#actually fun fact I didn’t know heroes of Olympus was a sequel

[haliaiii]

Juno’s champion

[mcrmadness]

I was tagged by @cupcakecurl a while back (thank you!) and finally I’m on the mood for doing this myself as well!

Rules: tag 9 people you’d like to get to know better!

Top 3 current ships: I actually have just one OTP, which is Bela/Farin (aka FUB) from Die Ärzte, and then multiple smaller ones here and there. I’m finding new ships way too easily and sometimes it bugs me because I meant to enjoy a thing and boom, suddenly I have a ship there to fuck up with my brain. B/F is pretty much the only ship that I can say to actually ship, the rest are more like just for fun, I enjoy seeing stuff but I don’t really do anything about it, you know?

But now as I think of it, I think of it, I could say another band ship here: Paulchard aka Paul Landers and Richard Z. Kruspe from Rammstein, about these I have also watched videos and read some fancomics too and last summer’s tour was a wild one and I was following the events quite a lot.

And then maybe I could throw one fictional ship here too as it’s pretty much current one since I just finished watching the 5th season of Gotham last week, and that is, of course Nygmobblepot aka Penguin/The Riddler aka Oswald Cobblepot/Edward Nygma. I’ve never in my life shipped these before, even tho I’ve been a Batman fan since 1999 (I was 8) as I saw the 60s series on TV and I can remember almost shipping Batman and Robin back then, and I was only 8 years old!, and then had been watching the movies more or less during my childhood, but this was never something I’d even think of before I started watching Gotham and things started happening in the show. But it’s an interesting one. And I have to admit that while the show was still running and I couldn’t watch it because I live in Europe (and was too lazy to look for a website to watch it :D), I was still browsing the tag on Tumblr after each episode and giving myself spoilers of what happens with them. But I think the ending was a lot different than what I thought based on the Tumblr posts, and I’m actually not sure what to think of it. Imho it was not as bad as everyone else seemed to think.

I’m putting this under a read more link as this is getting way too long and I don’t know if people are interested in reading my weird thoughts about ships and other random stuff, so here you go... 

Top 3 all-time ships:  Oh my gosh, I have had so many but only like 2 actually strong ones? And I have to say Bela/Farin here as well, the reasons are found from above and I’m just so obsessed with them and idc what it is, already the friendship is like friendhip goals, you know? But yeah, I’ve been making videos about these two idiots for like last 10 years so... :D

And the next one, okay I’m usually not so talkative about ships. I can talk about them with people in private but I don’t like to go and shout about them publicly, probably the only one I talk about this way is Bela/Farin but it’s because Tumblr is a safe place for this and there’s no hate with this ship or anything (and the other one is Paulchard, every now and then I will reblog something that crosses my dash). But mainly I like to keep ships to myself and like I said in that other tag game post, ships are more like a guilty pleasure. Maybe because of my age as it was very normal at the age of 15 but now as I’m 28? Why am I still “in love with other people’s love”? I actually don’t mind it but I think many people would find it weird, especially when I don’t read fanfictions anymore and I don’t want to imagine anything, I just like seeing cute stuff, but with many ships I don’t even want to see too much, I just like seeing them being close but with many ships even seeing them kiss would be too much.

But anyway, top 3 all-time ships... I think I need to mention here a ship that I was very much obsessed when I was 15-17, that I wrote LOTS OF fanfiction and was there to make lots of fan theories and all, and that one was Frerard aka Gerard Way/Frank Iero from My Chemical Romance. I was SO obsessed it’s insane. If you know anything about MCR and Frerard, you maybe are aware of how was the year 2007 and you can probably imagine how crazy we all went when Project Revolution stuff happened. So yeah, I need to mantion that here even tho I no longer “believe in this ship”, but I guess I’d lie if I said, that I didn’t believe that there was something there back in the day. I’ve actually recently been watching some Frerard theory videos just for fun, because there’s so many things I had forgotten and so many things I still can remember, but also lots of stuff that I kinda missed because they happened in 2010-2012, and even tho I was still very much in the fandom and I was to their second gig in Finland in 2011, I still was not that much into the Danger Days album so I was not so into digging up stuff either. And I had my own identity crisis and Die Ärzte had been my favorite band for 1-2 years at that time so I was spending lots of time watching DÄ videos, so MCR was kinda at the background. And then the whole band went quiet for some time until they quit in 2013 (and now they’re back), so all that Frerard hype kinda died after each of them started to get married to other people and the kids were born, so there just... kinda was no more room for the ship, you know? But Freard was my first actual huge slash ship, I’ve had others before it (for example, my first touch to slash fiction was Harry Potter fanfiction and of course Harry/Draco stuff, but that one also later died out), but it was the first really strong one and then Bela/Farin kinda took its place as Frerard died out but B/F has been going strong and the ship has been sailing itself since the 80s, so... :D

And as the last one I think I could again mention something fictional but at the same time something that is super weird for me as it’s not slash fiction but hetship, which is something REALLY weird for me. I usually don’t like heteroships as they’re just... boring and so cliché. But I need to mention this one that I got into when I was 15: Fox Mulder and Dana Scully from The X-Files. Yeah I know it was 2006 and the series had ended already in 2002, but I was a new fan! I had known about the series since I was a little kid as my dad was watching it back then, but I started watching it myself when the show had a rerun here in 2004-2005. And then I met my friend in 2006 when we were 15 and we found out that we both were very much into TXF and I remember how we somehow both started to ship Mulder and Scully (having no idea of how the series ended), and it was probably until the 6th season (there was 9 seasons at the time) when they stopped airing it altogether, so we were so furious about the fact because the last episode was such a cliffhanger and we NEEDED TO KNOW, so I had to buy them on dvd! So I remember how we would meet at school every day and after every episode, we went so crazy, discussing what had happened in the episode and if there was any Mulder/Scully activity, we were just so hyped :D And then, as we STILL hadn’t seen all the seasons, we went to see the second movie (”TXF: I want to believe”) in theaters in 2008 or so, and it’s set to happen after the events of the seasons, we were both so blown away by what was in the movie because we had no clue :D Fun fact: I actually finished watching the 9th season only last year. So now I understand the events of the second movie a lot better, and I’ve also seen the 10th and 11th seasons so now I’m finally aware of everything. But that really is a hetship that I accept and that is not like a typical movie romance type of ship. It has interesting dynamics.

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Last song: Tatuoituna by Tehosekoitin

Lipstick or chapstick: Chapstick, I don’t use any make-up, but chapstick I need to use daily.

Last movie: Iron Sky. I’ve seen it before tho, but we’re gonna watch the sequel soon, so we had to watch this to remember what happened :D (And it’s made partially by Finns, so..!)

Reading: Atm I have 3 books I’m reading, all of them in Finnish:

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which has all the short stories in one. But I think there’s some of the newer ones missing and that’s why I bought this bit newer book with more stories, and I’m gonna read those once I’m finished with this one. And I’ve been reading this now for years lol... but I’m slowly getting there, I’m already over halfway through :D

A collection of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, I don’t know the name for this book and it doesn’t say any name for the original. This one I also started to read a years back, only to pause if for years and then last year I borrowed it again from my dad and tried to continue from where I was left the last time.

The Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan. I’ve been reading his books ever since I was a, well, teenager probably, and I have had a long pause with these books and reading overall, but now I’m back at it and trying to buy and read all of his books I still haven’t read.

I wanted to read the latter only after finishing with SH and Poe’s stories but I needed to read something and they’re bit too difficult reading at the times, and I needed something lighter but also didn’t want to start over with Harry Potter for the 5th time so I decided to go for this series instead. I really like reading SH and Poe’s stories, but like I said, they’re bit difficult at the times. You can’t just read them, you need to think and use your brains meanwhile you’re reading, and sometimes it’s just so incredibly hard to stay focused on it and I need to go back so often because I wasn’t paying attention and then had no clue what was happening and why.

And I sometimes I skip some of Poe’s stories because they’re so purely scientific about a topic that I cannot comprehend nor care about, e.g. this one story that was almost like a science essay about hot-air balloon flight in the form of a story, probably super interesting for someone who likes this kind of stuff and even more interesting for a writer interested in stuff like that, but I’m really not the target audience of that story :D But then there’s also lots of really interesting ones, I especially like the ones that have something to do with insanity. I guess people would call them as the horror stories, but idk, I just love that kind of mystery. For some reason all of my favorite stories are those where there is a dead woman/love interest :DD But probably my ultimate favorite is the one about writing an article to a magazine with horror stories, and how this guy become beheaded and all just to write a story about how it feels like and stays alive meanwhile, and I just LOVE IT when fictional works play with death and when something that is supposed to kill you, doesn’t, and I just love the idea of that story so much :D It’s just that you never know how a story will be like, as you start reading, is it a scientific essay or a mystery or a horror story or about insanity or what is it? And then when in the middle of reading and you realize this is bit boring or uninteresting, but still want to finish, but also want to skip, and that’s why I get stuck with that book, and I change to SH or something else. Often I also grab some of the comics (or non-fiction books) I own whenever I feel like reading but these books feel too heavy for that moment.

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I should tag 9 people but I don’t even know that many people to tag lol. Okay I do know people, but I still don’t know who wants to be tagged and who doesn’t. Maybe I’ll be boring and tag @stufenlosregelbar again? :D And idk, maybe @annika-of-the-lost? Eh, I’m so bad at this whole tagging thing. I’m having a bad conscience if I don’t tag anyone/enough people in case they want to be tagged and I can’t read minds; and then I’m having bad conscience when I DO tag people in case they’re all somewhere facepalming and screaming “WHYYYYYY” into the void, as I still can’t read minds. So you can choose, do this tag game or ignore it and ban me from ever tagging you people again, I don’t mind :p

[takaraphoenix]

Hellooo I read some posts of yours under the hashtag “Riordan Critical”, and I really liked your opinions. I was curious, what do you think about Magnus Chase’s serie and, more importantly, about representation in his books?

Warning: The following text will contain high levels of salt that will make the dead sea seem sugary.

This turned out longer than intended, so I decided to shorten it here. Klick and read all of it, but seriously, I am overly salty in this, as a heads-up.

Well, what I mainly think about Magnus Chase is that it’s a cash-grab.

Riordan had one really huge hit with Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

He wrote the Kane Chronicles about the Egyptians and they were… not as popular as that. So he decided to crossover and tie-in and essentially try to convert PJatO readers into “Look, here is your Percy! Check those stories out and discover that you might like Carter so you will buy my other books!”.

Then he tackled the Romans, but straight-up went sequel to PJatO with that, because he saw that non-Percy material wasn’t working as well.

And with the Norse he essentially clickbaited.

“Magnus CHASE. Look at that name! What could it mean? Is it perhaps next gen about Percy and Annabeth’s son? But oh why would he have Annabeth’s last name? Oh, I simply NEED to know!”

That… is literally the only purpose that Magnus being Annabeth’s cousin fulfills. To make really-very sure PJatO readers would also read Riordan’s new series.

There is virtually no other reason why those two are cousins. It would have splendidly worked if it was just about Magnus Hunt, or whatever kind of alternative last name you might like. Just something that doesn’t tie it together with PJatO.

So, that was kind of a turn-off for me.

Additionally, as you did notice due to reading my other Riordan Critical posts, I’m not exactly a fan of Heroes of Olympus. It had a lot of potential, but the author didn’t feel the need to explicitely write even half of said potential. It also showed that while Riordan was great at writing kids and dealing with them, he flat-out sucks at teenagers because inexplicably all they seem to care in his mind is romance.

So the idea of a book-series where we right away start off with teenagers already gave me a mighty migraine caused by Riordan’s shipping history.

Another turn-off.

Lastly… please call back your bald eagle and roll up that star-spangled banner, Riordan, America is not the center of the universe.

PJatO was written during a time where yes, America was very centric and even respected. 90s and early 2000s, yes, I agree, America was basically the center of the world. So to have the Greek gods move there, okay. I’m buying it.

But to have the Greek gods live in New York City and then tie the Kane Chronicles also into the same universe and also have the Egyptian gods sit in Brooklyn, New York…

And then add the Romans, who - hey, wow, San Francisco and not New York! What a shock. Such surprise.

Yeah, no, that’s still the US. You could have, at the very least and to make it at least a tiny bit realistic that you’re retconning Romans in, have them be seated in Europe. Instead of also the US. Because sure, totally, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans never-ever run into each other while they all got their home-base in the same damn country.

And now, what a shocker, the Norse gods also moved to the United States of America.

Newsflash: America really actually isn’t the center of the universe and, this might come as a surprise, America is not that popular anymore either.

The sheer egocentrism of having Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Norse gods all abandon their original continents to move to the US kind of makes me nauseous at this point.

No. No, America is not that great. No, not all the gods of the entire world want to move to the country where trans people aren’t allowed to use restrooms anymore, where unarmed black people are shot by the police, where children have to march for the right to not be shot at school, where women have to travel to another state to maybe get an abortion.

No, your country is not that great, Riordan, please stop acting like it.

It’s quite frankly very insulting that Riordan treats Europe like a pesky, underdeveloped little thing that’s not worthy its own gods attention.

I could buy one pantheon moving on the US. I don’t buy four.

If you want to write US centric god stories, how about you give native Americans some rep and start writing about their gods. Who, you know, would thus also just stay in their own country for a change.

I just really can’t accept the fact that he now also moved the Norse gods up to the US and that oh my such coincident, Frey fucked the sister of Annabeth’s dad so now the Chases attracted two different pantheons.

That’s just too much bullshit, click-baiting and things that make me weary from experience with his last series.

So. Yeah. I haven’t read it and nor do I have plans of reading it, because literally not a single thing about it seems worth reading and all the things I just listed make alarm bells go off in my head.

Also, just one more salty add-on: Personally, I think that his representation in Magnus Chase is also click-bait. He realized there is a huge audience for LGBTQ+ characters when he made Nico gay so he is now focusing more on representation for popularity’s sake.

