#Turned into something bitter

[springs-hurts]

Gods but the way people think Arthur was stupid, trusting Agrvaine so much, first, Agravaine was a manipulative bastard, who came just after Uther died, a time when Arthur sorely needed parental support, seeing as his Father died and in a way, his whole family was gone. Mother, already dead, father, his king, dead, his sister betrayed him, forgive him for thinking, someone who was his last link to his mother, who was manipulating him on daily basis into thinking that he's the only one who had good intentions and cared for him. At a time, when he was most vulnerable. Forgive him for thinking that person won't betray him. Forgive him for thinking he had little of his family left. Forgivr him for thinking, even after all that has happened he was still loved by someone of his family.

Gods but I hate agravaine more than Uther, more than Morgana, more than any other villain. The way he manipulated Arthur, Gods, that's legit breaking the whole man, I wonder how Arthur managed to trust people after such deepest betrayal. Nobody talks about it,

But to think even after all of this, he still accepted Merlin and loved him so much!

[hoofpeet]

I'd probably have to read the printed version and web version back to back at some point to note all the differences but... ough

[thatswhatsushesaid]

as always i remain absolutely gobsmacked by the preponderance of takes in certain corners of this fandom that boil down to "lan xichen missed all of jin guangyao's red flags" while rarely if ever considering that nie mingjue himself should qualify as a walking red flag. the personification of a parental advisory notice. the human embodiment of a surgeon general's warning.

hangs this sign around nmj's neck like a cowbell

[morsmortish]

strawberry blond by mitski, but it’s chinese sirius about his ‘friendship’ with (white) james. james, who has the life sirius wants: charisma, home life, skin colour. james, who seems to get everything he wants so easily, with his easy charm and captivating laugh and glint in his eye. james, who represents everything sirius does not have, and who sirius desires more than anything. james, who makes sirius ache every time he looks at him, longing and jealousy and lust getting tangled in his chest. james, who loves everybody, and who, in turn, is the only one sirius loves.

i love everybody because i love you

all i need, darling, is a life in your shape/i picture it soft, and i ache

reach out the car window, tryna hold the wind/you tell me you love her, i give you a grin

all i ever wanted was a life in your shape/so i follow the white lines, follow the white lines

i love it when you look my way

[comraderoscoes]

lewis thinks so deeply and cares so strongly about everything … being in his life must be an absolute joy ☹️❤️‍🩹

[missycolorful]

dammit i miss qsmp

[silkjade]

i haven’t been here much recently, and i’m sorry i’ve only been negative on the off chance i’ve been online, but let me just say one last piece before the end of this month, so that maybe the next might be better….

[veryintricaterituals]

I've seen a lot of people really mad at the 90 minute episode, and I'm here wondering if I'm not the only one who is actually relieved? I really, really, really thought we weren't going to get anything? at all?

I was fully convinced that they were going to cancel it, and that we were about to be stuck with the final 15 as our last glimpse of Good Omens. I wasn't hopeful, because the cancellation should have been one of the consequences Gaiman faced.

But I'm glad that the team fought and won us the chance for closure. Honestly I'm glad, I don't want to know what sort of season we would've gotten either with or without Gaiman, and I don't really want to know. I just want them to give us closure so that I don't have to live in a world where two of my favorite shows end with a heartbreaking confession that is never talked about ever again.

[wrenhavenriver]

the way that a P who’s gained a significant amount of humanity will actually physically change to look like a young man old enough to have graduated rather than the more childish waif-like appearance he has at the start of the game makes me think that Geppetto, whether consciously or not, modeled him after Carlo when he was an age before their family relationship had been irreparably soured.

like, comparing the flashbacks we see of Carlo’s life, when he’s left at the Monad House as a young child he’s upset and anxious to know when Geppetto will return, but by the time we jump ahead several years to him telling Romeo that Geppetto missed his graduation he’s undeniably hurt but also much more bitter and (at least putting up a front of being) callous about it, remarking that he wouldn’t even care if Geppetto had kicked the bucket while he was away. i think P’s early game appearance probably comes from how Carlo looked during those years somewhere in between—a time when Carlo was less “difficult” about Geppetto’s neglect, perhaps, because Geppetto’s urge to bring Carlo back seems to be much less about him missing who Carlo was and more about trying to avoid/rewrite the truth of his own failures as a father.

