#I’m so hooked on it though this is such an interesting premise

[markedbyindecision]

I started reading the rhaenicent bunker au and i just got to the end of chapter 3 and oh they’re FREAKS

[goodgirlgonebard]

fic recs — my faves of 2024! 💛 ✨

inspired by @strawberrypinky — thank you for including my baby Dealbreaker and for being a source of positivity in this space 💛

I haven’t been able to read a ton of fics this year because I’ve been writing my own like an absolute insane person (with a 355,813 word count on AO3 for 2024 as of the time of writing this and an untold number of words in my Notion app) but the ones that I have read I have adored and I wanted to take a moment to say thank you and share them!

If I have commented or left kudos on your fic or WIP this year, know that I loved it ❤️ even if it is not on this list because I did not remember it off the top of my head.

All of these are BG3 fics!

Longfics

A Gift, A Curse — from @elemit

Important tags: dead dove, coercion, non-con, manipulation, torture, abuse

F Dark Urge x Ascended Astarion

Is the fic that got me hooked on Astarion fics! I cracked this bad boy open when it was already at about 130 chapters in March and binged it in a single weekend. I have devoured each and every chapter ever since 🤌🏻 This story is woven together in a way that is so unpredictable to the reader, and yet with so much care and attention given to it. I will be tuned in until the very end.

Sonnet of the Lone Cardinal — from @brain-rot-central

important tags: dead dove, manipulative relationship, dubious consent, mental instability, more

F Dark Urge x Ascended Astarion

One of the most beautifully written pieces of dark romance I have ever laid my eyes upon ✨ The very first chapter of Sonnet dives right into a compelling story and dynamic between Tavaria and Astarion, and by the second chapter I already found myself feeling for Tavaria as a protagonist. I’m rooting for the pairing, but I’m rooting for her more and in fanfiction I think that really speaks to the authors ability to craft the story.

Midnight Chimes — from Doviekins on AO3 (I could not find them on tumblr, but if you’re here, hi!)

important tags: trauma, depression, anxiety

F Tav x Astarion

I discovered Midnight Chimes after Doviekins commented on GML about writing to allow a Tav to have a genuine reaction to Astarion’s act 2 confession scene. The aftermath of that scene is where the plot of Midnight Chimes begins, and I think it is such an interesting and angsty look into how that confession really could put a fissure in Astarion & Tav’s relationship. I love stories that give the protagonist a real personality and real emotions, and this one definitely checks those boxes ❣️

One-shots

Stories I enjoyed for plot purposes only… obviously.

The Learned Observer — from @obsessedwhyyes

Gale POV watching Tav & Astarion get it on at the campfire… dear god 🤌🏻

You Will Know — from @deadly-diminuendo

AA being a freaky weirdo obsessed with Tav 😫

Sweet Dreams, Darling — also from @deadly-diminuendo

Something I did not know could be so exciting…Somnophilia 💤 But genuinely I love the premise of this one and all of deadly-diminuendo’s fics are extremely well-written!

I hope to be more of a reader in 2025, though I hope to continue writing at the pace I have been so, we’ll see if I can balance the two 🫣 shoutout to every single person who has published work made from your own brain this year whether it has gotten a lot of attention or not. You’re doing great 💛

[elioslover]

Preview: Grapejuice Part Four!

Premise: Harry has been pining over Y/n - his best friends slightly older sister - for as long as he can remember. But she still refuses to see him as anything other than her brothers goofy obnoxious bestie. This chapter is when the filth kicks!! - Em. xo

LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANNA BE ADDED TO THE TAGLIST

Grapejuice masterpost / Other writing

🍷

You are no longer willing to suffering behind your sunglasses, the sun sizzling down on your already hot skin, you feel like a roast on the spit, pathetically begging for Harry to take a hearty bite.

His face is masked by a denim baseball cap, one arm flexed behind his head like a pillow, and you wonder if he’s asleep at this point, using that as the push you needed to get up and cross over to his sunbed.

Bending down and leaning your body over his own, your bikini-clad breast brushing against his chest as you reach across him for a book-you couldn’t even recall the title of- resting next to his half empty lemonade on the side table.

“You’re kidding.” Harry informatively mumbles through the material.

“What?” You feign innocence, pressing further into him, your waist coming down on his stomach.

“You know exactly what you’re doing.” He continues, but lets you continue with your teasing.

“Getting my book?” You innocently ponder, taking much longer than necessary, letting your fingers dance along the cover, tapping along and further sticking his and your your skin together.

Harry removes his flexed arm from its position as a pillow, using his thumb to hook under and remove the cap from hiding his face.

He looks at you with a stern furrow of the brows, but his eyes are nothing but amused- and slightly turned on,

“You’re a little liar.”

With ease, Harry wraps his arms around your waist, giving you a good squeeze as he flips you over, causing you to snatch a hold of the novel just as you find yourself bent and folded over his lap, ass up in the air, your chest resting against his thighs,

“What the-” You try.

Now Harry has you, and you feel silly for thinking you could have ever gotten away with being so reckless, banking on the falseness of his lack of interest in your presence. He had lured you right in- leaving you laying across him, completely at his will.

Not that you would want to be anywhere else- you can’t help the embarrassment stirring at your stomach, ringing in your ears, you hope Harry doesn’t notice, and it seems he is far more focused on the sultriness of your arched back, your bikini bottoms becoming a frame for the ass cheeks that he quickly deems an artwork.

His fingers glide along the curve of your spine, satisfied with the shiver that shakes your body beneath his touch,

“You’re a naughty one, aren’t you?” He notes, letting his hands continue to trail along your curves.

He ponders for a moment, watching for each reaction you might let slip, hyper-focused on your shaky breaths, the rise and fall of your breasts against his legs. He needs more though- needs to hear you,

“I think it’s time you’re punished for all of this brattiness.”

“I’m not a brat.” You huff defensively for no reason but to protect your pride, still stuck and at his will.

“But you act like one.” He tuts factually, his hands gliding along your lower back before his palms finally settling on your ass cheeks, giving you the softest of pats.

“That’s the same-”

Harry refuses to let you finish, his tone dripping with discipline, his hands squeezing at your skin to ensure to cut you off and keep you focused on his filthy intentions,

“Keep reading that book.”  He has you hooked like an unknowing fish, baiting you with the promise of leaving little red marks along your pillowing bum cheeks, “Since you found it so, so important…”

Your lip’s part with the desire of protest, letting the book loosen in your hand, waiting on it to finally part from your palms. But Harry is watching like a hawk- waiting for you to misbehave once more, knowing you far too well. Still, you rally all of the defiance you have to spare,

“I-”

“Read the book, Y/n.”

[eemoo1o-tfrmoo]

FanFriday #1: Fanfiction and the art of Snotlout and Hookfang.

For our first FanFriday, I will be looking at one of our arguably best rider-dragon duos: Snotlout & Hookfang! This post was originally going to be a one off, made around the 7th of this month, but I decided to make it into our first instalment of FanFriday instead.

Today, this list (one of many surrounding the duo, I’m sure) will only include works with just the Hookfang & Snotlout tag, so we won’t be covering fics with them as the main focus but other relationships tagged here.