Look, I know that last part in particular is really very bitter and everyone who reads the books and is happy about the representation given in them should. Of course. We don’t get enough rep in YA novels.

Nico di Angelo was handled horrendously. In my opinion.

I loved House of Hades and the plot of Nico coming out to Jason. Don’t get me wrong, not everything Riordan does is awful, obviously I also like a lot of his stuff, otherwise I wouldn’t have read it.

I one hundred percent believe that Nico was intended as gay from the get-go, because the evidence for his canonical love for Percy is all over PJatO. It was good writing. It was a brilliant set-up.

The level of angst Nico dealt with in HoO was good. Realistic, especially for a kid from the 30s.

But then Blood of Olympus ended and Riordan, I don’t know, panicked. He completely rushed and butchered everything that he had been setting up for years now and it is... At its very core, this was the moment where he lost all of my trust, really.

When Nico flippantly confesses to his feelings for Percy in public. A week ago, he couldn’t even admit it in front of Jason and a god, even with high stakes, but all of a sudden he has the confidence to confess not just to being gay but to his feelings for Percy.

And then this utterly rushed job of “Well, he was in love with Percy for years, but over the past five days, he totes 100% got over it and now he has a crush on Only Other Gay, whom he spoke a total of about 5 sentences to”, just because Riordan can’t live without shipping.

Nico had been through so much. Give the boy time. Yes, okay, let him bond with Will, but there was no need to rush the “suddenly over Percy” shit and the coming out of the closet thing.

Riordan’s middle-aged straight man was showing hard there and as a lesbian, who went through the spiel of denial, hiding and coming to terms myself, I felt... I was genuinely emotionally crushed for weeks by what a shitty job he did with Nico’s coming out.

It’s not even about the ship. I never expected Nico and Percy to get together at the end, I’m not an idiot, I know he’d never break his OTP up.

It’s solemnly about the fact that Nico coming out to Percy was handled like a fucking joke. Flippant and fun and “You’re not my type haha now I’m off with Only Other Gay”.

He could have had Nico bonding with Will. He could have had Nico getting over Percy. He could have had Nico confessing to Percy.

But it all needed more time. The book was ending though, so he rushed through it and slapped a shotty, shitty ending to Nico’s coming out arc and it still makes me so intensely angry.

There is just no way that Riordan didn’t know he’d force another sequel outta those books. So there was absolutely no reason to rush it all.

He could have just had it end in the infirmary. Even with Will making his comments and even with Nico being flustered. But end it there.

Give us a Nico who is more settled at Camp Half-Blood and who is more settled with his sexuality and who would have then come out publically and confessed to Percy. Months after that book, in the next series. Time that would have given Nico the chance to fully embrace himself before opening up to others.

But that’s not possible for Riordan. Riordan needs a happy ending and both PJatO as well as HoO proved that happy endings only work with romance. The great happy ending of PJatO was less about the end of the war but had to be celebrated in an overly cheesy underwater kiss between his OTP. The great happy ending for HoO was that Piper and Jason were happy, Frank and Hazel were happy, Percy and Annabeth were planning to go to college together wtf how is that even possible Percy just missed an entire year of school he ain’t graduating high school any time soon, Nico and Will were going off into the sunset together and the grand finale was literally Leo and Calypso flying into the sunset together. Not a single friendship or family based happy ending. It’s all about the romance and everyone has to be in their one true love best by the age of 14 because that is so wildly realistic.

Riordan has so completely lost my trust over the course of Heroes of Olympus that I can’t help but wonder about the actual motivation behind the things he chose to do there, because many of his past decisions really can just be tracked back to money and popularity.

Many of his decisions made in Heroes of Olympus themselves, for example, directly reflect him rolling over onto his back to try and please his readers (-> spoiling the finale of HoO over a year prior to the final book being published by tweeting how none of the Seven will die in the finale. Thanks for taking out all of the suspense). It’s a habit of his and it keeps getting worse and I’m just… not there to stay and witness.

I’m the kind of girl who doesn’t want to continue being dragged down by something when it’s shitty. When something loses quality so drastically, I do the healthy thing - and quit. And I quit after Blood of Olympus and I have absolutely no intention of ever touching another Riordan book again, unless it’s PJatO for rereading purposes - because that was still actual quality.

Now, lastly, on the matter of representation. Well. It’s a bit pathetic?

I mean, PJatO had Charles Beckendorf, who’s black, and Ethan Nakamura, who’s Japanese, and… literally every other character who was in any way or shape important, was white. And the only two POC were killed off during the Titan War.

Then he wrote the sequels. Leo - Latino. Reyna - Latina. Hazel - black. Frank - Asian. Piper - native American.

It was… Let’s be real, it felt like he was trying to cram as much representation in there as humanly possible to make up for how white the first series was. But I wouldn’t particularly call it representation, because aside from stating their ethnical backgrounds, he didn’t really do a lot with it. It had very little effect on the books and on the characters themselves.

There was like one tiny scene of Piper in a flashback with her grandpa and for a second there I thought he was using that to set up the next spin-off books about native American gods, tied in with Piper’s family, but that didn’t happen.

Reyna being Puerto Rican only… came into play when they were in Puerto Rico, but that was also… not really of actual importance. Like, the scenes as they were could have as well happened in Miami with a white girl.

The thing is, I recently watched One Day at a Time and it’s about a family with roots in Cuba and their Cuban heritage is important. They’re by no means reduced to being Cuban, but it’s integrated into the story. It’s important to the plot and it’s important to the characters’ personality. Now that is what I would call representation.

To actually go and do something, work with the ethnical backgrounds you give your characters.

Traditions, language, pride in their heritage. Cultural clashes, maybe.

Like for Hazel, who is a black girl from the 40s and from whom I would have liked to see more wonder or maybe even anger upon what has changed and what hasn’t changed since her childhood. Riordan teased it, a little, in the flashback about Hazel and Sammy, but in the end, that was only mainly for more love-drama too because it wasn’t enough that this 13 year old girl had Frank in love with her and Leo crushing on her, no, it was vital to add some past romantic drama for her.

And that’s just not something Riordan does. He slaps an ethnical background onto the characters and that’s kind of… it. He writes romance novels by now, where everything else has gotten rather secondary.

I can’t speak for Magnus Chase because I haven’t read it. I’m aware there is a Muslima lead, a genderfluid lead and a character who is mute or deaf, I’m unsure about that one I just know ASL is represented in the series in some way.

All of those can be good. If he actually does a good job with it. If it’s just sub-plot stuff that’s tagged on and not worked with, well, that’d be a shame. Personally, I don’t trust him to prioritize any of those things over his shipping, but I’ll hope that it’s good and at the very least, it seems satisfying enough.

Then again... I don’t read too much critical thinking in this fandom and too much blind love for “Uncle Rick” who can’t do no wrong, so... I don’t trust that to reflect how the books really do.

[tyrranux64]

Terry’s Favorite Playstation Games

I hate Sony. I have not made this secret, from much of my art to a good helping of Youtube comments reacting to blind praise, most who know me more than the usual internet passerby are acquainted enough with my hatred of the company and brand. 