maybe while Carlo was alive Geppetto had thought that he’d have time to fix things between them or that Carlo would eventually grow up to “understand” why Geppetto was always away—but then Carlo died tragically young, and he died resenting him. for Geppetto the only thing worse than this grievous loss would be acknowledging that Carlo was right to resent him. much easier to model this temporary replacement vessel after the Carlo from a time before he had given up on Geppetto as a father; much easier than confronting the fact that Geppetto was a father worth giving up on.

it’s fitting that the “Carlo” we see in the “Real Boy” ending seems far less human than P ever does, because he was never meant to be an accurate portrayal/resurrection of the young man Carlo was—rather, he’s compliant, and happy to see Geppetto, and ever so much more convenient than the real son who’d been so disappointed by his father.

[shannonsketches]

like why did they change where Vegeta was when Cell announced the cell games in the anime

why did they make this vegeta starting shit with yamcha instead of chillin in the lab with his family? why did they take Bulma out of the lab? Why'd they say she was Out while Dr Brief was repairing 16? Why did they change Bulma working on advanced robotics to running in late with her baby?

it's the same scene except: - Bulma's actively at work being a scientist - Vegeta's not being rude to her (or anyone else!) - Vegeta waits for Trunks instead of leaving the room - Cell interrupted the airwaves, which means Trunks and Vegeta were just hanging out with Bulma and Dr B while they were working

Those are all Great Character Details!! That the anime rails against!!

[hajihiko]

I interpret Kaz's relationship with his dad a little differently from that one convo. He says something like 'he knew better than anyone that we didn't have the money' and I took that as his dad wanted him to go and have fun like a normal kid and not worry about the money. Of course, I don't justify physical discipline and it is abuse, even if the parent is well intentioned. I think that Kaz does love his dad and they're relationship might be more complicated. But you know that's just one of the many things he needs to work out in therapy.

(Again this is just my interpretation and I'm not saying yours is wrong. I do love the art.)

Just gonna use this as a little jumping point to talk about this bc why not, warnings for obviously sensitive topics

I dont think you're wrong, I actually probably agree, but one thing;

It's not uncommon for public perception to weigh more than actual actions or intent. In the example given, I see it like so; yeah, Souda sr. wanted his son to go on a field trip that they couldn't really afford. Yeah, Kaz wanted to help the household by not going on the trip and saving the money. Both have good intent here. It's not about that, though, because in Souda sr.'s eyes, refusing to go on the trip is like admitting that they're poor, which is like saying the father can't provide for his family, which is like public humiliation- in his eyes. In a fit of rage (and insecurity, if it's something that's already weighing on his mind, as these things often go) the assumption isnt that his son was trying to help, just that he did something that makes the father look bad. Which is a bigger trigger than most things, often, for patriarchal authority figures.

And it not an excuse for physical harm, no, nothing is. Probably, Souda sr. knows that, and didn't mean to snap- doesnt think he committed an act of child abuse- but he's been under a lot of stress, and his son was talking back, and, well.

I think they do usually get along alright, and Souda sr. does his best to provide for himself and his son and keep their relationship good, and Kazuichi is genuinely grateful for everything his dad's done for him? But in the end, it's another person Kazuichi trusted teaching him the lesson that people will let him down and hurt him, in some way at some point. If your parent whom you trust has made you genuinely afraid of them, it's hard to come back from it, and someone as anxious and emotionally sensitive as Kazuichi will hold onto that forever, probably, even as he might internalized some of it as his own fault.

It's a lot more complicated than just "bad father, sad son" (but again, not excusable, you don't hit your kids period). It's father and son who love each other and might be the only family they both have, but they clash horribly on occasion, make up (or don't talk about it at all), things die down, stay good for a while, then there's another clash- so it goes, even if the bad times are only occasional. The biggest Thing about these kind of relationships, to me, is that it's so easy to fall into a routine and let things stagnate, and before you know it, it's just How Things Are and it's easier to just deal than start rocking the boat.

[new-haven-psych-ward]

it is rare in toku shows where i want an old person to yell at a young upstart artist that they're not as good as they think they are but dang am I hoping that happens in next week's gavv

[silverhalla]

neve came back and I IMMEDIATELY started crying

[kooki914]

We all know how you feel about chapter 2, so how would you "fix" the issues with the chapter?

