#OKAY!! I DID IT!! BOOK ONE IS DONE

[hatsbattlecats]

Their first gathering happens, but Mosspaw leaves Fire/Grey/Raven to go talk to the other medicine cats with Spottedleaf. Either Spottedleaf or Mudfur mentions it’s strange that Barkface didn’t show up to the last med cat meeting at the half moon, and how strange it is that he isn’t here now since Tallstar is usually very punctual

Fire and Grey still overhear Ravenpaw telling the tale of sunningrocks, and Tigerclaw still overhears. Brokenstar still demands hunting rights and reveals that he drove out Windclan, however, in this version, Bluestar already had suspicions that he’d done this as informed by a patrol of her own sent to give a message to Tallstar, and also from Spottedleaf, who brought news of Barkface’s absence from the meeting and the smell of Shadowclan in Windclan’s territory

When the clan starts rallying to go back and get rid of Yellowfang, Firepaw runs ahead, and Mosspaw stays back with the others to explain what he knows to Spottedleaf since he’s been spending a good deal of time helping Firepaw care for Yellowfang, and has heard plenty of stories from her. He’s certain Brokenstar is lying, and says as much to his mentor.

When everyone returns from the gathering, and many of them call for Yellowfang to be killed or thrown out, Mosspaw is right there with Firepaw ready to leap to her defense before Bluestar tells everyone to knock it off and stop being paranoid.

When Bluestar announces that she’s going to the moonstone, Firepaw already knows what it is (courtesy of Mosspaw) and is instead intrigued about why Bluestar is going now. She’s not a medicine cat, and she’s already been granted her nine lives.

During the Shadowclan attack while bluestar and the others were gone is when Mosspaw experiences his first real encounter with death in the forest, to actually SEE it happen. Redtail was already dead when he had first joined the clan, but the battle with Shadowclan? Rosetail, and Lionheart, both of them perished. He’d tried to save Rosetail, she was on the edge of the battle and Yellowfang had stepped in when the tortoiseshell had fallen to protect the kits, but she’d already lost too much blood. 

After the battle, he’d helped Spottedleaf care for everyone else, but he was stuck in a mixture of shock and grief, going through the movements and barely speaking beyond asking his clanmates where they were hurt.

Spottedleaf sits him down afterwards and they have a talk. She tells him that this is the hardest lesson he will learn as a medicine cat, that he can’t save everyone. When starclan calls, not even the most gifted of medicine cats can keep a cat among the living.

Things become progressively worse for Ravenpaw after the battle, and he starts hiding out in the medicine cat den with Mosspaw when Tigerclaw isn’t sending him on dangerous missions or fetch quests.The two apprentices grow close in this time, and Mosspaw starts having Ravenpaw assist him with herb gathering to get the other apprentice out of Tigerclaw’s grasp as much as possible. During one such herb gathering, Ravenpaw actually confides his secret to Mosspaw before he ever tells Firepaw and Greypaw, though Mosspaw encourages him to tell them too

Spottedleaf is killed by Tigerclaw after she confronts him about killing her brother both to help the apprentice gang gather proof, and for her own closure on the matter. Spottedleaf may be weaker, but she’s faster and more agile, as well as clever. The two of them are distracted from their fight by Clawface and his accomplice running away with Frostfur’s kits. Tigerclaw takes advantage of her distraction and finishes her off.

He comes back into camp just after Frostfur sounds the alarm about her missing kits. He claims to everyone that Clawface and Yellowfang (who slipped out when the alarm went up) stole the kits, and that he totally saw them. He had been out with spottedleaf and tried to fight them back for the kits, but poor Spottedleaf was killed by Clawface while he was trying to chase down the other thief.

Bluestar asks him if he’s sure he was Yellowfang, and (just in case he were to be caught in the lie) says that he isn’t sure, that they “ran past him so fast all he saw was a blur of grey before he turned back to help spottedleaf, but it was too late”

Mosspaw helps Willowpelt prepare Spottedleaf for burial. It’s at this point that Mosspaw notices TIGERCLAW’S fur in Spottedleaf’s claws. He goes to tell Firepaw, but the orange apprentice is already vowing revenge on Clawface, and Mosspaw realizes that not even Firepaw would imagine that Tigerclaw would harm a medicine cat. Not yet at least. Mosspaw wants to go with Fire/Grey/Raven to find Yellowfang and prove her innocence. He’s heard her stories about her past (not all of them of course) and he knows she’d never harm a kit, but Bluestar keeps him behind, telling him that Thunderclan just lost a medicine cat, they cannot risk loosing another

He manages a goodbye to Ravenpaw before the trio leaves, and remains in camp while Firepaw and Greypaw proceed as canon in liberating Shadowclan with Yellowfang’s help. Yellowfang returns with them to clear her name and also to become Mosspaw’s new mentor to finish his training.