And it is not a biased band wagon kind of hate either, no this took time to fester into a most blackened bloom. Interactions with the biased rank and file, learning of the less than favorable business practices Sony has employed, the constant in your face propaganda from even third party publishers made against its two direct competitors, but most of all and most important my own experience with their premiere game system. No joke, the PS3 was effectively the worst console I have ever had the “pleasure” of owning, both with the initial 600 dollar 40 gig grill and the used slightly slimmer replacement I had to get just to keep my own sanity. I blacklisted the PS4 for a reason and even now I look at what the fourth generation of the console has to offer and feel assured my choice was correct.

Again my hatred of Sony is not pure bias fanboy raging, it is the culmination of less than favorable experiences and acquired knowledge that has forever soured my perceptions of the brand. And to further stress this point? I’ll go ahead and give you the Playstation Exclusives I absolutely loved in no particular order. Heavy emphasis on “exclusive”, all the titles listed will be ones you absolutely need a Sony console to play, no multi-platform titles, no games that were once exclusive then ported to other systems. Sony only.

And don’t expect Shadow of the Colossus on this list, of all the excellent titles one can point to that is the lowest of hanging fruit. Everyone loves that one, everyone, even its critics and detractors. My reasons for liking it are the same as everyone else’s...

____________________________________

INFAMOUS & INFAMOUS 2; Honestly I couldn’t decide which I liked more since both offer the same consistently excellent design and experience, I guess the second one for being more polished and having more interesting settings but trading one over the other is heresy. And honestly if I didn’t hate Sony so much I’d be all over the third one (though after seeing the story on Youtube I gotta say, Fetch is a complete unlikable asshole).

Ultimately this is a 3D platformer, one that more than belongs in the same breath as the likes of Super Mario Anything and Banjo Kazooie. Despite its otherwise “serious, realistic and edgy” tone and design this is the kind of delightful platforming romp that’ll satisfy even old school players pinning for the bygone era of platformers being the dominant genre in gaming. And it just makes the circumstances of its creation more fascinating. How Sucker Punch followed suit with Naughty Dog going from cartoony mascot games to so-called serious realistic games, yet unlike Naughty Dog puts out a product that still feels like a spiritual successor to their previous work.

Naturally the biggest negative is the morality system. Bad enough it is so arbitrary and safety helmet in its design that it tells you which choices are good and evil but said choices are so cartoonishly extreme on both spectrum that any sense of ambiguity and nuance are lost. But on the flip side, it does present one of the most fun bits of obsessive compulsive gameplay features I’ve ever experienced....

The Pulse Heal. Damn was this so much fun. The sheer rush of not only going to help someone but actually having the capacity to do so, the kind of humanity enriching wish fulfillment I didn’t get enough of. And I wasn’t just blowing smoke when I described it as a “obsessive compulsive” gameplay feature, I lost count of the number of times I slammed the breaks on what I was doing every time I saw some helpless citizen in desperate need of a jolt. It was nuts man, a game that lets you play as a superhero and actually let you feel like one....one helpless citizen at a time.... ______________________________________

GOD OF WAR III; But then there’s this fucking game that makes me feel like a complete villain, go figure. Then again that has been the real beauty of this franchise especially after the first game, there are no real heroes, no real champions of justice. There are only villains. What separates Kratos from all the other villains is that he was ultimately the culmination of their selfish and petty machinations to satisfy their own ends, he is the necessary evil meant to liberate the world from the cruelty of Olympus.....unfortunately, it entailed nearly destroying the world and sending it into a state of anarchy thereby making things worse. Oops.

Well either way the games are still just good ol’ hack n’ slash shenanigans. Technically I should give the nod to GoW 2 for having the more satisfying journey involving the Sisters of Fate....but it ends with a complete blue balling of an ending. Pretty arrogant to have such an ending when you’re not even sure you’re getting a sequel....well it did but still....

Plus the third one lets you actually fight more than one Olympian, hell it actually lets you fight Hercules, the proverbial OG Superman himself. AND HE’S VOICED BY KEVIN SORBO. But what really cements it is the overall combat which feels more satisfying. Not only are some of the core moves fantastic (especially the grab moves) but all the available weapons are chained weapons. It’s the kind of sameness and consistency that actually works to the game’s benefit, complimenting the gameplay and Kratos’ overall design as a range based fighter. Also nice how all the button prompts are regulated to the side of the screen to correspond to the button placement, a nice touch to mitigate any disorientation of the chaos on screen. __________________________________

CRASH BANDICOOT: WARPED; Yes yes I know the N’Sane Trilogy is now gonna be multi-platform (thank Primus) but as many who have played it will verify it’s such an extensive HD remake that it doesn’t quality as being the same game. And sadly I don’t see the original ported to any other system.

Not much that needs to be said here, when it comes to the original trilogy everyone has their first favorite. I might have played the first one once or twice but never haven owned the first PS (fun fact I actually wanted it over the N64 but my mom was convinced to get the later) it would be this one that I ended up playing the most and ultimately beat first during one particular visit to my out of state cousins. _______________________________________

RATCHET & CLANK FUTURE: A CRACK IN TIME; I never got into R&C during my initial PS2 era days, it wasn’t until a decade or so later that I played all three of the original trilogy and the future trilogy. And I played them all in chronological order, so to go from the utter lackluster flop of a plot that was Tools of Destruction to this one was an easy step up.

I’m not gonna argue this game’s quality against the original trilogy, after much retrospect and hearing other opinions there is just no contest as far as story, setting and personality. The original trilogy wins. But as far as the future trilogy? Yeah, this is easily the best one, the other two are just boring.

Crack in Time just had the best story overall and an overall journey that didn’t feel like my time was being wasted. Plus this was one of those games that gave me incentive to actually seek out the optional side objectives. Gameplay balance is an issue as things can skew a bit too easy but I was having too much fun overall to mind. Plus any game that gives me something like the Constructo Pistol and Shotgun easily gets the nod. ___________________________________

LITTLEBIGPLANET 2; There is some part of me that still loves this game....but these days it is more of a tragic love story of love lost. Ultimately my creativity and ambition overgrew my actual ability and the limitations forced on me with both the allotted level space and materials (I mean good lord have you tried to make levels with a lot of gold and complex shapes? The game just flat out tells you to fuck off). Perhaps what really soured the experience was trying to do exactly what the devs did with the story mode they made, but I realize now it was as impressive as it was because they had no arbitrary thermometer limiting what they could put in.....bastards....

These days I more respect this game for what it was made to do and what others were able to do with it. But as far as what I was able to do? Yeah, it’s too heartbreaking to think about..... __________________________________

JAK II; Remember not even a few paragraphs ago I said I never played Ratchet & Clank until recently? This is why. Because in an industry where brand new games cost up to a few tens short of a full Benjamin, well, choices have to be made.

And yeah I was easily drawn to the first game with it being a more direct 3D platformer, easily the kind of game I’d get into after my time with the N64. And then the second game came along and added guns and an edgy dark hero super mode.....without compromising the gameplay the series was established on. And for as edgy as it was now being with the story it never felt ridiculous or out of place, one of the few times I’ve even see it work out really.