This is the kind of ask that would've made me go apeshit in excitement a few years ago. TL;DR, I made an AU specifically addressing all my issues with Chapter 2 (and the future of deltarune as a whole), it's called Kingdomrune and you can find it here.

If you want the in-depth explanation, continue under the cut.

First and foremost, visual overhaul of cyber city. It kills me because the concept art for the city that was released recently looks gorgeous but something is just lost in translation when trying to make the concept art a playable area rather than just a purely visual piece of art that you can take in at your own pace. Limiting the palette and making it a bit more muted is the option I pivoted to for Kingdomrune, but I'm admittedly not very good with colours, so make of the result what you will

(Added bonus - there's a parallax effect in the windows of the buildings that reflect the rest of the city, what would usually be street lights is replaced with wi-fi antennae that visually call back to the cliffs, a lot of the floating ads are, instead, replaced with "bug checkers" and loading icons which are animated but not so fidgety to be distracting, and a lot of the "blocky" looking items (trash cans and balloons) are more just stylized in-universe rather than actually clashing with the rest of the environment.) (Also, I hate "WELCOME TO THE CITY" so just imagine "a cyber's world" being the theme of the city instead)

Additionally, the city shouldn't be 90% of the chapter, it just gets boring after a while. My solution to this is splitting the City into two parts, the iconic Cyber City as the second of the two, with the lead-up to it being a place called Hardware Outskirts. I don't have spritework for it, nor presentable concept art sadly, so just imagine a cross between old soviet brutalist buildings and old yellowed computer hardware, and you've pretty much got the mental visual for it. The music I associate with it is anything by Molchat Doma, but more specifically This Song, which adds a necessary tonal contrast to the City's vibrant feel.

Second of all, SOME KIND of conflict in the wider world outside just the kids' adventure. There's hints scattered throughout the game that Queen is planning something big in the city and that nothing's running on time because of it, but we don't get explicit payoff for that. My way of resolving this, and tying it back to the light world, is that Cyber City is essentially at war with the rest of the library.

The new tech is trying to conquer and replace the books and stories that have been there much longer, and the Bookbound Kingdom (in my version of events, at it's head are the card queens that are missing in chapter 1) is fighting tooth and nail to keep the "Evil" Queen at bay. The Bookbound Kingdom is themed after fairytales and textbooks and stuff, the kinds of things kids would most often check out at the library, and it would provide a very necessary tonal and visual contrast to the Cyber City that actually makes it's GOOD aesthetic and thematic choices pop. Where the Bookbound kingdom is wild and whimsical and outdated, Queen's kingdom is rigid and complex and new.

It also gives Queen a reason to ransack the first area like we (implicitly) see her doing in the game. She's actually, violently trying to take over Bookbound and that's when she found Noelle, and decided to kidnap her. Sweet Cap'n Cakes get a bit of a rewrite as well, originally Queen's scouts and allies until the protagonists befriend them through dancing during their battle, which causes them to turn on Queen because their new friends treat them better than she's treating them at the moment (giving us in-universe characters reacting to Queen's change in character caused by the fountain that, in-game, is just told to us rather than shown).

Thirdly, write out Berdly. Entirely. This is probably a controversial take, but I genuinely think Berdly's arc would benefit from having his OWN chapter dedicated to HIM specifically (one I dubbed chapter 2.5 in my AU), instead of him being at odds with Noelle for screen time. Setting up a context where Berdly's the character very clearly out of his own depth and not thriving with people claiming to be helping him, is a much more compelling way to get (me specifically) invested. Put emphasis on Berdly and Noelle being friends and him overcoming his comphet crush on her, no more weird love triangle shit with him inserting himself into Susie and Noelle's business, and most of all, Ralsei and Kris bonding with him in their own ways. Give Kris a REASON to forgive Berdly for the way he treated them, give the two common ground and let Berdly GROW into someone who WANTS to be nice to Kris, rather than whatever the hell happened at the end of Deltarune's chapter 2.

And lastly, I need to talk about Noelle. Like, a lot.

