#beyonders a world without heroes

[ofliterarynature]

TBR TAKEDOWN: Week 17 (September 22)

TLDR: I have too many unread books, and I’m asking tumblr to help me downsize. Pick one or none - it doesn't have to be something you've read, just the one you think sounds the worst! Comments and reblogs welcome, book descriptions below the cut. See my pinned post for more info.

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska's ice. Thus was Dr. Blue's Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.

But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue's widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.

His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.

A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull

Jason Walker has often wished his life could be a bit less predictable--until a routine day at the zoo ends with Jason suddenly transporting from the hippo tank to a place unlike anything he's ever seen. In the past, the people of Lyrian welcomed visitors from the Beyond, but attitudes have changed since the wizard emperor Maldor rose to power. The brave resistors who opposed the emperor have been bought off or broken, leaving a realm where fear and suspicion prevail.

In his search for a way home, Jason meets Rachel, who was also mysteriously drawn to Lyrian from our world. With the help of a few scattered rebels, Jason and Rachel become entangled in a quest to piece together the word of power that can destroy the emperor, and learn that their best hope to find a way home will be to save this world without heroes.

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

A bold translation of Nobel Prize-winner Herman Hesse's most inspirational and beloved work, which was nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read

Hesse's famous and influential novel, Siddartha, is perhaps the most important and compelling moral allegory our troubled century has produced. Integrating Eastern and Western spiritual traditions with psychoanalysis and philosophy, this strangely simple tale, written with a deep and moving empathy for humanity, has touched the lives of millions since its original publication in 1922. Set in India, Siddhartha is the story of a young Brahmin's search for ultimate reality after meeting with the Buddha. His quest takes him from a life of decadence to asceticism, through the illusory joys of sensual love with a beautiful courtesan, and of wealth and fame, to the painful struggles with his son and the ultimate wisdom of renunciation.

[bizzybee429]

[serialreblogger]

the thing about the joker

is that - well, even canonically, he’s not actually “insane.” in the most canonical version of his backstory (bc there are many conflicting incarnations, but this one is the touchstone for a lot of later canon), he was part of a street gang before falling into a vat of Nondescript Toxic Waste that damaged his melanin production and That’s It. he supposedly “lost his mind” after seeing his reflection, which is absurd on many levels. no. he’s not “insane.” what he is, is an angry white boy.

the thing about the joker is that he exults in his own uncontainability. He laughs, because all of gotham - all the world - is built to be his playground. the only lunatic thing about him is the lunacy of ~Society~, to borrow from the joker’s own playbook; the lunacy of the joker lies in the world that grants him power: in the inheritance of loss: in white privilege, and what it means for everyone else.

“to prove a point.” those were the joker’s exact words, when he shot and paralyzed Barbara Gordon. she asked why: he laughed. “to prove a point.”

because that’s all he ever does. he hurts people because he can. and because all the power in the world can’t save him from getting hurt - and isn’t that just peachy?

because the thing about the joker is that he can get hurt. he has been hurt. but he has so much more capacity to harm than to be harmed. he is immortal. he and he alone will never have to face the consequences of the hurt that he inflicts on other people.

so then: why not hurt them? misery loves company, after all.

the joker is the embodiment and end result of our own social system: the madness of the exception: the laughter of the white man: the imprecation to smile, as he kills you.

(no one ever says it, i find, but it’s still true: barbara deserves to kill him.)

and who, then, is the batman? if the joker is the yin to his yang? if they’re two sides of one irredeemable coin, if they represent the “balance” of an unjustifiable system - who is he if not another white man?

because he is. Bruce Wayne is a white boy born into unspeakable privilege and forced to endure suffering anyway; who copes with his suffering by taking it out on others; who copes with his suffering, not by taking advantage of the world as it is, but by attempting to reshape it. to make it in his own image - as if it isn’t already his, as if claiming it further will crush out the pain.

the batman is the benevolent oppressor to the joker’s malevolent one. he changes nothing, in the end. two privileged white boys with their own respective navel-gazing grudges - where, after all, lies the difference between benevolence and malevolence?

because they are not “chaos” and “order.” not really. They are laissez-faire laughter and law. Joker exults in the disease of the system, Batman seeks to treat its symptoms, but neither of them will ever change anything about the root cause. because they may have suffered the faults of this system, but they still benefit so much more from it as it exists. Uphold it or break it, neither of them wants to change the law.

but the law is only as good as the people it’s made to protect. and who does that law protect, really?

waylon jones is, in one issue, explicitly depicted as Black. between that and his skin disorder, there has never once been room for his character to be any more than a monster: king croc is, always, a character to be violated and brutalized, over and over and over and still - always - written as the villain. (he tried so hard to scrape out a place for himself, so many times, in so many incarnations, and each and every time he finds himself relegated once more to the sewers. he will never be anyone’s king. there is no place under the sun for people like him.)

victor fries only ever wanted to save his wife, and a capitalist mogul decided a few extra numbers on his eight-digit paycheck were more important than the people whose lives depended on that money. fries’ body was damaged to disability by that choice, left without the resources to find a cure for his wife, and he robbed banks because there was no other option available to him. we seem to have forgotten, or maybe never really understood, why that matters. why a desperate man trying to save his life and that of his loved ones under the crushing gears of capitalism is a villain, and the one who stops him is our hero. why, under the law batman upholds, a bank vault and a CEO’s hoard is worth more than a life.

poison ivy just wants to live, too. wants a life not defined by the devastation of her body, of the beings that exist as extensions of her, a life where green and growing things are not commodities to be plowed up and poisoned and destroyed for the sake of another man’s profit. these are villains; they are written as such. these are their motives.

who does batman fight for, really? who is our hero, this emblem of our law?

is he our hero? ours, the broken and bleeding members of the world he claims to protect?

who does the law protect, except him - him, and the joker?

