#(read: more than 0)

[sysig]

Light and darkness, but mostly darkness (Patreon)

[littlelightfish]

I will scream at every non-romantic post I see about these guys. Writers be not afraid. I will love their non-romance fics. I'll blow up your coment section all alone if I have to. I will find you. Artists be not afraid. I will reach tag limit on your artpiece. If I see it at least. And if I don't, I will eventually. Or I'll try. Or @me so I won't fail you.

[deansguns]

I'm not sure I trust people who say they watched the entirety of spn and didn't see any destiel, like at all. really? you watched the entire 15 seasons and you came out thinking that those were two straight characters without an ounce of romantic love for one another?

[bereft-of-frogs]

I'm wondering if my longstanding refusal to watch the 2008 Clone Wars is contributing to my utter inability to comprehend all the 'star wars is RUINED' complaints.

if I can contentedly exist refusing to acknowledge the thing that 99% of the fandom considers to be essential canon, that makes up the majority of the fanworks, art, and posts, I think you can handle disregarding one self-contained, 8 episode series that takes place a hundred years before anything else if you really want to. I really think you're going to live.

[byanyan]

when will my motivation & energy for writing return....

[books-coffee-and-the-woods]

vague reading goals for next year:

read 100 books. purposely chose a high number (for me) because I want to encourage myself to choose reading over social media time more often (my daily phone screentime is....pretty bad lmao) and also because I want to read more comics and manga

read all my unread manga and comics, and reread any half-finished series to see if I want to continue them or nah

continue to alternate new book/series -> reread etc. since that seems to be the best way to assuage my anxiety about not reading enough of one or the other

continue the Tamora Pierce reread I started this year (though I only got through Song of the Lioness). ideally I'd like to read at least 4 of her series next year. not sure if I'll do all tortall books and then start emelan or what, we'll see how I feel, but I am trying to read them in publishing order...

actually track what books I buy and try to buy less than 50, and shop more intentionally. I have a ton of random stuff on my TBR shelf (mostly courtesy of the used bookstore and some very bad anxiety shopping last fall when I was traveling for the first time in a while and also my landlord decided to do a bunch of annoying things), so I'm going to try and ease up on the thrifting and only buy books I've read and love or new releases I'm particularly excited about.

try to keep up on new releases again! so many cool books came out this year and I was just completely out of the loop 😩 I think I've mostly come to terms with the obnoxious state of book-marketing now, so I'm going to re-follow some things I unfollowed and just try to trust my gut/the official summary/recs from people with similar interests.

get rid of 50 books. I'm at Max Apartment Capacity right now, so if I buy 50 books then 50 also have to go. or I need to win the lottery. one of those is more practical than the other.

[suddencolds]

~

[guestreader]

I'm sorry but 'Xaden is Tamlin' is the worst take on Fourth Wing I've seen.

[lesbianraskolnikov]

I feel a little crazy when people choose to boil rodyas murder motivation to one thing. Everything else was a bluff he just wanted to prove he was extraordinary. To be quite honest I think there's more to it. And you dont think he really felt guilt for her sister. Is that so. So you think he lacks any and all empathy and love...awesomeeee. water him down some more keep going!!!!!!!!!

[fallloverfic]

I am legitimately confused by repeated comments that ORV's opening is slow or boring or uninteresting, especially people who say you need to read [insert some very large number of pages/chapters] to get to the "good" parts. I've seen this on multiple socials at this point and I originally wrote this post months ago, but recent potential news has brought back people saying this again, particularly in recommending it to other people/trying to get other people into it.

I would personally argue that ORV has a good opening. A very good opening. And the early part of it is very good, too.