While she was (and still is) my favourite part of Chapter 2, there's still improvements to be made. For one, going from "freezing up completely at conflict" to "ACTing with kris to spare enemies" after just ONE conversation with Virovirokun that completely breaks the flow of battle is... kind of odd to me. In my rewrite, Noelle's first escape from Queen is with SCC involved, they target Noelle as a lightner they can beat (because they can't beat the heroes) and in doing so essentially open her cage. Queen is furious with them and while Susie tells Noelle to get the hell out of there, Queen is trying to coerce her to stay, and Noelle is frozen in place. She doesn't WANT to stay with Queen, but she's rooted in one spot and can't move. When something loud/startling happens, it FINALLY makes her budge and she's able to run away.

Freeze -> Flight

When Noelle first joins Kris' party in Hardware Outskirts, it's not because Susie and Ralsei ditched Kris out of nowhere with weird traffic cones to block them (??? im still salty about that), rather it's because there's a two-way puzzle (kind of like the December puzzle) that makes Kris' team split up in two, and Susie chooses to go with Ralsei because she trusts Kris'll be fine on their own. For context, in my AU there's also chapter 1.5 where the team more firmly learns how to work together, specifically through Kris learning how to bond with them one at a time, so Kris trying to cling to Ralsei and Susie in chapter 2 is weird from those two's perspective because Kris should know by now that a team of two will be fine, the three of them don't need to stick together like glue all the time. Susie and Ralsei aren't completely out of the picture, for the record, they're still checking in on Kris and Noelle and making sure they're okay, even distracting Queen to give them opportunities to get out of dodge. (again, instead of the weird love triangle stuff, I still don't know why that's there in-game.)

Noelle at first runs from every battle that happens. Kris has to fight every darkner on their own, leaving them at a huge disadvantage, because Noelle is too scared to fight them. As you may have guessed, this makes the snowgrave route not possible the moment Noelle enters your party (I'll get to that). Noelle eventually gets forced into battles with Kris during a car chase minigame, where they compete with Ralsei and Susie to see who can take out more enemies in a semi-enemy rush. The problem is, Noelle still doesn't contribute, and when the teams get separated, Kris ends up encountering WareWarewire, who they can't hope to defeat on their own, and at THIS point Noelle runs away again, which opens up the option for KRIS to flee as well (essentially unlocking a new mechanic). Once they're both safe and enter Cyber City, Noelle starts to feel bad for constantly leaving Kris on their own, and asks them to tell her what to do next battle, because she wants to be stronger.

Freeze -> Flight -> Fight

THIS is where the snowgrave offshoot can happen. Once Noelle is with you during battle willingly, she listens to your every command and that can include freezing/killing enemies if you so choose. You can completely erode the positive aspects of her development and ingrain "fight" as the only valid response to stress to her, which undermines the journey she went on for the sake of making battles more convenient for the player. This entire portion of the game after Noelle joins your party would be specifically curated to not make it feel bloated when seeking out enemies and doing puzzles no matter which route you take.

On a normal route, Noelle's character continues to progress steadily, but the one thing she still refuses to do are spelling puzzles, with a bit of emphasis put on it. Her and Kris bond for the first time in a long time without being interrupted by Berdly or Queen, and in the end, she's able to help you do the December puzzle. Together, Noelle and Kris are able to move past their trauma, at least partly, and become closer friends than they were before.

Before the December puzzle, though, there's a miniboss, and instead of a Berdly, this section would actually feature Rouxls as a miniboss. In my mind, he's using the boat as a way to traverse a minesweeper puzzle and tries to stop Kris and Noelle in order to give them over to Queen. On a normal route beating him always leaves him somewhat injured and fleeing, with Noelle worried about his safety. In a snowgrave route, Rouxls is painfully outmatched and while Noelle isn't particularly invested in his safety as an individual, after being forced to do Snowgrave she's in shock, both because of what she did, but also because Lancer leaves your inventory to check on Rouxls.

Oh yeah Lancer, remember Lancer? He was here the whole time!!! Your actions have consequences.

He's very clearly distraught and doesn't fully understand what happened to Rouxls, and his distress at his "lesser dad" being unwell and dying without him being able to do anything rings a little too close to home for Noelle, who's losing her own dad to illness that she can't really stop. She leaves the scene, feeling responsible and out of place, while Lancer stays by Rouxls and refuses to go back to Kris' pocket. Kris enters the mansion without Queen trapping them and encounters Susie and Ralsei inside, grateful Kris caught up to them but confused at Lancer's absence. The rest of the snowgrave route would play out as expected, Spamton taking over the mansion and Susie trying to help Noelle even if she doesn't really know what's going on. Same with the light world, except Noelle doesn't have an "oh Berdly, you overwork yourself too much" moment, rather she has an imposter syndrome moment with Kris and Susie coming to the library together and, apparently, being there long enough that its late in the day and neither of them bothered to wake her up to hang out with her. She's glad the dream is over, but the waking world isn't much better.