[smallblueandloud]

i have to go to bed very soon so instead i'm lying here being overcome by clintasha emotions

[haveyoureadthismgyabook]

Series info:

Book 1 of Beyonders

Book 2: Seeds of Rebellion

Book 3: Chasing the Prophecy

[adventureofthedancinggirl]

All signs point to Izuku ending up quirkless. All the vestiges have been transferred and the visual symbolism of middle school (quirkless) Izuku is impossible to ignore.

The narrative went out of the way to show that stolen quirks didn't return to their owners when AFO disappeared. We’re specifically told that Eri’s Rewind quirk is not going to fix everything.

Quirkless Izuku still becoming a hero (and the hero system being restructured) would be a good resolution for the themes that have been at the core of the story from the beginning.

However, there is still a chance for some deus ex machina plotline to happen, creating a scenario in which Izuku doesn't end up quirkless.

In Heroes Rising, OFA returned to him even after he transferred it to Katsuki. The only explanation we got was that the vestiges chose to remain with him because they respected the fact that he was willing to risk everything to protect others. (It's worth noting that it wasn't a concrete answer; just All Might's speculation.)

But the vestiges are gone now. The fact that they all were part of the plan to sacrifice themselves in order to stop Shigaraki makes me hopeful that this isn’t going to be a repeat of that storyline but who knows. If anything Izuku could end up with just OFA (stockpile quirk minus the vestiges) but I don't really see the point of that thematically.

[malleleothreesome]

YOUR MALLEUS POST IS JUST!!!!! AGDKFFLSVFL!!!! WHO KNOWS HOW MANY TIMES I RE-READ THAT THING BUT IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT!!!! 😫😭👌🖤💚

I'm so late to this but thank you so much Knight!! 🖤💚🖤💚 I'm so happy you enjoyed Blindfolded Malleus... I was so excited for you to read it, and I'm very happy it lived up to the hype and anticipation!!! Truly, I am so honored and grateful that you would re-read something so long 🥹 it amazes me how supportive you are!! I hope I can continue to write things that you enjoy! One day in the [regretfully] far future I swear to you that I will put out an Idia fic just for you hehehe. I'm so overwhelmed by the amount of things I am excited to write, but I guess that is a wonderful problem to have! I only wish I had more time in the day to write, but alas, such is life. Why the fUCk am I writing so formal right now daiohssadoi;hdSAO not me saying BUT ALAS. SUCH IS LIFE????? It is so.

I'm actually taking a TWELVE DAY vacation from work starting on the 22nd so I might actually do a little request event where people can send me like kink prompts or something. I think that'll be fun!

Okay and FINE I'll do some fluff prompts too for the fluff people but please don't judge my fluff too harshly, I'm still learning!!! For some reason smut just comes naturally dhaDSAHIDDASijdsan I'll start gathering some prompts and we will do a little ask game or something.

📣 By the way FELLOW HONEST THIGH RIDING ANON if you SEE this first of all, ONCE AGAIN: I wish to express my undying devotion to you and your exceptional thought process. I am positively frothing at the mouth over your request and I am PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE I am finally making good progress and it WILL be out soon. We WILL make him cum in his pants. We WILL make him cry, whimper, and moan.

[pbscore]

‘MoSt AnTis ArE WhItE AmERiCaNs’

Bro, if y’all don’t take your lily white, sheltered asses outside and meet REAL LIFE poc 🤣🤣🤣 Y’all have NOTHING to back this claim up except tumblr and Twitter ‘discourse’. But of course, it’s convenient to change the language when you want and say silly shit like ‘uwu we don’t call people antis in real life, we just call them bigots and fascists’ as if that’s an acceptable excuse to paint people you don’t even know with such a broad stroke that you end up alienating people who ARE activists and actually care about social issues not pertaining to fandom bullshit.

I have never seen so many white nerds try to come up with excuses to just call people of color (especially black people) fascists on the basis of internet disagreements that won’t matter in real life.

[lordgrimwing]

Here’s a question the books never address: what is the Loremaster?

Wait, don’t you mean who is the Loremaster? Nope, I mean what. 

See, the Loremaster (less commonly known as Bridonus Keplin Dunscrip Garonicum IX) is Copernum’s father, supposedly. But Copernum, as Nedwin discovers, is a displacer. One would think that means the Loremaster is also a displacer, but I have some theories to present.