It Aches So Bad by WhoIsWren — This is the first in a Snotlout and Hookfang based series titled Hook, Don’t Sink. This particular piece concerns the RoB episode Viking for Hire. In Snotlout’s POV, it accounts how Snotlout feels about his and Hookfang’s developing distance due to Hookfang’s toothache. It, as well as the rest of the work series, also involves Spitelout’s pressure on his son to be the best, and the author puts stress on Hookfang’s species as that applies to Spitelout’s demands. We also have some wholesome, platonic soulmate-esque cuddles once all is resolved and that makes everything bittersweet, though mostly sweet.

Loyalty At Heart by WhoIsWren — This is currently the last work in the aforementioned series. Here, it is in Hookfang’s POV during his panic when Snotlout goes missing in Sandbusted. The premise is sweet, and the writing is sweeter, and you get to see how Hookfang truly feels about his rider when he isn’t around and in danger.

How To Care For Your Dragon by TulipFluff — This fic is short but sweet, just like the last, but we return to Snotlout’s POV to account how Snotlout grooms Hookfang and how Hookfang lets him (an act of appreciation). In the background, Snotlout’s Terror, Pain (now named Lockjaw), from Worst In Show also makes an appearance. It’s always nice to see the inner-workings of these two’s relationship, even if the work itself isn’t psychoanalytical. What a lovely read!

On Trust by piratesPencil — This fic has a very unique approach to Snotlout and Hookfang’s relationship: Hookfang being glad that Snotlout is one short potato. Accompanying this insight is reflection on how Vikings used to treat dragons in comparison to now. This work is perhaps the sweetest, maybe even my favouritest out of the bunch, because of how interesting the base concept is. If you’re only going to select one out of this list, I think it’d have to be this one.

Gift of the Monstrous Nightmare by sarahenany & Thursday26 — This fic is a bit long, but it is definitely worth the read! Here, it includes emphasis on Spitelout and Snotlout’s relationship (as well as some mention of Spitelout’s treatment towards the wife), but mostly involves Snotlout and Hookfang. Hookfang here also speaks Dragonese written in broken English and he and Snotlout do have some conversations back and forth which is a signature theme in sarahenany’s works. It can be a bit distracting, but I think the broken English was done in just the right amount for a fic this length. Overall, this fic includes some great Snotlout and Hookfang moments, and righteous Spitelout slander. (Plus some sweet Fishlegs moments and some Gothi musings.) What a delightful read!

Main | FAQ | AO3

FanFriday

[poppyseed799]

Since I mentioned how Martyn saved Last Life for me, I think it’s time I finally make my Martyn Appreciation Post that I’ve been meaning to make because the fandom is too mean to him sometimes.

Once upon a time, I discovered a series called 3rd Life. I watched it because I had watched Grian many years ago and figured “sure, I’ll see what he’s up to now.” The premise was very interesting and the episode got me hooked. The second episode came out and I watched Scar’s, it was so funny I subscribed despite never knowing anyone except Grian before 3L. I watched the series as it came out, always watching Scar but branching out to see the other POVs too, because I was invested in the whole story. And of course, how could you watch 3rd Life without watching Martyn, the hand. His editing was great, he added so much to the enjoyment of the story with just editing.

And then suddenly, (I think this was the first instance but I could be wrong) he had almost died and there was a voice telling him it wasn’t his time to die yet. I watched Scar first as always, so I knew Martyn would survive, but the editing made it feel like he wouldn’t until that voice came and “saved” him. I wasn’t expecting anything like that at all. What was that voice supposed to be? Why wasn’t it the right time for him to die? Fans all talked about it of course. Back then, it was called the “voice lore”, cuz that’s all we really knew. A voice. This voice lore gave fans even MORE to talk and theorize about, which is always great in fandom spaces. The series went on, the voice coming back sometimes as we’d try to figure out what was going on. It wanted him to kill Ren, but he never did. He couldn’t, because Ren had died and Martyn fell shortly after.

The 3rd Life finale was fantastic. I cried. Like actually I cried, and despite not writing often I even wrote a little retelling of the cactus fight mere hours after watching the finale. It was that inspiring. I was crying as I wrote. Eventually, I got around to watching Martyn’s POV of it, cuz how could I not? It was amazing, a totally different side of the war, a very tragic one at that. Of course, Martyn died. I knew he would, I watched Scar first every time. But I wasn’t expecting what would happen after he died. His character falling in a dark void, some speech about always fighting, even if you have nothing to live for. It made me cry. Yes, I cried a lot in my time in the life series. It’s great that a series could make me feel that way. Anyways, I cried at that speech. Then it ended, and the voice returned. It wasn’t very happy with Martyn. I was actually legitimately worried for his character. Until that point, I had been imagining afterlives for all of the characters (yes I cried at Scott’s finale too). Happy afterlives for them, since I loved the characters so much. But when I saw that last bit of Martyn’s finale, I was worried he wouldn’t get a happy ending like I wanted for all of them. But of course, my feelings aside, this was lore. Why wasn’t the voice happy? What was it going to do?

I went on twitch and found Martyn streaming, talking about 3rd Life. I watched and learned so much behind the scenes stuff. I’m just going to bring up this point now: Martyn’s interactions with life series fans is part of what makes him and his lore so great. But more on that later.

Then Last Life came out. I was so excited, I actually recently dug up my old DMs with my sister from when I found out about it, apparently I was a couple days late to realize it came out lol. Not sure what I was doing, I also don’t think I knew there would be a second season, even though I know I watched Grian’s finale where it said there would be. Idk maybe I forgot. Anyways… I was OBSESSED with Last Life. Completely and fully invested. My birthday was during its run and all I asked for was my family members to draw wizard Scar. But anyways the point is Martyn. The voice returned! And this time… there was more! Martyn was acknowledging the voice. There was a secret shadow group formed, and we learned more and more about the voice but not enough… yet.

One of my favorite parts of Last Life was when Martyn was… hallucinating? Jimmy and Mumbo were alive and he did Mumbo’s intro. It was well put together, disturbing, sad, and also a great teaser for the episode when he uploaded that Mumbo intro compilation. Then he runs and has an argument with the voice before finally giving in. Like… wow. What was that lol. It was awesome! Martyn’s character has always had such… character. He’s merciless and willing to betray, yet also loyal and empathetic. It feels like he would be a sweet guy and a nice friend if it weren’t for the circumstances. I love c!Martyn so much, he really feels like he has feelings even tho he’s just real life Martyn’s OC he roleplays as in minecraft.

But now, that famous Last Life Finale. Martyn dies (in a very bad way I might add) and the same thing that made me sad last time happened again, but worse. The voice was upset with him. This time, to his face, and VERY angry. That end speech is one of my favorite parts of the life series EVER. I want to have it memorized. It explained so much, was so powerful, just vague enough that you might not understand at first but could easily figure out with a bit of thinking what they’re referencing. And since that day, it was no longer called voice lore. We knew what the voice was now. It was now known as the watcher lore.

Now, to be honest, I think I actually first experienced this legendary speech from a stream. I was just absorbing the Last Life finale (which was disappointing for me personally but that’s a different post) when I saw Martyn was streaming an explanation of his lore. I watched it, and it was amazing. I got to learn what everything meant, little bits of trivia and behind the scenes, all that! It honestly saved my slipping enjoyment of Last Life. I had never watched EVO, but the great thing was you didn’t really need to. If there was something you didn’t understand, you could ask other fans, or just ask Martyn. That’s one of the best things about the watcher lore! The guy writing it is very open to discussing it with fans so you can understand it better, show him your theories, learn behind the scenes and all that!!