ORV opens with a literal train of angst, attempted friendship, workplace harassment (Sangah getting harassed by her boss), some neat Korean folklore (dokkaebis hello), graphic violence (remember when Bihyeong just kills the president on TV?), a group of people in a subway attempting to beat an old woman to death, Dokja winning a pissing contest with a teenage edgelord, a bunch of people getting murdered, bonding in times in despair over a really unique form of problem solving, a man breaking open subway doors with his bare arms, young love, and magic, fleeing onto a bridge that gets exploded to bits by an evil gremlin, a horde of zombies appearing, the protagonist getting new magic powers, and then his getting held by the neck over said broken bridge in a complex back and forth with the "true" story protagonist before getting dropped into the mouth of a giant sea monster.

It covers topics like the limits of human compassion in times of strife, the complicated presence of the military (Dokja hated his time being drafted v Hyeonseong's military leadership doesn't save anyone), international relations (Sangah is learning Spanish), trope subversion (I mean it is and isn't the entire book and Dokja's character, but he's constantly trying to be 5-10 steps ahead of what's going on, including literally fleeing Junghyeok until Junghyeok grabs him by the collar), workplace harassment, bullying, and it's all taking place during multiple apocalypse scenarios.

This is the like first 11 chapters of the book. And it never stops. There are "slower" moments, moments where characters take a breather (like it takes a while for Dokja to negotiate his contract with Bihyeong, which is slow if you ignore the fact Dokja is arguing with an interdimensional being/alien for the limits of his own life and autonomy in the most dangerous streaming event imaginable, knowing he may still die if he gambles wrong on his personal wikipedia brain), but it's still frequently confrontational, whether that confrontation is about what characters mean to each other, what lives are at stake, finding your purpose in life, adaptability to complex circumstances, overcoming trauma and self-doubt...

And it's more intense in a way in the manhwa adaptation because you can clearly see most of it visualized (e.g., how visually wrecked the characters get, how young the kids are, how terrifying the monsters are, how scary the odds are, and how dangerous Dokja's gambles can really get with a fickle streaming audience), and Sleepy-C's art is gorgeous.

I just have to wonder (though this is more of a rhetorical question), what on earth do people consider fast? Because I am quite honestly terrified of what the answer is.

Like I get that ORV is long. It can be hard to recommend very long books to folks (and as the manhwa keeps going, long comics). To each their own, everyone is different, what appeals to me won't appeal to others. But there's a difference between "it's hard to recommend a very long work to someone" and "it's hard to recommend something that's long and takes a while to get into", and maybe folks are just writing the former a bit weirdly. I completely understand having trouble recommending long series to people. Also ORV has a very complex plot and I don't blame folks having trouble recommending that. I'm writing fic for later parts of orv and other manhwa and I dread explaining all the context for all that to someone who hasn't read them.

That being said, ORV has a very good introduction. Both chapter 1 of the novel and episode 1 of the manhwa are very good. They're not perfect, I can't say I was hooked from the immediate moment I started reading the page, but both of them have good introductions and it doesn't stop, and there's stuff to love in just about every chapter/episode, and I was definitely hooked enough by the time I finished to keep going to chapter/episode 2. Chapter 1 of the novel has great angst and character building, and it's funny and sweet and tragic. When I first read Dokja trying, earnestly, to recommend TWSA and getting harassed about it and worrying it will hurt this art and artist he cares about, but not being able to do much else to give thanks for this experience because of his circumstances, I cried. The first page/episode of the manhwa has them delicious boys love vibes and gorgeous art (and cute baby Dokja, I die for him), and the promise of a fascinating story ahead, and then the following page/episode has more gorgeous art and angst and great characters (combining them cause the first page feels sort of more like a teaser than a first page, though Episode 0 ends with a spread of Kimcom that makes me tear up). We'll unfortunately never know if I'd have loved ORV as much if I'd read the novel first, but I like to think I would cause ORV's opening is just that good.

