#Maybe cause I’m biased and I read the novel first but like in a story where one of the main allegations were nd/disabilities

[ladychandraofthemoone]

🧪

My only critic of the nimona movie is that they didn’t go on to include Dr.Meredith Blitzmeuer, I wanted my nd-coded doc in stem scientist!!!

[alicepooryorick]

Hey, I’m reaching out to you in an ask so you don’t have to share this publicly if you don’t want to. I know you probably didn’t mean any harm, but I’d recommend deleting your post about Oracle!Jason because it comes off as unintentionally sexist and ableist. Idk how familiar you are with The Killing Joke, but in comics there’s a long-standing issue regarding the “refrigerator woman.” When a woman is “fridged” in a comic, it means that she is the victim of something horrific (i.e. torture, rape, murder) but the storyline focuses only on how her experience affects the men around her, with no regard for how it actually affects her. The Killing Joke is one of the most infamous examples of this, because Babs’s assault is very graphic and sexualized, but the narrative is focused on how her father (Commissioner Gordon) and Batman are affected, not her. (For more information on fridging, I recommend this, this, and Gail Simone’s website, which coined the term.) Following the events of The Killing Joke, Babs’s character was discarded for several real life years. Her reemergence as Oracle is important because it allowed her to reclaim her trauma and reframed the narrative; she was no longer a victim, she was a survivor. I know that, at first glance, Babs’s assault and Jason’s murder can seem comparable because they were both at the hands of The Joker, they were both senseless acts of violence, etc. but the sexual nature of Babs’s torture and the lack of respect she was given as a character before she reemerged as Oracle separates these stories. (Also, I’m not disabled, but it’s my understanding that the word “crippled” is offensive.) I know you probably didn’t mean any harm, but sexism and ableism are really big issues in comics (and irl), and it can be easy to lean into unconscious biases when you aren’t fully aware of the harm your words may cause. I would also urge you to read The Killing Joke, it’s a tough read but it’s important to experience it firsthand in order to fully understand just how far the sexism and ableism go. There’s an animated movie adaptation from a few years ago, but it’s worse than the graphic novel (there’s an unnecessarily added rape scene) so I’d avoid it. Feel free to respond to this message or ignore it as you please. My DMs aren’t usually open, but send me an ask and I’ll message you first so we can talk about this further if you have any questions.

Hi there, first off thank you for bringing this to my attention. I really appreciate it.

Looking back now, yeah. My choice of language is bad. I'm not fully sure why I chose crippled over any other word that's FAR better. Nothing really to say there but sorry. Even as someone physically disabled that word isn't like faggot. It's not going to get better.

And yeah. I've never read the Killing Joke in its entirety. Alan Moore himself said in an interview he wishes people would not read it because he thinks it's a really bad book that has to many issues. But maybe after this I will go read it. I knew it was a horribly awful book, for godsake it's about the assault physical, sexual, and mental of Barbara and her father. All to get rid of Barbara Gordon from the role of Batgirl.

I agree I had bias here, this isn't the first time I've said shit unintentionally about Barbara Gordon. If you look back far enough there's probably still some posts I made lamenting that she didn't become like Marvel's Silhouette. I'm not proud of those either. And now that I look at it, as much as I do think the idea of seeing how two of my favorite characters swapping positions and how they'd interact with eachother's position... It's the same as my old posts about Barbara and Silhouette. It's pretty hurtful.

And again, thank you. I really appreciate your kind words while explaining the issue. It really helped, and I hope you have a great rest of your day <3

[ultimatetrashgoblin]

My thoughts on Immortal Heart Society

DISCLAIMER: These are my OPINIONS. I do not claim any of this as fact, you are allowed to disagree with me. (Spoilers for Cassius and Alanna season 1)

First impressions for this series could have been better. There are plenty of problems with this series so far that I will address, but for now, let’s focus on the positives.

The writing is beautiful. As an avid reader and writer, one of my biggest pet peeves is lazy and unimaginative writing. IHS had some incredibly written lines, and I was immediately hooked even if I hated the love interests.

(I don’t have many screenshots but here are a few I did take)

The plot is interesting. While the pacing is a bit off at times, I found the concept of a corrupt secret society intriguing, and the mysteries surrounding the father was enough to get me invested.

The Inner Circle is (mostly) likable. I’m a sucker for found family, and my favorite series on this app (EAA, QoT, GIL, etc.) will usually have plenty of group banter, and the Inner Circle is no exception. One of my favorite scenes in Alanna’s route was in Richard’s office when everyone realized Alanna and FMC were exes.

Kiran. No further explanation. Lovestruck let me date her please.

For the most part, IHS seems like a promising series. But of course, when you have plenty of amazing side characters who would make wonderful LIs, you decide to premiere your series with the arrogant asshole and the compulsive liar.

Cassius Tarkhan

I should probably begin by saying I’m usually not a fan of the “rude, snarky, arrogant” LIs and read Cassius’s route solely because I was excited for the new series. So please take what you’re about to read with a grain of salt, since I am probably extremely biased against him.

This is a direct quote from me reading Cassius’s first few episodes: “I want to punch this man in his stupid fucking face.” I said this out loud, which should give you an indication of what’s to come.

As far as first meetings go, Cassius was probably one of the worst. At first it was all “fun banter oh look at the chemistry” until he sees the invitation and becomes the most insufferable pricks I have ever seen. (I’m sorry, but was that supposed to be romantic?! If I were in FMC’s position, I would be terrified!)

Most of the season went by with Cassius being infuriating and not telling FMC anything, and me questioning if I was actually supposed to like the guy I was supposed to be romancing. The villain dude (I don’t care enough about him to try to remember his name) was boring and creepy. I also had a strong desire to punch him in the face, but I’ll settle for him turning to stone.

It wasn’t until the season finale that I actually started to like Cassius. He started to open up more to FMC, he showed vulnerability, and was generally more tolerable. Hopefully we’ll be able to see more of this Cassius in later seasons, because I believe that it might save his route and maybe I won’t want to punch him in the face as badly.

As for the ending, I’ve read the final episode multiple times and I’m still not exactly sure what happened in that final scene. Cassius tells FMC that he won’t let her meet with the Society on her own and then... is he about to kiss her? This is a genuine question I’m asking I honestly couldn’t tell. It seemed like he was going to but it was very unclear to me.

If I was going to rate this season as a whole, I’d give it a 3 out of 10. Hope to see better next season, because he does have the potential to be better, but that wasn’t shown until the end of the season.

Alanna McKenna

At first, I liked Alanna’s route. I was excited about have an LI who was an ex, she was attractive (except for that weird smirk expression what was that???), she was funny, and I’ve already talked about how much I love the writing.

Then the lying started. I’ve had the misfortune of dealing with my family, many of which are narcissistic pathological liars, so I consider myself pretty decent at figuring out patterns in their behavior. And Alanna fits them to a T.

Please note that I am in no way educated on this topic and do not have the authority to state anything as fact. I am making observations based on personal experience dealing with people like this, and I encourage you to view Alanna’s behavior for yourself and come up with your own conclusions.

My first red flag was the emotional manipulation. Near the beginning, this was in the form of flattery. If FMC started asking questions, Alanna would flirt with her, which would cause FMC to either become flustered or flirt back, both outcomes momentarily distracting her from the original topic.

To FMC’s credit, she does notice when Alanna starts deflecting (she mentions recognizing certain behaviors from when they were together), but she backs down. As someone who hates confrontation, I can understand FMC’s reasoning for this. I find trying to communicate certain issues with these people exhausting. It tends to feel like speaking to a broken record, and can become emotionally draining. However, this is the exact outcome that these people want. They hate being called out on their lies, and when pushed further (in my experience), they tend to result to guilt tripping.

The flirting I could ignore. When I first read it, I thought that was just her personality (which is partially true). But then FMC stood her ground more, and Alanna fell apart. She started crying, talking about how much pressure she was under, making up excuses (a prime example of this was her saying that she thought ghosting FMC would make it easier, which I’ll touch on later), and causing FMC to doubt her (valid) reasons for being angry with Alanna.

I feel like it’s also necessary to talk about Alanna interacting with the other society members. FMC was noticeably uncomfortable with how genuine Alanna seemed to be, and I understand the feeling of betrayal of thinking you know a person, only to see them act like a complete stranger at the drop of a hat. The mental turmoil of wondering which version of this person is the real them, and whether your entire relationship was all a lie.

That part was way longer than I expected, so let’s talk about the “villain”. I’m glad that Arabella isn’t the big bad even if she tried to kill FMC, because she seems like such a genuine person and I’m tired of season WOC be villainized in visual novels (I’m not naming names but you know what apps I’m talking about Choices). I hope that FMC and Alanna will be able to help her and her sister, and that Arabella will get a redemption arc in the future and maybe a route.

The cliffhanger was actually sort of unexpected. FMC finally called Alanna out on her bs (GOOD👏FOR👏HER👏) and tried to leave the Society. Lowkey kind of scared to see how they follow this up in season 2, because it seems like they’re ready to murder FMC.

If we ignore the LIs themselves, I did prefer Alanna’s route to Cassius’s. I feel like we got to see more of the other characters, and I thought the pacing was better. But I don’t like either of them. As I’ve said Cassius seems like he’s improving, but Alanna? Nope. I’m staying for the plot and Arabella, but I’m more than willing to drop her route if this pattern continues (especially if I decide it’s too triggering for me, my mental health is more important).

Rating: 2/10

Final thoughts

As I stated previously, while IHS’s initial premiere wasn’t the best, I believe this series has the potential to be good. My main issues are with the pacing, and above all, the LIs (which isn’t good for a visual novel story centered around romancing the LIs).

Overall rating: 3/10

This is my first time doing something like this so any feedback would be very appreciated. Feel free to offer any criticisms, and let me know if I should make a series out of this! (This did take me a while so if I decide to continue doing this it might not be posted until a day or two later)

[jeonsjiddies]

dirty little secret (m) | kth

summary- you had a dirty little secret and your boss, tae finds out.

rating- explicit / 18+

word count-  4781

pairing- taehyung x reader

genre- smut

Warnings- dirty talk, slight choking

Kim Taehyung could not possibly be human. He had to be some sort of government experiment to create the perfect man and see how women reacted. No man could possibly be so sexy. So smart. So successful. So kind. So… perfect. Maybe you were a  bit biased, you had been drooling over V since the first day you’d walked off the elevator to the top floor of Kim Publishing Company.

You were awestruck, taken aback by the vast space with the sparkling sun wafting through the large stained glass window. Gazing out at the skyline with brilliant blue hues, you failed to see V. He was walking backwards, adamantly discussing a new book deal with a prospective client. He turned a split second too late. You looked up a split second too late.

Colliding with his rock hard frame, you felt your whole body shiver in a way you’d never experienced before. His arms instinctively circled around you to keep you from falling, causing your bodies to remain flush against each other. Chills ran straight through you, down to your bones before every inch of your skin that touched his went ablaze.

Time seemed to stand still as you gazed up into his sensual,  deep brown eyes. His plump, wet pink lips rested just inches from yours, stealing all the air from your lungs. Moments passed and neither of you made an effort to release yourselves from each others’ grip. The client cleared their throat uncomfortably, snapping both of you out of your haze.

“Oh my! I’m so sorry! Are you okay? I wasn’t paying attention, the sky looked so pretty from up here and I-“ you rambled before V cut you off, lifting a hand to silence you.

“I’m fine. Are you okay?” he inquired, those deep brown eyes laced with concern and a little amusement.

“I’m fine. I’m so sorry. It’s my first day and I’m so nervous about meeting Mr. Kim that I just…” you let your head fall while you took a breath, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. What is your name?” he asked, mischief glinting in his eyes.

“Y/N.” you supplied.

“Y/N…” he let it roll off his tongue like he was  savoring it, your heart thumped wildly in your chest. “Nice to meet you. I’m V. This is Jungkook.” He introduced.

The client awkwardly gave a sort of half-wave.

“Jungkook, let’s finish this negotiation downstairs. Nice to meet you, Y/N. Have a wonderful first day.” V grinned like he was laughing at an inside joke.

You half-bowed, half scurried away, making a beeline for your new desk. Phyllis, the woman you were being trained to replace in her retirement, shook her head, silver curls bouncing.

“What?” you questioned defensively.

She sniggered to herself before leaning in so she was close enough to speak without anyone else overhearing her. The words that left her mouth caused your soul to leave your body and chills of an entirely different nature to spread.

“Dry humping the CEO on your first day. What a lovely first impression.”

***

You cringed at the memory. She had taken so much joy in your embarrassment, howling with laughter as your jaw hit the floor. She didn’t really mean anything by it. Phyllis wasn’t a cruel person, but you didn’t miss the tiny pinch of evil in her sugary smile. You’d avoided V after that as much as you could, until 3:00 when his assistant, who had introduced himself as Jimin, came to fetch you for your orientation meeting. You wished you could hide under your desk and pretend you weren’t there, but you desperately needed this job and V signed your check so you really had no choice. You feigned confidence as Jimin held the door open for you and you stood across from the man in the plush leather chair.

“Good afternoon, Y/N. How’s your first day going?” He asked, almost  entirely professional if not for the sparkle in his eye.

“Well, Mr. Kim-“ you began.

“Call me V.” He interrupted.

“V,” you corrected, slightly uncomfortable with the familiar nickname, or maybe you were uncomfortable with the way he affected you, his smirk making your thighs clench in a hopefully unnoticeable way, “it has been memorable to say the least. I really do apologize for earlier, I had no idea you were… you.”

“No need to apologize. Let me introduce myself properly. I’m Kim Taehyung, CEO of Kim Publishing. I’m thrilled to have you aboard.” He flashed you a million dollar smile and stuck out his large hand to shake your smaller one.

As soon as your skin met his, your entire body felt like you’d been electro-charged. A small gasp left your lips, and V’s poker face slipped for only a fraction of a moment, but you saw it. He pulled away and ran his hand through his perfectly tousled black hair, clearing his throat.

He slipped back into his professional smile and continued to tell you about the company and your role. He liked to orient new hires himself, keeping himself involved and making sure that everyone felt valued at the company. He did expect a level of respect but was willing to return the favor.

He was funny without trying and put you at ease quickly. He answered all your questions politely and never made you feel less than. That was the beginning of the end for you. Less than one full day into your career at Kim Publishing and you were completely whipped for Kim Taehyung.