I just don’t see how people could hate it so much. Out of all the life series creators, Martyn interacts with the fans the most. Not even in an uncomfortable way, he seems to understand fans and fandoms well. Here on tumblr if you’re interested in his lore you can just shoot him an ask and he’ll likely answer! He’s planning on making an explanation video for his lore too, which will be really helpful. It’s the most interactive part of the life series (aside from the new “suggesting secrets for secret life” thing), of course the fandom will obsess over it!

It’s just disheartening to see people diss it so hard just because they think the fans are annoying. First of all, most posts that talk about that reek of cringe culture, second of all, have some respect for the hard work Martyn puts into this!!! There’s no reason to drag him down just because his work inspires the fandom more than you’d like it to. I’ve seen people say it’s just fan service. First of all, I don’t see a problem in him seeing fans talk about watchers a lot and think “let me give them more to work with!”, especially when second of all HE WAS PART OF EVO, I’M PRETTY SURE HE WAS ONE OF THE WRITERS FOR IT. He has full right to continue the watcher story. Also people don’t seem to realize the lore has existed since 3rd Life? Probably because we didn’t know it was watchers back then. But still, he didn’t randomly see watchers and go “I’ll do that”. Before the watcher reveal I think I saw watchers in the fandom like twice? Because Grian made the series. It was mostly just AUs anyway. So yeah. Martyn wasn’t like stealing fanon lore for clout he just wanted to use watchers and we went “that’s so cool” and went insane.

Within the series, the lore isn’t as overbearing as people claim it is either. Once again stop dragging Martyn down for gripes you have with other fans. There wasn’t even ANY in double life. In Limited Life, it was just a few rhymes and such, which was still awesome! His finale also added more to the lore, was very cinematic and cool. Lots of work put into it.

On that subject I also made it to the Limited Life Finale Stream!!! Explaining the lore and answering questions and giving behind the scenes information!!! It was great! Other members of the series helped him with his finale which is cool. He gives us tons of stuff to work with all the time, lore to theorize on, he just gives so so much to the fans. It’s no surprise at all that we love his lore.

Just… most hate I see is so misdirected towards Martyn. Don’t hate him because he made an incredible story! I stand in front of him with a sword and a shield and say “he is not your enemy! Everything you’re complaining about is because of the fans!” So you turn around to fight the fans only to see I am also standing in front of them with a sword and shield. But that is a conversation for another day.

Basically, Martyn lore so good he is great for the fandom and I cried ten million times while in this fandom. In a good way.

[otomedetective]

Aromanticism and Otome Games

I am an aromantic who loves otome games. It may seem incredibly contradictory, especially since the common perception of otomes is that they are wish-fulfillment games for people to insert themselves into a story where they date attractive men. There's definitely nothing wrong with playing them in that way, and many people get a lot of enjoyment out of them, but that isn't the only way to play an otome game. In fact, many otome game players prefer not to self-insert at all and I’m one of them!

My personal experience being aromantic means I do not feel romantic attraction to anyone, and I do not desire or need a romantic relationship to feel fulfilled in life. I’m perfectly happy with my platonic bonds and my perpetual singleness! That’s how I experience it, but there are many different ways to be aromantic, and there’s no one universal experience that defines how all aromantic people live their lives. Some are repulsed by romance and its overbearing presence in nearly all forms of media, and others are comfortable seeing other people experience romance despite not experiencing it themselves (though these, of course, are not the only two groups). I personally lean more towards the latter category. I love romance stories! 

For me, playing an otome game is like watching a romance movie where I get to decide who the heroine ends up with. It's like a shipper's dream! I don’t self-insert because I am not comfortable putting myself in romantic situations, but by observing a fictional couple, I can safely explore the romantic plots and experiences that interest me. And let me tell you, I love a good romance plot. Especially one with drama.

A comparison I like to make when people don’t seem to get it is that I also really, really love murder mysteries and tragedies, but I do NOT want to actually experience them myself. What I want for a character and what I want for myself are two completely separate things, so there’s really no contradiction! 

In fact, playing otome games was a big part of my aromantic journey in the first place. I never had crushes as a kid that weren’t forced or peer pressured. When people talk about the characters in their childhood shows that they had crushes on, I can never relate. To me, there were only interesting characters and stories. I’ve never really wanted anything more than that. 

So when my second-ever relationship ended and I was wondering whether I really felt romantic attraction at all, I decided to try otome games. 

I chose Collar x Malice as my first game because, as I mentioned earlier, I am a huge fan of mysteries and tragedies, and the premise intrigued me. Then, throughout my exploration of various otome games (and as I quickly became hooked on them) I tried some games with less developed heroines, specifically made for self-inserting, and found that I couldn’t handle them. Separating myself from the heroine helped me enjoy the games more as I realized that I didn’t actually want to be in these romantic situations myself, but only wanted to enjoy the story.

So what was the point of this whole post? I guess just to share my own personal experiences as an aromantic otome-lover and address the contradiction. Otome games aren’t necessarily mainstream-popular, but they certainly have their dedicated fans, and I’ve really enjoyed the interactions I’ve had so far with these fandom spaces. 

Sure, the primary focus of the games may be pretty boys who you can date, but otome games can also be so much more than that! It’s a genre I’m glad I decided to try. 

I’m happy to be an aro along for the ride to read some good stories, puzzle out the right route choices, and look at some aesthetically pleasing character designs along the way! :)

[haptronym]

Hey!! This is the anon from a while back who had that convo with you about quirkless discrimination with your cannon vs fannon posts. The one who sent a way too long ask haha.

I still haven’t picked back up BNHA, just still dinking around in the earlier seasons with my writing after dropping it so long ago due to the exact reason you outlined; I stopped watching due to a certain character stagnating while saying they’re changing. Which I find amusing how prevalent that problem is in so many arcs that it’s the reason I stopped watching the show actual years ago (though not solely, it was that + a combination of other things with that arc but it really exasperated it) and you’re now talking about the same exact issue for the end of it. I don’t even feel like I can say it’s due to external pressures rather then just a weak point of the writer at this point tbh.

But, besides that, on the topic of why I initially started this ask, I just wanted to say it’s interesting to hear the story has still done squat with quirklessness, really goes to show the whole glaring divide in exactly what we where talking about so long ago. Full circle kinda?? It really is such a shame the show never went into it and kinda failed to scratch the surface of anything with how compelling it would have been and how easily it could have tied into the whole of the series’ themes.

But hey, like you said, there’s always fanfics. Just thought I’d send in an ask about it since it was fun talking to you about it last time.

Now that it’s over, I might give the show another shot, for old times sake, we’ll see!

Oh as an add on, as the fannon vs cannon anon, I do want to put a note that since I haven’t seen the thing myself I’m not making too strong opinions on it or agreeing with everything in that post, just contemplating the specific stuff I talked about in that previous anon ask as a sort of now outsider to the series.

This isn’t a “oh you’re wrong!” but making sure people know I’m not blindly following things I’ve read about a series rather then forming opinions around it from first hand cannon, HA! I’ll do that when I maybe start watching it again…one day…

-

(The post under discussion)

Hello again! Glad you're still enjoying the fandom space and haha, it's ironic that this issue is why you dropped the show. I'm also going to caveat that I'm not trying to dunk on Horikoshi or be a bitter hater. The issues I'm bringing up are par for the course for most serial writing, way harder to avoid than they seem. I really liked MHA overall and have huge respect for Horikoshi's writing, art, and ability to keep his sanity while bringing this behemoth to life.