After Spottedleaf is buried, Mosspaw finally removes his ribbon collar, leaving it on her grave as a thank-you for everything she taught him. As well as a promise to her that he will always stay with and protect the clan in her stead, for as long as he lives, and theneven longer from beyond when he someday joins her in starclan’s ranks.

[tangents-within-tangents]

Just some things I think deserve a super accurate movie/show adaption in a beautiful 2D animation style:

The How to Train Your Dragon series

Gregor the Overlander

Artemis Fowl

The Adventure Zone

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (fr so much was left out of the 1939 film!)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass

The actual Little Mermaid story (there are a ton of adaptations I haven't seen yet so maybe it exists somewhere but we all know Disney’s didn’t even come close)

[seven-stars-in-his-palm]

the thing i love about bill cipher is that even after i've learned all of this stuff about him, seen him at the most vulnerable he'll ever get, seen him at his most innocent, i still can't give a flying fuck about trying to justify his actions. yes he's traumatized, yes he was twisted into what we know today, and while it gives a semblance of context to why he did what he did, it doesn't matter. he still ruined ford's life. he still drove and baited multiple humans to suicide. he still tormented every human he saw as his ticket out of the consequences of his own actions. he still took delight in his actions. he was willing to commit genocide for fuck's sake!!! (freezing all of the humans into statues). trying to explain away what he did does not get rid of what he did, but it certainly puts it in perspective. you won't be catching me being a bill apologist any time soon <3

[marcmorrigan]

@fenglianweek day 6: memories/growing up

the best thing thats ever been mine

[beanghostprincess]

Sanji loves romantic novels. And romantic plays. He keeps buying books about fairytale romances and scripts every time they happen to find a bookstore. He loves the poetry of it all. The dramatic and intensified feelings of pure, devoted love that goes against all odds and always has a happy, magical ending. Because that's what he has always wanted. He knows he shouldn't find comfort in books about royalty falling in love, but it's never really about the princesses and more about them running away to find love and fight for it. And they might be cliché and sappy but he likes them. They bring him happiness whenever he's feeling down. Besides, his mom used to read those to him quite a lot, so that's another reason.

But he never tells anybody because he's a bit embarrassed of being a 21 y/o man that reads these things. Not that it's bad,, And he knows the crew wouldn't laugh that much at him about it (except maybe mosshead). But still, he doesn't have good memories about situations like that. He doesn't even tell Usopp when they start dating. It's a secret, guilty pleasure he has. Even if the stories are dumb and predictable and idiotically hopeful and romantic... He loves them. But he doesn't want Usopp (even if he knows he wouldn't) to think less of him for that. An irrational fear, he supposes. Maybe he's just not ready to share his passion with him yet.

So he keeps hiding to read and some days he even disappears for hours to do so. Nobody knows where he is. Sometimes he says he's busy cooking and bans everybody (even his boyfriend) from coming in because he needs to focus, when he's actually just reading. And Usopp notices. Of course he does.

But Sanji doesn't find out about that until one day, Usopp appears with a ton of flowers (that are definitely not roses and definitely not pacific but they're tame now and they look sort of cute) on the deck, looking up at Sanji who's leaning on the railing of the second floor. Sanji does not know what's going on. He's astonished. Speechless. Everybody is around them witnessing what's going on. And that's when Usopp starts acting all dramatically, reciting by heart one of his favorite scenes of that one book he always keeps rereading.

And it's dumb and mosshead is rolling his eyes and Luffy won't stop yelling in the background and Franky is crying but-- But Brook is also playing one of his songs and Robin is staring at them with the softest of smiles and Sanji just can't seem to be able to look away from Usopp. It's cliché and dramatic and it's absolutely perfect.

So when it's his turn, he responds to Usopp, maybe not with the same intensity, but with the exact words he wants to hear. They haven't said 'I love you' yet, but Sanji says it anyway. Not because it's in the script or because that's how the book goes, but because it's how their story goes.

Usopp might not be a knight in shining armor. Or a prince. Or a superhero. But he's Sanji's overly dramatic sniper who would make a bouquet of lethal flowers and memorize a whole fairytale romantic confession for him. And you know what? Sanji is starting to think that the only reason why his books will start to feel ridiculous now is because they'll never be as magical as his reality with his true love.

