#also eyes of an unintroduced character on here she will show up at some point. when i name her LOL.

[etourvol]

mark and recapture

[booksandchainmail]

nanoha vivid liveblog: episode 9

We left off in the opening rounds of the competition, with Vivio and Miura slated to fight each other at some point. 

The other belkan girls!

I think I remember them being friends

Soft music and slow-mo here, as we get our first look at sieglinde’s eyes

... which are entirely ordinary

huh, i was kinda expecting more heterochromia

… RIGHT SHE HAD A DUMB NICKNAME 

THEY BOTH DID

look I know youre overdramatic teenagers but I promise you giving yourselves nicknames about how good you are at fighting doesn’t actually make you seem good at fighting

also, i like to imagine that victoria’s been trying to get people to call her victor for most of her life, and sieglinde is the only one who will. victoria gave her her own nickname in thanks, and sieglinde was so happy about having a friend to give her a nickname that she didn’t care about the theme

have you considered losing the waist long twintails?

awwwww

weirdly wholesome considering the subject matter

who’s this boss? Presumably one of the other competitors we’ve seen, and I’m guessing harry as the only one who runs a thing (as well as one of the only returning successful contestants)

please tell me she didn’t pick that nickname/title herself

theyre cute together

and sieglinde pulls her hood back on as soon as more people arrive

i guess i shouldn’t be surprised that the ojou and the delinquent dont get along

at least it looks like it runs both ways

i really do like this dynamic of harry and victoria constantly trying to fight, and meanwhile sieglinde’s just there in the background trying to calm down her friends

oh hey the last unintroduced girl from the op! presumably she’s a returning fighter considering she seems pretty familiar with the others

… I can’t tell if “violator restraints rule master” is one skill, two skills, her job, or her personality

would they be wrong?

let the fangirling commence!

oh gods shes trying to hide behind that popcorn

it is very much not working

i feel like this scene should be one of those draw the squad memes

also, these four are great together, more scenes with them please

I do like how in the returning champions we’re presented with three people who all hate each other, and then one person who they all like. it’s a good setup for comedy and shipping

awwww, even while being shy, she’s still nice to einhart

come to think of it, i wonder if she also has memories of belka, and if so does she recognize einhart

sdjklaghklfaghlj

those chains were completely ineffective i guess

i like to think that harry and victoria didnt break out immediately because they didnt want to hurt els’ feelings

gods

els is extremely indignant and harry is just having a good tiem

okay that’s cool, they edited the OP now that we’ve seen sieglinde with her hood down

how do these two know each other? I mean I’ll believe it, but I’m curious now.

so what were the fights we saw last episode? 

I guess prelims for the qualifiers? Which explains how some people are seeded already

this tournament sure has a sense of the dramatic

she is actually a rule master school president

and brought her council with her i guess

OH THIS IS THE PERFECT MATCHUP

I mean, I would take harry fighting just about anyone, but this is an excellent clash of anime character archetypes

The fact that there is canonically Japanese immigration to midchilda is one of the weirdest things about this setting to me. I mean, Nanoha and Hayate just moving to another planet with magic and magitek and spaceships is weird enough, but Subaru’s family immigrated generations back. How the fuck did that go? Can you imagine being a random Japanese peasant circa the 1700s and then suddenly you’re on a different world that has magic and also computers.

oh gods

she looks so happy and i love her but her nickname is so stupid

and thats saying a lot considering the competition

extremely on brand

… that is the most “go ahead please” face I have ever seen

and theeeeres the competition making an abrupt return

i mean, she could still totally call you that even if you win

“tension”

i dont know if she planned it in advance, but letting harry see and underestimate her power beforehand was pretty smart

A ranged attack?

OR NOT I GUESS

she just... blew up her own arm

That’s kinda clever. And also really metal.

WHAT THE LITERAL FUCK HARRY

Thank you for the reasonable reaction

the kind of attack name you expect from a girl called buster head

Well that was fast

Oh okay they have a set time to get back in the ring. makes sense considering how easy it is for a lot of them to send people flying

nove suddenly has competition as the best punchy redhead in this show

shes so good

…you entered a martial arts competition without looking up the injury rules

I’M STARTING TO AGREE WITH ALL THE NUNS WHO DIDN’T THINK YOU WERE MATURE ENOUGH TO ENTER

i cant decide if this is smart and practical or really creepy

that is some powerful simulation

Idk if it’s just saving on fight animation, but while their powers are cool, the actual fighting technique doesn’t seem equal to what we’ve seen from vivio and einhart

gods

please get hurt less

where did that bandaid come from?!

~tempting faaaate~

SHES BITING THROUGH CHAIN?!!!

Oh no wait shes pulling on it with her teeth

That’s… more reasonable, I guess?

Still fucking badass

this is gonna be brutal

yup.

also, anime nosebleed

awwww

i love harry’s emotionally supportive girl gang

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT YOU HURT YOURSELF

this idiot

For some mysterious totally not screen-time related reason

That said, I do like them establishing that vivio&co are unusually talented even by this competition’s standards. I’d have a hard time buying that there are that many fighters on their caliber in the tournament

because as is well known the inter-middle tournament involves fighting buses

she’s just from a completely different samurai anime than everyone else

magic infused or something?