Anyway, a response.

I mentioned a few aspects where quirklessness got brought in later in the story, but overall, yeah, it still felt kind of… vestigial. To me it felt like the author threw it out there at first thinking it was a cool idea, then later went "ugh, shit, that's not actually where I want to focus. I can't retcon it, so let's just... minimize it and move on." A lot of times when big series start, they toss out a whole bunch of possible story hooks and then narrow down to just a few that they're actually going to spend serious time on... anyone who gets hooked on a premise that doesn't end up being developed further can be left feeling disappointed.

I suspect this is exactly the reason why MHA has such a giant fandom. The show's clown-car cast means that pretty much no character really gets "deep" treatment. Instead we get 1,000 tantalizing flashes of really, really cool possibilities. We get sucked in by an awesome idea, get frustrated when the cool character/premise barely gets touched again after that, and then feverishly fill the empty space with fanfic and fanart. (I'm lucky that my favorites, Izuku and All Might, were about the most main of main characters, and even they felt somewhat shallow. I can't imagine the agony of being, say, a Momo fan.)

Unfortunately when a story does this, it also means that it's inevitably going to disappoint its fanbase. It tossed out 1,000 awesome ideas but it only has space to cultivate a small handful of those into proper plotlines… not only is it sad to see all the unused plot threads peter out, but usually the realized story ends up outright contradicting at least a few very popular fan theories and hopes. This doesn't mean the story's bad, far from it. But in these weekly-chapter stories where fans have years or decades to get attached to their interpretations and predictions, praying each week that yes, it seems like a long shot, but maybe the story will veer off into X… things quickly spiral into enormous bitterness when those decades of hope are finally snuffed out for good. (This same phenomenon makes me dread the eventual end of One Piece…)

MHA had a lot of people going "it's not like other shonen!" because it had lots of promising ideas. But it turned out that… yes, it is just another shonen. Shonen are tons of fun, and I love MHA overall. But man, it got hit hard by those high expectations.

I was a bit harsh (and incorrect) in my post, saying Izuku/All Might haven't changed at ALL, and that quirklessness meant NOTHING. It gets outright confusing when there are characterization backsies like the ones I described. Which is canon: the single panel where a character says "quirklessness is a big deal to me!" or the way that every other character behavior and plot point screams "sure doesn't seem like it"? They're both real. And this discrepancy depends on the reader's interpretation too: I'm extremely picky about characterization, while someone less anal might not see any contradiction at all. So we get All Might fans insisting that the show made quirkless issues into a huge enormous part of the plot/characters, and meanwhile I don't see it, and get annoyed and preachy because it feels like the narrative is being unfairly ascribed depth and profundity that I really wanted but never actually saw from it. How dare!

ANYWAY, I highly recommend checking out the rest of the show. I have a feeling the final arc is going to look amazing in animated form once it's finally done. The final section is a combo of delightfully over-the-top shonen insanity and surprisingly weighty outcomes. We can debate whether it really earned those outcomes, but I'm at least pleased that it tried.

[accirax]

For some stupid reason tumblr isn't letting me post a reply to this post so I'm leaving it here instead:

About the staff stories tier list - Really? It's kinda the opposite for me. By that I mean Jensen's backstory ep is the best one imo and at the top of the list. Krystal's was also pretty good so it gets 2nd, even though I still hate her (seriously, am I the only one who gets legitimately confused when people in or outside the show talk about how she's "changed"? When Oliver said that I just mentally laughed because... Since when??? And how??? in WHAT way!?? Sure she may be softer to the people closest to her but she's still a bossy, b*tchy, sadistic @$$hole who only cares about what gets the best ratings for her show at the cost of the players' physical & mental safety) (*sighs* sorry for that random mini rant..) And Derek & Trevor's and Marcus & Nina's tank at the bottom, in that order.

Also- you don't like dogs..? 😟 Guess that's the end of this friendship then... (Haha, jk, jk! (mostly..))

For Jensen’s episode, I just think that, if you DON’T lean on the crutch of “people will instinctively care about these dogs because they think that they’re cute,” there isn’t much incentive to get invested in the story.

The hosts’ stories have more of an “in” due to being more connected to the show itself (which, as fans, we SHOULD all care about). They also deal with questions that I think are more directly raised by the story itself— we’ve heard a lot about Kris McLane (or however you spell that) already, and I always wondered how Derek and Trevor became such close friends despite their opposite personalities. Marcus and Nina’s story is also more of a natural story question (“what the hell is Nina”), and, even if you don’t instinctively care about the father/daughter bond, there’s a supernatural hook to make up for that. Even if the answers provided in these episodes weren’t always excellent, they were at least episodes that I felt had a reason for existing.

Meanwhile, Jensen’s episode stars a character we’ve never seen before (the wolf cub), a character we’ve never seen before (Jensen’s sister), and a character with a whole four minutes of screen time who we haven’t seen for two whole seasons, if you watch chronologically (Jensen himself). The question raised isn’t anything as specific as “whose name was carved on to Jensen’s knife” (because we’d never seen it before) or “why was Jensen so mean to people but so nice to dogs” (because he had never been seen with a dog before), and therefore can only be the vague “so what WAS this guy’s deal?”

And I know that’s a lot of talking about what the situation was going IN to the episode as opposed to the content of the episode itself. I’m just trying to illustrate my point that, given my pretty reasonable lack of interest in the episode’s premise (for the reasons above), without an instinctive care for dogs, I found no reason to get invested in the pretty cliche storyline. Giving Jensen the exact same soft side as resident grouch Karol did not invest me in his story. Hence, I was bored for pretty much the entire episode (other than the part where his sister died, which while entertaining also felt out of place with the tone of the show), and didn’t enjoy it much.

That being said, liking a cliche story isn’t at all a moral failing. I like watching ranking videos on YouTube, and someone who grew up watching many of the Disney direct to video sequels, I’ve watched several videos of people offering their thoughts on them. And, every time, I disagree with their placement of The Little Mermaid 3: Ariel’s Beginning. Everybody always says that it’s “just mermaid Footloose,” and had no reason for existing. Well, guess what? I’ve never seen Footloose! So, to me, it’s just a fun (if unrealistic) story about banning art that manages to persist anyways. Thus, I understand the urge to defend stories that you like that others call cliched.

(That’s my tangent of the post, lol.)

As for the “not liking dogs” thing, I grew up next to some really mean dogs who would bark and growl at my sister and I. I used to be afraid of dogs to the level where, if I was at a park and an unleashed dog was running around, I would climb on top of a picnic table and cry. After my family got some cats, my fear diminished as I realized that cats and dogs really weren’t that different, so if I wasn’t afraid of cats, I shouldn’t be afraid of dogs.