[every-sanji]

[axe8472]

I have thoughts in my brain about six of crows and they may or may not make sense. So. The thing is when people talk about how the crows couldn't possibly be 16-18 because they're overly mature and competent and have life experience etc etc. i get that BUT is that not the whole point? I mean the books really hammer it home that notions of childhood in their world are entirely different from ours, like to the point where i would even say it's a main theme and kinda the driving force behind all the events in the duology.

Kids are taken away from their parent at like 11 to train as soldiers. Kaz was all alone in Ketterdam at 9 years old and there doesn't seem to have been any functioning system of care for kids like him, nor mandatory schooling. In Fjerda, it seems like the closest thing to foster care is being taken on by the Druskelle. Inej started training as an acrobat pretty much as soon as she could walk and was playing starring roles in performances by the time she was 14 (and probably a fair bit younger). I don't remember Jesper's backstory perfectly but I think he was put to work in the jurda fields (a hazardous agricultural job) as a small child, then worked with guns in some way, then got sent to school in a different country when he was like 15. This isn't exclusive to the crows - it's mentioned a lot that there are many kids in situations similar to Kaz and Inej in the Barrel. Even Joost, despite seemingly being quite sheltered, is working full time night shifts as a guard when he's not even old enough to grow facial hair.

It seems that there's just much more of a vocational focus for kids/teenagers in the grishaverse. This makes a lot of sense because many elements of culture across the grishaverse countries come from the ~1800s when the attitude towards kids was that they weren't all that different from small, inexperienced adults, especially in working-class and rural settings where you just had to get on with things. Kerch especially took inspiration from victorian England, where kids as young as 9 could legally work up to 60 hours a week in dangerous conditions. So yeah that's kind of the whole point imo. It's especially interesting because I read the soc duology as a (potentially semi-unintentional?) criticism of capitalism. This is highlighted by the fact that Wylan, the only one of the crows from a rich background, is also the only one who had a childhood and got an education even vaguely comparable to what we would consider normal. So clearly the whole childhood innocence vs being put to work at like 4 thing is closely tied to class. (obviously Wylan did not have A Good Childhood but it seems from the books that the standard for merchers' kids is to give them a really good and varied education with 1-to-1 tutoring etc, which is very different from what all the other characters seem to have had as kids.)

And okay yeah they're unrealistically skillful and competent and just generally smart, but that would be the case even if they were adults. Like you kinda have to just take liberties with your characters of they'll never manage to do anything, especially in a world that's so hostile toward them. And it's actually kinda hard to even say how unrealistic their capabilities are because their experiences are so different from the experiences of real-life modern teenagers. Like kids are crazy adaptable and good at learning things, especially when they've had no other choice, and the crows actually mostly have quite a lot of experience and had time to develop their respective skills because they haven't spent 8+ hours a day in school for most of their lives. The same goes for the degree of adult-ness in their general behaviour - they're really quick thinkers and less likely to panic in a crisis than any teenager I've ever met. Again I'd say that's the whole point. The charaters are acting older than they have any right to because the experiences they've had have forced them to develop the capacity to do so.

Idk maybe i just read it differently to some people but yeah i think that cross-cultrually throughout the grishaverse children just have very very different experiences to kids in real life. It makes sense that they would then grow up to be very different from real-life teenagers, and obviously the crows are an extreme example of that but there is like. clear historical inspiration behind a lot of the crows' backstories and the general cultural backdrop of the duology. And the whole thing with the books is yeah they're doing all of this stuff and they're capable of these amazing things but actually they are literally children and they are doing all of it mostly for the sake of survival and taking back the things that they deserve from the world. And everything they've done for years and the people that they've become has all been for the sake of survival. And they're kids.

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

LITERALLY JUST WROTE THE WORST MOST DISAPPOINTING CLIMAX OF HALLOWED BODIES BUT AT LEAST IT’S WRITTEN!!!!!!

[ectonurites]

hehehehe

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2023: LOST IN THE MOMENT AND FOUND by Seanan McGuire.

One, I’m always here for Wayward Children, but two, this one is exceptionally perfect for Driscoll Vibes!! Featuring the blanket I’m working on for my mom.

[libertyreads]

I'm currently reading a book about a female serial killer who kills Bad Men. And she has a *crush*... On a true crime podcaster.

So, tell me why I've been hoping she eventually corrupts him and gets him to kill someone.

