of his songs don't really vibe well with me and - to be frank - his songs can occasionally feel a bit weird and reductive. This goes into their solo stuff too; the Deb Talan material on their Live Sessions EP is better than the Steve Tannen material, in my opinion.

One thing I think they really mastered was the short-form song - just a handful of chords, a couple blunt verses and a single-line chorus. "Somebody Loved" and "Keep It There" are some of my favorite songs of theirs - skeletons of songs at ~2 minutes apiece, but which hit hard and go home.

And to mention the cover of Happiness again, where the salt and pepper shakers symbolise two complementary people working together and forming a more robust whole, I think that their harmonizing and back-up singing on each other's songs works really well. Steve's voice isn't as melodic as Deb's is, but he can enhance her songs by backing up her singing in lower registers and adding texture. Similarly, Deb's voice can add an incredibly sweet flair to Steve's songs - her voice really makes those songs soar.

The End of The Weepies

In late December 2021, the social media feeds for the band sent out some bad news. Deb and Steve were divorcing, and the Weepies were disbanding.

This hit me had for a couple reasons. The first reason was because the Weepies were this light in the darkness that I found just before the pandemic came down - like damn, so much other stuff has gone wrong, and now one of my favorite bands is about to break up. That sucks, goddamn.

The second one was because of the "lovecore" vibe that the band exudes. They're this awesome married couple with all of these songs about love, and they're getting divorced - it makes a lot of that lovecore vibe kinda sad in retrospect.

It's not entirely surprising that things ended like this, the last Weepies album was six years ago and Deb's last solo album was four years ago - but it was still a huge downer when I heard about the split, y'know.

But the music is still there, and it helps to have something so cheery and earnest to contrast with the grimness of the real world. And the band don't just make bright and cheery love ballads - "Sirens" has this undercurrent of death to it, and every album since "Say I Am You" has had at least one introspective song about insecurity, loneliness or the end of a relationship. There's a lot of depth there, and it helps to build hope for a better life going forward and to process bad things that have happened in the past. It's just really good, healing music.

Conclusion

I hope that by making this post, I can fully express my appreciation for the band - I hope that someone gives them a shot and ends up enjoying what they hear. I also encourage people to visit Deb Talan's solo work; three of my favorite songs of hers are "Rocks and Water", "Forgiven" and "Comfort".

Thank you for sitting through this post, and I hope it was of some informational/entertainment value to you.

Shared Verse: Pokemon

I’ve mentioned shared verses before.  This post covers the shared verse for Pokemon muses and AUs.  

Note that Oak’s main verse is default, please let me know if you’d rather work with his evil plotline.

This verse contains a lot of background worldbuilding, particularly in terms of Interpol, Team Rocket, the criminal underground, and the complex relationships between them.  As usual, if any of my headcanons don’t fit with yours, we can always figure something out.  

The shared verse includes:

Places

Amberia:  A small region somewhat close to Alola, sharing similar weather but rather than being colorful and lush, is very dry and mostly devoid of plant life.  They do have a rather traditional League, Elite Four, and Champion, which has been mostly stagnant and gone unchallenged for many years, due to general disinterest.  

PECHEF:  The Pokemon Energy Conversion and Harnessing Experimental Facility; a once grand laboratory that now sits in ruins near Amberia’s shoreline.  

People

Giovanni:  The leader of Team Rocket, of course.  Previously an Elite Four member, until war saw him stripped of his rank.

Surge:  An Electric-specialist, usually a Gym Leader but sometimes on a journey of his own.

Oak:  Previous champion of Kanto; now works a quiet life as a Pokemon researcher. 

Gaster:  Once a human scientist by the name of William Gaster.  Gaster had the PECHEF built to further his studies, but only a few days after its completion there was a catastrophic accident.  Gaster was transformed into the Pokémon known as Gaster while pieces of his SOUL became the evolutionary line Gamumu, Jesteeny, and Traumedy.

Cephalofraud:  A Dark/Ground type Pokémon with the ability Water Absorb.  It looks like an octopus with a strangely humanoid abdomen, head, and arms and can be found in rivers and the ocean.  

Gemuse:  An Interpol officer usually on recon duty with his partner Pokémon, Pippins the Hoppip.  Due to chronic illness, Gemuse is generally forbidden from engaging with criminals and is commonly sent as a courier between Interpol and Team Rocket.  

Iroh:  A Dragon-type specialist currently serving as one of Amberia’s elite.  Not that he takes his duty super seriously; given that they maybe have one challenger a year or so.  His father currently rules as the champion.

Ozai:  A trainer who is under a lot of pressure from his father to become the next elite after Iroh takes over as Champion.  Quite frankly, he’d rather just collect bird Pokémon.  