However, due to my rocky start with dogs, I find it difficult to feel anything regarding dogs above a neutral. Like, if someone shows me a picture of their dog, I can acknowledge that it’s objectively a cute dog and say “aww, that’s nice!”, but I don’t really feel any desire to pet it or coo at it like I would a cat. And I’m still a little afraid of big dogs 😅

Hopefully that’s a sufficient answer ^-^

[juniperhillpatient]

ok I’m like… back to this. I do love that the coffin of andy & leyley is so brutally bluntly HORROR as in not pg 13 blumhouse ghost horror movies that shy away from anything too taboo but horror that’s meant to offend & upset. I like the way it sees shit you’re not “supposed” to talk about & goes as hard as it can like - I don’t think at this point it’s a secret to literally anyone who follows me or has ever discussed fiction with me ever that the controversial or daring are obvious draws for me in any genre but particularly my favorite genre of horror.

like an anon suggested this to me, I saw the words “cannibalism” “incest” & “botched satanic ritual” as soon as I googled & was ready to check it out BUT I think it’s worth noting that it’s not the dark concepts themselves that got this game its well earned hype or that ensure that it lives rent free in my head & the heads of other fans.

I think the writers have created really compelling & complex multilayered characters & a fascinating storyline with a lot of questions left unanswered about the nature of these demons & of human souls & the world these characters inhabit & I’m being so sincere here I also think it’s a really thought provoking critique or at least exploration of the american nuclear family.

I already said this but I would’ve stopped caring pretty fast if andrew & ashley were not more than their archetypes which SURE are fun we love a quirky evil girlboss & her simp boyfriend brother but the fun archetypes are not enough on their own to keep me hooked. luckily, these are some of the least 1 dimensional characters I’ve ever seen. this got carried away talking about how good I think the game is & giving an obligatory disclaimer that yeah, I totally got into it initially for shallow & edgy reasons lol but I actually wanted to talk about the themes because I genuinely think it’s an incredibly well crafted story. anyway -

I think it’s really interesting that ashley is the one that is originally shown believing / hoping their mom hasn’t truly abandoned them. andrew discourages her from having hope in their mom or considering trying to find her until it’s about finding sacrifices for the demon & getting money. yet this initial dynamic is totally forgotten once they’re home. ashley just wants to kill these motherfuckers while andrew is busy playing mind games & - one might argue- playing house / pretending be a happy family. it’s andrew who is offered the olive branch. who we see considering sparing his parents or at least feeling conflicted about killing them. in the flashbacks we see that “andy” was forced to take care of “leyley” & she uses it against him “mom says you have to play with me.”

ashley is so depressingly achingly desperate for any hint of affection & it’s so obvious the reason she’s latched into andrew is that he’s the only one who’s ever chosen her. that’s why she’s so obsessed with calling andrew “andy” despite the conflict it constantly creates. andy helped her hide a body. a possibly hot take but I don’t think leyley was going “yay murder” in her child brain - I don’t think she cared that the girl died don’t get me wrong - but I do believe it was an accident. this is a happy memory though because it’s the only time in ashley’s entire life that someone has chosen her with that level of commitment. yet for andrew it’s horrific & traumatic & he wants to get away from it - or so he tells himself. maybe his parents were decent to him or at least not actively hateful how they were to ashley but it’s abundantly clear based on the fact the story’s premise relies on them leaving him to fucking starve to death that they do not give a fuck about him.

when mrs. graves tells andrew that there’s still hope for him & that she always cared about him the compliments she chooses are telling - they thought he was easy, quiet, a good kid - they thought they could have another (& hand her off to him to take care of). and ofc it’s worth noting mrs. graves only says all this to save her own skin & would never freely talk about caring about andrew.

so andy is living this cold not abusive but certainly empty & devoid of nurturing life & along comes leyley. she’s annoying & needy but she loves him with such reckless abandon. adult ashley’s words say it all. “If only you could love me with half the heart I love you with.” but he DOES he just doesn’t know how to show it the way she does. so he chooses her again & again & tries to make her happy with violence & bending to her will & showing her he’d do anything for her with everything he can except the one thing she wants which is simple affection.

as things get more & more dire ashley gets more abusive, controlling & manipulative embodying the worst aspects of her mother - a cold heartless bitch who never cared about anyone but herself - & andrew gets more & more apathetic just like his worthless father who’s barely even a person in his wife’s shadow.

it’s a really tragic story & I love this idea of characters on the run but they’re really running from themselves & that’s something you can never escape. how telling is it that the one thing ashley doesn’t want is to be buried in the same grave as her parents? but this story is about a grave it’s always been about a coffin in one way or another, they thought they escaped when they got out of the apartment but they’re still in it because they’ll always still be in it, you can’t escape from who you are at your core & there’s a reason ashley having tarred soul is such a glaring theme & episode 2 (in some versions) ends with andrew gaining a mark on his hand from the demon. they’re marked & there’s no escape. I’m sorry it’s just REALLY good horror. ok I’m done for now

[bi-bats]

Identity porn college au you say 👀👀 also ;) ;) 👉👉 Bad Days 😳

💖💖💖 glad to see you active again my friend

glad to be active again!! I have a bunch of health stuff going on that's really pulled my focus from writing much of anything, but it's nice to just let myself think about fun stuff again 💖

I'm putting this under a read more cause this got LONG

YEAHHHHH IDENTITY PORN COLLEGE AU!!! I have a snippet for that one!! A nice, long snippet:

It all went wrong right before Tim had his coffee, because that was always when everything went wrong. He had just picked it up off the counter, rolling his eyes at the name on the cup. Jim. Whatever, it was his. It wasn’t like anyone else was ordering a large red-eye with two extra shots. He lifted it to take his first sip and turned— Broad shoulders, scar on the neck, white streak in the hair, angry green eyes—check, check, check. And check.  “Jason.” Tim’s voice cracked mortifyingly on the word. “Hi,” he added, before he finally managed to force his mouth shut. One thick eyebrow raised at him. “What's up?” he asked delicately. He didn’t want to have a very public interaction with Jason here, because they would draw attention and someone would realize he wasn’t Jim, but Tim, Tim Wayne, and then this would be in a tabloid. But apparently, Jason wasn’t interested in having a very public interaction. Apparently he wasn’t interested in having any sort of interaction with him at all. He didn’t know why he expected Jason to resume talking to him now. Being ignored by Jason was easy. Seeing his anger, the way it twisted in his eyes when they used to be pliant and soft, felt worse. Tim just sighed, deflating as the air left him. “Right.” It had been for the best, he reminded himself. “I’ve gotta go.” “As always,” Jason drawled. Tim’s eyes snapped back to Jason’s, and he looked vicious, but a little hurt under it.

basically, the premise is that they meet in college and then start dating, and then they break up because Jason knows that Tim is lying to him about why he's constantly disappearing in the middle of dates, etc. etc. He basically tells Tim the last time that he can either tell him why he's leaving in the middle of the date, or he can not come back. So he doesn't come back. Then Red Hood and Red Robin start hooking up because both of them are looking for outlets, and it's a casual/antagonistic thing until Red Hood ends up taking Red Robin to one of his safehouses after an injury... that Tim had been to for a date with Jason. And of course from there it all spirals! 💚

and now for your snippet of Bad Days. A nice long one for being so patient with me:

“I don’t even know why you and Tim like this crap,” Jason grumbles as he tosses the controller on the coffee table.  “It’s more fun when you’re evenly matched. You should see Tim play against Bart, he loses his shit.”  “Tim says he cheats,” Jason mutters as he turns a suspicious eye on Kon.  “Only if having superpowers you can’t shut off is considered cheating.”  Jason narrows his eyes at Kon. “You’d know if I was using my TTK on you, Jason.” “Would I?” “Oh... yeah, I guess not. I don’t think I’ve ever used it on you.”  Jason’s face goes a little surprised, and Kon’s stomach sinks. “You don’t think?” “I… can’t always control it. Not like, I can’t get it to work or anything, but sometimes it has a mind of its own when I’m relaxed. Especially when I’m sleeping.” “What does it feel like?”  “I don’t actually know. Tim says it feels like a hand sometimes, though.”  “Show me?” Kon’s eyebrows shoot up for a moment, before he forces them back down.  “Oh, uh—” Kon takes a second to put down the controller, then he places his hand on Jason's forearm. For a split second, he isn’t sure what he plans to do, but he relaxes the part of him that has his power held back. It’s a little like noticing his jaw is clenched and forcing the muscle to loosen. In the second he relaxes his hold, he feels his TTK reach out, and he watches as Jason’s face turns towards Kon, slowly, like he’s being tilted by a hand on his chin. “Oh,” Jason says softly, and Kon feels a flare of heat across his cheeks.