...no

Oh fuck. 

Okay, scary sword girl vs. the wolkenritter’s student

…and whichever of them wins, vivio still has to fight

I feel like I have a lot in common with this announcer man

Is this like a general shyness thing, or an actual issue, or something minor that you’ve made into an actual issue…?

come to think of it, she mentioned leaving the tournament a year ago before she could fight victoria. did she also skip out on fighting mica? or was something in her fight with mica why she left

also, kudos to micaiah for having a sensible nickname

call and...

... response

the purpose of having a gang is to force your friends to be supportive of each other

How many times do you think vita’s gotten mistaken for a contestant? Actually, how many times do you think she’s got asked if she’s old enough to compete?

aww

in nanoha terms, i’m pretty sure this counts as a love confession

Oh yeah, vivio&co have a personal connection to both contestants. That’s gotta be awkward

Also, does everyone bring an entourage to this tournament?

Actually, considering zafira and vita are there, it looks like you get a couple helpers (which I think is a thing in actual fighing tournaments), and presumably most people have a coach or friend or parent, we just happen to have seen a bunch of fighters with minions

~tempting faaaate~

Okay, I get the whole “magic doesnt cause actual injuries, we just simulate them” but like micaiah isn’t using magic. That’s a real sword.

Well that’s a hell of a lot of damage from one attack. I don’t think Miura can afford to be hit again at all. 

I mean, I don’t know about her but I’m definitely thinking that

haven’t mentioned this before, but miura’s outfit with the heavy shinguards is really cool and well-suited to her fighting style

pot meet kettle

miura backstory! and yeah, this makes a lot of sense. she’s very cheerful, but the way she’s nervous all the time and latches onto team nakajima so quickly makes her seem pretty isolated form her peers

and here we can see a demonstration of why carrying swords of different lengths is useful. Miura’s within the reach of Mica’s longer sword, so she switches to the shorter one to drive her back

fancy kick coming up!

Sword draw? Since she doesn’t seem to have one, I’m guessing it’s a kick that uses similar principles. Now the question is, is Miura’s secret weapon a technique that happens to be similar in principle to Mica’s fighting style, or is it a copying technique?

1) this is a very pretty shot

2) it would be really funny if instead of powering up her own sword draw, mica just ran over there and stabbed miura before she can power up the breaker

Didn’t seem to do a whole lot of damage for a special move

Oh ok, she can keep kicking like that for a while

Disadvantage of using a weapon: it can be broken

its pretty interesting that the show sets up various rematches and rivalries and thematic fights that can’t all happen by the design of the tournament. it makes the fights a lot more suspenseful when there would be plot and character reasons for either side to win

...remember what i said about how wanting to fight people in nanoha is basically a love confession?

[lilbooktopus]

Cursed: The Hunter Inside 

Author: Casey Millette Synopsis:  Cursed: The Hunter Inside tells the tale of Aldor, the son of a hero called Rowan, who leaves his hometown to start on an adventure of his own. He seeks his renown, slaying dragons and traveling to dangerous land with a band of men to retrieve a weapon of immense power, Haran’s Stone.

Date Started: January 26, 2018 Date Finished: January 30, 2018

First Impression: This novel is riddled with grammar errors and misspelled/unnecessary words that are impossible to ignore even if this is just an ARC. (Case in point: You don’t need to go far. Look at the promotional poster/cover. “A league of friends will become heroes in the faces of monsters.” It should have been “in the face of...”. It’s an idiom, look it up.) Moreover, it’s not just the typos. It’s the flow of the story that makes me wish this could have been edited further. 

Book Talk:

Inconsistent Tone

I was imagining this is set in a medieval Europe setting but then someone says “Oh my gosh”.

Bad Prologue

This section should have introduced an event so significant that it will later affect the whole plot. The only effect of the prologue to the whole story is Aldor losing his father and the town being peaceful since then. Too peaceful, in fact, that Aldor soon becomes bored with it and leaves to seek his fortune.

Unbelievable Survival Skills

Aldor is able to survive mortal wounds and journey for two weeks (duration of travel from Dagon to Alyeth and vice versa). By mortal wounds I mean rotting arm oozing with pus, so bad that the muscles are peeling off, and torn skin and muscle at the back from twenty lashes. Note that these wounds have been described to be fatal by the author herself. She made sure we know the intensity of each. When you do that it is impossible to ignore the consequences bought by each injury. Things like these tend to fester and cause blood loss, fever and delirium which would stop anyone from being able to travel for a few days, much less for two weeks.

Plus, whenever the protagonists are in a tight spot, for some reason, they immediately figure out riddles and puzzles! Or maybe it’s just the fact that the riddles aren’t challenging at all... Like the puzzles that lead to Philosopher’s Sto--- I mean Haran’s Stone.