[outlawssweetheart]

Bitches will see a character murder (often times, brutally murder) innocent people and ignore it or excuse it or even support it (fine, I do that too, they aren’t real). Meanwhile, that same character will do something else that is almost as bad, bad but not even nearly as bad as murdering innocents, or something that isn’t even bad at all, and they will FLIP THEIR SHIT! And suddenly, that character is a demon for that, but not for the homicide, and anyone who likes them is “Excusing this kind of behavior!!”

Like, honey, you just saw them mutilate an innocent bystander. 😒

Unless a character is on some fucking Freddy Kr*ger shit, I have to say the murders are at least slightly worse.

[musical-chick-13]

The existence of this Rosaline movie makes me so MAD, because SHE WAS NEVER IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH ROMEO. SHE TOOK A VOW OF CHASTITY, AND SAID THAT SHE WAS JUST GONNA NOT BE IN LOVE.

SHE. REJECTED. HIM.

SHE WAS NEVER INTERESTED IN BEING WITH HIM AT ALL.

And then they just...make a whole movie from her supposed perspective (which is loosely based on a book which...hoo boy we’ll get to that in a second), where the premise is that she’s jealous and wants to break him and Juliet up? That she’s so in love that she has to win him over again? (Also, how do they justify her knowing that they’re together? The entire point is that no one knows Romeo and Juliet are in love?? I know this is an adaptation, but Jesus Christ.)

WHY DID YOU PICK THIS CHARACTER. TO HAVE THIS STORY WITH. THE WHOLE POINT OF HER CHARACTER IS THAT SHE CHOOSES NOT TO BE WITH HIM. THAT’S WHAT OPENS THE DOOR TO HIM MEETING JULIET. IF ROSALINE IS DEEPLY INTO ROMEO, THE ENTIRE PLAY DOESN’T WORK.

Are we saying that she was just “““playing hard to get”””? That she was toying with his heart for fun? That when she told him no, she really meant “yes”?? I THOUGHT WE LEFT THAT BEHIND OVER THE COURSE OF THE LAST DECADE, I THOUGHT WE DECIDED THAT WAS BAD???!!?

Don’t even get me started on the book this is based on, where that general premise is that Rosaline is just an Innocent Average Girl, and her cousin who is Beautiful™ and vOLaTiLeLY uNsTAbLe and cRaZy comes and “takes” her poor unsuspecting boyfriend who is completely blameless for his own terrible behavior away from her while being called a “slut” the whole time. (I doubt much of this carried over into the actual movie, because that’s being billed as an ironic rom-com, and I highly doubt ANYONE would try to make that genre work while keeping this premise 100% intact.)

WHY WOULD YOU EXPAND THIS CHARACTER LIKE THIS. WHY. WE STUDY THIS PLAY IN SCHOOL AS AN EXAMPLE OF LITERARY STRUCTURE AND POETIC LANGUAGE AND FORESHADOWING AND HOW TO WRITE A TRAGIC NARRATIVE AND FOR WHAT. FOR PEOPLE TO NOT TAKE AWAY ANY OF THE INTENDED MEANING FROM THIS PLAY???!?!?!? I AM SCREAMING SO HARD I WILL BREAK THE EARTH’S CRUST UNTIL I AM SUBSUMED INTO HELL.

If you’re going to adapt something, you’ve gotta make it clear that you have some significant understanding of the original work. Retellings are fine! They can even have different functions or deconstruct tropes or be unexpectedly edgy! But it’s 1000% obvious when you don’t have any knowledge or engagement with the source material, and that is a problem. It’s ignorant, it’s lazy, and everyone involved deserves better.

[loverboydotcom]

just had the absolutely insane thought of like okay so basically until heaven timeline is december-january so it would be REALLLYYY cool if i wrote most of it during that time??? like the stars aligning + as a novella it feels much less scary than writing a whole novel? but then i also associate january with RR because that's when it starts but also felix and dorothy's birthday is in january (and in 2024 they would be turning SIXTY) so i'm tentatively wanting to start writing RR again in january too....and my tentative goal for 2024 is to write a first draft of either RR or lover boy (DON'T QUOTE ME ON THIS) but i just loooove timelines and timelines aligning. and lover boy starts in june so i'm like what if i managed a first draft of RR by june and then once june hits i draft lover boy again??? which none of this seems likely to me because i can't predict my hyperfixations a year in advance but i just think it would be so delicious.

[keeps-ache]

watched Pride and Prejudice and Zombies 👍

[feeshies]

i'm over 3/4ths of the way through 20k leagues and i have so many thoughts and feelings and idk what to do so i'm just vibrating like a hummingbird right now