8 months later, you still had it bad for V. Obviously you wouldn’t do anything about it. Not only would you risk losing your job you’d worked so hard for, but someone as perfect as him would never look at you twice, not in that way. You sighed, flipping through the pages of the current manuscript on your desk, jotting down notes in one of your portable notebooks.

Misspelled “quota”

Replace said with exclaimed?

This book is awful

You erased the last one, feeling bad. If someone said that about what you had written, you’d be crushed. But how were you supposed to edit a story written by someone who couldn’t tell the difference between their, there, and they’re?! You hated not giving anyone a fair chance so you muddled through the story, trying your best to note ways to improve it so that it could possibly be published.

Finally reading the last line, you almost felt guilty placing the document in the “no” pile. Before you could move on to the next one, you heard his laughter floating down the hall, dancing around your ears and caressing your soul with longing. His laugh was musical. You loved it. You loved his voice, which you could also hear as he made conversation with the stout man to his left. He waved good morning to you as he walked by, gracing you with his perfect smile. You waved back and he disappeared from sight.

You reached in your drawer, pulling out your other notebook. This notebook stayed locked away in your desk drawer, you would lose your mind if anyone found it. This was where you kept your writing ideas. Most of them were your sexual fantasies about V, but one day they would work into an erotic novel that you could pitch to be published, under a fake name of course.

Ugh V looks amazing in those new work pants. What I wouldn’t give to be on my knees under his desk right now. I wonder if he’d be able to concentrate on that meeting with my lips wrapped around his cock. Fuck, V probably has such a nice dick. I want to taste it.

A knock at your office door had you scrambling to hide the notebook back in your drawer. You looked up to see Jimin standing in your doorway.

“Hey y/n. I have a family thing to get to and Mr. Kim really needed me to restock the coffee bar before his next client comes. I know it’s almost time to go but can you please help?” He pleaded, and you were no match for his puppy dog eyes.

“Sure, no problem.” You easily agreed, following him out of your office.

After refilling the coffee bar and straightening a few things in the break room, you made your way back to your office and made yourself comfortable in your chair. You began reading the next manuscript and reached for your notebook to make a suggestion about not mixing tenses. It wasn’t on your desk. You looked at the floor, wondering if you’d dropped it. Nope. You searched under things and between things but couldn’t see the little book anywhere. You huffed in frustration and opened your drawer to get a new one.

You pulled out the top one and opened the cover. Oh there it was! You hadn’t lost your notes! You smiled to yourself and began writing suggestions, wondering why you’d put the filled- in notebook in that drawer. Must have been when Jimin startled you. You smiled at yourself and kept writing. Until you realized that’s where your dirty notebook should’ve been. You froze.

Opening the drawer back up, you searched through the notebooks. All of them were new and blank. Your erotic thoughts about your boss were no where to be found. You took deep breaths, convincing yourself not to panic. You started searching through every item in that damned office, picking up speed the longer you went without finding the notebook.

More and more people went home as the day began to wind down. You were sure you were the only one left. Your office was all but destroyed and you couldn’t find the stupid fucking notebook. Had someone found it? Surely they wouldn’t know it was yours right? Your name wasn’t in it.

You went back to the break room in a last ditch effort, thinking maybe you’d stupidly carried it in there? You searched high and low, placing your head in your hands when it did not appear. You didn’t hear him approach, and nearly jumped out of your skin when you heard him clear his throat from the doorway.

“Ah! V! You scared me. I thought I was the only one here.” You said, hand gripping your shirt in an effort to calm your racing heart.

“I didn’t mean to startle you.” He said, voice low and cautious. “What are you still doing here?”

“I um… misplaced something and I can’t find it.” You explained vaguely.

“Oh. What was it?” His brown eyes seemed almost black as he watched your every move.

“Ummm.. a notebook.” You admitted, voice higher than you’d intended.

“Oh. This one?” He asked, his gaze burning into yours as he held up your missing book.

Your jaw dropped and your heart sank. Oh shit you were so fired. Oh shit oh shit oh shit.

“Perhaps we should discuss this in my office.” He offered, turning and leading the way down the hall.

He gestured for you to sit opposite of him, the large desk between the two of you. You waited for him to say something. When he didn’t, you opened your mouth, apologies spewing out. He silently watched you, and when you finally fell silent, he picked up the book and opened it. You cringed as his eyes fell on the pages.

“I want V to bend me over his desk and take me. I want to feel his big, warm hands on my body. I want to feel his thick, throbbing cock inside me. Would he be rough or gentle? He seems like the dominant type in bed. His whole being just screams ‘power’. Maybe I should write about both. He could also have a tender side, he is so sweet.” He read aloud, your entire face was flushed with embarrassment and shame.

He turned the page and continued.

“If I have to sit through another meeting with V in those tight fitting slacks I will cum on the spot. He could make any woman melt with just a look. His voice is enough to get me off. That would be a hot scene.”

“Every time V says my name, I can’t help imagining what it would be like to hear him moan it instead. Working here is driving me insane.”

He looked up from the book, placing it flat on the desk between the two of you. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he finally looked up at you, you were so full of shame you couldn’t meet his gaze.

“Y/N. Look at me.” He commanded with an authority you’d never heard from him before. Despite your current shame, you felt moisture pooling between your legs at his dominating tone.

You glanced up and found Kim Taehyung staring into your soul with the most lust-filled eyes you’d ever seen. A whisper of a gasp left your lips as electricity shot through you, straight to your core. You did your best not to squirm in your seat but failed, the intensity of his steamy gaze making you quiver.

V rose from his desk chair and spun yours around so that you were facing him. He leaned in, his hot breath tickling your ear as he spoke lowly.

“I’ve been rock hard since I found your book. I couldn’t stop picturing that tight little ass bent over my desk, couldn’t stop thinking about filling that pretty little pussy. You paint quite the picture, Y/N.” He breathed.

You clenched your thighs together, almost whimpering at how bad you wanted him. Never in a million years did you think Kim Taehyung would be whispering dirty things in your ear.

“I didn’t know you were such a naughty girl.” He smirked, leaning back and licking his lips as his eyes traveled down your body to your legs, pressed together under your skirt.

V put a finger under your chin, lifting your face so that your gazes met. His lips found yours in a flash, claiming you. You were immediately putty in his hands as his plump mouth worked against your own. His tongue snuck out and found its way to yours, deliciously intertwining. You were so immersed in the kiss, you almost didn’t notice when his large palm came to rest on your knee. Almost.

His fingers danced along your skin teasingly, leaving a trail of fire wherever they went. Tantalizingly slowly, his hand made its way up your thighs, so close to where you wanted him the most, but not nearly close enough. His lips parted from your own, and you were about to protest the loss of contact before they were reattached at your neck. Soft whines left your throat as he sucked and nipped at the skin below your ear, leaving reddish-purple bruises in his wake. He was marking you, and while that should’ve put you off, it only caused the dampness in your panties to increase. Your head fell back, exposing more of your neck to his greedy lips. His fingers ran teasingly over your clothed core.

“Shit. You’re already so wet and I’ve barely touched you.” he mused, pride apparent in his tone.

“Didn’t you read the part where I get wet just from the sound of your voice? Are you really surprised?” you countered in a moment of bravery.

Desire flashed in his dark eyes as his gaze bore into you with such intensity, you almost couldn’t take it.

“Oh baby girl… I am going to ruin you.” he growled, yanking you up out of your chair and dragging you towards your office. He tossed your purse to you and hurriedly led you towards the exit.

Your hands linked together were the only place he touched you once you were out of his office. There were cameras everywhere, you both knew that, but the anticipation was driving you wild. He squeezed your hand every so often, purposefully bumping against the side of your leg. He leaned down to whisper in your ear.

“You look so sexy like this, all flushed and ready to be fucked. It’s taking every bit of self control not to push you up against the wall and eat that pretty pussy right here.” though his voice was a whisper, it came out as a growl, almost primal.

The whimper that left you involuntarily placed a smirk on his plump lips.

“Mmm… so needy for me, aren’t you baby?” he teased.

You glared at him but couldn’t stop yourself from smiling. He tugged you out of the elevator and over to his shiny new car, opening the door for you and allowing you to slide inside before he gently closed it and came around to enter the driver’s side.

The car roared to life and V sped out of the parking garage towards his place. In a moment of bravery, your hand found his inner thigh, rubbing seemingly innocent circles there. His breath hitched, and his eyes narrowed on the road, trying to concentrate and not crash, though your fingers were extremely distracting. You noticed his cock twitch inside his slacks, and your mouth watered. You wondered how dangerous road head was, then thought against it. You wanted to live long enough to fuck him.

After what felt like forever, but was probably closer to five minutes, you pulled up in front of a swanky apartment complex, and V led you up the stairs to his apartment. When he opened the door and ushered you in, you were in awe with how gorgeous it was. Did he have an interior decorator or did he really just have impeccable taste? He watched you with amused eyes as you surveyed the surroundings. You felt his warmth behind you as he leaned in, breath tickling your ear.

“I can give you the grand tour if you’d like later, but right now I really just want you in my bed.” he said, his tongue darting out and licking along the shell of your ear and sending shivers throughout your entirety.

You pressed yourself up against him, attaching your lips to his in a heated kiss. Slowly, he walked you backwards down the hall, never breaking the delicious dance your tongues were engaged in as he led you to his room. You fell back on his large bed, and his body hovered over yours instantly. Feeling his whole body on top of yours was heavenly, you could feel the rise and fall of his chest as he took heavy breaths, feel the rapid beating of his heart.

His hands snaked their way down to the hem of your shirt, tugging it off your body. You were pretty sure you heard it rip in his haste but you couldn’t find it in yourself to care, not with the way his eyes wandered over your skin in amazement. He picked up your hand and kissed your wrist, slowly making his way up your arm to your neck. He leaned down and placed soft, chaste kisses along your collarbone and the tops of your breast that your bra didn’t cover, before discarding that too.

His lips wrapped around your nipples, causing a groan to erupt from deep within you. His tongue circled the sensitive nub as his large hand kneaded and gently pinched the other. His teeth grazed your nipple slightly, making you gasp at the shockwave it sent through you. His blazing kisses made their way down your stomach, as though he was worshiping every inch of your exposed skin. You sighed contentedly before deciding he was wearing too many clothes.

You reached up and began unbuttoning his dress shirt, slowly revealing his decadently  tanned skin. Your mouth watered with each new inch revealed. He threw it carelessly across the room once you’d gotten all the buttons undone, and you stared at his chest as your own fluttered. He was so fucking beautiful. You reached up and trailed your fingers along  his abdomen, gently brushing along his nipples and earning a quiet groan as you traced the lines of his abs.

He patiently waited, letting you admire his body above yours, legs on either side of you, caging you in. You glanced up into his eyes and were surprised to find fondness there. You blushed and looked away. You felt his body shake as he chuckled. Using one swift motion, he pulled down your skirt and panties, tossing them aside. Your arousal was dripping down your legs and you would’ve felt ashamed if you hadn’t caught the way his eyes lit up at the sight of your dripping core.

He began placing kisses along your inner thigh, teasing you. Just like he had been in his office, he was so close to where you wanted him but not nearly close enough.

“So wet for me baby. So pretty.” he praised, causing your chest to constrict with pride. “You don’t know how many times I’ve daydreamed about tasting you. How many nights I got off to the thought of making you cum on my tongue.”

His dirty words had you clenching around nothing, and he smirked. He leaned down, licking a bold stripe between your folds.

“Oh fuck-” left your lips before you could stop yourself and V chuckled from his position nestled between your thighs, vibrations running right to your clit.

You bucked your hips at the sensation, and V slid one hand up to hold you down as his tongue began its assault on your sensitive nub. You couldn’t control your soft moans when his tongue swirled around your clit and he inserted one of his long fingers deep into your heat. They felt even better than you imagined they would. V slowly added a second finger and curled them expertly to hit that spot inside of you that had you wriggling on the bed.

He added a third finger, the stretch burning for only a moment before pleasure took over. Between his fingers pumping into you and his tongue dancing on your clit, you couldn’t hold back anymore, his name falling from your lips over and over while you rode out your high on his skilled tongue. V rose from between your thighs with a satisfied smile on his lips. The same lips that were dripping with your juices. He ran his tongue along them before pressing them to yours, letting you taste yourself.

“Holy shit.” you complimented.

“Enjoy yourself? I know I did.” V purred, bringing your lips together once more and tugging your bottom one between his teeth slowly.

Could this man be any sexier? Fuck.

“Mmm… yes. Now let me return the favor.” you grinned, popping open the button on his slacks.

“Baby girl, as much as I would love to have your pretty lips wrapped around my cock, I really need to be inside you.” he told you. You shuddered under his hungry gaze.

“Then why aren’t you fucking me?” you threw back at him.

Something flashed in V’s eyes that you couldn’t quite place before he was tearing his clothes off of his body and reaching into his bedside drawer for a foil square. Your mouth fell open when his thick cock was released from its confines. You’d always imagined he’d have a big one, but damn. He was long, thick, and dripping precum. His length was absolutely delicious looking, throbbing with want.

“Like what you see?” he grinned cockily, but he had every reason to be.

“Love what I see.” you licked your lips seductively.

V winked at you while he rolled the condom on and lined himself at your entrance. When he slid himself inside of you, you felt like you were being torn in two, brought back together, lifted from your body. The pain lasted only a few seconds before the indescribable pleasure took over. Breathless noises fell past his lips as he moved slowly, waiting to make sure you had adjusted.

“Fuck, V-please.” you pleaded, needing him to move.

No sooner than you’d taken another shaky breath, V was giving his all and pounding into you so wonderfully, you were sure you’d die of pleasure. He filled you up so perfectly, like he was made to be inside you. You were made for the sole purpose of fucking Kim Taehyung.  The only word you could manage to form coherently was the call of his name as he fucked into you so good you couldn’t focus on anything but him and the way he made you feel.

Each thrust brought you closer to your high, and each grunt and moan from him proved he was losing his mind just as must as you were. Without warning, his hand came up to cup your neck, pressing in on either side. Sweat pooled on his temples and he watched you with hungry eyes as your own widened in surprise. You leaned your head back to give him better access while never breaking eye contact.