Lazy Descriptions

One rule often invoked when it comes to writing, especially in fantasy settings as this, is show, don’t tell. “Oddly Viking-like” to describe a large man is one of the laziest I could find here.

There was also “elf-like”. Nothing about the way the character was described made me think of an elf. I was thinking more of a hobbit especially when Willcome’s feet was described as having fur-like hair on his toes.

Bad Phrasing

Here comes one of my favorites, in which Aldor is in love with a horse. Like, in love:

“There was one animal in particular that had stolen his heart. Its name was Dawn, a massive, black horse. As Aldor walked through the market, admiring all the goods, he beheld the animal of his dreams. Every time he entered the stables, a trickle of cold (sweat) seemed to douse his sense(s) when(ever) Dawn would look him in the eye. Slightly wistful, Aldor kept walking.”

There are better ways to admire horses. I know you’ve read LotR as some characters in your novel are so similar to the ones in JRRT’s books (Willcome = Tom Bombadil/Radagast?), I think Shadowfax was described well enough without sounding like anyone was in love with a horse… er, romantically. For other examples, see Harry Potter admiring the Nimbus Two Thousand and the Firebolt.

Shallow/Inconsistent Characterization

There is no depth to any of Millette’s characters. Everyone has one trait. Example, Aldor is too heroic, Keira is… to heroic. Gregory is too sarcastic. Oh maybe not one trait each, as everyone is also stupid. And please stop making other characters say about another “You’re too kind to a fault” or “too heroic for your own good” without even enough instances to make them conclude that.

Also, there will often be instances that characters get motivation to do things from an as-of-then unintroduced character/event. Example, Dale’s morale is often boosted by the mention of "Ace”. Gregory’s distrust towards a guardian is from a wizard destroying his family. But the reasons behind these motivations are not introduced beforehand. So imagine my confusion when Gregory starts to spout unfounded accusations at Willcome. I went like, “How could you say that?” Or when Jasper yells “Ace wouldn’t want you to do that!” or something like that to Dale, I was thinking, “Who the hell is Ace?” And the worse thing is, these mystery people/reasons don’t ever get explained. How are we supposed to sympathize with a character’s anger or sadness or joy when we do not understand where it’s coming from?

Why is every girl in this book, namely, Keira and Marie, want to “be brave” aka go slay things? And “being brave” is always equated to manly stuff, like, slaying things. Keira is insufferably stupid, not brave. She calls people who make plans before they charge at live, fire-breathing dragons cowards, and charges straight into the beast despite having zero battle skills! She jumps right in front of every danger without thinking, without preparation, without capacity to do anything! And the author seems to glorify acts. Keira also throws a knife straight to a bad guy. Do you have any idea how hard it is to throw a knife with a path? Or to learn how to wield a sword?

Both Aldor and Dale claim to not be team players but instantly makes friends with everyone.

Instalove

Oh how I hate instalove. For some reason, Aldor and Keira fall in love with each other without even enough interaction except going to a dragon’s lair together, in which they don’t even learn enough of each other to even be friends. And Aldor claims he is not the friend-making type.

Stuff I didn’t bother to classify

Search Party - The king sends a search party (with him in it) the very night Aldor and Keira slays a dragon as if he expected the task to be done so soon

Keira’s knowledge of the terrain NEAR THE DRAGON’S LAIR despite her being cooped up in the castle for basically forever

The king allowing his daughter to join suicide quests despite knowing she doesn’t have an ounce of training and telling Aldor to protect her. I mean, I was pretty sure the king hates Keira secretly and is actually planning to feed her to the dragon because there can’t be no other reason to let someone so ill-equipped near a dangerous beast! And with a stranger! And then you let her go on a quest everyone calls a suicide mission!

The shortcut out of the desert and back to Alyeth that Dale knows, which, for some reason, he did not bring up when they were travelling from Alyeth to Haran’s Desert

Everyone saying they are willing to die for Aldor, a guy they have never been on a quest before the one they’re banding up for

Bringing weak teammates. By that I mean everyone. All everyone does is complain about the heat, the lack of water, the traps, all the hardships

No one took “suicide mission” seriously even though they kept on throwing the term around

Aldor being melodramatic about everything, how these people depend on him, how he broke his promise to protect Keira, how something as beautiful as Keira lies broken at the foot of a dragon, ashes on her long lashe---- GEEZ, YOU’RE BATTLING A DRAGON AND YOU HAVE TIME TO NOTE HOW LONG HER LASHES ARE?!?

A lot of useless characters and events. Or maybe they aren’t entirely useless. Maybe they will appear on the next books but the way they are tied to the rest of the novel is not seamless.

Final Verdict:

Sadly, this book seems like it was written in a hurry although I think I’ve read she has been writing this since she was twelve and she’s sixteen now... I didn’t like it from the very beginning up til the very end. It wasn’t neat, tone was bland, characters weren’t memorable at all. I don’t see the point of the plot. Needs major revision aka plot overhaul. Total rewrite. 

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ (0.9 out of 5)