#book 4 main story

[daily-out-of-context-twst]

[goldoradove]

The One That Got Away | Prologue

Wilhelm: What's in the news, Anna?

Anna: The Queen of England is dead.

Wilhelm: Already?

Anna: I must admit, I thought she'd last longer than a year. Too bad. I kind of liked the girl.

Wilhelm: Are you aware of what this means?

Anna: Yes, Wilhelm, I'm perfectly aware, but I see no need to worry about it yet. Six months of mourning, and everyone knows negotiations take eons... There are plenty of women on the market for a crown, no matter how ugly the seller is. I'm not.

Wilhelm: Regardless, you need to be prepared.

Anna: Ha! For what? To get my head chopped off? No, thanks. I've had better success keeping fish alive than that man has with wives.

Wilhelm: I don't think you have much choice in the matter, my dear sister.

Anna: Ah, he won't choose me. Between our reformist sister and your Catholicism, I'm sure I'm far down the list of potential brides. Worst case scenario, you might seek the king's favor in exchange for my hand, but that would mean sacrificing your alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor. You are much too clever to ever come to that. No, I will never marry the king.

3 years later...

Anna: Scheiße.

[error101ishere]

LWJ and How He Parallels His Father

Okay, so I just have to get this out but in the flashback at the Golden Carp Tower where LWJ talks with his brother briefly, it seems to mirror his father. They both take back (or at least try to) their love and put them out of harm's way despite the harshness of this. LWJ with WWX and trying to hide him from the cultivation world and his father against the Lan clan itself. This makes Xichen's reaction interesting. He seems astonished, likely because of LWJ's tendencies, but also very potentially due to this parallel. I would love to have his thoughts regarding that in this scene but they're both interrupted before he can speak them and it's not elaborated on enough to determine whether or not he's thinking that way.

This also raises the question of whether or not LWJ got the idea from his parents or his general opinion on it in relation to this. He takes longer to phrase it when he vocalizes it to his brother but it isn't shown why that is. It could be usual difficulty trying to phrase his situation or it could be a result of this parallel that he's carefully speaking his mind. It makes one wonder what would have happened if WWX had actually accepted considering the hind/foresight that LWJ and LXC's parents would bring to the situation. This is, of course, ignoring the other reasons he can't go and be hidden. There is so much to be analyzed with MDZS and WangXian's relationship alone.

[ruvviks]

All That's Left follows two journalists and their friends in post-apocalyptic United States as they travel from the fallen east coast megalopolis Opportunity back to Los Angeles, crossing through a harsh wasteland overrun with zombies— only to find out that there is a lot more life left than what the protected cities want them to believe. On their journey they meet dozens of people living their lives as peaceful as possible away from military forces, corporations, and corrupt governments; and they learn that the same mutated ghouls that took down Opportunity are spreading rapidly through the country, destroying everything in their path. Will this finally be the end of the world as we know it?

taglist (opt in/out)

@shellibisshe, @florbelles, @ncytiri, @hibernationsuit, @stars-of-the-heart;

@vvanessaives, @katsigian, @radioactiveshitstorm, @estevnys, @adelaidedrubman;

@celticwoman, @rindemption, @carlosoliveiraa, @noirapocalypto, @dickytwister;

@killerspinal, @euryalex, @ri-a-rose, @velocitic, @thedeadthree

[maybe-boys-do-love]

Actually kind of tired of seeing people qualify shows as QL or queer coming-of-age instead of BL when they’re perceived to depict any aspect of the gay experience beyond two guys just falling in love.

[priapussdick]

me before reading mdzs vol4: lol at this rate wwx is gonna realise he's in love with lwj before he realises lwj is in love with him

me reading vol4:

[vickysaurus-art]

A knight errant riding a Styracosaurus. Brought on by these recent* thoughts I had about dinosaur-mounted knights.

[starfieldcanvas]

So if it's not Paladin of Souls, which is the Lois McMaster Bujold book you talked about in your notes? I'm curious 😊

The Sharing Knife! It's a four-book fantasy series in a setting based on the Great Lakes region. I was clueless enough the first time around (and so heavily used to vague-medieval-renaissance-Europe-expy fantasy settings) I didn't realize it the first time I read the series, but it's very obvious once you think about it at all, and sometime in the last two years my library updated the audiobook covers from the original "beautiful high-effort romance novel painting where they're both white" style to the "expressionless racially ambiguous cutouts that make the setting explicit" style:

(These are the same book.)