V grinned victoriously, adding slight pressure to his hold on your neck, careful not to press too hard. Your fists gripped the sheets as everything became too much, you were so close, and all you could do to warn him was whine his name desperately.

“Cum on my cock, let go for me baby.” he commanded, and who were you to argue?

Your orgasm swept over you, pulling you to new heights you’d never felt before. White spots clouded your vision and your back arched off the bed into Tae’s body. Your moans turned high pitched and your whole body shook with the euphoria washing through you. V rode you through your high, milking it for all it was worth, and when you finally came down, body falling limply on the bed, his movements became sloppy and desperate. His own climax finally claiming him and his O face, the noises he made, they were the hottest thing you’d ever heard in your life.

He fell next to you on the bed, both of you breathing so hard you couldn’t even talk. He discarded the used condom and turned to you, pulling your head into his chest and wrapping his arms around you. You were overwhelmed with a feeling of safety and comfort, the feeling of home. For the first time in your life, you felt like you belonged. You felt like you belonged wrapped in the warm embrace of Kim Taehyung. You snuggled closer to him and he hummed appreciatively. Soon, you were both asleep in each others’ arms, too spent from the best sex of your life to do anything else.

Waking up next to Taehyung was both the most comforting thing you’d ever felt, and also the most terrifying. You’d just slept with your boss. The CEO of your company. You were fairly certain he’d wanted you to stay the night after wrapping you up in his arms, but did he want you here when he woke up? You’d felt like you’d finally found home wrapped up in his strong embrace, but did he? As if your thoughts had summoned him, he rolled over, stretching his arms above his head and smiling at you.

“Good morning, beautiful. Sleep well?” he asked.

“Best sleep I’ve ever had.” you admitted, cheeks turning bright red as you hid your face in your hands.

He grinned and shot up, his hands gripping your wrists and pinning them above your head as he trapped your body under his on the bed.

“Don’t hide that gorgeous face from me.” he tutted, feigning offense.

“V!” you whined, your whole face flushing.

He chuckled, placing a gentle kiss on your lips before lifting himself off of you. He pulled on a pair of boxers and looked over at you sweetly.

“Coffee?” he inquired.

“Please. Two sugars?” you smiled appreciatively.

He nodded and disappeared into the rest of the apartment to fulfill your request. You changed into one of his work shirts to cover yourself, settling back into the bed. He brought back two steaming cups of coffee and handed yours to you, watching you carefully as you brought it to your lips and took a sip, sighing happily as the warm liquid coated your tongue.

“You look so beautiful like this.” Tae spoke suddenly, quietly.

“In your clothes?” you giggled.

“In my clothes, in my bed, happy.” he smiled, “I hope I get to see this side of you often.”

“I’m yours as long as you want me.” you blushed, taking a drink to hide the blush growing on your cheeks.

His answer was taking the coffee from you and setting it down before placing a soft kiss on yours.

[klutzymaiden123]

Some Tips on How I Keep Motivating Myself to Write

This post was inspired by a response I recently got from @pastelnightgale and obviously, I’m not an expert (I’m literally on year 6 of a fanfic rip), but I still wanted to type something up about this. 

I find that the hardest part about writing is finding the motivation to actually start it . . . and then keep it. You can have all of these intricate fantasies in your head, with twists and turns and even a playlist you made on spotify, but actually getting up and writing it is ridiculously hard. 

Especially if, like me, you suffer from perfectionism. 

I kinda wanted to write a post about how I personally motivate myself to write, both fanfiction and my own things. Obviously, what I write is flawed and needs a lot of improvement, but I’ve come really far and I’m proud of the progress I’ve made. 

So, here’s some tips I’ve picked up over the years. Feel free to apply this to whatever art you personally create, but this is primarily for writers.

1) Listening to Music

This is my number one. Easily. I’m someone who has a lot of attachment with the music I listen to (as most people do, I’d assume). Though I’m picky with the overall sound, I prefer music or artists who really put a lot of thought into their lyrics specifically. Or even when they use certain effects to carry across emotions or add more emphasis to specific lines. It’s why I’m such a fan of Taylor Swift; her songs are basically poetry packaged as pop music. 

It personally helps me to listen to music not just because it’s enjoyable, but it helps create scenarios in my head. We all shoot music videos in our head, why not try doing it with your characters? Plus, if the artist you’re listening to plays with words through metaphors or similies or imagery, it’s a massive bonus. I seriously recommend turning to music, whatever genre you listen to, and letting that sometimes paint the picture for you.

2) watching Movies. 

This is a massive one for me. I don’t know how high this would be on anyone else’s lists since films are obviously a completely different medium to books, but I find there’s a lot of things that can be useful about movies. For one thing, movies just have better fight sequences. Kinda obvious statement, but I don’t mean in a ‘well you can see it so therefore film is better’ no, I mean, film literally has better action sequences. 

Obviously, as a writer, you’re never going to be able to properly adapt the quick pace of fights in movies. But you can adapt the details in how they move. Fight scenes in movies are better then books because they’re choreographed. Now granted, I’m still beginning my journey in reading, but so far, I haven’t been impressed with what I’ve seen. Either the author writes a scene that describes the action, but with no focus on the strain it has on the character’s bodies, or they gloss over the fight completely. It makes me feel like I’m reading fanfiction, but written from the younger side. 

It’s just super dissapointing, so I try to challenge myself by studying how the characters moves, the impact of their movements on each other, and then how tired that can leave them. 

But also, movies can have other things that I think writers should learn to adapt. Like a character’s mannerisms. Now, I don’t just mean mannerisms as in what they do in their day to day lives, I mean facial ticks. Like, the minute sequences their features will go through as they’re processing news. Or their stances. Or what they do with their hands. Actors are very detailed about how they’re protraying their characters, and I just find myself aching to carry that over in my own portrayal of my characters.

It’s obviously important to realise that film and novels have both their benefits and disadvantages in what they can and can’t portray. But it’s even more important to realise that different mediums can also teach us things about our sense of portrayals.

3) Reading books

This may be surprising that it’s not number one, but honestly, I didn’t start reading actual books until late last year. I kinda used to read some in high school, but those were few and far between. This year I’ve actively been trying to emerge myself in more professional writing, as I do find it a little strange to want to write so badly without taking any infleunce from any other writers. 

Previously, I used to take inspiration from fanfiction and fictionpress, which I guess I still do. There’s definitely benefits in exclusively reading them (for instance, I prefer characterisation, romance and comedy in fanfiction) but I personally find books to be better in overall world building. I mean, obviously.

World building and setting are my weak spots, and I find that reading literal books actually helps me easier improve on these areas. Oh, and length. I’m a pretty detailed writer, but it’s sometimes hard to navigate what should and shouldn’t be getting so much focus. Fanfiction is pretty short (typically only a few pages), but books can be a whole lot longer, and how they use that space and length helps me translate it into my own pages. Granted, I tend to write way too much, but it’s still really helpful in navigating what should and shouldn’t be getting focus.

Oh, and bonus points for booktubers. They review a variety of different books, and for me personally, whenever they critique books, it motivates me to write something brilliant so they could maybe read it and smile. My favourites are WithCindy and Dominic Noble.

4) Tumblr—Specifically writing blogs. 

When I tell you that I did nothing in my last years of high school but secretly read fanfiction and writing blogs on tumblr in class, I--

Obviously, I’m biased, cause I’ve been reading tips on here since I was a kid, but I really recommend following some good blogs on here. They give such good advice, specifically on how to research, or portray certain emotions and, most of all, representation. Tumblr was actually where I learnt to write my fight scenes—about how to portray the feeling of a quick sequence of events, while balancing it out with your character’s limited view. They write things I haven’t even seen professionals talk about (and honestly, I think they could benefit from reading a tumblr blog). 

My personal favourite blogs are: Nimble’s Notebook, and Clevergirlhelps

5) Re-writes.

Okay, this is a massive one I should’ve mentioned in the beginning. Never compare what you have on your word doc to what others have published. Why? Because I can tell you that they did not start off like that. They went through massive amounts of editing and drafting and re-reads before coming out like this clean cut version. Trust me. No one’s that quick. And even if they are, who cares? It could take you two drafts, it could take you four, it could take you nine--we all work at our own pace.

It’s something I have to keep reminding myself when I’m on my first and second draft. Because they are shit. I always feel untalented when writing my first draft--oh, and that’s not a purposeful dig at myself to get compliments, I genuinely mean that. I will never let someone read one of my early drafts because they are literally so bad, and not only that, but those drafts are for me. They’re not there for anyone else yet. Early drafts are just so you can start to build your empire, they’re your foundation. You can reach for the sky the more you keep building. 

Don’t get on your own case if you don’t like your first draft. It’s fine. It gets so much easier the more you rewrite it. Trust me.

6) Write Things for You.

This is one of my favourite tips. Oh, and I don’t mean it in a ‘you’re not writing for an audience, you are the audience’ kinda way. No, I mean literally write things for you. And only for you.

If you have a story in your head that you don’t want to write because you know it’s just a phase, it won’t last long enough for you to make something out of, or you’re not confident in it, or whatever, fuck it—just write it. 

Open your word doc and type it out. Then don’t post it. Or share it. Keep it on your computer, stored away in a folder you won’t ever share. You might be asking, why would you waste your time on a project no one will ever see? Simple. 

It takes away the pressure.

A major hindrance to a writer actually writing is sometimes . . . not feeling good enough. You’re worried that an audience will laugh or mock what you’ve written, or that it won’t turn out just the way you planned it too, or even that the plot is too corny. Well, what I’ve found is that writing for myself stops me from judging myself so badly. I have so many documents on this computer of corny borderline wattpad stories that will never see the life of day. And it feels great. Cause I’m still actively writing and improving myself while eliminating that huge amount of anxiety that plagues me. 

This is such a massive tip, please consider it. Obviously, if the story turns out really well, go ahead and post it if you’re super proud of it. But otherwise, just write something with the intention of not sharing it. Keep it to yourself, so you can look back on it with fond memories. 

[bellablue42]

Myself as a writer and Death of the Author

I’m trying to write a novel, and it’s really hard. I feel like I’m not getting anywhere, I’m on my fifth draft and trying to create a lengthy enough narrative that doesn’t feel like filler. It is difficult, to say the least, and I really admire people with the ability to write quickly and well. 

But there’s a lot about She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named going around again, and it made me think. We all know that she’s not the best person, but she is a writer, and she is a creator, and her works are widespread. And that... causes problems.

Is it ok to consume her work? How much do her opinions reflect in her work, and can we spot it? I have no idea, but here’s my best shot, as an aspiring writer and a high-school literature student.

Please be warned I have no experience, and I’m kind of making this up as I go along, but here we go.

Last year, at the start of the school year, in Literature, my class watched Midnight in Paris. The movie was written and directed by Woody Allen, who is... well-known for all the wrong reasons, namely allegedly assulting seven-year-old Dylan Farrow. One of the girls in my class pointed out this fact, and my teacher nodded and said that we were discussing Death of the Author.

Death of the Author is an interesting topic. It holds that an author’s intentions and background should have no impact on interpreting a text. It is interesting, and it is really bloody hard to do.

Keep in mind that if you pick up a book by a relatively famous author, you will know something about them. If you take Mrs Dalloway, for example, if you’ve ever heard of Virginia Woolf, you will doubtless know that she was a writer and that she committed suicide, even if you know nothing else. The fact that she did commit suicide will influence the way you read Mrs Dalloway.

If you read Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath, for example, you will probably know that Plath was not mentally healthy and committed suicide by sticking her head in an oven. And that will influence the way you read Lady Lazarus. If you read any of Lovecraft’s work, you will come to the conclusion that he is a racist. It’s not hard to figure out.

Death of the Author means separating these facts from the way you interpret a work. It is really hard, trust me.

Because we look for links, everywhere we look for these links. We know that Sylvia Plath committed suicide, so when you read Lady Lazarus, you make connections. Go read Lady Lazarus now, go read it knowing that Plath committed suicide, and keep that fact in mind. Here’s the link: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49000/lady-lazarus

Now read it again, and try to forget it, all the connections you made knowing that Plath stuck her head in an oven. It is really hard to do, because you know, and you remember. Death of the Author is forgetting the context of the author, forgetting their impact on the text.

Here’s a thing, I write a lot. Like, a lot. Not published, obviously, but I write about as much as I read, and that is a lot. And I believe, that when you write, you put a bit of yourself into it. It doesn’t have to be obvious, maybe just the way you connect to a character, or your views on a topic. I can’t say I don’t do this - my main character is an asexual lesbian who panics a lot and loves her girlfriend. Her competence doesn’t come from me, but the gender, the sexuality, the panic? All of that is inspired by, you know, me. My experiences, my opinions. I am conscious in my word choices, I’m trying not to use gendered language for the soldiers, because they are men, women, non-binary, genderfluid and others, all together, so my main character can’t call them her men, they are her soldiers. It’s hard. I’m aware that I have biases, and my reading experiences are usually texts that ... do not do this. 

Sorry, I’m rambling, and no-one wants to know. 

But I as a writer, put a bit of myself in my work. And I think that’s what makes Death of the Author so hard to do, so hard to remember. 

And now onto HER. I can’t remember what brought my attention to her in the first place, maybe a post about a Harry Potter tv show?

The problem about JK Rowling is that she wrote Harry Potter. And Harry Potter is... huge. The problem is that we grew up on Harry Potter. 

Looking back, there are big problems with the series; plot holes bigger than my fist, a lack of original plot lines, and little creativity. Harry Potter is a mishmash of already well-established genres and archetypes, and it... doesn’t fit together particularly well. 

(Take Dumbledore, at once the mentor archetype from the fantasy genre and the authority figure in the boarding school genre. The problem is that being both causes a bit of dissonance. He mimics the typical ‘wise old mentor wizard’ from fantasy, like Gandalf, but he is also a school headmaster. He is a grandfatherly teacher who takes an interest in the son of two of his past students, nothing particularly new, but at the same time, he’s a figure out of legend, an incredibly powerful man, both magically and politically. It is hard for my brain to fit them together well because they are two different archetypes and they don’t mesh. They belong in different genres, because the way he is written can’t seem to decide which one he is. I might write more on this later if anyone’s interested)

But Rowling’s a TERF. And she’s been on Twitter and said all sorts of bizarre things about the odd mish-mash of genres she’s created. I’m not really a fan of Harry Potter anymore, I grew up with it. I have seven books in a shoebox under my bed. I have read far better books, I have read many, many books with more interesting stories, better internal consistency and characters with actual depth, who don’t need fandom to be interesting. 