Also it was a laugh riot to play what was extensively Crash Bandicoot meets Grand Theft Auto. __________________________________

KINGDOM HEARTS; I have already chronicled my thoughts on this franchise several times before so I won’t bore you with too many details. Bottom line I feel the first one is the only good one simply because it had a nice fun story that felt like both a parody and love letter to Japanese RPGs without a hint of Kojima grade arrogance or self indulgence, unlike later entries >:/

And not once did this ever feel like a mere commercial for the Disney films represented, each world was an adventure all its own and the interactions with your favorite Disney characters actually felt like characters interacting, instead of just actors in a studio voicing their lines. So ultimately I’m able to tolerate the rather archaic gameplay because the story is still a treat to enjoy.

But more relevant to this list, this was the game that got me to get a PS2 in the first place. I was rather content going only with Nintendo but then I played this game while at another cousin’s house and was immediately entranced. And really it was at this point I was kinda tired of missing out on third party games that were PS exclusive for reasons that sounded as arbitrary excuses back then as they do now. 

I still can’t fathom how many games of the PS2′s third party library wouldn’t have worked just as fine on the Gamecube, thereby increasing the available consumer base and resulting in more sales. And if KH3 really is slated for release on Xbox One, why the hell are none of the HD compilations of past games also released on the console as a courtesy to those who might be interested in the series but don’t have reason to get a PS4? Sadly it’s a question I shouldn’t be asking because I know exactly what kind of answer I’ll be getting, excuses. ________________________________

So yeah, even though I have indeed enjoyed some of the titles available, not even these select games are not enough to sway my disdain for Sony. In fact the games listed that were developed and publish by Sony themselves only serve as a reminder of what the company is now all too willing to throw away in light of the current direction it is going for with its exclusives library.

And really it kind of makes sense that Sony just doesn’t give much of a shit these days, they were never a video game company to begin with, they are an electronics conglomerate. Movies, music, computers, headphones, that sort of jazz. Video games is just another department to satisfy their fiscal year quota, nothing more. People keep praising them for revolutionizing gaming but forget that they never needed to get into video games to begin with.....

Their only incentive to doing so was as a petty, vindictive, butt hurt reaction to Nintendo’s refusal to bend over the same way Michael Jackson did. Sony hates taking no for an answer so they acted like a jealous ex lover and produced a product based on a foundation of hate...and hatred only begets more hatred.... _________________________________

Also figured I give a few honorable mentions that can’t be on this list proper for one or two obvious reasons, but all of them I have experienced on Sony consoles...

CASTLEVANIA SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT; Truth be told I’m more partial to Harmony of Dissonance but I know someone will get on my ass for not bringing this up. But yeah this was also on the Saturn....in Japan. Who’s dumb idea was it to keep the majority of the Saturn’s library Japanese exclusive?

MEGA MAN X6 (But Only On Easy Mode); On anything higher this game is just as broken and near unplayable as people say it is, shit even on easy it’s still a mess. Anyway this was the only PS MMX game I actually played on the PSOne back when it was new, this time on a friend’s console. And I’m not gonna lie I still have kind of a soft spot for it even with the glaring flaws....

KINGDOM HEARTS II; Yes yes this is a far superior game to the first one, gameplay wise. But in a game genre that lives or dies on the story being told there is no question that this was a serious downgrade. Everything that endeared me to the first game’s story this sequel proceeds to fuck up royally, and thus seeing the skip cutscene option as an absolute godsend makes me die a little inside, first rule of good storytelling in games is to make sure no one will ever want to skip the cutscenes even if they have the option to.

DEVIL MAY CRY 3; It was of course the first DMC I ever played and beat, and when said first happens to be the best in gameplay, structure and story it’s pretty hard not to be biased. 

TRANSFORMERS WAR/FALL OF CYBERTRON; I think you guys know by now that I am a big fan of Transformers, so my reasons for liking these games are a no brainer.

BAYONETTA; Yeah it’s weird thinking this game ever saw the light of day on the PS3 and 360, mostly because Platinum had the decent courtesy to port the first game to the Wii U in direct response to concerns about the sequel now being Nintendo exclusive. And what did they do when it was announced a third game was on the way? They ported the previous two titles to the Switch so that no one would be left out of the loop, not even those that passed on the Wii U. That’s what I call customer service, wouldn’t you agree SQUARE ENIX?

DEAD SPACE; Pretty much the last good EA game. The final gasp of air made by EA’s capacity for common human decency before tossing it away and effectively going all in on putting out a constant flow of bullshit on a yearly basis.

ASURA’S WRATH; Pretty much the only interactive movie game in all creation that still feels like a video game, with actual video game segments. Still bullshit that you had to pay additional money just to see the ending but hey at least said ending was actually worth the money, heaven help Capcom if it ended up being a shit ending...     

BATMAN ARKHAM ASYLUM; Yeah yeah I should be giving the nod to Arkham City but that whole business involving Talia Al Ghul all but killed the second game’s story for me....seriously Bruce what the fuck do you even see in that cunt to make you so sycophantic for her? 

DRAGONBALL XENOVERSE; Well it was fun while it lasted and even now I feel it’s a better “Kingdom Hearts” than any of the latter actual KH titles. But aside from also being on the 360 and such, well, it’s not exactly something I’m willing to play again.

GOD OF WAR: GHOST OF SPARTA; One of two reasons I even bothered picking up the PSP, and while I have since fallen out of love with Birth by Sleep, this is one I’m still able to go back to. Not only is it a decent adventure in its own right but somehow it makes God of War II better from a story perspective as now it gave Kratos even more reason for going against Olympus...

[fandomsandfeminism]

Rick Riordan's books just keep getting better (and more diverse!) Transcript

Part 1

Part 2

Transcript Below the Cut:

Rick Riordan. So, I've wanted to make a video about Rick Riordan for a while and with  The new Trials of Apollo book just coming out, I’m really hyped about it. So I wanted to talk about why I like his books, or at least some of the things that impress me about them and keep me consistently excited about them.

Rick Riordan, if you don’t know,  is the author of the wildly popular Percy Jackson series, and today I want to talk about his books, especially how his representation of minorities has improved over time.

So, a few quick things: First, I’m not going to talk about ALL of Rick Riordan’s work, especially his ancillary and tie in material like the Demi-God Files or all the cross over stories, mostly because I haven't read all of them.

And second: Spoilers. Just, big old spoilers for basically everything. I’m not going to go into big plot points much, but I will be talking about some of the characters in depth. I’m going to move through his ouvre in roughly chronological order. So, you are warned.

Lastly, this video hinges on the premise that well done, well executed, fully fledged representations of minority characters in children and Young Adult media is good and important.  I’m not really going to argue this point. It is the assumption we are beginning with. Diverse media with diverse characters is  good and important.  

And this point is, weirdly, kind of controversial. In fact, in the vast majority of children and young adult media most of the cast will be white, straight, cis, able bodied, neurotypical children or young adults with an unstated or vague religious affiliation. This last bit, about the unstated or vague religious affiliation is one we don’t often think about, but really, having a character with ANY stated religion is really rare. Most will, maybe, practice a sort of secularized Christmas maybe? But that’s about it.