I just truly, truly do not understand the sentiment that idk the opening and the first [insert large number of pages/chapters] aren't good or interesting or engaging enough. Maybe I'm out of touch. To each their own on what appeals, maybe I'm built different (doubt it though) but it just feels kind of dismissive of ORV's opening, in both the novel and the manhwa, which are both really good. Will it win over everyone? No. It's fine if you weren't grabbed by the opening or the first [insert however many pages/chapters/arcs]. It's fine if you took a while, even a long while to get into it, or never really did, and maybe don't like the manhwa, which is a great gateway into the story, or don't like the novel for whatever reason and prefer the manhwa. And at the end of the day it's just random opinions online, we all have different ones. Make the posts that appeal to you on your blog, complain on your socmed, whatever. But the opening is good, it keeps you very engaged with a lot of difficult scenarios, the characters are great and fun and funny, in those parts especially, and idk why I'm supposed to pretend that's not the case.

Anyway I don't like writing complaint posts. The opening and general start are excellent and Imma go back and cry over Dokja again ty singNsong for my tears.

[5-htagonist]

i am genuinely so crazyyyy about lbruuuuu.... like Genuinely Genuinely. its pretty bad guise

[sysig]

Bad time of it, all things considered (Patreon)

[swagging-back-to]

i dont get why people who watch kids are expected to watch them 24/7 by parents who barely watch them for 7 minutes.

i think babysitters should be allowed to sit in the other room while the kids entertain themselves. teachers should be able to sit in the corner doing paperwork while the kids do their thing.

as long as there is an adult present and at least partially attentive to whats happening i truly do not see what the difference is to the parents being there.

oh wait it's just that a lot of parents refuse to admit any fault in themselves and hold everyone else to extremely high standards so they have someone to blame their child's failings on :)

[science-lings]

Okay, I actually need to yap about DKoS!Bruce bc he was so fascinating to me, and also other thoughts i wanted to share

Spoilers for the Dark Knights of Steel

So this guy is a bastard child of the previous queen who grew up as a human among gods, He's inherently lesser in the eyes of the people and most of all, in his own eyes. He doesn't act like a prince and he doesn't get treated like one typically. He's more comfortable as a knight, protecting the royal family that can fly and shoot fire from their eyes. He feels responsible for keeping them safe like no one could keep his parents safe.

Magic killed his parents, and magic is what the closest thing he has to a family is weak to, so he makes it his mission to make sure what happened to them never happens to anyone in his kingdom, so when he gets word from Tim that the kingdom of stroms sent a magical assassin to take out the king, he's paranoid and following every magical lead he can to prevent the worst. So when he catches on to something being not quite human about him, he assumes it's dark magic or a curse and that he should be banished or imprisoned. He's the monster he's been hunting, at least in the way that he's not as human as he thought he was.

He, of course, confesses this in front of the reason he's not entirely human, one of the people who has been lying to him his entire life. Like imagine your son thinking that there's something evil and wrong about him and suggesting he be imprisoned for it when that part of him was the part of him that came from you. congrats, you are Jor-El. you are also killed before the conversation ends. And because Bruce couldn't stop a magical arrow coming out of nowhere, this causes an even bigger rift between him and his 'family' because it was his responsibility. So his second father is dead and his brother blames him and likes to say things like 'he's not one of us' and his adoptive mother won't stand up for him anymore and he still just internalizes that grief and guilt and goes out to do his duty because that's all he has left.

It's so important to make Bruce blame himself for everything and think he's too fucked up for anyone to love him <3.

I know he's kind of an asshole but he's also supposed to be <17 and so mentally ill that multiple characters from multiple kingdoms are like 'yeah that kid's fucked up' and I really don't blame him for the classic fantasy thing of outlawing magic, very BBC merlin vibes actually. He's not as much of a hypocrite as the story seems to want him to be because his reaction to the possibility of being magic is 'i belong in the dungeons to actually, lock me up'

anyway Harley & Bruce besties compilation

I love you court jester/ royal advisor Harley and her little emo knight bff

in addition to the above, Bruce's love language is getting bullied

Dick: You privileged bastard

Bruce, smiling: (wow this little crime baby is so clever, I need to adopt all of them like stray cats) what if I gave you all jobs and swords and legal immunity?