And yet I still have all seven books in a shoebox under my bed. It’s hard. I genuinely liked the books - when I was twelve. I’d sooner recommend the Discworld books by the late great Sir Terry Pratchett than Harry Potter, and not just because of HER. They’re better books. Harry Potter is average. 

But we loved them. 

And Rowling’s a TERF. Her views on trans people are... not okay, by any measure. I don’t have words for ... how great the cognitive dissonance is. She wrote a series, a seven-book, eight-movie series, about the power of unconditional love. Over a million words, just under 20 hours about acceptance and tolerance. And yet she doesn’t believe that trans women are women. 

The problem is that it is hard to apply Death of the Author. Once you know that JK discriminates against transgender people, it is hard to read Harry Potter without remembering that. 

Then you get into other issues about how all of the endgame couples are straight. And Dumbledore’s only gay when the series is ended. And there’s a lack of diversity in the books and the movies. And once you start reading into it, it gets ... iffy. Because it’s not meant to be read into, not meant to be analysed. It’s a children’s series. But it’s problematic, not for the things it says, but fo the things it doesn’t say.

The thing is that SHE is impressive. As a writer, at least, not as a person. Because it is hard to write, and she managed an extensive, relatively-coherent storyline across seven books, released over ten years. But her first book got rejected, again and again. 

Her net worth is somewhere between 650 million and 1.2 billion. And she earns all that money off a book series whose main themes are friendship and love. And she’s a TERF.

I can’t say I hate her - I don’t know her. She might be a genuinely nice person, but she’s a TERF. She doesn’t believe that trans people are the gender that they say they are. I cannot understand how you can believe that, but. She does, apparently. She wrote so much about love conquering all evil, and friendship saving the day, but she doesn’t think that trans women should be allowed into female bathrooms.

I hate her ideology. 

Go read Discworld instead. Think about Death of the Author, then read Night Watch. It’s a great book. Or go read Good Omens, because Pratchett co-wrote that. 

The thing about Discworld is that you can tell what Pratchett thinks is worth paying attention to. Small Gods is primarily about religion, about belief, and about people. The last one is the most important, because Pratchett believed that the greatest thing you can be is human and kind, and he’s right. The witches on the Discworld are... perhaps not nice, but they are decent, and they are fundamentally people. They are human, and they are kind, and that is what makes them good people. 

The thing about Harry Potter is that “Muggle” sounds like a slur. There’s all this attention paid to the whole “mudblood” thing that people forget that behind all the blood purity nonsense - which sounds a lot like eugenics - the purebloods, the rich entitled kids, believe that non-magical people are less than animals. The Wizarding world is stuck in the Middle Ages, not even the bloody Renaissance. Human history has passed them by. It is so hard now to read Harry Potter without finding problems, like how all the magicals are fundamentally stupid, how a literal one-year-old is praised for supposedly killing an extremely powerful mass-murdering psycopath. A one-year-old. The Wizarding World is not a functional society, and it’s not meant to be. It’s not meant to hold up to scrutiny.

Look, Harry Potter is average, at best. Ask me for good kids books and I will point you in a dozen different directions, and I will point you in a dozen different directions - but not there. 

Because Death of the Author is hard. Not taking the creator’s intentions and background into account when interpreting a work is hard. You can know that an author is queer, or a person of colour, or of a certain religion, but once you know it, it is hard to not see it. 

You see, all the main characters in Harry Potter are white. They’re also all straight. Everyone not Harry Potter is flat. There is very little depth to anyone in those books, because they don’t matter. Hermione is defined by her relationship with Ron because her relationship is the most debated part of her character. Ron - in the movies at least - is seen as stupid because he is written stupid, he is written as comic relief. Book-verse Ron is a strategist, but that’s only really shown in the first two books. They’re not written with depth, they don’t need it. Harry’s the protagonist, Hermione’s the smart one, Ron’s the dumb-but-loyal comic-relief best friend. Ginny is the love interest, Luna’s the crazy one, the twins are comic-relief pranksters. Draco is the racist antagonist, Voldemort is a more extreme mass-murdering version. There are exactly zero trust-worth adults in a whole seven-book series, there are three? characters with depth in the whole series, everyone else is defined by a role and a single characteristic.

It is so hard to look critically at Harry Potter and not see everything that relates to Rowling. It is problematic as a series, and problematic as content created by a TERF. It is problematic as literature in the first place. It’s written as a kids book, but for all its ‘adult’ themes, it can’t stand up to scrutiny.

This got long - I got a bit carried away. Sorry.

Tell me what you think, tell me your opinion. I’d love to discuss this with you because it so hard to write about. Argue with me, tell me I’m wrong. Tell me I’m right if you think I am. Have I said anything problematic? Please lets start talking about this because it’s interesting and a difficult topic, and I think we need to start looking closer at authors and content creators. 

[ronbegleyformayor]

So this is going to be a long post—your question gets to the larger topic that is episode 100. Also to anyone reading this I would appreciate if you took a minute or two to read the whole thing—I purposefully waited a while to respond to this so my response would come across as measured as possible.

So anyone plugged into queer theory and media has probably heard of the term “bury your gays”. It’s a trope that goes at least as far back as lesbian pulp fiction novels from the early 20th century, and for a number of reasons that I’m not remotely qualified to comment on the trope has persisted into modern media. As the name implies, bury your gays is the implicit belief that for a story about gay people to end correctly, usually one or both members of a gay couple are killed before the it ends. Whether intentional or not, the trope is rooted in the idea that gay couples are not supposed to be together, that queer love is a temporary fantasy that must be righted by the end of the story. A weird kind of offshoot of this is the causing of gay characters to suffer through loneliness or separation from a partner, and it comes from the underlying idea that gay=alone. Frequently this manifests in queer characters feeling that they have to choose between family and friends and the “"gay lifestyle”“ when in reality those two things frequently are not mutually exclusive. A subset of this trope is featuring a gay character (or frequently the partner of a more-established gay character) as possessed by some form of “evil” to emphasize which side of the temptation is “correct” and which isn’t.

I’m guessing you can see what I’m teeing up here, so I’ll just add as a caveat that most writers (especially straight writers) do not necessarily agree with the homophobia behind these tropes, nor is it (usually) their intent to perpetuate negative stereotypes about gay people. That being said the legacy of this trope is alive in a lot of media, and intentional or not: gay people suffering is entrenched in how we think about writing them.

Now to be extra clear, I’m not (necessarily) saying this is what King Falls is doing. So far the writing of queer themes and homophobia has been nuanced and has avoided a lot of the pitfalls that have come to be expected, but I would also be lying if I didn’t say episode 100 didn’t rub me the wrong way, and for a couple of specific reasons, too.

For me what that boils down to is characterization and timing.

Let’s talk about characterization first.

Just think about this for a second: what do you know about Jack Wright? No really, can you name anything beyond the bare minimum of characteristics? He’s a journalist and radio host, has a belief in the paranormal, and loves Sammy. He has a sister and a fiancé, has black hair and brown eyes, and plays rugby. I can’t think of a single other concrete fact we’ve learned about him specifically, and being generous like less than half of the things on that list don’t directly have to do with Sammy. Now we could extrapolate bits of his personality based on the two very short clips we’ve ever heard of him and from what’s implied by Sammy and Lily, but that’s also kind of the point: everything we know about Jack Wright is almost exclusively based off his sister and his fiancé, both of whom are anything but unbiased. Did you notice how Lily trashed Sammy and Jack’s radio show in the first King Falls Chronicles but then went on to call Jack smart and prolific in his field like five minutes later? It’s a(n understandable) level of cognitive dissonance for someone who was going through the difficult process of grieving. Both Sammy and Lily are biased sources of information because both care very deeply for Jack. On it’s own that really isn’t a problem—in fact I would say it’s an opportunity for an interesting bit of narrative contrast between the perception of Jack and the reality of when we actually get to meet him.

That at least was my opinion.

Instead we have this ”“dark”“ version of Jack, a lover just out of reach who’s trying to tempt Sammy into leaving his family and friends for the “freedom” of the void. This is a situation that, if I’m being honest, has some homophobic tinges, and hearing the dialogue played out the way it was kind of made my stomach turn (and not in the fun, scared-to-death at 3AM way I’m used to).

Now please don’t misunderstand me. I don’t think this is what the writers were intending, nor do I think that there is anything necessarily wrong with having a normally good character occupy a “bad guy” role. When done correctly it can be interesting and compelling, and help tease out different aspects of a character or relationship dynamic. The issue isn’t that we’re seeing a “bad” version of Jack, the issue is that a. the specific wording of his interaction made my homophobia alarm bells go off, and more critically b. this “bad” version of of Jack is the only true version of him we know. Having him in a “bad” role outside his norm would be interesting if we actually had a real-time, in-person Jack with which to compare him. We might have a constructed idea of who he is from descriptions of biased sources close to him or tapes that are probably a decade old, but we only need to hear from this ”“shadow”“ Jack two more times and it’ll be more times than we’ve heard even recordings of the real Jack.

Emily, for example, had a baseline character established before her abduction. We got to know her as a character before she went missing, so when we eventually saw her as a different version of herself, we had a baseline understanding of how she typically acts in a situation, which is something we just don’t have with Jack.

Also, do you notice how Jack never directly spoke to Lily? He talked about her, but never to her, and can we take a moment to appreciate the gravity of that moment? Jack (or whatever was controlling him) had the opportunity to lure one of the four members of the "named” in the prophecy in the book, and instead of choosing his sister, the person he has known for his entire life and the only flesh and blood family with whom he’s in contact, and he chose to lure Sammy instead, to make Sammy choose between a gay relationship and the support system he’s built up.

Can you understand why this kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth? It feels a little like the “love the sinner” (Jack), hate the sin (being “bad”, trying to make Sammy have to decide between romance and a family), and that’s an adage that queer people tend to get tired of really quickly.

Again, because I really don’t want to be misunderstood, I don’t think this is what the writers intended; in fact I’m guessing the thought probably never even crossed their minds. But at the end of the day that’s kind of the point: if you’re going to make a show that subverts homophobic tropes (which I will readily say that they have done up until this point), you have to make sure not to accidentally fall into any of them yourself.

This leads me into my other issue with the episode: the timing.

My opinion toward the show right now would be considerably less harsh if this was not the last episode before a hiatus. I’m not saying the show can’t take breaks, but ending after this episode specifically? We are left with a very specific image of who Jack is, and exactly what kind of influence he has on Sammy. We’re left with the impression that Sammy has to choose between his found family and a gay relationship, and just to put icing on the cake we’re being told there is going to be another hiatus, prolonging the suffering of a character who has been through quite a lot already.

If this wasn’t the episode before a hiatus, I wouldn’t be as unhappy because we would have more immediate reactions to what had happened. We would have the four of them discussing it in detail. Maybe we even would have gotten a chance to hear Sammy himself say that this wasn’t Jack, and even get to hear more detail from him about who Jack is, if not what we heard. Maybe we would have actually gotten to see them get a step closer to getting Jack back instead of now knowing that the void has been opened, and we have to wait for another few months to see if the gay characters will ever get something even resembling a happy ending.

But we didn’t get any of that. Instead we got a cold, empty laugh that I haven’t been able to get out of my head since.

This isn’t to say that the show is headed in a bad direction. I think because this was not the intent that there is still plenty potential for things to stay on the rails. But what it looks like from here is that we are just continuing to prolong the suffering of the gay couple that sits at the emotional heart of the show’s main plotline. I’m just getting to a point where I’m starting to lose faith that we will see anything but it.

also huge thanks to @calebmichaels and @deputytroy. a lot of these points were the distillation of conversations between us, and if you think that I made a particularly interesting point at all in this post, it was probably their idea, not mine.

[allycatthebadboycappp]

books i read in april

hello.

hi.

i like to read. and this year it became somewhat of a goal of mine to make reading a habit. not because it was some new year’s resolution, no, it just happened upon one morning when i woke up and legit said “i need to read more” — i may have also gotten caught up in booktube (what a fun niche).

and even though i’m a bit late for april i still want to share the books i read in april and what i thought of them (cause.. you know.. my opinion is so important). i also created some book covers (some better than others — quite frankly, i got lazy).

1, the sorrows of young werther by johann wolfgang von goethe

my take: i should let you know i’m biased, since i spent the last 10 years calling the sorrows of young werther my favourite… and i still do. i’ve read it for the third time in full now and before that i used to read single letters of this collection. and. i. love. it. goethe is romantic, philosophical and depressed and it shows through his work. every chapter (or letter — yes, this is a story told through letters) is like a painting, you can visualise it as easily as breathing. actually, you can breathe in this novel and it’ll make you feel like you forgot how to breathe for a second. it will sit in your lungs and live there while you think about this absolute masterpiece (and i do enjoy it when a book makes you think about it).

should i read it? yes… if you can openly talk about and discuss suicide and its many viewpoints. you’ll also need to get along with a lot of  “oh my’s” and the feeling thereof. basically, if you’re a romantic, philosophical and depressed fool like goethe and like me, YES.

rating: 5 kittens

2, snow white and rose red, a matthew hope novel by ed mcbain

my take: a little info beforehand; i picked it up at the vintage section of strand bookstore in new york for a dollar purely for the title. i finally read it while i was waiting on some new books and was pleasantly surprised to find it was a crime novel with a hitchcock twist. i like the characters and even though it’s apparently part of a series you can read it without having read the others. essentially, you follow matthew hope as he finds himself entangled with a girl in white he is to have released from an asylum (he’s a lawyer) all the while detective bloom is trying to figure out who murdered a girl in red.

should i read it? do you like hitchcock and crime? then, yes, absolutely.

rating: 4 kittens

3, norwegian wood by haruki murakami

my take: this one.. this one made me angry. i wanted to like it so much. i wanted the bragging rights that come with loving this book. i wanted it to be one of my favourites. but it didn’t become one of them. and that isn’t due to the themes of sexuality, mental illness and suicide murakami covers or his way of writing them. he actually did a great job of de-stigmatizing those and if it would’ve been just for that norwegian wood would indeed be one of my favourites. no, it’s the structure for me.  you can splice it into four sections: the beginning, the main - or - middle part, the pre-ending and the ending. reading it was as though murakami’s words were like a thread delicately woven through the pages that unraveled at the middle part and then were completely lost at the ending. you should probably know that i’m a slut for a good ending, but this one i disliked with a passion. not just what the protagonist did within it but also how it didn’t connect to the beginning in a way that made me think i was reading a whole different book than what i started reading…which may have been the point but just not to my personal taste. murakami shattered a perfectly fine stained-glass-window he just crafted to make a new one from the shards. that’s exactly what it felt like reading norwegian wood for me.

should i read it? a lot like with goethe: if you can openly talk about suicide and death as an every-day thing, yes. murakami does a brilliant job of twriting about them as such.

rating: 4 kittens.