Thank you for the ask!!! 💚💚💚

send me an ask about one of my WIPs!

[ossified-hypothesis]

6, 9, 13, 23?

6. Dead Dove Do Not Eat: Book you would recommend to a select audience with a mountain of caveats

Hmmm there’s several books that I could say for this, mostly ones that have some pretty major content warnings/a dark tone/morally dubious characters (e.g. The Mirror Empire, He Who Drowned the World, Manhunt) but I think I’ll go with Walking Practice by Dolki Min - I really love it and it’s one of my favourites of the year (and in general!) and I think more people should read it. It is however about a shapeshifting alien that hooks up with people and eats them which makes it challenging to recommend because it is quite a weird and (at times) grotesque book and a lot of people I know would not be on board with all of that, but it’s also not necessarily to the taste of people who are fans of the erotic/cannibalism etc either. Also I feel like the narration style would not be everyone’s cup of tea (I really enjoyed it though and think it really added to the fast paced nature of the book)

9. Compels Me Though: Okay, maybe not all of it made sense, but you had a great time anyway

I’ve had a hard time answering this question because I’m not sure anything I’ve read this year meets that description. Honestly a lot of the time if I’m having enough fun reading a book I won’t go looking to poke holes in the plot. Also if I don’t get something I usually just assume it’s just me being stupid or something that’ll be explained later. I had a great time reading How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler, but I don’t remember if there was anything in particular that didn’t make sense that didn’t seem like a Future Plot Point™️ or just a consequence of the tone/genre.

13. Favourite standalone of the year

This was more difficult to choose than I thought it would be! I think I’ll go for When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb, but Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark and Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah are close runners up (side note: the audio narration for all three was excellent)

23. Free space--talk about any book you read in 2024 not otherwise covered

Hmmmm… looking at the other questions I think one book that wouldn’t be covered is Scarlet by Genevieve Cogman. I’d read some of the invisible library series by the same author and I like historical fantasy so I decided to give this book a go. I found the premise quite interesting and it was overall quite enjoyable, although there were some aspects I’m not sure how I feel about (ie whether the “heroes” of the book are actually doing the right thing). However, I’m assuming these things might be addressed in the later books in the series - hence why I’m reading the sequel currently!

2024 Reads in Review Asks

[littlealeta]

The Remake/Sequel/Spin-off problem needs to be fixed

Many of us are tired of the remakes/sequels/spin-offs phase. Some of us might even be almost totally averse to them. But, I do want to get this off my chest in a proper blog, because I don’t think a lot of people have talked about how studios can scratch their franchise itch in a proper way. And also in a way that could’ve give them more respect than they get now.

Remake: Stuff That Actually Could've Been Better Or Expanded Upon

There are a lot of movies I’ve seen that have some clear potential underneath that never really got their chance to shine.

Examples being No Hard Feelings, The Boxtrolls, Ralph Breaks the Internet, The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina. (They need to make another Thumbelina film anyway, it’s already been, what, at least 20 years at this point?) There’s also some anime that I think could use remakes, but Japan mostly keeps their paws off classics.

To explain why, I think these movies all have interesting premises and some kind of hook to them, but the execution turned out to be underwhelming. They're still fairly new, but maybe in another decade or so, they could be considered for a remake. But, really, I wouldn't mind hearing them being remade right now. As for expansion, something I’m thinking about is a TV show called Captain N: The Gamemaster.

I would like to see a remake or at least spin-off of that. It’s an 80s show about a guy who enters into a world of retro-gaming who can control stuff with a belt shaped like a NES controller. It’s been largely forgotten at this point, so bringing it back with newer games juxtaposed in with the retro games will also be a plus. The Great Mouse Detective also could’ve been made into a TV series.

Sequel: Stuff That Actually NEED A Sequel

I think a lot of people want sequels just to see their favorite characters again. But sometimes, that doesn’t always work, I mean look what we recently got.

All because of recent fan demand. The first movie, I believe, felt complete anyway.

There needs to be more sequels to anything that’s either ended on a cliffhanger, or could’ve used an expansion of the world and story.

Monsters vs. Aliens (another Dreamworks film and also highly underrated) ended off on a cliffhanger and could’ve used a sequel (the TV series unfortunately was underwhelming). Go back to the Madeline (Didn’t like the TV show for some reason, though but I did love the live-action one) or Eloise franchise (that had a ton of books that I don’t think got adapted). Bring those to the attention of the modern kids. Maybe go back to the Jumanji franchise WITH THE BOARD GAME and instead of being in a jungle, make it different like Zathura did where they’re like under the sea or in a desert or something.

For the spin-offs, I would kinda repeat the same things I’ve already said. Again, do spin-offs to expand the characters and/or the world. I can’t think of a movie or TV example that would work with this, so I’m just going to use a game example: Catherine.

A lot of the side characters in that one don’t get a lot of character development or depth and some of them had some interesting conflict and backstories that they were going through. I also would like to see the main character interacting with the other characters in more wholesome and complex ways outside of drinking, chatting and having conflict since we barely get any wholesomeness between them in the game. He can help out their problems and grow through each other. It would also show his bar posse as being more of friends than typical long-time acquaintances who just chill out in the bar every day.

I know studios won’t read this, but that’s what I wish would happen, even though a lot of it is most likely a pipe dream. But, you know me, it’s always fun to dream.

[livsteas]

my year of rest and relaxation review

this review does contain spoilers. this book is also undoubtedly 18+ and no minors should be partaking in it.

i want to begin this review by talking directly to those who dislike it. there were many mixed reviews from what i saw about this book before purchasing it, and most just cited the fact that the main character is awful as a person and horribly depressing. well, that is true. she is definitely that. but a bad main character doesn’t make a bad book. she’s still very well-written and captivating as a narrator, even if unreliable. if you prefer books where the main character is a good-hearted heroine, i promise there is a whole world out there for you. but if you are still willing to read, i would absolutely 100% recommend this book to you. holden caufield in “the catcher in the rye” is just as miserable, but apparently that book is a classic, i guess (i really had no pleasure in dragging through that one in high school.)

the premise of the book is super simple; she pretty much just wants to sleep the whole year, following feeling unfulfilled in life, and wanting some sort of rebirth. this summary makes it sound incredibly boring, but there is never a dull moment in the story. nothing my eyes wanted to skip over. i was hooked on every word and paragraph. Moshfegh writes in such a beautiful way that was simple (and a good break after reading sense and sensibility) but powerful, as if the main character herself was furiously scribbling into a notebook every time she came back to consciousness.