The rationale you’ll hear for this is that this makes books more accessible and thus marketable. I would counter that if you really want your book to appeal to as many different people as possible, wouldn’t you want to have as many different types of characters as possible? But that comes with the assumption that outright bigots wouldn’t refuse a book because one of the secondary characters is in a wheelchair, I guess.

So, yeah. Most children's lit and young adult lit  will be white, straight, cis, able bodied, neurotypical children or young adults with an unstated or vague religious affiliation, even if it gets absurdly, massively popular. Popular enough to take risks and work outside the box. I’m looking at you, JK Rowling. Looking at you.

This fact, this lack of diversity, does not bother some people. And we are not going to argue this point in this video. We are beginning with the assertion that this situation is not ideal, and that added quality, well written diversity is a positive. And we are going to look specifically at how Rick Riordan improves in this specific aspect of his writing over time.

--

Ok, so, Uncle Rick is a San Antonio , Texas native, and as someone who was also born and raised in central Texas, I love this fact. He went to MY alma mater, UT, and became a middle school teacher. We’re basically the same person.

Now, Percy Jackson isn’t actually his first book series. In the 90s he wrote a detective series set in San Antonio called Big Red Tequila. There’s like 7 books in this series and I have read none of them. I’m sure they’re great though. How could they not be with a name like that?

Our story really begins in 2004-ish. The story goes that he was telling his son Greek myths as bedtime stories, and when he ran out of myths (or at least child friendly myths I assume), he started to make one up. He invented a story about a boy named Percy, a son of Poseidon, who goes on an adventure to return Zeus's missing lightning bolts.  His son told him that he should turn it into a book, his dad had published books before after all. So, Rick did just that. He then took his rough draft to his middle school students and used their feedback to revise.

He then sold this book to Miramax Books for enough money to retire from teaching and focus on writing. God damn. Rick was living the dream here. Life goals.

So, yeah. If you’ve never read the first Percy Jackson books they are...fine. They’re ok, good even. Definitely like, children’s books. But if you like bad puns and greek myths they are fun. I read all 5 in like...one weekend when I was in high school. I personally think the books really pick up in the third one: Titan’s Curse, mostly because we meet my favorite character, Nico. There’s some good world building in that book, and it really feels like Rick had figured out how he wanted to end the series by that point, so the plot feels more focused.  Maybe that’s just me.

So, remember how I said that Children’s lit will tend to be filled with white, straight, cis, able bodied, neurotypical children with an unstated or vague religious affiliation? Well, Percy Jackson and all his friends are...mostly, white, straight, cis, able bodied, children with an unstated or vague religious affiliation who have ADHD and Dyslexia.

Because Rick Riordan’s son has ADHD and Dyslexia, and Rick wanted these heroes to be like him. So, yeah. The diversity isn’t AMAZING here, but the intent to provide representation for minority children was present from the very beginning. And ADHD and Dyslexia are, like, super powers here, proof the children are demi-gods, are side effects of their brains and bodies being ready for amazing quests.  And there’s this great diversity in the characters with ADHD and Dyslexia and how it impacts them. Annabeth is depicted as super smart and studious. You have Percy who has always struggled in school. And so on.

Now, how you feel about this representation of ADHD and Dyslexia will vary. Some people really like it, others think it isn’t very well done or plays into some iffy tropes. I think we can safely say that the intent was very positive, but your milage may vary on the execution.

There’s also a movie adaption of the first 2 books which are…..bad. Logan Lerman was 18 when he played Percy- who should be like...12? And they made Hades the bad guy? And like..Persephone? Is? In? The? Underworld? In? Summer? Which….ugh. Like, they made Grover black, which was a cool choice, an attempt to address the lack of racial diversity it seems.  but still these movies are not good….maybe if you haven't read the books, you’ll like them. I don’t like them. I didn't even watch the second one honestly. .

Alright so we will look at the rest of Rick Riordan’s books in part 2 of this video. I wanted to cut it here to keep it from getting super super long. So I will see you guys over on Part 2 to finish up

CUT --

Welcome back to my look at all of Rick Riordan’s books and how they have improved over time. We are going to jump right in where we left off at the end of Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Ok, so after Percy Jackson, Rick Riordan started work on the Kane Chronicles. If you haven’t read the Kane Chronicles, I don’t blame you. They are kind of the forgotten half-siblings of the Percy Jackson universe, but you should read them. They are really good, and they feel like a really experimental time for Rick. Not only is this the first time we see him play with a split First Person narrator, where different chapters are from different character’s Point of View, but he also really tackles race in these books.

Carter and Sadie are biracial, and deal with all kinds of race issues- Sadie being white passing and Carter not, the books looks at  how that impacts them and their experiences with others, their family, and their heritage. Plus all the Egyptian shit is really cool.

But even if you skipped this book series (seriously, go back and read them.) you can see this evolution in Rick’s writing in his sequel to Percy Jackson- Heroes of Olympus. These books actually came out at the same time as the Kane Chronicles, with The first Kane Chronicles book coming out in May 2010, then The first Heroes of Olympus book coming out in October 2010, and back and forth. And it’s clear that his new skills in Red Pyramid were influential on Heroes of Olympus.

Not only do we see the return of the Shifting narrator, now a Third Person Limited Point of View that follows different characters in different chapters, but where the first series was overwhelmingly white, these books seem to make a real effort to avoid that. The first two books- The Lost Hero and Son of Neptune take place, more or less concurrent and independent of each other. It’s not until the 3rd book when all the new characters meet up. But in those first 2 books, we get 5 new MAIN characters- Jason, a white boy; Piper, a Native American girl, specifically Cherokee if I remember; Leo, a Mexican American boy; Frank, a Chinese American boy; and Hazel, an African American girl. We also get Reyna, who isn’t a main character at first, but I would argue becomes one in House of Hades, and she is Puerto Rican.

And ALL of these characters and their racial identities are handled really well. Like, they are fully fleshed out and genuine characters. This doesn’t feel like shallow, lazy tokenism. Their heritage plays a part in who they are, but is not the ONLY thing about them. Piper, for example, has a father who refuses to play Native American roles in movies because he wants to avoid being stereotyped or type cast and Piper carries that struggle to connect with her heritage with her. Hazel’s experience as a black girl, and a black girl from the 1930s at that, impacted how she was treated growing up and makes up a big part of her backstory. But they aren’t solely defined by these experiences like shallow stereotypes.

It’s well done ,is that I’m saying

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So at this point, we could say that while Rick had a good grasp on racial diversity and neuro-divergence representation. Most of his characters were still straight, cis, able bodied, children with an unstated or vague religious affiliation. (Seriously, did none of these kids have like..faith in a religion before?)

Now, here is a true, fun fact. On June 30th, 2013, 3 months before the release of House of Hades, I went on Tumblr and wrote an Open Letter to Rick Riordan about how he should really include LGBT+ characters in his books. He had written. Like, 11 children’s books at this point, and despite my headcanons, every character had been portrayed as assumed straight and cis. So I wrote a letter. How much I liked his books, but really, could we have some LGBT+ characters, this IS Greek mythology after all.  I don’t think he ever saw this letter, despite me tweeting it at him.