4, the snows of kilimanjaro by ernest hemingway

my take: rapist, racist, mysogonistic trash

should i read it? no. no one should.

rating: no kittens, not even dead ones.

5, nightsky with exit wounds by ocean vuong

my take: a lot of trauma is what i took from it. this poetry collection gave me a very personal history lesson, which i enjoyed but it wasn’t for my personal taste. nonetheless i can see the appeal, vuong has a solid way of telling his story. it is quite repetitive but that’s one of the things i like about nightsky with exit wounds, it underlines the trauma neatly and will hit you over and over again, much like vuong must’ve been feeling while writing.

should i read it? if you’re up for trauma and don’t mind maybe not understanding at first read. and if you’re up for some pube-tastic surprises.

rating: 3 kittens.

6, less by andrew sean greer

my take:  this one might be worth a double-read. remember what i said about me being a slut for a good ending? this one’s ending turned the whole book around for me. most of the time while reading i was thinking “how fucking pretentious” and it didn’t hit me how sad less really was until a few days after i finished it. in the end the book really comes full circle, which i love, and greer does a phenomenal job placing all the right dots for you to connect. it really leaves you feeling accomplished, with a pretty picture in hand (though sad when you really look at it). the last chapter really made me feel things, good things and i can now honestly say that i whole-heartedly recommend less with every fiber of my being.

should i read it? yes, it’s very gay and very good.

rating: 5 kittens. 

7, ariel by sylvia plath

my take: poetry, again. i adore plath’s instinct for rhythm, it’s off but it isn’t and i am a sucker for that. it’s like plath is forcing you to breath in deeply and then not letting you exhale until you get to the next line. i liked how repetitive she was, though at times it was too repetitive for me, it was very much the thought of “i read that before” with many hospital and atlantic similes.

should i read it? a little bit of sylvia plath won’t hurt, so yeah. plus you get to read the line of “with my red hair, i eat men like air” in context.

rating: 4 kittens.

[readersguidetotheuniverse]

Folie a Trois: a group read of... More Than Maybe by Erin Hahn

The supporting characters

Ariadna: From Zack to Meg, Phil to Marcus... I really liked that the supporting characters had background and depth... for a YA romance novel, that it is. Ok, they are not the deepest, most exceptional characters –they are a little bit stereotyped, and everything is sooo rose-coloured tinted–, but I appreciate how the relationships between them are depicted and how every one of them has their own unique quirks and background story. Nevertheless, I must add... I think Hahn’s attempt to make all the characters these goody-two-shoes has made some characters sort of a decaf version of what they should realistically be, see Charlie Greenly, Phil Josephs, Cullen... At times they were so soft they became even boring to me. I understand Hahn’s religious views, but honestly, no one is that good.

Alicia: I liked the supporting characters quite a lot, actually, all of them. In many young adult novels you find rather flat secondary characters that only exist to complement the main characters, but not in this one. All of them were complex, with their own defined personalities and their own stories. There were a few moments when I got a bit irritated by someone's actions, Cullen uploading Luke's song behind his back, for example. But real people are flawed and make mistakes so it's only fair that fictional characters do, too. 

Marina: First off, I have to say I loved all the secondary characters. I have to agree with Ariadna though, they are not overly deep but they get you right on the feels. I especially enjoyed seeing the different relationships between them –Zach and Cullen <3–. To be honest I found it a bit frustrating that they all kept telling Vada how amazing she is and how well she’s doing but it takes Luke, a person whom she’s officially met recently, to stand up to her dead-beat father. Talking about fathers, Phil is an amazing father figure and I’m really glad he at least encouraged Vada to follow her dreams. On a side note, can I just say that the first time I read about Cullen and Zach I pictured a more lanky version of Emmett Cullen dating Zeke (from high School Musical)? And that’s why I found it hilariously amusing when they started talking about Teen Wolf. Whatever happened to those DVDs?!

The ‘Bad Apple’ club aka Charlie Greenly

Ariadna: We all grasp to certain extent how business —corporate, big-money businesses— work, and it is understandable Charlie’s nasty partners took advantage of a teen’s rage burst, but, oh, man, how it bothered me when they tried to ruin poor Phil’s fund-raiser... What bothered me the most, though, is how Charlie Greenly was that blind, how he couldn’t see, beyond his own interests, how important the Loud Lizard was for Luke, his friends and for Ann Arbor, or to what extent the whole ‘Break for You’ issue bothered his own son. I honestly think his heroic act at the end doesn’t quite redeem him of the harm he has done. Besides, Charlie was supposed to be a Punk-rock star... What’s really left of that personality? Has her wife and kids completely transformed him into a dull wimp? Not quite believable, this character is. 

Alicia: Charlie made me so mad at him that sometimes I wanted to throw the book across the room. I understand parents always think they know best, it's in their parent DNA. But it was really frustrating and irritating how he kept trying to get Luke to do whatever he wanted, without considering what his son actually wanted. He kept trying to convince Luke to do something he had stated time and time he didn't want to do and was not going to do. He used him for his own interests and treated him kinda badly just cause he didn't fit with his own expectations for him. Realistic as it could be for most people, it's still shitty. It's almost cathartic how he redeems himself at the end by quitting Bad Apple to support his son but that doesn't change his shitty behavior towards Luke during most of the novel. 

Marina: I mean Charlie didn’t seem the brightest of the Greenly family, to be honest. I think he should probably listen to his sons more (and his wife). I find it hard to believe he didn’t know what he was getting into. He was a famous punk-rocker at a time where you had to be clever and sharp-witted, like, is he smart enough to stay away from hard drugs and keep his career afloat (and later become an accomplished music producer) but not know how to choose business partners? Apparently. And talking about his previous life as a punk-star… Can he stop trying to live his life through Luke? It finally dawned on him in the end, yes, but throughout the book Luke (and later Cullen) explicitly told him he didn’t want to be famous, it doesn’t excuse his behaviour!

Soundtrack

Ariadna: While some of the tracks on this book’s OST are not my cup of tea (see Demi and Taylor), I must confess: I’ve been listening to TøP the whole week. Hahn got me at Car Radio *shrugs*. Working in the book industry, I’ve always felt books, when possible, should offer something extra. I really love that this book, even more considering it is addressed to teens and YA, offers this little something to connect it to the readers’ real world, to make the story even more realistic. I think it is a loss that the book itself doesn’t include a QR code or a link to a playlist itself, but it is an easy search away in Spotify, thanks to some nice reader that has already put it up!

Alicia: I just had this one little issue with the music/artists mentioned in the novel: Vada hates Stevie Nicks and consequently I hate Vada. There won't be any hate towards Stevie Nicks in my presence. She is an excellent artist and I will not hear otherwise. Other than that I actually loved how important music in general is in the novel and how many real actual songs are shared along the story. I expected to find mostly alternative/indie bands so there was no surprise there. And music can tell a lot about someone so it was interesting to see the music Luke and Vada listen to, to understand them better. Also it was really nice to get so many songs in so many different styles to actually discover new songs myself. I'm really happy about how music really does play an important part in the book. 

Marina: I’ve mentioned I like it when authors add their little soundtracks to the books but this one goes far beyond that. You get to listen to the songs throughout the characters’ actions and feelings and the music is not only an add-on but it becomes part of the plot. Which, granted, it’s a book about a girl who writes reviews about bands and a boy that writes songs, how can music not be part of the book? But it goes beyond the “here’s a song that inspired this chapter/book/scene” to a basic subplot. Coincidentally, we all looked up different songs on Spotify because we hadn’t heard them before and we found a playlist made by a reader, we hope you enjoy it too!

Vada and Luke’s relationship

Ariadna: It is interesting to read a YA romance novel in which the main action doesn’t revolve 100% around the romance. It is way healthier than most: both Vada and Luke have clear goals and motivations that are not biased by their relationship, they motivate and encourage each other, there is no narcissistic chauvinist - submissive flower dynamics going on —thank the gods–, and they are supercute and honest with themselves. However —I always have one of these–, it is still a naive teen relationship, mostly in terms of the plotting and the writing. Surprisingly —see the irony— they both have had crushes on each other for years, but they haven’t acted upon it until now. They NEVER fail, get mad, do any bad deeds... ANYTHING. Are they even teenagers? Honestly, I hate when the characters in a book are these holier-than-thou perfection vessels. Added to the not-really-that-big-of-a-deal problems (what happened with the instagram issue? What about Vada’s funds for college? They don’t even really get *really* mad because of the Bad Apple thingy...), they feel kind of bland and not too realistic for my tastes. 

Alicia: At the beginning I thought it was a bit rushed, how quickly they trusted each other considering they had barely interacted before. Even if they had a crush on the other that doesn't mean they actually knew that person, not really. As they spent more time together and got to know each other, their relationship evolved pretty organically and naturally, to a point when it just made sense. It was really cute to see how they got closer through awkward encounters and how their passion for music helped them connect and relate to the other. Having read many young adult romances, it gets old very fast. The stories get kinda predictable and hard to believe. This one also had some predictable moments, almost all of them do, but overall it was a really nice love story, one I could actually believe. 

Marina: To be honest, I expected this book to be less about the music and more about the relationship between Luke and Vada. I think what Erin Hahn accomplished in this book is to show a much more mature relationship than I expected. I thought this would be your typical YA-Romance with a lot of drama and kissing, but instead I got a slow-burn story (so slow, it felt like moving through molasses) with depth, insecurities and, yes, drama. I think both these characters are more mature than expected on a YA romance novel and it was surprisingly refreshing. You still get some teenage-y sub-plots, i.e. the prom or even the 15-minutes of fame; but it doesn’t take away from the blossoming relationship between Luke and Vada.

The Grass is Greenly and Behind the Music 

Ariadna: I must be growing too old for this s**t, but I don’t get the whole podcast/blog thing. I get it, social networking does this kind of thing: turning a nobody into an internet sensation in a matter of days, but... I agree with Alicia, it is too much of a coincidence (one of the deus-ex-machina I so much hate) that both the main characters are internet-known... in a blog, nonetheless! Maybe Hahn could have used precisely this internet presence to make Vada and Luke meet each other, instead of the too-worn-out high-school cliché. And Marina has made me think... maybe some interludes as Cullen’s podcasts, letting us know some behind-the-scenes gossip (The Lindsay issue, Luke and Vada’s first kiss becoming viral, and so on...), would have spiced up the novel a bit more.

Alicia: Okay here's the part I just didn't believe and kind of threw me off a bit. What are the chances of a music blog and a podcast, both run by teenagers of the same age in the same city in the same bar, becoming really popular and actually viral. Who even reads blogs anymore anyway? (Says while writing in a blog). It was just quite hard to believe so many people read Behind the Music that even ROLLING STONE became interested. Yeah sure this extremely known successful music magazine wants a fresh out of high school blogger to work for them. And then the podcast. What could two teens have to say to have a podcast so popular that when Cullen uploads Luke's song it literally gets millions of reproductions and attracts attention everywhere. And both of them being run by two people working in the same place, going to the same high school… the world is not actually that small. Sorry it's just kind of extremely unrealistic and didn't particularly like that part. 

Marina: Seeing the “behind-the-scenes” of the day to day of a podcast was very interesting. I guess it would have been better if Cullen told the story as he is the one that does most of the work. Also, how did they get that famous? Is it just because of their dad? I don’t really get it. On the other side, I find it incredibly unbelievable that a teenage girl has that much input on a music blog that isn’t even hers and gets to go to concerts and stuff like that. I get that Phil is a cool guy but how come the blog is so famous and he doesn’t really care about it or mentions it much during the book besides sending Vada places? I just don’t understand that.

Overall

Ariadna: Honestly, I’m not one for YA romance novels, I think I’ve outgrown them by far, and they usually bore me. That said, this book has surprised me for good. It is a light read, doesn’t follow the genre clichés, it doesn’t make everything revolve around the main characters’ love interest, the supporting characters have personalities of their own and it has a wide-ranged well-put playlist, which I think is great for teens and young adults to read. I particularly didn’t like the religious issues coming up from time to time, but, overall, this is the best written book of the three we’ve already read for Folie a Trois, and that’s a lot to say! 

Alicia: Overall it was a really cute book. Initially it took me a while to get into it cause the plot wasn't exactly what I thought it would be, that was a tad disappointing. But then once you begin knowing the characters and they begin to know each other as well it's quite captivating and easy and quick to read. I really enjoyed the love story, I loved how diverse the characters are and how they interacted. I really like how the plot develops, too. If you're looking for a soft, cute, easy enjoyable read I definitely recommend this one. 

Marina: As most YA books that I read, it was entertaining but it didn't change my life. I really did like Vada and Luke's relationship, as I said I find it more mature for this genre; the music was a big highlight and the drama wasn't overwhelmingly dumb (as is the case in some other books). Overall a good book for summer and a light read for any other season ;)

[rigelmejo]

im thinking about how i heard avenuex once say that mxtx writes a bit simpler than priest... like they said mo dao zu shi is like... easier to read (although not as ‘literary’ whether i guess that’s good or bad depends on tastes?)...

and i’m at a midpoint with this opinion cause on the one hand: i do think maybe the descriptions in modaozushi are a bit more straightforward. However, everything is xianxia genre (is that the right genre for mdzs? i get confused between xianxia and wuxia). And although I know some key noun words, the way people TALK in this genre is a different style... like the MDZS opening alone is like ‘people rejoice the evil is dead’ and ‘for a generation he’s presumed dead’ and ‘the jiang clan, lan clan, jin clan, wen clan, the sect leaders, the yiling patriarch’ and... so many of those words like sect and clan and the society type words are all really genre specific. So like yes, the descriptions are clear... but how people talk? Sort of??? Until I get used to the genre.