you never truly feel sorry for the character. she is a total asshole. a complete entitled, self-centered, rich asshole. but her thoughts are still expressed in a way that can be relatable. i think that’s what makes it so captivating. even though she exhibits extreme behavior, it is still relatable on a base level. being unsatisfied with the career you’ve chosen. the death of family to suicide, to cancer. a love-hate relationship between long time friends. wanting a fresh start.

i do also think Moshfegh picked the perfect time period to place this book in. 2000-2001 are very simplistic but complicated years. the emergence of new technology yet still just primitive enough. the joy of the VHS player where she watches movies on repeat makes it so thought dialogue is better concise, but she is also not scrolling for hours upon hours on social media distracting herself and putting herself to sleep that way.

the lingering theme on 9/11 is also pretty haunting. you can see from my updates that it was constantly on my mind, but the book truly has no reason for me to think that way. Moshfegh simply slips in unnerving details about its potential future presence, like Reva being moved into the twin towers for work, or how each date after she wakes up during her hibernation is explicitly listed. i thought for a second it would just cut off before 9/11. but the final one-page chapter is as well placed as i hoped it would be.

read this book, but don’t find yourself relating too much with it. don’t allow yourself to wish for similar events. i guess that is the problem many people have with it. but it is possible to read a book at base level and just appreciate the story. you don’t have to absorb it into your very soul. it’s fiction, after all. it’s not meant to be taken 100% seriously. enjoy yourself.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

this did conclude my reading challenge for the year as well. i had set it very low at the beginning of the year because truly i didn’t expect to read at all! and then suddenly i’ve finished 3 books in the span of about a month, which is so wonderful. if you’re interested in being friends on goodreads (i have none 🥲 say yes pls) it’s linked in the pinned post on my profile.

in the seventh chapter, she mentions that she read “war and peace”, and i’m taking it as a solidifying sign, as that will be my next venture for what will probably be the rest of the year. now that will be a long, intense review. and i’ll see you at the end of the year for that. <3

[alloveydovey]

monthly dramas, I'm not really feeling it lately :\

Crazy Love, 2022 (kdrama) 8/8.5

FL works as a secretary for the biggest asshole in the instructor/tutor industry. She decides to endure it in favor of her future until she discovers she's dying. Revenge for all the mistreatment ensues.

Crazy love indeed. This is how you do enemies to lovers, though. The drama itself is a bit shabby, and the story is a bit predictable, but Krystal and Kim Jae Wook are absolutely amazing in it. They really are a 10/10 comedic duo, and their chemistry is amazing. I didn't like that in the second half the FL sort of takes a step back from the spotlight of the drama. All-around, it was really cute, and I’d recommend it.

Kiss Sixth Sense, 2022 (kdrama) 8

FL sees the future whenever she kisses someone. She accidentally ends up kissing her boss and seeing them entangled… in something deeper lol.

This drama is weird, but not because of the premise. FL seeing the future when her lips come in contact with someone is intriguing enough. ML having acute senses like some sort of daredevil is a bit complicated but I’m into it. I think it was the way they went on about it that just seemed strange to me. Overall, It was a nice watch, nothing out of the ordinary. I’m all in for more adultish romances, and if they have fantasy, that’s a plus. So that’s an aspect I liked a lot from this. The ending… it’s a happy ending, but it could have been better :\

My Sassy Girl, 2017 (kdrama) 7.5

A reckless princess meets a renowned scholar and a series of comedic misunderstandings and dramatic encounters ensue.

This reimagining of My Sassy Girl (2001) starts very cute. I wasn’t sure about watching it at first, but I'd been looking for something historical and romantic comedy-centered without it being too heavy, as historicals tend to be.

The beginning doesn’t feel like a 2017 drama at all. It feels like a drama made between 2004-09. I think it’s the comedy that gives out very 00s vibes. Some might think it’s too much but I was into it. The problem with this drama, for me at least, is that, in the end, it does get heavy, just like all historicals. They hooked me with the light-hearted, over-the-top comedy in the first few episodes and then did a complete 180, and everything became dramatic in a way that feels like you’re watching a different drama. The leads have great chemistry, but the story ends up becoming generic and boring.

Dreaming of a Freaking Fairytale, 2024 (kdrama) 8

A girl who has been poor her whole life wants to change her luck by marrying rich. She ends up working at a social club where the peculiar CEO takes an interest in her.

Because I have been low key following what Pyo Ye Jin and Lee Jun Young have been doing I was really excited to finally watch this. The only disappointment was the fact that it’s a brutally short drama with only 10 episodes, 40mins each. At the same time it’s the type of drama that can only do well by being short. Everything about it, from the duration, to the narrator, the plot, the animation and comedy screams at you not to take this seriously and just enjoy the ridiculous cute ride. Which I did. It made me laugh out loud and most important both leads were really cute. It was just what I needed. 100% rewatchable as well.

Frankly Speaking, 2024 (kdrama) 7.5

A news anchor and a variety show writer get attached thanks to an accident where he can't help but be completely honest (Jim Carrey Liar Liar vibes), and she is the only one who can turn that off.

This started off as a surprise. First episodes are completely refreshing and feel like a break from all the kdramas I've been watching lately. It's not really different from the usual formula we know so well, still, I dug the vibes big time. However, there's sort of a big con here. I divided this drama in three parts. First part: Liar Liar plus a heartfelt commentary about how we go about life. Second part: Dating show romance dramatics with barely any attention to the supposed main plot (the fact that ML has a condition that doesn’t allow him to lie). Third part: Something else entirely. The main theme of the drama is completely lost by episode 8, and so you wonder, what am I really watching? Overall, it's good enough. I absolutely loved Kang Han Na as the FL, and Go Kyung Pyo has become a favorite lead.

Dropped :\ ⬇️

Doctor Slump, 2024 (kdrama) 8

An anethesiologist hits rock bottom when depression starts manifesting in her life. A plastic surgeon loses everything when he's falsely accused of malpractice. These two brains, once school nemesis, meet again and strike up a friendship.

Some dramas do need to be 10-12 episodes long. I started this because of Park Hyung Sik and because I was low-key excited and curious to see him work with Park Shin Hye again. I’m still not sure about them together romantically, but the friendly chemistry was there. I feel like both of them did amazing, but the drama itself felt a bit flat. As if something was missing. I stopped watching for a while after episode 7 because I got a bit tired of it, and honestly, I didn't miss it or was excited to know how it went on. I tried to get back to it but only made it till episode 12. I'll probably finish as background while doing something else, but yeah-- I just got extremely bored.

Birth of a Beauty, 2014 (kdrama) 7

FL is a plus size woman who is constantly ridiculed by her in-laws. She finds out her husband has been cheating on her, and after an accident where they all believe her to be dead, she's "reborn" (plastic surgery) as a beauty, thanks to a man who, to be honest, I don't even know how to describe lol. They both start plotting how to take revenge on her husband.

This dramas was a crack show. And fatphobic, but I feel like I can't complain about that cause the premise was already giving me those vibes.

Those matters aside, it's also a drama I could not take seriously. They wanted to mix comedy with a dark plot such as revenge, but the characters were so silly it didn't make sense. I stuck with most of it because the leads had great chemistry and made me laugh. The dramas with the most bizarre, almost terrible storylines are, in fact, the ones with the most fire chemistry. I stopped watching because I found my other dramas more entertaining, and, honestly, after they got together, I felt like this didn't deserve my time, lol.