John:  Previously a hitman operating in Ryme City’s criminal underground, he’s since retired and just wants to live a peaceful life with the Houndour his wife left him.

Quentin:  The name Quentin originally referred to a Pokémon smuggler who was abusive to his Pokémon.  Unfortunately for him, his Ditto got tired of it, killed him, and took over his identity.  The name “Quentin” now refers to this ditto, unless otherwise stated.

Major:  The original Quentin’s brother, Major has made a living participating in illegal (but consensual) Human vs Pokemon fighting rings.  This did cost him his arm, but he’s made peace with it and enjoys life to the fullest with his pal, Furret.

Spirited Away Blog Post 4/22

Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away is one of my favorite films of all time. Not only is it beautifully illustrated and directed, but this film can be interpreted and dissected endlessly in several different ways. Whether it is the beautiful coming-of-age story of the young Chihiro or the strong notes of capitalist critique, this movie has a lot to unpack; I could write a 10-page paper on this movie. 

This movie follows Chihiro as she moves cities following her father’s new job. They come across an interesting tunnel which the parents happily enter, with Chihiro incredibly hesitant. They reach this carnival, where they feast at a restaurant that turns them into pigs. This could represent the concept of overconsumption in a post-capitalist era, transforming them into “capitalist pigs.” The young Chihiro runs away toward the bathhouse, in which Haku tells her to run away, but her efforts fail as she looks for her parents. In order to survive this world and save her parents, she must eat from this world and perform labor. She searches desperately for a job, finally receiving one from the witch Yubaba. We then follow her through her journey in navigating this new and overwhelming world revolving around an industrial structure of consumption and labor, experiencing responsibility, the significance of kindness, and independence. 

Her attitude in the beginning and during the film is significant to the plotline. She heavily contrasts the actions of her parents, hesitant and frightened by all of their decisions. She fears the speeding car toward a new world, the entrance into a new terrain, and the consumption of all the food that is justified for the taking for the exchange of money. They take and perform solely in this feeling of entitlement to anything as long as they perform in trade for monetary value. Even as Chihiro is left alone in this world, she reserves this attitude of hesitation and rejection to performing in labor, signifying that she is unexposed to this type of society, representing the overwhelming nature of jumping from this childlike and naive world of traditional cultural identity to a postcapitalist world that leaves it behind. 

The bathhouse is interesting. I feel like the bathhouse itself could represent and symbolize the efforts to retain the traditional cultural identity of Japan pre-Westernization, with the workers inside it doing the opposite. They are only concerned with profit. This is seen with someone like the stink spirit. It was only until Chihiro cleaned him and released him from the filth did they realized he was in fact a water spirit. It was like he was polluted by industrial capitalism to the point that he was unrecognizable. This is further seen in Haku, in which he is not recognized as the Hukau River spirit. 

I think No Face is the biggest example of the dangers of capitalism. He is seen as a neutral identity, literally referred to as No Face. When he receives validation from the exchange of gold for high treatment, he becomes this greedy and overconsuming monster. He tries to win over the kindness of Chihiro who lets him in, but she rejects it and is unconcerned and uninterested in this exchange. It’s only when he exits the bathhouse, the source of these attitudes, and experiences the kindness and rejection of the concept of profit, does he return to his original state. 

I know I’m focusing on the commentary of a capitalist culture growing in Japan in conflict with Japan’s cultural identity in this post, but this movie serves as a commentary on innate human nature too and even some factors of environmentalism. There are so many layers to this movie, giving reason to why it’s one of my favorite movies. Also, it’s just so beautifully animated. 

Like if you cut the mother's plotline on Lost River and focused entirely on the realism/fantasy aspect of the son's life. It'd be so much better.

Lost River has the seed of the best movie ever made and I'll DIE by that, like, a realistic setting, real characters, but it's like they're under the spell of a fantasy story. YES.

I love that, I'll sleep in that, let it tuck me in.

The surreal film making and dialogue mixed with a truly dying city and a character at the end of his rope trying to fall in love. L I K E.

Idk, cut the mother's story. Expand the son's, the villain in it, the love interest, the strange city living experience, and that sense of doom and death but also life?

Where you can truly connect with the characters? I swear cutting between two stories was the death of that flick, I didn't give a fuck about either of them because not enough time was devoted to either one, but water gun to my head, I'm picking the son.

I need that cut of the movie, that strange dreamlike fantasy that is getting through life when you're separated from everything. Focus on the flood water rising and the connection and the futility of being a low income person in this fucking system and how it's like being abandoned in a dying world.

Like. I understand where the 'oh the mother has to be sexual AND gory', but you didn't need that. Either go all exploitation flick or ALL thoughtful commentary. In between doesn't work.