Whereas... like Guardian is an example. It has a few god-past scenes like the one with Shennong and Kunlun that I’ve read without help. The ‘fantasy’ and ‘past’ elements in Guardian are like... idk they feel almost like they create themselves, like their in-story contained mythology to some degree (even if some parts are taken or inspired from broader genre and mythology ideas). So its simple to follow: Kunlun is god of mountains, Shennong is dying, Shen Wei is a ghost king, Shen Wei loves Kunlun, Kunlun knows he’s going to die, Kunlun talks with Shennong about how everything eventually has to die including Kunlun, the world is old and this is the early days and its just gods and the world and the ghost monsters at first. It’s hard to explain but... in some ways I feel like a bit of the old-fantasy scenes in Guardian read like a creation story, so they introduce themselves more based on ‘assume reader doesn’t know what is what or how it works yet.’ And the words they use in the old-fantasy scenes are generally dialogues I find easily comprehensible. However... a lot of my comfort with Priest’s version of the genre, is I have a lot of familiarity with the story-specific vocab for Guardian, whereas in MDZS I have more general xianxia vocab and proper nouns vocab, but not necessarily familiarity with the speaking styles. 

Also... some of Priest’s novels, like Silent Reading, are modern. That story’s setting is just easier in general to follow with less context, since its all real life applicable words. Guardian, while fantasy, often has mundane real life applicable settings and words, which also helps with figuring out words and context - in a way mdzs has less of. 

However... I definitely think Priest’s writing is... complex. While there’s some context that gets easier... well...

The sheer number of adjectives I don’t know? The amount of descriptive lines? Some are chengyu, some are likely self created metaphors by the author, some are clearly lines that have like 3-5 layers of meaning and imply extra meaning from their extended context (like if I knew who Shennong was in actual mythology? If I had more background on the Kunlun mountains? I imagine the scenes I read would mean a LOT more in terms of depth of implications). Beyond simply comprehending the actual actions taking place in the story, and the barest guess at how characters are physically showing emotion - Priest is doing a hell of a lot more with the writing. 

I read the intro to Silent Reading yesterday. The first paragraph is literally just about the city - about how its split in half, east and west, and its like a beautiful picture masking a monster like a woman concealing with makeup. How the old part of the city is poorer, the newer part is the shopping district and is flourishing, and how developers are buying up the poorer parts and raising the value of the whole city but putting more pressure on the poor. And then it goes MORE in depth - this is just the parts I could comprehend. It took 2 readings of the paragraph for me to catch the second half - how the wealth is affecting the city and how business interests are affecting it. And you know damn well the societal implications of this unequally effected society are going to come up again and again in the novel, since hey it was mentioned LITERALLY IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH. How is that for establishing a theme? Along with the intro paragraph establishing that this city has HISTORY, that its CHANGING, and that it contains monstrosities - precluding the buildup of the eventual murder cases that will make up the bulk of the future plot. On the surface, its just a physical description of location - and that physical description was the easiest part for me to catch. But if its read more in depth, its saying a ton of stuff with just a few physical description sentences. And this was just... stuff I could pick up on... I’m sure there’s more.

Priest’s novels are so chock full of this stuff its a bit daunting. Nevermind the fact that since EVERYTHING is interwoven into main details, its more of a struggle to comprehend the main gist of the plot since deeper more meaningful descriptors and metaphors and stylistic choices are intrinsic pieces of each sentence. 

I tried reading Tian Ya Ke the other day, and I only got through a few paragraphs. One of the hardest parts was just following who is who, since Priest likes not always giving names at first, so its a mystery of who someone is at first and you have to get to know them as mysterious people based on what they do. At least, sometimes. Random unnamed coffee buyer turns out to be main character in Silent Reading - and the deliveryman an important secondary. In Tian Ya Ke unnamed man who visits a secret prison has some ties to spy organizations and is presumably a main character. So I can’t just speed through an ‘unknown’ persons details - I might need to hold onto them later in case they turn out to be a named character later, where I need to remember what they did before they were named. Also on these unnamed - there’s galore descriptions of how they smile, their noses, their eyes, their hair lengths, their glasses, their style of clothes - get comfortable sifting through gratuitious physical descriptions which will ALSO be full of things with deeper meanings if you can catch them!

I’m not sure how much MDZS does this too, because I imagine it does all of this to some degree. And my impression is skewed, since I have a traditional copy of the first mdzs novel - so I’m mostly lost because of traditional characters, before I even get caught on the genre words. But I do think it... ramps up the plot a bit faster than Priest’s? If that makes sense. Like, plots in Priest are fast, but I feel like there’s also a lot of ‘what’s in this character’s head or perspective’ moments (which is a lot like I write so I love seeing it). And idk it can be harder to interpret that sometimes, since all narratives are biased and you get heavy details in one perspective narrative then fall into another one with new biases and details. 

Tamendegushi, meanwhile? By far the easiest writing style wise. I think that also makes the ‘depth’ of the writing easier to notice - you have to do less comprehension of the basics, so it takes less time to notice what the basics might be conveying beyond their exact details. Very beginner friendly... I recommend this baby FIRST if you’re a beginner like me. ToT

I do wonder if mdzs would be easier for me to read rn...

[tays2centsonstuff]

UNDER THE SKIN, 2013

synopsis: a mysterious young woman seduces lonely men in the evening hours in scotland. however, events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery.

director: jonathan glazer writers: walter campbell, jonathan glazer, based on the novel by michel faber stars: scarlett johansson, jeremy mcwilliams, adam pearson

genres: drama | horror | sci-fi | thriller

country: uk language: english filming locations: scotland, england

runtime: 108mins

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overall opinion:

this movie caught me completely off guard. and it took me way too long to finally check it out. now, I love me some good indie movies but the «problem» with indies is that because they aren’t hyped and reviewed 10,000 times over, it’s up to you to take the risk with those you feel like could maybe be good / interesting. and the synopsis just did sound a little too weird even for my taste.

so two days ago I finally watched it. and it stayed with me so long, I watched it again 24 hours later.

I must say in the beginning I had no idea what this was going to be and my enthusiasm was limited. there was virtually no dialogue (I believe the first words are spoken around the 13min mark and it barely counts as dialogue). the main character, who remains nameless throughout the movie, barely does anything worth mentioning at all. and yet, I was captivated. I found myself completely ignoring my phone (which is usually in my hand while watching tv) because there was no dialogue and everything that happened was visual. it was a very unique experience, and the way scarlett johansson managed to bring the character across, seeing our world from alien eyes, still gives me goosebumps.

you see, while the story / plot sounds extremely weird, the plot is not even important here. what this movie is trying to do is give you an experience. it’s visually stunning, and the eery feeling you have watching scarlett guide her alien character through this human experience stays with you long after the movie is over. at least that’s what it was like for me.

a little tip: I would encourage you to watch the movie twice. once without any sort of information (to get that «wtf feeling»), and then again after reading up on it (and maybe my review). believe me, it wasn’t until I watched it with all that background knowledge that I started to realise why I liked it so much, and it gave me a completely different layer of appreciation for it.

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if you have not seen it, I would invite you to stop reading here and come back once you have as the following paragraphs will contain spoilers (my thoughts to major plot points) and I would hate to influence any sort of experience you might have watching it.

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now, I might be slightly biased here because I love scarlett, but she completely made this movie. the way she manages to portray that alien person, her face utterly emotionless, her body language not giving anything away, was simply stunning. there are multiple long shots of her just staring into the distance (or at her own face in a mirror), utterly expressionless. and while a lot of people might say portraying no emotions is not as hard as portraying fake ones, I believe that replacing or covering a real emotion with a different one is much easier to accomplish than completely wiping your face off anything that makes you human.

the most fascinating part, for me, was the nude scene (yes, there is a nude scene). and people who haven’t seen the movie would probably be like: DAMN, HOW SEXY. NAKED SCARLETT JOHANSSON. yeah, no. the thing with that scene was, and that’s why it was one of my favourite scenes in the movie, is that scarlett, with her absolutely amazing body (and believe me I’m the first one to be absolutely jealous of it because she is gorgeous), manages to make the scene devoid of anything sexual. you see, in that moment, she is an alien figure for the first time starting to feel human. and that prompts her to explore her humanity – her body, her shell, that is still so foreign to her. we know from a few minutes earlier in the movie that she can’t eat (she tries to eat a piece of cake and then chokes and spits it out), so there are likely no bodily functions going on. so standing in front of that mirror, completely naked, she is exploring it for the first time. there are lots of very close shots of pretty private parts, and yet still… it is absolutely not sexual in any way. it’s very matter-of-fact, exactly as a strange entity would view our body seeing it for the first time.

it is not until she actually decides to have sex with a man that she discovers that she is in fact, not as human as she was feeling. and I think it’s at this point that she realises that she just does not fit in – no matter how much she wants to. she is not human.

confused and probably the closest she’d get to sad, she flees into the woods where the final scenes take place which for me, with all the rest of the movie already giving me an eery feeling, were the worst. I HATE rape scenes, even attempted ones, especially when it happens to someone I care about (even when it’s acting). seeing favourite people / actors in situations like that spikes my anxiety. it was brutal, and scarlett’s face absolutely killed me. like, thinking about it makes me weepy.

so I had very mixed feelings about that final encounter but in a way, it made sense. she went from predator to prey, thus completing her transition into a human woman. because in a very twisted (and in our society sadly still accurate) way, she experienced what it was like to be a human woman alone in the woods. the most ironic part was that, since we already discovered that she couldn’t physically have sex, he would have probably fled once he realised that. but her fighting back (which again, probably was human instinct after all), caused the skin / disguise to rip and him to see what or who she truly was, prompting him to burn her alive.

---

why it stayed with me:

I think the reason why I kept staring at the tv for minutes after it faded to black, and why I barely slept that night, and why I got this eery, haunting feeling is because in the weirdest way I related to the character a lot. I have spent the biggest part of my life feeling alienated, not fitting in no matter how hard I wanted to. it’s a feeling that will stay with me forever. I now have friends and I feel like I’m doing okay in london, but seeing movies with outcasts as characters always bring be back to that feeling of emptiness and loneliness. it’s very hard to describe and probably sounds crazy. I had similar reactions to lisbeth sanders in «the girl with the dragon tattoo» or martha in «martha marcy may marlene». feeling detached from people, misunderstood, alone – I feel those things in my bones whenever I’m reminded of them. movies that focus on those characters tend to trigger that feeling, leaving me feeling empty for at least a few hours after.

---

favourite scene / moment: 

the nude scene, and not because scarlett was completely naked but because of what I said earlier – the way she managed to completely show a close-up of her body without making it sexual in any way.

---

what I didn’t like: 

honestly, I don’t know. maybe the only piece of criticism I can offer is that there was little plot, but even that isn’t really true. there was a lot of plot if you paid attention.

---

interesting trivia / fun facts: 

a lot of the movie (and almost all dialogue) was unscripted. the scenes where she is walking through glasgow or driving in her van were filmed with hidden cameras, the people in the shots only informed after it had been filmed to get the okay to use the material. those were people’s genuine reactions (for example when scarlett fell, or when she spit out the cake). the men she talks to from inside her van were random passers-by. after I learned that I rewatched the movie and it added so much to the experience from an acting standpoint.

and I just kept thinking, damn scarlett is fucking brave. not only did she show her entire body in a very exposing way, but she behaved like this alien figure in public and did things considered embarrassing or even rude without anyone knowing it was for a movie (her fall even made it into a viral meme because a paparazzo thought she was just out and about as herself and took a dive). that takes a huge amount of balls. forget hollywood blockbustery – to me, this is real fucking acting.

also, the movie was at least 4 or 5 years in the making, and scarlett and jonathan mainly developed the story and everything after they started shooting.

---

favourite quotes:

female: «so why do you shop at night then?» deformed man: «people wind me up.» female: «how?» deformed man: «they’re ignorant»

---

rating: 10/10.

honestly, watch it. tell me what you think.

[justalittlelitnerd]

The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams

“First rule of book club?” They finished in unison. “You don’t talk about book club.” What. The. Fuck 

So I’ve been wanting to read this book since before it came out, but just wasn’t in the place to buy it so when I got an email from Amazon saying the Kindle version was on sale for $3 I wasn’t going to pass up the chance. And I’m glad I waited until it was on sale because I was just a little bit disappointed. For the most part, I think it’s once again a case of failing to manage my expectations. If I had gone into this book thinking it was simply a cute rom-com about a failing marriage than I think I would have enjoyed it well enough. But this book was so well talked about I expected something more. 

The book club was funnier than I expected with all the men being characters in their own rights and I loved that it presented the opportunity for them to tackle toxic masculinity, gender roles, and feminism. I thought it was interesting that Gavin had a stutter that he was super insecure about because it felt like a twist on the standard athlete romance since he lacked a certain confidence that is usually synonymous with competing in the major leagues. 

Additionally, I’m not sure if the twins were absolutely necessary to the story. For the most part they felt like a plot driver because the pregnancy is the reason they got married so quickly in the first place and arguably why they’re marriage lasted as long as it did (though three years really doesn’t feel long enough for the issues they had but whatever) and part of why they’re keen to save their relationship. I think it would have been better if the girls were a little older so they could feel more engaging, but I’m also biased because I’m not a fan of children (specifically toddlers) in romance books. I can see the appeal of babies because they’re cutesy and older kids because they can interact with the adults and provide some comedy, but toddlers are just an awkward age in my opinion.

Finally, the fucking sister pissed me off. I understand Thea and Liv had a lot of childhood issues between their parent’s divorce and general lack of love and guidance, but the fact that Liv turns so quickly on Gavin and doesn’t support her sister when she decides to give him a chance. It started to feel like Thea was going to have to choose between her husband/family and her sister and that wasn’t the kind of energy I needed in my romance book especially in the age of Corona. Of course, it being a romance book in the end it all works out. 

Basically, I would recommend this book as a fun romance read about an awkward man trying to save his marriage, but just know what your in for.

Keep reading for some fun and often insightful quotes!      

“All spouses become strangers to each other at some point in a marriage,” Del said. “All human beings are a work in progress, and we don’t all change at the same pace. Who knows how many people have gotten divorced simply because they failed to recognize that what they thought were insurmountable problems were actually just temporary phases?”