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 6 – Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

I’m vaguely aware that Bardugo’s a fairly prolific and well-regarded author, but before reading this the only thing of hers I’d ever opened was the book it’s a sequel to. Now, I actually really adored Ninth House, but I’ve had a few people tell me it’s pretty atypical of her work, and the hanging sequel hook at the end was the worst part of it – it was a perfectly lovely self-contained story, really. So, went into this one with a decent amount of trepidation, even if there’s no chance I wasn’t going to read it.

The book absolutely does read and feel like an unneeded sequel - @wearethekat has told me that the series was all planned out ahead of time, which frankly I would not have guessed. The plot was a big disjointed and some of the final act felt like a desperate attempt to tie up loose ends more than an actual reveal. I still just absolutely and totally do not care about Darlington. But overall it was still a fun read? I don’t regret the preorder, anyway.

But yes, plot-wise the story was messy – I actually loved the whole subplot with Alex being low-rent occult muscle roughing up people who owe a drug dealer money, and I would happily have read a whole book centred around that whole mess. But having her entirely coincidentally run into a vampire whose backstory and situation just happen to be key to the reveal of the main plot itself felt – well, just made the author’s puppet strings feel a bit too obvious, I suppose?

Though the main plot itself was always kind of a hard sell for me – which is to say, I thought Darlington was way more interesting as a corpse than as a character. The golden boy hero with the glamorous but burdensome inheritance whose read all the books and knows the proper way to do everything is just a much better part of the narrative after the protagonist panics and gets him killed and is now scrambling to keep things form falling to pieces in his place, y’know? So a book whose central premise is ‘lets go to hell and get him back!’ was, well, less than inspiring. So I might be judging it too harshly – it cohered?

Much like Ninth House, my main issue with the plot is actually just the ending. As mentioned, I recently learned the book was always planned to be part of a series – it still really didn’t feel like it? The obvious setup for the plot of the next book felt like it came a bit out of nowhere at the very end of the denouncement, and frankly it seems like the setup for a fun superhero-lite monster of the week action-adventure cartoon than a dark urban fantasy novel. (Also, I would have forgiven the book a lot if it spent so much time and effort carefully laying out so much hilarious blatant bdsm subtext between Alex and Darlington – not even sub, really, there’s a fiery astral collar involved – and then not actually had a textual romance between them. But if there’s still another book in the series it’s just forward planning and thus far less funny).

Though I suppose one major reason for my lack of interest in a sequel is just that the trend of the series seems to be that the magic is getting, well, higher powered isn’t the right term, but perhaps simpler might be? Which is a shame, because the aesthetics and general vibe of the magic – distasteful and messy in its components, full of elaborate ritual and pomp and circumstance, embedded in time and space and empowered by centuries of ruthless looting and hoarding – is really one of the main appeals of the setting. To the extent that Alex and Darlington can just do magical girl transformation sequences and start glowing, it loses a lot of its charm for me.

Generally tone and mood are a strength of the book, especially when it gets away from the hellfire. Alex is a truly amazing protagonist to be stuck inside the head of, and her general ambivalence towards life at Yale – her visceral disgust at the people and the bone-deep institutional rot combined with her hunger for the privileged, comfortable life of culture and learning and beauty being able to use that rot allows – is a really great throughline to how New Haven is characterized throughout the book. Bardugo’s got a real love for all the historical trivia about Yale and a blistering contempt for the sort of people who really run it and it’s whole existence as an institution – I checked to make sure, but yeah you can absolutely tell she’s an alumnus.

I know I already said as much while complaining but – the way these books do magic is just an absolute joy, it honestly is. Really nails the middle ground between like, fun over the top ceremonial magic, and making/have to drink potions of the most random/rare/disgusting things to keep ghosts from eating you. It’s also just overall a very satisfyingly cynical take on magic, and a kind of bleak look at the whole magical boarding school genre – if there’s a secret school that monopolizes magical lore and teaches it to very special students, of course those students are going to end up secretaries of state and managing partners at big law firms and perennial pop stars. Divine mysteries and the life of the mind are all well and good, but power is power is power (it’s rather Pact-like, in that way, magic isn’t this wondrous escape from/panacea to societal oppression, just another axis it can be reflected through)

Anyways, the actual main draw of this series is the protagonist, and Galaxy Stern never ceases to be an absolute joy to read. In the alternate universe where Darlington is the protagonist and the series has an inexplicably popular tv adaptation everyone would hate her so fucking much. The book was good basically in direct proportion to how often let her be an unhinged spiky bitch with no chill and lie, cheat, steal and occasionally super justifiably murder her way to success. I love horrifically traumatized social climber/imposters, con artists, and people with incredibly overdeveloped Shakespearean senses of payback so much.

The rest of the supporting cast is also fine I guess. Very funny that in a world where the western occult tradition seems to be substantively correct and the entire plot is breaking a damned soul out of hell, Turner appears to be to the first approximation the only actual Christian in New Haven. He’s also got a really fun dynamic with Alex, in a ‘you could make a really weird buddy cop police procedural’ out of this kind of way. Trip is decent comic relief and Dawes, Mercy, etc all fill their narrative purposes.

So yeah in conclusion read Ninth House (...check the content warnings first, maybe), and also the sequel’s needless but pretty decent too.

[artifactseeker-myr99]

So I sorta refuse to listen to The Magnus Archives Season 5 because I just do not vibe with JMart and I actively dislike Martin (extensive reason for that, uh, here.) Although I suppose I have to get to season 5 because of my recent writing project.

But anyone who enjoys/ enjoyed TMA, I have some podcast recommendations for you if you didn’t find them already:

The Amelia Project

Where the Stars Fell

The Storage Papers

ETA 17/01/24:

Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity and Mortality

Cellar Letters

Malevolent

You need to be okay with swearing (loads of swearing) for WTSF and you need to be okay with Death being extensively thematised and somewhat ridiculed for TAP

Religious imagery is getting kinda weird in both WTSF and TSP but I’m so far intrigued rather than put off.

And a side-note: Season 5 of TAP is coming up (12th May) and will apparently feature not just Ben Meredith but also Jonny Sims as a guest voice actor

It might seem counter-intuitive but I wold suggest you check out the TAP Anniversary Special to get a feeling for the main character. Then you go back and start at Season 1, the story only really picks up at season 2 but trust me, it’s intriguing and will hook you!

What I love about TAP aside from its premise and story is that it’s a European podcast. It feels inherently European rather than English or French or contained to any one nationality. And this comes through quite early on and very strongly. I love that! The characters are fun, whimsical and quirky. The premise has its charme and it has a “case of the week” feeling to it even while the overarching story picks up weight. There’s really a lot I like about it.

Like, I only got into TSP and WTSF because I was antsy for Amelia Project to update again. (Sorry, no offence.) Which doesn’t change the fact that I wholeheartedly recommend WTSF and TSP. (And maybe you can get into other podcasts from the Rusty Quill Network or Fable & Folly Network; I just couldn’t yet because they didn’t really catch my interest as much.)

For WTSF, huh… I don’t know which episode I would point you towards there, best start from the beginning. Although WTSF Episode 7 is a good hook, probably. It’s a bit ‘Good Omens’-esque and very fun, even though I occasionally need the transcripts pulled up to catch everything.

And TSP was supposed to be an anthology, I think, but it very very quickly devolved into a solid storyline so best to just start with the first episode and binge a few. The story will start puzzling together and making sense.