It's a story about fantasy Native Americans ("Lakewalkers") and fantasy white settlers ("farmers"). The actual cosmology and history of the fantasy world is very different from our own—everyone is native to the same continent, and have been living in roughly the same area for at least a few hundred years—so the politics of settler vs. native don't actually apply in the same way. However, the tension of "people who share the land" vs "people who parcel off the land to sell" is still very present, as is the tension of quasi-nomadic groups with seasonal camp rotations vs. people who stay in place and build large towns with industrial capacity.

And then, of course, there's the magic. The Lakewalkers have limited hereditary magic powers, plus magic monsters they're sworn to fight; the farmers have no magic and no defense against it either. Farmers tend to mistrust Lakewalkers and misunderstand Lakewalker magic; Lakewalkers keep the secrets of their powers under wraps and often look down on farmers as a kind of invasive pest species. As I mentioned in my tags, Lakewalkers' most important magical tools involve someone choosing the time of their death—though typically only when already dying of terminal illness, old age, or a mortal wound.

If you love the movie Ever After like I do, you may remember the part where Danielle says to Leonardo, "A bird may love a fish, Signore, but where would they live?" The Sharing Knife is a series about a bird (Lakewalker) and a fish (farmer) that get engaged halfway through the first book and then spend the next three and a half books figuring out where the hell they're going to live...and slowly realizing they may have to remake society in order to find their place in it.

Even the book where they first get together is not really what you'd call a romance novel, but every book in the series is a lot more focused on a central romantic relationship than most fantasy adventure books, so it's interesting from a genre perspective. "Established relationship" is normally my second-least favorite AO3 (my least favorite being major character death) but the political and magical worldbuilding, and the family dynamics on both sides, kept me very invested even with the amount of meandering domesticity on display throughout the books.

There are some potential triggers to ask about if you have common trauma triggers, and the main romance has a pretty big age gap, which I know is a turn-off for some. But if you ever found yourself asking "why is the Wizarding World's excuse for keeping muggles in the dark so fucking flimsy?" or "how the hell does Wei Wuxian stand living in the Cloud Recesses when most of Lan Wangji's sect hates him?" or "why aren't more fantasy authors as obsessed with craft skills as Tamora Pierce" or "why aren't there more permanently disabled fantasy protagonists who actually have to cope with the limitations created by their disability?" or "why aren't there more fantasy protagonists who genuinely lack magical powers?" then this may be the book series for you.

[flovoid]

when an alcoholic single dad with a messed up past have three kids that are named after alcohol beverages…

[acaciapines]

on today's episode of 'acaica's background thoughts for the dess raises kris au': okay but lets be serious do dess and chara actually stay together in the end--

[titsthedamnseason]

do you ever think about how all the like us kids got 3 books besides jane who only got 2?

[daily-out-of-context-twst]

[jupitermelichios]

I'm experiencing every comics fan's most dreaded moment: falling in love with an incredibly minor character who will probably never appear in comics again. He doesn't even have a page on the marvel wiki, and I'm so upset on his behalf

His name is the The Freaky Doktor Zee ('the freaky' appears to be part of the name, not a title, since everyone always includes it when talking to or about him) and his only goal in life is to forcibly open the third eyes of all Brummies.

Why Brummies specifically when his name suggests he's German? We don't know and he refuses to explain. I guess he just decided we're not magical enough.

Anyway he's going to do this using his rad airship which causes hallucinations in anyone it flies over, possibly via weird magic, possibly just from the sheer force of its awesomeness

the airship is staffed by magically animated shop mannequins dressed as silent hill nurses, because if your name is The Freaky Doktor Zee you might as well lean into that shit

I love him so much and I can't wait to have my third eye forced open just as soon as someone remembers he exists and puts him in another comic book

[irritablepoe]

How did I write so much stuff for my own stories🫠

[ifeelfreewithoutmyshoes]

I gotta reread svsss soon, do Binghe and Shen Yuan every really talk it out?? Does Binghe think SY really hated him and threw him into he abyss when they got married?? Did he get some sort of explanation??? Or was he just so desperately (unhealthily) in love with this man he married him anyway????

[queenerdloser]

i'm rereading fushigi yuugi for the first time in ??? probably at least 15 years. i think i forgot how many of my favorite manga just straight-up had a crossdressing man in it for ???? reasons lol. and i sped through the first three books because even tho i do actually really like miaka and tamahome and the rest i couldnt rest easily until my blorbo tasuki was in the picture. the cheer i made on his arrival is UNPARALLELED. my inner 10 y/o jumped out immediately.