Sidenote, I love the robins, especially whatever sibling rivalry is going on between Jason and Steph

anyway back to the sad stuff

So, Bruce has been lied to about his parentage his entire life and he watched his father get killed in front of him moments after finding out that he was his father, and that would fuck anyone up but he's still trying to make sure Kal is okay. But things are Bad after he finds out about his backstory he wants to tell his brother and he's afraid to tell his brother and he's trying to be vulnerable when the person who he thinks is his brother stabs him with a shard of kryptonite and sends him flying to the ground and leaves him for dead. So like, that would probably not help his identity issues. For a while he's still referring to himself as a monster and due to his past he can't fit in with the monsters any more than he could fit in with his family of gods. He's an outsider everywhere he goes. Probably why he likes his little group of pickpockets turned court spies/ squires. They're all used to lingering in the shadows and not being noticed. They are also all So silly.

He has to go through discovering all his alien qualities all on his own, with his heat vision mostly coming instinctually when he is in physical and emotional pain, ie when Jor-El died, when he got the kryptonite yanked out of his torso.

Peak Aura actually he's slaying

So we've established that his father lied to him and died, his og parents were killed in a magic attack he was also involved in, and because there is a curse on this man, Alfred has been lying this whole time too, and was also an alien, which was fine, until he got killed too and Bruce wasn't fast enough to save him even when the stress of the event unlocked his ability to fly.

I think Harley was right, this kid is really going to need a hug

at least he gets one. But also like, Kal has said some pretty nasty things to/about Bruce in this series, and the only one we see apologizing for anything is Bruce... I feel like there should've been more catharsis for him beyond Lara and Kal wanting him to be king bc that is obviously not a role that he wants, he denies it so many times but no one listens. I think he needs to be accepted as a Kryptonian and part of the family more than he needs to be seen as worthy of a throne. He was excluded from the field trip to make the phantom zone projector with the other Kryptonians which felt a little weird to me.

A scene that i would write though would actually be Bruce having a conversation with Lara, his last parental figure who he could convince himself would be the least likely to love him. I mean, her husband cheated on her to make Bruce and after Jor-El died, she treated Bruce less like a family member or even the son of a family friend and solely as a soldier.

The catharsis comes in when we remember that Bruce was the reason the Waynes and the Els were still close, because they all loved him so much that it fixed whatever issues his creation caused. That he was so easy to love that any misgivings were forgotten. I think Bruce really needs his last remaining parental figure to say that. Like he's not just one of the greatest warriors but he's still a kid who just lost two parents in addition to the original two. I think he really needs to cry. I think he deserves it. I personally need to see it.

Time to end it on a good note, his friendship with Beastboy which gives him a badass dragon-riding war-ending moment

Also fuck you Constantine for fireblasting Tim through a fucking rock wall for being the funniest character in this whole story.

Cass being the unsung hero and also avoiding being in the middle of a war, queen behavior I wouldn't want to be a part of all that either. I still wish she got more than a page, they should've at least had a party where all the characters we've seen hang out and all the robins get to reunite with Bruce.

[elboxitracio]

WAIT going through my old blog's likes reminded me of that one Yuri manga I read last summer called gunjō by ching Nakamura!! Most insane toxic yuri ever it was so good. For the toxic gay stories website people don't talk about it here enough!!!

[holydivers]

like look i'm as anti-ai as the next guy but it seems super disingenuous to say "it's absolutely inexcusable to cause so much environmental damage and waste so much water just for a tiny bit of convenience or amusement that's unethical on top of that" okay. so are you giving up beef (or, heaven forbid, meat and dairy as a whole) or do you only actually give a shit about making sacrifices for the sake of environment when it just happens to be a thing you already don't like?

just be honest and say you hate it bc it sucks and it's ugly. because it is