Among other things in this letter, I go on to list several possibilities for LGBT+ representation in his books, including:  quote: maybe Nico feels an unrequited crush on Percy. A headcanon I had since book 4, Battle of the Labyrinth.

And so, I want my moment, just to say: I. Was. Right. And I told you so.

House of Hades came out in 2013, and well, so did Nico. My favorite character came out of the closet, or, well, was outed and it was heart wrenching. The fandom kind of lost its shit over this. Anyone who had shipped Percy and Nico was throwing a party, homophobes were throwing a fit, it was very emotional. I was gloating a lot.

And let’s be clear- Nico’s sexuality in House of Hades is not...handled the best. It’s better than nothing certainly, and it’s better than Word of God reveals post publication. Rowling. But, by itself, it’s...well...single sad cis gay boy pines over unrequited straight crush hits some stereotypes. None of this is malicious, but it by itself is only so-so representation.

But Rick wasn’t done there, because we still had one more book- Blood of Olympus. Nico gets a super cute boyfriend in the form of Will Solace, and gets some closure with Percy. Now, your mileage may vary with that particular scene. Nico smugly telling Percy he “isn't his type” feels, well, a little out of character and, I dunno, corny. But it’s nice to see Nico get this happy relationship with Will, and I’ll forgive Rick for any stumbles in the exact execution to avert that sad-single-gay trope.

- -

Ok. So, now at last, we get to the 2 series that are still in publication: Gods of Asgard and Trials of Apollo. These two series are publishing concurrently, and  because the Gods of Asgard started publishing first, let’s talk about it first.

I love Gods of Asgard. Truly. These might be my favorite of Riordan’s books. Part of that might just be that after 10 Greek and Roman books, a focus on Norse is refreshing, but I just love it. I love Magnus, I love the Annabeth cameos, I love Sam. Ok, so, the first Gods of Asgard book: Sword of Summer hits two important notes when it comes to minority representation.

Hearth is deaf and mute and uses sign language. This is the first time we’ve had a main character with a clear disability other than ADHD and Dyslexia. Which is really cool. And The consistent use of sign language throughout is neat.

Our second is Sam. Who is muslim and wears a hijab. Like, truly, how many stories do you know about a hijabi muslim valkyrie girl kicking all the ass.

Book 2, Hammer of Thor…well. Remember when I said Nico is my favorite character? Nico might have to fight Alex Fierro for my heart. Alex Fierro. A trans gender fluid child of Loki. I love Alex. Some people cried SJW Gay-Agenda bullshit over Alex like, being trans and gender fluid and, actually mentioning it more than once, but those people are unhappy assholes and I ignore them. I like Alex. Alex is an interesting, complicated character and I can’t wait for the next book.

Also, am I the only one who thinks Magnus and Alex are being set up for some romance? Just wishful thinking? Feels like romance. I ship it. I’ve been right before.

So ok, so We now have racial diversity, representation of multiple kinds of disabilities, a gay character, a gender fluid trans character, and a muslim character. -

Let’s talk about Trials of Apollo.

These books are really fun. If for no other reason than Apollo might actually be the most loud, entertaining narrator we’ve had yet. He’s funny, he’s an asshole. He’s also very loudly and clearly bisexual. Which, duh. How else would you even write Apollo if you have any understanding of Greek mythology?  It’s mentioned a couple of times in the first book, and then even more in the second, where his prior relationships have plot relevance.

The second book also introduced us to Jo and Emmie, a biracial lesbian couple who used to be hunters of Artemis who are now raising a daughter together.

And this is kind of the joy of really GOOD diverse representation. Like, Apollo has faced hardship because of his relationships, with both men and women, but his sexuality itself isn’t a problem with him. Alex is very secure with who they are, but has clearly faced a lot of transphobia. Nico was very closeted and seemed to have a lot of pain tied up in his sexuality and is only just now healing from that with Will. Jo and Emmie clearly faced issues with their relationship, having to leave the hunters, but have built a new life together. We get this great array of experiences, rather than just one prevailing narrative.

I love it, and we’ve come so far from that first bedtime story about a boy trying to find some stolen lightning bolts. - -

So, what’s in the future for Rick Riordan? Well, he hasn’t announced any new book series for after Gods of Asgard and Trials of Apollo wrap up. However, we do know that he is starting his own Publishing Imprint with Disney Hyperion.  Rick will only work as a curator it seems, focusing on having minority authors write fantasy/mythology based books from their native cultures. There are 3 books signed right now,

Jennifer Cervantes’s Storm Runner, which is about a boy having to save the world from a Mayan Prophesy.

Roshani Chokshi’s Aru Shah and the End of Time, about a 12-year-old Indian-American girl who unwittingly frees a demon intent on awakening the God of Destruction

And Yoon Ha Lee’s Dragon Pearl, about a teenage fox spirit on a space colony.

All of which sound AMAZING and I will preorder as soon as Amazon let’s me.

Look, Rick Riordan is not a perfect person or a perfect writer. Some people take issue with him because he has said some rather insulting things about the small number of people who still worship the greek gods. That he took these stories and was dismissive of the people who still value them religiously. Now, The majority of those comments seem to come from blog posts back in 2006, and he did have a brief apology for offending Hellenists on his facebook back in February. and one would hope that this interest on letting minority authors tell stories from their own culture in the future is evidence that he has learned and grown since then.

And not everyone will like Rick Riordan’s books no matter what. They are for kids. They are corny and have bad puns and sometimes meander or forget about important characters for long stretches of time. Sometimes the ideas he has are better than the execution. It happens.

But when I look at his books as a whole, I see Middle school teacher from San Antonio who started with a fun idea and never stopped growing as an author with a dedication to minority representation in his novels. And I certainly appreciate that, and look forward to more of his work for as long as he decides to produce it.

[ttawoabw]