The Loremaster is a human and loyal to Maldor.

The Loremaster is a human and not loyal to Maldor.

The Loremaster is a displacer (and loyal to Maldor)

The Loremaster is a human and loyal to Maldor. 

We have to ask if Maldor would really dedicate a displacer to the Repository of Learning. The building is rarely frequented by anyone, so dedicating a whole displacer there seems a little excessive. Now, the first syllable is housed in one of the books, and it’s reasonable to think that the Emperor would want to know if someone comes looking for it. But the book is already protected by a displacer, it’s literally covered in skin, with an eye looking out at anyone who comes calling. Another displacer isn’t necessary. However, it might be helpful to have someone else at the Repository too, someone who could test would-be heroes and either turn them away or push them toward the quest for the Word. The Loremaster fills this role, as we see during Jason’s first days in Lyrian. 

That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t explain his son being a displacer. 

I’m getting there.

Maldor can’t trust just anyone with this job, after all, it does involve knowing about the word and how to get the first syllable. He needs someone who is loyal but not important enough that he wouldn’t want to tie them down to one quiet location. Someone, say, who proved their loyalty on an important task and no longer has much to do.

Enter Bridonus. He’s a minor noble in Trensicort. He isn’t a powerful man, though someone with more motivation could go far in the kingdom. He doesn’t speak up in matters of politics, perhaps because he was long ago won over to Maldor’s side but knows revealing such would be tantamount to suicide in one of the remaining free nations. He is, all things considered, a bit of a coward—loyal, but unwilling to bring attention to himself.

Then, his wife has a baby, a son, and he is approached by an agent of the empire with a proposition. He can finally do more than quietly support policies and people that are sympathetic to Maldor’s invitations, and he can do it all from the safety of his home. All he must do is trade the child for a new son and bring him up to love the empire. And Bridonus does, welcoming young Copernum into Trensicort.

The child grows into a man, ready to take the title and climb the rungs of power up to the king. If only his father would have the good grace to step aside and give him full rein of the family name. Thus, Brindonus retires from public life, retreating to focus fully on his beloved writing, and slips away to the Repository of Learning to assume his true calling as the Loremaster and guide people toward or from the Word in safety.

The Loremaster is a human and not loyal to Maldor.

This theory hinges on Maldor needing Brindonus out of Trensicort so his son can be replaced by a displacer without anyone noticing. The man was always more interested in his learning and writing than anything else. It’s easy to send a missive to him, inviting him to take up the position of Loremaster at the Secluded Repository of Learning.

He starts Jason off on the quest either because he would like the empire to fall, or because he’s got to do something to entertain himself through all the years of seclusion.

The Loremaster is a displacer (and loyal to Maldor).

The Loremaster may be a displacer. Perhaps Maldor placed him, or a forbearer, as an agent in Trensicort to watch and observe the free kingdom. If such a scheme is to go unnoticed, then Brindonus would need to leave the city before anyone realizes that he is not aging as quickly as humans. Displacers have a longer lifespan than humans, after all. Thus, he retreats to the Repository of Learning to do. . . whatever it is he does.

[nor5tar]

Beyonders animatic is done!!

It'll be up on YouTube at 6pm ADT so um, no pressure but please check it out🥺 (I spent so long on this)(over 100 hours to be exact)

[penspagesandpulses]

How to write the first chapter (learning from examples)

I’ve been working on a super special WIP, and one day I got especially discouraged with my writing. It felt like I couldn’t even figure out how to construct a sentence, let alone a chapter. Like seriously, how do you even write a chapter? How long are they supposed to be? Is it just one scene or multiple? Of course each book approaches writing chapters differently, but I’d heard that the best…

[seaglassdinosaur]

I love Beyonders as much as the next Beyonders fan, but can we acknowledge the fact that the ‘heroic’ ending for the characters who were dealing with suicidal tendencies… was for them to sacrifice their lives? To choose to die? That was pretty messed up, right?

[sunrisestarlight]

Book Quotes #1

"So many misconceptions surround the notion of heroism. Far too many categorize a hero as a champion on the battlefield, a commander of legions, a master of rare talent or ability. Granted, there have been heroes who fit those descriptions. But many men of great evil as well. Heed me. A hero sacrifices for the greater good. A hero is true to his or her conscience. In short, heroism means doing the right thing regardless of the consequences. Although any person could fit that description, very few do. Chose this day to be one of them." -Galloran, Beyonders: A World Without Heroes

[girlcockholmes]

trying to explain to my parents that movies and television are an art form just like any other and just because you dont personally like a work or genre doesnt mean that it doesnt have value, and that you should occasionally think about the things you watch to either bring more personal enjoyment from its depth or understanding of its flaws

[ihavetosays-blog]

A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull (Beyonders #1)

SYNOPSIS Thirteen year old Jason volunteers at the zoo. He swears he hears music coming from the hippo and falls in the hippopotamus tank. While following the music, he ends up swallowed by the hippo. Instead of being eaten, he is transported through a portal into another world. What could possibly happen? RECAP AND REVIEW This book is told in the third person mostly from Jason’s perspective.…