#Favourite Book Villains

[slashingdisneypasta]

My Favourite Book Villains

(And my favourite page in my sketchbook <3 )

*Supernatural Edition*

I may come back and talk about them later. I'm just leaving this here in case I want to ^^ 💕💕💕

[worthyprnce]

“ ‘Were you in love with him?’ ‘Yes,’ I say, simply. ‘Yes, I was.’ It’s not the whole truth.

The whole truth is, I’m in love with him still. ”

[ihatebrainstorm]

What's black and white and red all over? Answer: you!

(This only works with RG! Prowl since y'know.. Black, white, & red colour scheme)

[thedomesticanthropologist]

I don't want my favorite characters to be right! Or morally clean! Or justified! Or unproblematic!

It is not a deal breaker for them to be abusive or cruel or murderous or selfish or unkind or to make mistakes without atoning for them!

I just want them to be interesting, layered, compelling

I want to be ENGAGED when I'm reading about them I want to have things that make me THINK and Question, I want to be inspired to ANALYZE them and rotate them in the rotisserie spit of my mind until their meat becomes tender and they fall off the bone

[xxselenite]

Why we should stop comparing The Secret History and If We Were Villains

I've seen people putting the two books together as pillars of dark academia countless times, often trying to explain why their favourite one is the best and it is useless. The two books are incredibly different and you will inevitably be disappointed in one of the two if you read them with the same intentions.

The Secret History is a reversed mystery novel: from the very first lines, we know who died, how, and who killed him. The questions we are left with are "Why did they do that?", and "Will they get away with that?" The book is fundamentally psychological, it's a character-driven book, which explains why such a long part is dedicated to establishing them, their relationships, while the actual murder is surprisingly short.

If We Were Villains, on the other hand, is a more traditional detective novel, though it doesn't totally fit the standard. It's a whodunit, and when we start the book, we know who got arrested but the mystery throughout the novel follows four questions: "Who died?", "Who did it?", "Why did they do it?" and "Why did Oliver get arrested?" We are trying to solve the murder at the same time as the detective. It's a plot-driven novel, and although the characters are very important, they are all defined by one quality and one flaw during the first act (the characterisation in this book is amazing, I'm probably gonna make a post about it).

Obviously, if you read TSH and IWWV with the same expectations, one of them is going to bore you. However, if you consider their differences, they are both excellent books in their genre. If they do have some common elements (a group of students that's almost sectarian, and murder), saying that IWWV plagiarized TSH sounds pretty ridiculous to me. IWWV is a love letter to Shakespeare and the madness in his characters, TSH is a critic of elitism in academic spaces. And they both deserve praise, if only people would stop comparing them.

[knownoshamc]

just my opinion and that's my main issue with the finale but:

I would have preferred it if Armand had orchestrated the whole thing, but he was also planning to save Louis, hoping that Louis would destroy the Coven later, and kill Lestat (motivation!). I would have preferred it if Armand used his mind gift to save Louis, as he planned from the beginning, and not Lestat (I know it's not maybe applicable, but why the white dude save the day. again). Because again, lack of motivation. I don't understand why Armand would want him dead in the first place (even if it was a choice the coven gave him. I understand why he wants claudia gone), what made him change his mind, why give Lestat the opportunity later to talk to Louis and expose his lies.

And how much sadder for both Louis & Armand to be in a relationship, with Louis being with Armand out of spite (xD) for Lestat, and Armand just being with Louis hoping that this will change, but knowing that in the end, despite everything, it was always Lestat Lestat Lestat.

I think that'd make the Loumand relationship so much more compelling, than 77 years of well... nothing. And Louis choosing Lestat because he chose Lestat and not because Armand was the worst for him, yk?

[d34drapunzel]

I have a reason to live.

[leojurand]

definitely one of my favourite differences between lymond and niccolò is how much francis&co feel like pieces on a chessboard as opposed to nicholas (&co, but especially him and gelis) constantly grabbing the reins of the plot and making things happen

it's not like francis doesn't do that ever, but so much of his story is about what other people want from him, and what they do to him. even when he tries to choose for himself he gets dragged by the strong current of fate, very much against his will

there are a few times in niccolò when we're told that "fate" is present and moving pieces too, or "a good astrologer could have warned him". and the thing is, there are a few astrologers in niccolò, but it's more like they're keeping an interested eye on nicholas instead of trying to take control of his life, like the dame de doubtance does with francis (and marthe)

and of course francis and nicholas are part of the same web, and nicholas and the rest of the cast do end up doing whatever needed to be done for the events of the lymond chronicles to take place, but it still feels like there's so much choice in his story. which, despite the tragedies, makes it really fun. and makes the lack of choice of francis's more tragic too, disregarding the "happy" ending

anyway, am i a fan of everything that has to do with astrology and spirituality and etc in these series? not really*! but dunnett did something very interesting with it regardless

[snowyhobbit]

'If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold...it would be a merrier world' - Thorin Oakenshield

[residences-of-the-darkforest]

My all time favourite trope that I will never ever get tired of is the “you love me more than life itself, but you still hurt me so badly that I will never be the same, and you can never take back what you did and it will haunt you forever” story plot

This can take place in many forms too

“you do love me but something in your life made you bitter and you took it out on me and it turned me on a path to darkness and I’ve become a horrible person because of you and you can’t take it back”

“you love me but the last thing you ever said to me was something mean and hurtful and you can never take it back because I died before you could apologize”

“I know you love me but you keep lashing out and I used to love spending time with you but now I fear that anything will set you off so it’s better I just don’t speak to you again”

Just the theme of “you messed up and you can never take it back”

[slaughter-books]

Day 6: JOMPBPC: Favourite Villain

Kronos ☠️🪐

[thefallenangel2008]

The Good Omens fandom grieving and thinking they have to wait another five years for season 3 (we don't even know if there's gonna be a third season):

The Merlin fandom who has been waiting for a season 6 for the past 10 years:

[heatwavezwhore]

DC is such a deeply nostalgic special interest for me, and though I'm not currently fixated on it it's still important to me yknow

the way people are reacting to genderbent penguin in caped crusaders name being Oswalda is so fucking embarrassing...

"I CANT BELIVE THEYRE SOOO LAZY FOR A GENDERBEND THEYRE GONNA NAME HER SMTH STUPID LIKE OSWALDA‼️‼️ JUST OSWALD WITH AN A ON THE END‼️‼️‼️ SO UNCREATIVE"

Oswald , Oswaldo, Oswalda.... they're all real versions of the same name? Like they are genuinely acting like Oswalda is not a real name that real women use , like irl.

And appallingly their suggestions are all Octavia/Olivia n shit.... so your idea of a properly done genderbent version of a character is to change their name to an entirely different name, even when there is a """feminine""" version of that exact name already? Because you think that name is ..ugly??? Stupid??? I genuinely do not understand what the problem is . Are you stupid

[marsmachtmobil42]

My favourite books I read in 2023

Elektra - Jennifer Saint

The Sunbearer Trials (The Sunbearer Duology #2) - Aiden Thomas

No Longer Human - Osamu Dazai

If We Were Villains - M. L. Rio

Dead Poets Society - N. H. Kleinbaum

Heaven - Mieko Kawakami

[devotedxmind]

my top books of the year