For today’s blog post I’m going to do something a little different.  Instead of sharing a review, haul or wrap up I’m just gonna chat with you about books.  I decided to do this partially because I’ve been in a reading funk and in turn a blogging funk but also because I thought it might help me get back into my groove by doing what I started this blog to do.  Talk books.  I thought I had pulled out of my funk when I picked up Frostblood by Elly Blake but it’s one of those books that separated into two parts and I have no idea why by the second I started reading Part Two I lost interest.  So that’s been disappointing, don’t get my wrong I’m loving the story and writing but funk.  I’m still hoping to finish that one by the beginning of February – though I’ll probably come back and re-read it at  later date to really get a better feel for it since I’ve been stopping and starting and have basically lost my flow.  Obviously having a reading funk is really unfortunate at this point in the year when there are so many amazing releases coming out.  Though I’m not planning on reading many of the most anticipated books simply because a lot of them are sequels to books I have yet to read the first book of.  One of my most notable anticipated releases is RoseBlood by A.G. Howard – it’s a retelling of the Phantom of the Opera and honestly it sounds so amazing.  I love The Phantom of the Opera, it was the first real theatre production I saw as a younger girl (I was probably 11?) and I fell in love with the music.  As I’ve grown older I’ve developed a better understanding of the dark tale about obsession and possession and despite its dark nature I still love it.  I haven’t read the original book but since this is a YA Paranormal retelling that isn’t really staying true to the original story I don’t think that will be too much of an issue to me.  I know some people who have never encountered The Phantom of the Opera were sent ARC’s of this books and didn’t really get it or understand so I’m hoping with my background understanding I’ll enjoy it much more.  I was going to pre-order it but I had a feeling a book subscription company would include it in a January box and I wasn’t (or won’t be..) disappointed, OwlCrate one of my favorite subscription services has indeed included it in their January box so I’m looking forward to receiving that.  I’m hoping it’ll pull me out of my book funk completely.  For those of you that don’t know RoseBlood is fantasy YA romance modern-day retelling of The Phantom of the Opera.  The original tale is about unrequited love that turned to madness (and eventually murder and a bunch of psychotic actions that you don’t really care about at first because the music is so enchanting).  RoseBlood follows a seventeen-year-old opera singer, Rune Germain, who has a mysterious affliction linked to her singing. Her mother sends her to a French Art Conservatory (which is rumoured to have ties to The Phantom of the Opera) for her senior year hoping some creative direction will help.  There Rune secretly befriends an elusive masked violinist who not only guides her musical transformation through dreams but also know who she is behind her own masks.  As they discover an otherworldly connection and a soul-deep romance blossoms, Thorn’s dark agenda comes to light and he’s forced to make a deadly choice: lead Rune to her destruction, or face the wrath of the phantom who has haunted the opera house for a century, and is the only father he’s ever known. Now isn’t that just sound absolutely thrilling?  I can’t wait and I hope to be able to write a review on it (I struggle to write reviews because A) I read so fast and usually read back-to-back and then forget key points and B) I’m an emotional reader more than a critical reader.  I think this stems from my ADHD and lack of attention span but I’m working on it.).  Another release that I’m really antipating is Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller – something I’ve been loving right now is pirates, and something YA severly lacks is pirates.  So this books release is perfect timing for me I really won’t say much about this one exept it features a kick-ass Pirate Princess who llows herself to be captured by enemy pirates and ends up in a thrilling YA advnture with – from what I understand- just a touch of romance.  I truly can’t wait for this and just as I did with RoseBlood I’m holding off ordering this box until I know for sure no book subscription boxes will be picking it up- because I’m certain this is one of the bigger debut authors of the year and that Daughter of the Pirate King is as highly anticipated by others as it is by me.  On the note of other anticipated releases I’ll just quickly share a few of mine for the first half of 2017; Caraval by Stephanie Graber, By Your Side by Kasie West, Letter’s to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer (which is kind of giving me a PS: I Like You vibes with the whole letter writing thing), The Trials of Apollo: The Dark Prophecy by Rick Riordan, Royal Bastards by Andrew Shvarts, The Wish Granter by C.J Redwine, Catching Carly by Emma Hart and A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas.  Now let me jst say a little something-something about A Court of Wings and Ruin, the cover was just announced the other day and it looks SPECTACULAR but somehting notable about it is that the dress Feyre wears on the cover was inspired BY FANART.  That’s right, an incredible artist called Charlie Bowater has been making digital art prints of both the ACOTAR and ToG series both by Sarah J. Maas and a dress she has Feyre wearing in one particluar piece ended up being used as the inspiration/base concept of this cover HOW INCREIDBLE IS THAT?  But that’s not all, Charlie also collaborated to help create the art for the upcoming colouring book for ACOTAR series, which I am super excited about.

The original art by Charlie Bowater

The official US cover for ACOWAR.

Speaking of fanart-author collaborations, to all those demi-god fans of Uncle Rick’s you’ll know the offical charcter art for all our beloved demi-gods and company were… quite honesly horendeous.  Most people have just ignored it and looked at the incredible fanart created.  Well turns our Uncle Rick knew of this and has done something AWESOME, he commissioned Viria (Viktoria Ridzel) to create the new character art for the offical website for the Percy Jackson series and Heroes of Olympus.  How cool is that?  Check out the difference below:

Old Artwork: Percy Jackson

Old Artwork: Annabeth Chase

Old Artwork: Grover Underwood

New Artwork: Percy Jackson

New Artwork: Annabeth Chase

New Artwork: Grover Underwood

See, doesn’t the new artwork just look so much nicer?  I’ve always loved Viria’s fanart and I’m so happy that Riordan commissioned her to be the artist!  You can see all of her character art in use HERE, and I really recommend checking it out because it’s awesome (plus if you play around there are HEAPS of bonus goodies and facts on the website for you to download and read!) .

  Now to kind of conclude this awfully chatty post I’m going to just share three book recommendations since two of them are just stuck in my mind (they were both SO SO good) and the third is a perfect fun romantic comedy for you to pick up for Valentines Day.

First up we have To Catch a Pirate by Jade Parker.  As I mentioned in the beginning I’ve been in a bit of a Pirate phase and there really isn’t much in terms of YA’s (and particularly YA Romance) in this sub-genre feild so after a little bit of digging I found this gem and decided to give it a go and see if its what I wanted.  It was.  It was exactly what I wanted.  So I highly recommend it, it’s a YA Romance and super sweet.

Buy on Kindle HERE.

The we have A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet.  This was just an awesome high fantasy with so much adventure and awesome powers and it was a thrill to read.  I actually want to re-read it again and I only just read it about a week ago! I can’t wait to read the sequel which I’ll hopefully get to in Feburary.  I can’t wait to see how the charcaters progress and what else will be revealed!  Also I just love the interactions between all the charatcers!

Buy on Kindle HERE.

Now to conclude some recommendations I’d like to give you a straight up romance (not a YA) in preperation for Valentine’s Day.  If you’ve been following my blog for a while you’d know that I am obsessed with a series called the Holly Woods Files by Emma Hart.  This series was my first introdction to this author and I just fell in love with the personality the places within her characters and her writing style so when she released a laugh out loud comedy romance about a ‘hot mess’ of a character I couldn’t wait.  It’s called Being Brooke  and it’s a best friends to lovers romance and it made my stomach hurt from laughing so much.  I loved Brooke so much and Hart is releasing another similar novel called Catching Carly later in the year so I can’t wait to pick that one up either.

Buy on Kindle HERE.

  Okay well I have no idea how coherant this post actally is, but if you liked this sort of post and have some more ideas for blog posts please feel free to comment them below I love to hear YOUR suggestions and thoughts.

Also side note, I’m thinking of chaning my social media handles to actually fit with being a book blog; should I do it?

  My Links:

Goodreads : Becca Winter

Instagram : becca_theory

Twitter : @Becca_Theory

Facebook : The Troubles And Woes Of A Bookworm

Becca

xxx

Book Talk: Reading Funks, Anticipated Releases 2017, Book Recommendations For today's blog post I'm going to do something a little different.  Instead of sharing a review, haul or wrap up I'm just gonna chat with you about books.