On a normal route, though, Lancer helps get you out of the cages and rooms Queen put everyone in. In my AU, he doesn't turn to stone (lore bending go brrr) and instead lets the team do their own thing and find Noelle and the fountain while he goes and looks for his lesser dad. And then there's the mansion. God the mansion. This is such a nitpick but I hate that in-game it geometry makes no sense, so I literally devised a map in which the progression essentially stays the same but the building kind of actually makes sense.

(Bonus - specifically mapping out how her giant robot body upholds the mansion/where each body part is referenced and is most visible)

Once Noelle is rescued, she briefly joins the rest of the team before deciding to help them in her own way, disabling security that Queen has around the fountain in order to grant them access from the inside (because she's still scared of confronting Queen). There's only one fight against Queen, also, none of the giant mecha stuff. She has her speech about the Knight as the protagonists approach and Noelle is already caught on her hand. Noelle is essentially stuck and forced to watch the whole fight as the gang try and fail to set her free, or beat the shit out of Queen. Either way, when they seem to have the upper hand, Queen pulls out a second giant hand and knocks them all down. Tired and almost defeated, Queen turns to Noelle and releases her from the hand, telling her to make another fountain, just like in the base game, threatening Susie if Noelle doesn't comply. Noelle turns around and stands up to Queen, just like in the base game, and in response Queen rethinks what she did. She tells Noelle to choose the world that makes her happy, and uses the giant hands that kept the kids trapped as a makeshift throne that she sits down on and gets carried out of the scene with.

On their own, the kids slowly recover while Susie and Noelle still muse about how much better the dark world is compared to the light world. When Susie offers they open a fountain on their own terms, Ralsei stops her and explains the roaring. Essentially the same as the base game from here on out, except Noelle comes with Kris and Susie once the fountain is closed, filling in the gap on Kris' right when closing the fountain that Ralsei will (hopefully) one day fill.

The rest of what I'm about to lay out is pure wish fulfillment and is less "fixing" chapter 2 and more just adding things I want to see:

Susie tells Noelle the dark worlds are real after she wakes up on a normal route, and offers to take her to Castletown since that's basically a permanent dark world without any of the immediate danger. Noelle promises to keep it a secret, visits her dad at the hospital, then visits Ralsei with Kris and Susie. While those two eventually leave to explore Hometown, Noelle decides to stay in Castletown with Ralsei for the rest of the day. She has a lot to learn from him when it comes to magic and the dark world, and I just want them to be besties.

There's explicit references to Berdly in Cyber City mostly as an homage to the fact that he was once part of the story line of it. They reinforce that Susie and Kris don't like Berdly (kind of like how some of the Hometown kids talk about not liking Susie, it's framed as kind of childish and closed off), while Noelle kind of defends his intentions as positive at their core. It's entirely setup for ch2.5 where Berdly is slowly redeemed not because Noelle holds his hand through his character development, but rather because Kris and Susie are antagonists that want better for him than his so-called allies of the chapter do.

Ralsei and Noelle also have a brief bonding moment in Cyber City, mostly revolving around Noelle being curious as to who Ralsei even is, and him genuinely not having an answer to that question. It reinforces Ralsei's identity crisis during the chapter as well as shows why Noelle is so well liked by other kids in class (she's perceptive and tries to get everyone involved even if she doesn't know them that well).

All in all I think most of the things that would "fix" the chapter for me could genuinely take a lot of the whimsy out of it for other people. I prefer more sombre and subtle emotional beats, but the original chapter 2 was very clearly not aiming for that, and people enjoy it for its peppiness and hype in a way that I just can't. To me it feels forced and unearned, to other people it feels entirely natural and warranted. There's no one way to appeal to everyone and, outside of the structural problems of the chapter (not idiot-proofing the maps so I got lost and frustrated for a while, no save in front of Berdly's fight for snowgrave reasons and not taking into account that the battle is difficult on a normal playthrough and quick resets would be necessary for people not that great at the game, the general unnecessary fluff around that weird teacup puzzle where Noelle is there in the party as well and it's just a very confusing portion of the chapter that doesn't even lead into anything later on that unironically made me scrap the idea of the teacups for Kingdomrune altogether, etc) that could be fixed with trimming fat or just quality of life small tweaks. There's nothing Fundamentally wrong with chapter 2, it's just not what I wanted out of the game, personally. So, if you don't like my rewrite, more power to you. It's literally meant to appeal to just me and no-one else lmao

[coffee-with-mint-syrup]

Look, I didn't want to be "that" person

who criticizes something just because "it was different in the books".