The need to hit something surged again like a bad case of Twitter rage.

“Men are idiots. We complain that women are so mysterious and shit, and we never know what they want. We fuck up our relationships because we convince ourselves that it’s too hard to figure them out. But the real problem is with us. We think we’re not supposed to feel things and cry and express ourselves. We expect women to do all the emotional labor in a relationship and then act confused when they give up on us.”

“Romance novels are primarily written by women for women, and they’re entirely about how they want to be treated and what they want out of life and in a relationship. We read them to be more comfortable expressing ourselves and to look at things from their perspective.”

“Modern romance novelists use the patriarchal society of old British aristocracy to explore the gender-based limitations placed on women today in both the professional and personal spheres. That shit is feminist as fuck.”

If a man wants to leave you, wave goodbye and lock the doors. You’ve got better things to do than chase a lost cause.

The backlash against the PSL is a perfect example of how toxic masculinity permeates even the most mundane things in life. If masses of women like something, our society automatically begins to mock them. Just like romance novels. If women like them, they must be a joke, right?

“You don’t wink.” “That’s not true.” “It absolutely is true. A woman remembers every time a man winks at her, because we love winking. It’s like catnip. Wink at us, and we roll over and start purring. You haven’t winked at me in a long time.” “Then I’m an idiot.” Gavin slowly lowered his gaze to lips. “Because I wouldn’t mind hearing you purr.”

Thea blinked several times and tore her gaze away from Gavin, who was studying her again like he did during the theater. Like he did on Saturday. As if seeing her for the first time. Maybe he was. It had been years since she felt like he saw her at all.

She had changed into a pair of sweatpants and his old Huntsville Rockets minor league sweatshirt, the one she’d claimed shortly after they started dating. He’d lost all coherent thought the first time he saw her in it. Something regressively possessive stole over him, as if he’d claimed her. Officially. With a sweatshirt.

“It means that whatever happened to your wife before she met you plays a role in who she is today,” Malcolm said. “We are all the sum total of our experiences at any given time, and our reactions to things are shaped by them. Just like in romance novels. Whatever a character went through before the start of the book will eventually determine how they react to things that happen in the book.” “But we’re talking about my real life here. Not a book.” “Same principles apply,” Malcolm said. “That’s why fiction resonates with people. It speaks to universal truths.”

“‘More than anything, she feared that she would awaken some morning and realize her entire life had passed her by,’” he read. “‘That at some point, she had become less than. Less than w-w-what she used to imagine. Less than w-wh-what she used to hope for. Nothing more than a silent accessory to a man. Nothing more than her own mother, a passive face at a glittering table.’”

"The point of all this is to court her, Gavin. Not seduce her.” “What’s the difference?” Mack snorted again. “It’s a fucking miracle you got married at all.” Gavin flipped him off. “The difference,” Malcolm said, “is to make her want you, not prove how much you want her.”

“Something has changed. What is it?” He offered to deal with Dad for me. He kissed me and made me want to forget everything bad. He made pancakes with the girls. Thea shook her head. “Nothing.”

"We women must steal our power where we can, and in the world of the ton, that power is sadly limited to the reduction of other women.”

“I do not require compliments, my lord. I’m well aware of my own attractiveness, which, of course, no lady is supposed to admit, but such is the world. English society seems to rest upon the requirement that women are pitted against each other until we all emerge envious of the other.”

“If there was a website where strange men posted thousands of pictures of you, yeah, I w-wouldn’t get used to it.” “That’s different. I’m not famous like you are.” “You’re the most important person in the w-w-world to me, so I beg to differ.”

“But we must find a way to produce and enjoy content that celebrates the fierceness of women without, at the same time, belittling a woman’s ability to decipher fact from fiction.”

[love-little-lotte]

POTO Manila 2019 Experience

I crossed one thing off my bucket list last March 2, 2019. 

Finally, finally, finally. I finally got the chance to witness my all-time favorite musical, The Phantom of the Opera, live. Anyone who really knows me knows that I am totally in love with this show. 

I first learned about the existence of POTO when I was 10, when I first read an abridged version of the Gaston Leroux novel. Then I watched the 2004 film, starring Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum. Ever since then, I fell in love with the musical. I listened to the Original London Cast, with Michael Crawford, Sarah Brightman, and Steve Barton. I watched the 25th anniversary, with Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess. I streamed countless YouTube videos. I wrote down the lyrics, memorized them by heart, and sang along even though I couldn’t reach the high notes, not for the life of me. 

POTO became one of my passions, and (yes it sounds cheesy AF) also helped me become the person who I am today. It’s not my first musical (family friendly The Sound of Music is my first because my mom plays the Julie Andrews movie all the time), but it opened my obsession to musical theatre. Through POTO, I got to learn more about Broadway, theatre, and musicals. 

I have my brother to thank for this wonderful experience. This was meant to be a birthday and graduation present all rolled into one. And it’s actually the best present I’ve ever received. Not only did he pay for all of my expenses, he also accompanied me and took my pictures! Shoutout to him for making one of my major dreams come true.

This was taken on our way to the theatre. It was a one-show day, and the play was going to start at 2:30 PM. I heard from my friend (who already saw the previews) told me I should be there as early as possible so I can take a lot of pictures before most of the audience arrive. And since I want to take as many photos as I can, my brother and I left our hotel as early as 12 noon. 

I was so excited I even took a photo of the theatre while we were in the car. My heart was pounding the entire time. My head was reeling. I still couldn’t believe I was there. It felt like a dream I had before. And believe me when I say I dreamt a lot for this moment. 

When we got closer to the theatre, I saw a big poster just right outside. I gave out an excited squeal. “I got to take a picture of that!” I told my brother. 

And so I did. 

Before entering, we noticed there was some Phantom stuff just right outside by the entrance. Aside from the make-up closet (which is self-explanatory), I didn’t know what was inside of the rest of the boxes but I still took some photos nonetheless. I still had a lot of energy around this time. 

This was by the entrance: some posters of the musical productions that toured in Manila before. (From left to right: Chicago, Singin’ in the Rain, Les Misérables, Wicked, West Side Story, and The Sound of Music)

After entering the building, I saw this amazing backdrop and of course, immediately posed in front of it......

.....only to learn the words “The Phantom of the Opera” were cropped so I told my brother we had to go back so we can take a proper picture again. 

And there we go. 

We went to the second floor afterwards, which was where the theatre was located. And this was when the “taking of photos” spree began. 

Exhibit A: Mask, roses, and candelabras. Yep, that’s the whole show right there. 

I’m kind of bummed that they didn’t really have a photoshoot for the World Tour. I mean it’s nice to see Kelly Matheison from the West End cast because she’s adorable and gorgeous, but I would love to see some Meghan Picerno HD posters too. 

Don’t mind me, I’m just posing here with the POTO posters. 

Exhibit B: Ah love this shiny, sparkly mask. Yes, the pic is sadly a bit blurry. 

Exhibit C: My brother told me to go sit down on the floor and pretend to be Christine, but there was no way I’m doing that with that dress. I wanted to put on the cloak and the mask, but decided I should go with the rose instead. 

Exhibit D: “Look at yourself in the mirror, I am there inside!” This is my favorite picture, which also refers to my favorite part in the musical. 

Exhibit E: Yeah at this point I was running out of poses. Standing and smiling at the camera was getting boring. 

Oh, and would you look at this! A production of Cats in November 2019, starring Joanna Ampil! Isn’t that amazing? She’s one of my favorite theatre actresses and I would kill to see her sing Memory live.

Anyway, what’s up with the Philippines and Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals?

Yeah, what is up with Andrew Lloyd Webber and the Philippines? We just can’t get enough of it. I’d definitely want to watch Love Never Dies when it comes to Manila, even though I’m not such a big fan of the story. The music is brilliant, as well as the sets and costumes. Can we please have Meghan Picerno as Christine Daaé in this production once again? (And maybe throw in Jonathan Roxmouth, too, cause people love him so much here.)

At this point, my brother already left me. He went back to the hotel while I sat on one of the couches, waiting for the theatre to let the audience in. I took a selfie with the brochure. I thought we were all given a program for free, but it turns out you still have to buy them in the gift shop. 

Yay! I’m finally inside. I was in the second row, which was very thrilling, especially since the chandelier was really close to me. I couldn’t wait for it to fall down at the end of Act 1!

Sadly, this is the only picture I had inside the theatre. I was so busy taking it all in that I forgot to take a selfie or something. I still couldn’t believe I was there.

I cried as soon as the overture began to play. There are three possible reasons why I did so: one, I can’t believe I’m really here; two, the music was so beautiful, and three, the light from the chandelier made my eyes hurt lol. But, whatever the reason was, I assure you, there were some tears.

My first genuine cry was during The Mirror scene, when the Phantom showed himself in the mirror. It’s just a super iconic scene, and truly one of my favorites.

But the major highlight for me was Masquerade. Sure, I was expecting myself to cry during All I Ask of You (Reprise) or the Final Lair, but Masquerade overwhelmed me. The costumes were amazing up close! I’ve mentioned a lot of times before that POTO costumes are my favorite things ever. The intricately-designed Elissa dress, the fan-favorite Wishing dress, the iconic white robe, and of course, my personal favorite Aminta dress.

But the costumes during Masquerade was the highlight. I didn’t know where to look because I want to take it all in! The ensemble were great, too, and there was just a big fat stupid grin on my face the whole time.

You know, live theatre isn’t that perfect. I can hear the whirring of the machines as they change the backdrop and their heels clicking loudly onstage. I see them spit at each other’s faces. But damn it, it was beautiful. It’s raw and real, which is what theatre is all about. 

Sorry for the bad angle haha. This was the cast I saw my first POTO production and I’m eternally grateful at them for giving me a performance to remember. I was just so excited to see that I’m going to watch Jonathan Roxmouth and Meghan Picerno! I’ve seen a lot of videos of them rehearsing, and they both sounded heavenly. I was grinning from ear-to-ear.

Jonathan Roxmouth didn’t fail me. His voice was soft and angelic, and he truly embodied the Angel of Music. I got chills during The Mirror scene, as soon as he sang the words, “Insolent boy!” His Music of the Night was a spectacle, and his height difference with Meghan Picerno also helped. I don’t know why, but I really love it when the Phantom’s a great taller than Christine. Meghan only reached Jonathan’s chest, so their iconic “hug” scene during MoTN looked really good. He also glanced at me during All I Ask of You (Reprise) as he sang the words, “You will curse the day you did not do, all that the Phantom asked of you!” So that truly “made my night.”

Jonathan also scared the crap out of me during the Final Lair. He was truly menacing and just plain scary. I love scary Phantoms, and he definitely delivered! When he said the line, “You try my patience! Make your choice”, he put his face really close to Meghan, and I could definitely see him seethe angrily at her.

But he gained my sympathy in the last part when he started singing Masquerade to the music box. At that point, I was crying my eyes out already. I hope the people in my row didn’t judge me too harshly! No matter how many times I’ve seen POTO, I always cry during the Masquerade reprise.

On a side note, Jonathan’s really adorable in the curtain call. He made a Korean heart sign just after he bowed. Korean culture is really popular in the Philippines for some reason, and he earned a lot of laughs and claps from the audience when he did so.

Meghan Picerno, on the other hand, was the sweetest and sympathetic Christine ever. Okay, that’s a bit of a stretch since she’s the first Christine I saw live, and I’m a bit biased. Her crystal-clear vocals also didn’t fail. I’ve seen videos of her in Love Never Dies, and she was amazing there. Her Think of Me was just so pure, and her Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again made me teary eyed.

Meghan carried herself well. Not only was she a darling and innocent Christine, but she was also a fierce one too. During the Final Lair, when she said the words, “This haunted face holds no horror for me now, it’s in your soul that the true distortion lies”, her expression was not scared or anything. I just love that she could project a lot of emotions from Christine, and not only stick to one.

She also shared good chemistry with Jonathan Roxmouth, especially during The Point of No Return. The sexual tension between the Phantom and Christine was undeniable. The way they touched each other, even caressed each other in that scene was so, so, so good. It’s definitely one of the main highlights of the show for me.

And, of course, Matt Leisy was a darling Raoul. Just like his co-stars, his vocals were heavenly. His All I Ask of You is plain sweet. The way he hugged and twirled Christine at the end part of the song was also a major highlight for me. Also, he was very attentive to Christine, and he was protective of her - some important qualities that Raoul should have. In the Il Muto scene, when Christine started getting nervous that the Phantom was watching over her, I can’t help looking at Matt because he was so undeniably concerned and protective of her. And during Twisted Every Way, he was demanding, but at the same time, very considering.

Matt also worked well alongside Meghan. They balance well with each other. As a matter of fact, the three of them are great together. It’s obvious that they’re comfortable with each other onstage. The Final Lair was so thrilling, and it’s all thanks to them. I’m so happy that they get to be my first POTO Big 3.

Overall, the ensemble was great! I love them so much, and I’m extremely honored that I had them as my first ever POTO cast.

Also, bought two souvenirs from the gift shop! A really cute necklace (which costs 1,500 PHP/28.75 USD) and a tote bag (800 PHP/15.33 USD). I wanted to buy the charm bracelet, too, but I feel like I’m going to have more fun with the necklace, compared to it. 

And there you have it! This was an extremely long post, but I want to immortalize my first POTO experience. I’m still in cloud nine, even though it has been almost three days now. It’s truly an experience I will never forget.

[tessatechaitea]

Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child

Darkseid pees out of his eyes.

"It's 2020 and Frank Miller is still doing 'Not' jokes" is the only review of this comic book you probably need.

The Joker and Darkseid are cumming in their pants over the engagement in the election cycle. I guess people who want to stop terrible politicians from making the country a living hell for a vast number of the population are simply falling into their trap! Stupid people who want a better world! Can't they see that the only way to defeat The Joker and Darkseid is to disengage from the circus of election cycles and simply live their own life without any concern for others? Doesn't the electorate know the best life to live is the life that leads to Ayn Randian defenses of their own selfish needs? Just shut up and take what they give you, you dumb fucks. I should probably finish reading this story before I continue to jump from conclusion to conclusion about Frank Miller's point. His ultimate point might simply be that the children will save us all! Or that it doesn't matter if the children change the world or not because the adults will all be dead by then so who fucking cares? Supergirl Lara confronts Darkseid by blasting him with her heat vision. He dies multiple times or something but doesn't somehow. He applauds her rage the way bad guys always do and then calmly sits down to tell all of the children a story. He's going to be sensible and rational which means it will be the truth, I think. Obviously if you have any emotional attachment to your beliefs, they're garbage beliefs. Until you can squeeze all of the humanity out of yourself, the things you believe won't hold up in rational debate! So divest yourself of your rage, children! It will only make you more logical and intellectually stronger! But also divest yourself of your joy and your despair and your other emotions I can't think of! There must be more, right? While Darkseid is distracted regaling everybody with his tale of the anti-life equation, Superboy sneaks up behind him and takes over his Omega Effect. He turns it back on Darkseid and Darkseid disintegrates into non-existence. Unless he was transported back in time. I don't really know how his eyeball lasers work. Darkseid doesn't stay dead for long. He returns as the Omega God, as the end of everything, as the final death of everything on Earth.

But maybe later, I guess?

Batwoman beats up some Jokers and shuts down Trump's ability to broadcast to Gotham. It makes Darkseid angry enough to return for some reason. Probably a metaphorical reason. Or an analogical reason. I think maybe my attention span is seriously slipping! And right when I'm getting to the part that's probably going to explain what the fuck is going on in this comic book. Superboy destroys Darkseid by calling him an old fart. Also maybe a little bit by blasting him with a new super power: neutron vision! Darkseid has now had his powers stripped so far back that a human bouncing a rock off of his head makes him bleed. But still he thinks, "I will manipulate these fools with my lofty words!" But then Greta Thunberg clenches her fist at him and Batwoman says, "You have no power here! We're thinking for ourselves now!" And then that's the end somehow. Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child Rating: I can't comprehend what I just read. Maybe the point was that we shouldn't comprehend what other people want us to comprehend? Maybe it was an anti-propaganda story? Maybe it was just terrible writing pretending to be art? It's so hard to tell because it's trying so hard to be complex! Is it's complexity real or a facade? I can't tell! Maybe I should stick to easier things to understand, like James Joyce's Finnegans Wake or Alan Moore's 1300 page novel, Jerusalem, which I finished. Maybe that's Frank Miller's problem. Maybe he just didn't have enough pages to really get to the point he was trying to make. But then if he did have more pages, how many would he waste by simply repeating the same things over and over again? For those of you who haven't read this (or Superman: Year One), he does that a lot. Not in the good way that Tom King and Gertrude Stein repeat themselves. Just in a way that makes you think, "I got it! Superboy is right in Darkseid's brain." Maybe that's a poor example from this comic book because repeating that over and over works to show how painful Superboy's presence in Darkseid's brain is. But I assure you there were many other examples that I can't make excuses for. I just can't be bothered to dig back through the comic book to find them.

[sapphichoneyfan]

Hello folks! I came back with something a little different and made a post on my favorite lgbtq+ webcomics/comic books/graphic novels. Below is going to be a little bit more information about the story and where to find them! 

Favorite Lesbian Films

Favorite Lesbian/Gay books

High-Class Homos

Momozerii is incredible!! Such a cute drawing style and the story is awesome! Every main character is a part of the LGBT+ community and is so lovable. I highly recommend this one. The comedy and the characters are so well done and if you want some angst? It’s there and you can find that story on Momozerii’s Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/momozerii/

Their Story

Lesbians??Gays?? Respecting women juice AND comedy?? I love this story so much and it’s still ongoing. I can’t wait to read the rest of it!! The art style is beautiful and the friendships/relationships between the characters are so charming. This manhua has made me double over in laughter many times before.  Another highly recommended series. You can actually find it on Tumblr! But there are other locations as well.

Dynasty Reader: https://dynasty-scans.com/series/their_story

Tumblr: https://tanjiu-theirstory.tumblr.com/

Hex

I have been a fan of Hootsweet’s works for a while now so I might be a little biased BUT she has an incredible style and always creates charming characters. Not only that I am a sucker for her backgrounds and set design (it always sets the right mood). It is currently in hiatus but Hootsweets made a post on how she is getting back to it! She was planning on some revisions but if you’re still curious to dive into this magical world you can read it on the official website here: http://hexcomic.com/

You can also find Hootsweets here on Tumblr and Instagram!

Tumblr: https://hootsweets.tumblr.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hootsweets/

Bloom

Oh boy, let me tell you this one is just too cute for its own good. The color style is just perfect for the story and the characters are written realistically and lovingly. You know when it’s a rainy day and you just have that warm feeling in your chest cause you’re cuddled up next to the window just watching the rainfall (maybe it's just me) but this comic radiates that feeling. Sadly I don’t believe there is an online source for it but you can buy it elsewhere. It is available on Amazon but if you’re against Amazon there are these other locations as well:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bloom-Kevin-Panetta/dp/1250196914

Thrift Books: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/bloom_kevin-panetta/19110476/#isbn=1626726418&idiq=31037037

Macmillion: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250196910

The Prince and the Dressmaker

This book was talked about for a little bit on Tumblr but it still deserves recognition! When I make a post like this I really like to include more stuff with gender instead of just sexuality or lack thereof. According to the author, she has always described Sebastian as Genderqueer but she has said: “If a reader feels that this story is just the first step to Sebastian discovering they’re trans, or if they feel Sebastian is a cis male that likes to dress up I’m happy with all of that!” Source

That aside it is a wonderful book that still deserves support!

Jen Wang’s website: http://jenwang.net/archives/939

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Prince-Dressmaker-Jen-Wang/dp/162672363X

Princess Princess After Ever

This was so cute!! Another WLW comic that is good for kids as well! Same thing with The Prince and the Dressmaker. Katie writes such cute stories and I highly recommend checking out her other stories like The Tea Dragon Society.

PDF: https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Princess-Princess-Ever-After/Full?id=91309#57  ( Kind of buggy and has a lot of ads on it but it works)

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Princess-Ever-After-Katie-ONeill/dp/1620103400

Thriftbooks: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/princess-princess-ever-after_katie-oneill/11306353/#isbn=1620103400

[x0401x]

Wow, I appreciate the essay that proved no point, thank you. I wonder how you could've mistaken I meant IN ALL YOUR POSTS when all I was talking about was how you literally just talked about MasaMina in the flower post. It's more beyond me how badly you comprehended my ask. The point abut me not giving sources is so you could look it up yourself because why would I let someone copy my hard-worked homework, noh? Maybe if you properly did research then you'd have a much proper analysis on it.

Anyway.

Honey, it seems you still don’t get it: you’re the one who made the claim, so you’re the one who has to prove your point, which you haven’t. You can’t just accuse someone of something without any argument and then tell them to prove otherwise. That’s not how it works.

Oh, that. I read “posts” by accident. I stayed up late to answer you, so my head wasn’t working straight. But I didn’t mistake any of the rest, so don’t try to generalize. Also, my answer remains the same. I don’t think I talked about them more than I should, because there isn’t a limit to how much I should talk about them. I’ll talk about them as much as I want because it’s my own post.

Lmfao, “hard-worked homework”. Right, visting a site is so much work. If you were actually trying to be constructive with these asks, you’d at least name the sources. All that happens if I google what I had already googled is that I find the exact same results, obviously. It’s impossible that you haven’t realized this much. Your claim remains baseless.

Also, don’t worry, I read your post through and through which is exactly why I knew how much of the post you were wrong. You even got some of the flowers wrong, most especially Masa-san’s. And moreover, I see no point, still, in putting them together, because as I’ve mentioned, they are individual characters and Kyoani gave them separate flowers. I don’t know how you automatically thought of them instead of generalizing the more important people around them unless you were clearly ship-biased.

Yet you were and still are so vague about it. Just tell me already what was wrong so I can fix it instead of repeating yourself like a broken disk.

The meanings of their flowers are directly linked to each other, and most of them represent the two at the same time. If I were to do what you say, at most, I’d only separate them by the flowers of the bonus artworks and write about the others as a set, but that doesn’t change the fact that the interpretations of one would cite the other so it makes no difference.

You don’t know why? I just told you in the examples from my previous answer.

“Generalizing the more important people around them”? Are you implying that there’s some sort of ranking of who’s more important to who and suggesting that Minato and Masaki’s relationship is less important to themselves than other relationships? Do you perhaps not realize that their relationship is the main one of the story? If so, then I can only assume that you didn’t read the novel.

I don’t really care much if you post MasaMina on end because I know you roll with that, but pushing it on a generalized post where EVERYONE is supposedly involved, I’m not sure what other un-rude term I could call it, tbh. I’m not even sure if I should be the one you should call a child between us i you’re the one who hates on something because your ship wasn’t involved in it. Of course, you would deny because you’re “so smart” but from the way you rant about it, it clearly shows. That’s sad.

It’s not a generalized post, whatever you mean by that. And I fail to see how all the characters being involved equals Masaki and Minato’s flowers having nothing to do with one another.

I would deny simply because it’s not true, lol. I’m not hating on anything, you are. I wouldn’t at all hate it if the symbolism around Minato and Masaki had nothing to do with each other, but it does and that’s not subjective. I already explained how they are involved, but I have no way of forcing it through your thick skull. If you don’t want to understand, you just won’t.

I don’t get why you keep trying to imply that I’m dumb or that I try to act intelligent. Your blatant dislike of my person is the most confusing part of your asks, tbh.

I wasn’t desperate to cover up anything, I know what I wrote you, I have copies in case tumblr deletes it, too ‘cause that happens. Maybe it was partial anon hate but also because I wanted to point out that your supposed analysis of a general thing for Tsurune is wrong and I felt bad for the people who saw/see it. Believing false information. I suggested disclaimer that it was still, nonetheless, your opinion because whether you studied it or not, the information is still not originally yours.

“Maybe” and “partial” are deliberate choices of wording. You indirectly insulted me, came up with accusations all of a sudden, literally tried to corner me, threw a fit because I didn’t reply right away, made false assumptions about me and acted extremely condenscending all along. It was anon hate. Don’t try to smooth it out and just say it like it is.

Stop trying to make it seem as if you being upset with it equals that a lot of people are upset. You’re the only one to ever complain about that post.

It’s not my opinion, and the information not coming originally from me doesn’t make it an opinion (it’s the opposite, actually). The information also doesn’t originally come from the people who host flower-related sites. Flower language has existed for literal centuries.

And I will repeat, interpretting Masa-san and Minato’s flowers are NOT IMPOSSIBLE. You just REFUSE to do it because you were, i don’t know, pushing your ship? You wanted to? But mind you, your post is Tsurune-general related. Masa-san and Minato don’t just have each other; they have families they love, friends they care for, any one of them cou;d’ve been what the flower is for. But you mainly focused on them for no valid reason. Wouldn’t you think that’s being rude?

It’s not rude, lol. That’s probably not the word you’re looking for. But no word of negative connotation applies here anyway.

So what if the post is about all the characters? I don’t see why that’s a reason for me not to relate their flowers to one another when they are, in fact, related. Besides, I talked more about them because there’s more symbolism surrounding them. Can’t help that 90% of the flower language used in the books is for their relationship.

Again, see the examples I used in my other response. Who was it that Masaki met in middle school and then met again as an adult? Whose smile is Minato weak to? There isn’t any other character who can be used as answer to these questions. This isn’t a matter of opinion. It’s literally what the author wrote.

You mentioned their bonds but neglected the relationship of the characs that appeared in the latter part of the flower post. I honestly couldn’t go past that post without reading about Masa-san and Minato but never really seeing other names get mentioned again. I didn’t mind my embarrassment tbh, if that’s anything to be embarrassed about. I just hope you’ll admit to being wrong for once, though. I’m not expecting an apology, but truth. Because I feel bad for the ones seeing your post.

I didn’t. I mentioned the team in Minato’s and Akihiro in Masaki’s Blu-ray artwork flowers. But I couldn’t see how anyone else applied to the flower language of the book.

Why do you keep repeating the things I said (and yet act like you’re not being childish)? I don’t have to apologize, lmao. You’re the offender here.

I’m certainly not wrong for interpreting things based on canon, and I write my posts the way I see fit, because my blog. Stop trying to force me into modifying my post to your wishes. That’s entitled as hell. Just make an account to write your own posts, if you really don’t have one, that is. Otherwise, die mad about me.

I appreciate you called me trying to point out your wrongs as assholery childishness. Now I’m just wondering if you’ll show my asks to prove you’re right or to prove I’m a child. I don’t really mind, I’m beyond it. As you’ve said, I am an asshole, best to live up with it, I don’t recall calling you anything, however. And to be clear, I’m not an anti-MasaMina before you point that out.

It’s assholery because you refuse to specify it and don’t present evidence to back it up, just keep saying that I’m wrong and biased. That’s not “pointing out” anything, it’s flaming, pure and simple.

Oh, so you think calling me names would be the only thing that defines it as assholery and anything else is fair game. That explains it all.

I don’t care whether or not you’re anti-MasaMina, honestly.

Okay, here they go:

Full of shade. Cue other three of those.

This one was doing fine, but then the tantrum started:

And then you came back pretending that nothing had happened:

I guess you’re gonna say that I should learn to take criticism or use some other bigoted argument. This is anon hate. Baseless, improductive, entitled and purely offensive. Case closed.

Funny the first one about the tag wasn't even mine. Oh I've read the novel, don't worry, it's kind of why I'm countering your opinions right now. I never said Masa-san and Minato's relationship was any less important but the story isn't even about them. The title says what the story is about. Masa-san is merely one of the many links of relationships Minato could have so the point stands. They're not a set. I'm more wondering if you've read it yourself.

Fixed that now.

Right, what the author writes is totally my opinion.

The story is literally about them. It’s literally the main relationship. What’re you even saying???

You say “merely” as if he doesn’t make that much of a difference when he was literally the trigger to everything.

You bet I did, that’s why I quote it directly all the time, which you don’t do ever.

I see that this discussion has no way of advancing because you don’t really seem to pay attention to my responses. My guess is that you’ll continue saying the same stuff, which would force me to do the same because there’s literally nothing else I can tell you.

I don’t mind answering other asks, but the flower post is out of question. It’s a waste of my time saying the same stuff again and again. This topic is over for me. Just refer back to the post and our whole discussion if you think otherwise.