But I love PJO just way too much to not feel frustrated at the tendencies of modern adaptations that I think new series is suffering from. And I feel much more frustrated because in others aspects the new show is great.

First of all, what's with this downplayed brutality of PJO world? The moment Sally started her speech about Perseus I smelled trouble. In her story, in her reasoning she named him after Perseus because of this beautiful story where happy ending is just something that happens. While in the books thats a huge deal that Percy is named after THE ONLY HALF-BLOOD HERO that had that happy ending. That fact is supposed to highlight the mortality rates and that for most of these demigods happy ending is pretty much NOT IN PROSPECT. Like, despite that rambling post I'm usually fine with some differences that are made in adaptations, most of them I usually can understand. But why do you need change the message of "I named you that way because I hope you will live happily ever after despite being in constant danger" to "I named you that way because it's a beautiful story about a mother and a son"? Especially when they absolutely could do both?

Secondly, the Gabe issue. You see, Percy Jackson books were great because they were able to discuss with children some pretty heavy themes without downplaying them - like domestic abuse. And that scene with poker players and Gabe getting from Percy money was brilliant because it showed that Gabe was so awful that he took everything he could even from a 12 y.o. There were also heavy implications that he beat Percy. But now Gabe is just your usual jerk who is lazy and doesn't have a good relationship with his stepson and argues with his wife all the time. Look, I know, that is awful too, I know that. But the point of Gabe that he was absolutely the worst. That he's the worst of the worst that's why he smells on this metaphysical level and is able to hide Percy. That he kinda deserved what happened to him in the end. And now I sure that we won't get that end because apparently that stuff is too brutal for kids. If they're afraid that much younger audience would get shocked by it they could at least do that in hints, you know. Old shows were great with things that you didn't understand as a child and then later while rewatching them you finally could get the message.

And what's with this Grover thing? Okay, I understand they probably didn't have the time for establishing why Percy would feel betrayed by his teacher but wanted to save this "low point" for Percy's character. But why? Why? How Percy as a character and we as viewers are supposed to feel that amazing friendship if it started for us with betrayal? That just sucked.

Also, personal flaw - they really could insert "This is a pen" line when Brunner gave Percy the pen. They really could and that would be so awesome. But they didn't.

And the sad part is that now I understand that there was no way they could include this important stuff in the series. Because Disney is too afraid to show domestic abuse. They afraid to show Sally Jackson that put up with heavy abuse just to keep her son safe. They afraid to show that literal children die in PJO world. That that half-blood stuff is no game - as Percy said in the very first minute of the series. For fuck's sake they didn't even mention him having ADHD! They implied that by saying that he was being weird! That was so so so so important that those things that kids with ADHD are struggling make them so special and strong in their own way. And now that message is gone too.

And all of that is because Disney doesn't have any balls left. It's like they sanitize everything they make into that 0+ versions of stories while sometimes the point of the story is in discussing something from a real, sad and unsanitized world.

The stuff I listed is just from the first episode and I don't know if the show will go that way, if this tendency of sanitizing the story will continue or not. I'm just really afraid that all of that means that they decided to leave out all the brutality that made Percy Jackson so iconic. It is like watching this new version of Harry Potter where he doesn't live under the stairs - that maybe doesn't change much story-wise but it's just not the same Harry Potter that way.

I want to like the show, I really do. Walker is so amazing is this role. Other actors are really great. I see the effort, I see how people tried to make this adaptation as close to books as they could. The show looks truly amazing. The fight with minotaur was absolutely stunning. Ending sequence is a masterpiece. I have so many good things I can say about it. But those little things they changed - they weren't little at all. A huge chunk of what made those books so special at least for me is gone (especially in comparison with Harry Potter books). And I can't help feeling sad.

[keeps-ache]

which of these are better? :>